Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua.

27th-31st December 2012

From Martinique we sailed to the lush Island of Dominica.This was just an overnight stop for us in the bay of Portsmouth and next morning we continued north to the Islands of Isle de Saints on the south side of Guadeloupe.

Isle Des Saintes

We have stopped at The Saints  group on previous occasions and really like them. Liam and I went to a very funky café for lunch while my sister and niece had a walk around town and checked out the shops.

 

As with all the French Islands, and the same in France, many business close between 2 & 4 pm for their siesta. Not a bad tradition if you ask me. Nothing like having an afternoon snooze to revitalize the system. The bay had changed slightly since our last visit and there seemed to be more mooring balls installed. Rather than anchoring we picked up a ball, something we rarely do. The cost was only 12 euros for the night, not bad really given the water was 62ft deep.The town is very pretty with brightly coloured houses and interesting wall murals.

                   

 

Even the local cemetery was brightened up with plastic flowers and colourful conch shells adorning some of the graves .By nine the following morning, after a quick run to the patisserie for baguettes and other French delicacies, we were on the road again.

Deshaies

This time we had a run of 22miles with 15 knots out of the ENE and a small chop on the waves. Once we got behind the Island of Guadeloupe just to the north, it was flat water and fast sailing to the town of Deshaies at the northern end of the island. Once the anchor was down and set the girls were in the dinghy and ready to explore this two street town, which didn’t take long.

There are a few restaurants, a patisserie and a couple of supermarkets and a gift shop and that’s about it. Although we never seem to arrive in the anchorage at the right time of day, apparently an enterprising guy trudels around the anchorage in his dinghy about 4pm taking orders for baguettes and croissants, which he delivers fresh and hot to your transom at 7 am the following morning.What a great service!

Antigua

Antigua was our next objective and we were staying there three nights, one of which would see the new year in. English Harbour was the place to be and we found a snug spot up in the front row in a depth of 11ft. Being Sunday afternoon the big attraction is the Shirley Heights bbq and Steel Pan Band experience.

This was a must see for our visitors. So along with the crew of Sundancer 2 we piled into a taxi and headed up the hill to enjoy the music, bbq and watch the sun set over English harbour and  the distant island of Montserrat. Perfect.

            

We saw the New year in on the lawns of Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour along with the Sundancer 2  and had a great night.  A DJ belted out tunes through loud speakers, rum was the drink of choice, party animals danced the night away and fireworks lit the skies. For good or for bad 2013 had arrived. 

          

                 

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THE 500 MILE DASH: St Martin to Grenada in 8 days
6th – 14th April 2012

The idea of sailing from St Martin to Trinidad in one big hit was never going to get up, well not with this brown duck. We can sail hard all day long from from dawn to dusk, but if there’s a decent anchorage within cooee at the end of the day then it has our name on it. So we earmarked the next 8 anchorages and off we went.
After an easy 66 mile sail from St Martin we pulled into White House Bay at the bottom of the island of St Kitts. Five other catamarans were also anchored in the bay but we never saw a human on board any of them. It had been a pleasant day’s sailing passing the playground of the rich and famous, St Barts, the soaring volcanic peaks on the diving mecca of Saba and the lush rolling green hills of northern St Kitts. Arriving just as the sun threatened to kiss the horizon we were glad to stop for the night.

Day two and we were up with the sparrows at 5am and on our way to Dominica, 120 miles to the south east. Taking the passage between St Kitts and it’s neighboring island Nevis seemed the sensible thing to do as we wanted to take advantage of the early morning breeze on the island’s windward side. A clear but chilly morning had greeted us and heading east the rising sun reflected on the water ahead. Watching the local fisherman pull in their traps had us on the lookout for any stray floats in our path. And then it happened. A strange clunk under the hull, the rev of the engine and sure enough we were hitched. Liam pulled the throttles back to neutral and the telltale float reared its’ ugly head from under our port transom. No amount of persuasion with the boathook could dislodge the offending rope, so an early morning dip for the skipper was no longer an option. The current was running at a fair clip and he had a hard time hanging on to the hull to cut the rope free, but after a couple of attempts was back on board with his trophy. Warming up with a hot shower and a steaming cuppa he soon felt brand new and we were on our way once again.
By 2pm the light breeze started to die. The island of Dominica, our planned overnight stop, was still 7 hours away so on went the motors. A couple of miles further ahead lay the the island of Montserrat. Devastated by volcanic eruptions in the mid 90’s which obliterated the hills, towns, homes and 8000 inhabitants of the island’s south west, the ash covered landscape was an eerie reminder of the forces of mother nature.

As we motored past the exclusion zone, acrid smoke from the still belching volcano filled the air. Not only was the smell of sulphur in the air but the waters surrounding the island were affected as well. Earlier, as we neared the area we had turned off our watermaker but all too late to save our precious filters.They instantly turned black and were bin bound shortly there after.
       
   Theses pictures show the massive area covered with ash & lava.The city of Plymouth gone forever.
       
       


Flexible: the capability to adapt to new, different or changing requirements. This little word is one of the most important in a cruiser’s vocabulary. Timing and weather play a major role in our day to day decisions and seeing an approaching line of squalls to the south of us we abruptly scratched Dominica, still 70 miles away, from our anchoring list for the night. The town of Deshaies on Guadeloupe was a mere 30 miles so plan B was put into action and we made a bee line to our revised destination. It was a good decision.
The next few days all rolled into one with us usually covering anywhere between 40 to 70 miles each day. Easter Sunday had crept up on us this year and we celebrated with a lobster dinner while tied to a mooring ball at the south end of Dominica and sadly, the Easter Bunny didn’t find us. Usually we’re not ones for picking up balls but by the time we arrived it was getting late, a bit of a reoccurring pattern there, and checking our depth sounder the sea floor just disappeared into the abyss. From a narrow band of 20 feet deep at the waters edge the bottom fell away to well over 100 feet within a boat length of the shore. After a few circuits of the bay we gave up on the idea of anchoring. Sometimes you just have to bight the bullet and part with a few dollars in the interest of a good night’s sleep.
As we hadn’t checked in to anywhere since leaving St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands 2 weeks ago, we figured that it might be a good idea to put some sort of paper trail in place. Once we got to Martinique, we paid a visit to the Douane (customs) office, filled out the computerised form, printed it off, showed it to the nice officer behind the desk and voila, another speed record was set, in and out in less than ten minutes! You can always trust the French not to beat around the bush.They really do have a great system for their check-ins.


Over the next couple of days we had some fabulous sailing conditions  and with speeds averaging 10kts the old girl really kicked up her skirt. Overnight stops included St Lucia, Bequia and we had considered stopping in Tyrell bay on Canouan  but we found the holding to be very poor so we pushed on to the  the north coast of Grenada.


Mother nature had put on a couple of wonderful displays in the sky during the second half of our trip and the halo around the sun, something you don’t see everyday, had even been reported in the local Trinidad papers we later found out.
  
Arriving into Prickly bay on Granada's’ southern coast as planned on the eight day we treated ourselves to a night out at our favourite Chinese restaurant, and then collapsed into bed ready to have a well earned day off tomorrow. Trinidad was now just a hop skip and a jump away at last!  

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DOMINICA

Rainforests and Waterfalls

2nd - 5th February 2011

If you listen to all the negative reports about specific countries that float around the cruising circles then pounds to peanuts you will miss out on seeing some fabulous places. This is what nearly happened to us in regard to the island of Dominica. After reading reports of theft and break-ins on the various cruising websites, the thought of stopping here was the furthest thing on our minds. Admittedly these things have happened in the past and may well again in the future, but the people of Dominica, in particular those of Portsmouth, have taken the bull by the horns and are actively trying to attract the passing trade of the yachting fraternity, and clearly it’s working. The boat boys have implemented security patrols on the water at night and so far there do not appear to have been any further incidents  

Our friends from Tehani-Li and Mindemoya had been singing the praises of this small island and encouraged us to stop there on our way south, and we are so glad that we did.

We knew that fellow cruisers on  Samsara and No Rehearsal were heading north to the anchorage that we had just left, and  we figured that they would only be  a couple of miles out from  island. Like us, they were not planning on making a stop here either but after a chat on the radio and sharing what we’d been told about the island, they too changed their course and headed into the bay.  

When we rounded the bluff to the north of Prince Rupert Bay we were very surprised to find at least 40 yachts anchored in the bay. Motoring in we  were greeted by the friendly faces of the local boat boys asking if we would like to pick up one of the moorings, we declined their offer as we prefer to use our own anchor. The bay is very large and the northern end, away from the town of Portsmouth, is an idyllic anchorage, very calm and protected from the northerly swell. The bay has a very tropical feel with a lovely sand beach and swaying palms.

 Further to the south of the bay the shore is littered with rusting hulks that were driven ashore when hurricane David hit the island in1979.

The anchorage (above) &  the remains of the ships

after hurricane David devastated the island. 

The name boat boys is the term used throughout the Caribbean  to describe the local folk who offer  an array of services, anything  from selling fruit, bread or fish to organizing tours or taxis. Theses people on the most part are not young as the name implies, but are family men trying to make a living so it’s nice to help them out and buy a little something from time to time.

After settling in we had a quiet afternoon catching up with friends that we’d not seen since Barbados.

The following morning we decided to try and organize an island tour. Unfortunately, our timing was terrible as a cruise ship had come into port early that morning, and the price of the tours had sky rocketed, obviously the increase was directly related to the depth of the pockets of those aboard.

So along with Samsara and No Rehearsal we opted for the cheaper way of touring and caught a local bus to the island’s small capital, Roseau, with the intention of having a look around and maybe catching another bus up to one of the island’s many waterfalls.

The drive down to Roseau took about 40 mins and although we traveled on the coast road it was easy to see that Dominica was a very lush, wild and mountainous island.

In fact it has the highest peaks and the most rainfall of any island in the eastern Caribbean. Apart from the odd cruise ship which only stays a few hours, and the yachts, there really is no tourist industry; the throngs of holiday makers pass by this little piece of heaven. There are no big hotels or resorts anywhere and when visitors do come it is to enjoy hiking in the rainforests and the peace and quiet nature itself.

Whilst walking around the town and ambling along the waterfront area we were approached by a fellow offering to drive us around the island. The price was much less than we’d been quoted earlier that morning so we agreed and hopped into his van. The terrain of the island is incredibly steep and at times we thought that the van may not make it up the hills. As we climbed higher the rain came tumbling down, luckily it stopped just as we arrived at our first stop, Trafalgar Falls. After a short hike through lush forest we arrived at the viewing platform, the falls cascading down in front of us from a height of 200ft.

Due to the muddy terrain we resisted the temptation to climb down to the rock pools below the falls and instead returned to the van making a quick detour for a beverage stop at a cute restaurant overlooking the lower falls.

Our tour took us on the winding roads through the central part of the island and along the edge of the Morne Trois Pitons National Park where most of the island’s main wilderness sites are to be found. A visit to this area takes many hours and requires a guide, and as we were short on time, we gave it a miss and headed over to the eastern side of the island.

 The scenery was stunning with rainforest and thick jungle all around. Our driver was very knowledgeable, stopping to give us samples of lemongrass and other herbs growing along the roadside We passed a few villages tucked away in the hills but they were few and far between, this was one place you wouldn’t want to break down!

Once back on the coast we made our way north stopping briefly to chat with an elderly woman selling fruit and to have a very late lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant in the seaside town of Calibishie.

                                                                  This lady loved to talk! 

                        The east coast was more tropical looking  and there were some gems of houses.

Although the island is only 29 miles long the terrain makes driving rather slow, so it’s hard to see it all in a single day.

Arriving back at the boats just as the sun set we decided that we may well have to stop at this lovely island another time.  

Dense vegetation of the Indian River                                            Everyone was happy and smiling

CRUISER INFO     

Local Tours: Cobra tours will take you up the Indian river and has been recommended by   some cruisers as a worthwhile outing.

Boat Boys BBQ: Held every Sunday $ 15US pp and the proceeds go to fund the security patrols, a worthy cause for sure!

Formalities: Customs are located in the large silver roofed building at the far end of Portsmouth bay. Take your tender over or ask one of the boat boys to take you as it is a long way.