Death in Paradise

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It was a short motor sail of 8nm up the coast from Pigeon Island to Deshaies. We got there at 4pm to find a bay full of boats. We managed to find a spot on the northern side of the bay and started our anchoring process, only to be yelled at by another boat saying we were too close. I reckoned we were all good but the guy insisted that’s where his anchor was. So we moved across 100m closer to the coast, the other side of him and he still was having kittens – now saying his anchor went around a rock and it was there too. A few other boats were having a laugh so we decided we couldn’t be bothered with grumpy neighbors and anchored out in 20m of water – deep for us here in the Caribbean. The holding wasn’t that great but we backed up on the anchor and it held okay, so we got in the dingy and explored the cute little town.

These days, its probably best known due to the fact that the entire village is the setting of the popular British TV series Death in Paradise. There’s a lot of yachties call in here because of that. It’s also the logical place to check in or out of Guadeloupe, being on the NW tip of the Island. Our first task was to find the free diving course that Sameera had done previously, where they not only teach you to free dive but also to kill the problematic lionfish that are an introduced species and kill the local fish. Dee’s own version of Death in Paradise!!!!! Unfortunately we got the town wrong, as the course was at Point Noir, 4nm back along the coast. So we rang the guy to see if you could go back and book on it, but it was fully booked out for the next day and we needed to leave the day after because of the weather. Bummer! So we retreated to one of the really nice beach bars right on the water, chatting with one of the other yachts in the “Grumpy” neighborhood. 

Next morning we were up early, waiting for one of the boats on the 10 or so free mooring balls there to leave so we could nab it. We did well and got one right off the shore. Score!

We spent the rest of the day hiking up the hill behind the town and walking around to the magnificent beach in the next bay, before checking out of Guadeloupe at the local gift shop, where they had a PC set up for the task.

Then it was off to bed, for an early morning sail to Antigua.

 

 

 

Jacques Cousteau Top 10 Diving

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With the Front passed through it was time to get going – around the bottom of the Butterfly Island and half way up the West Coast to Pigeon Island, where the Jacques Cousteau Nature Reserve was waiting anxiously for Dee and myself to submerge ourselves.

17015953_10207794841701909_5799066313189357348_o For the first time since we hit the Caribbean, we had to spend a large part of the day motor sailing. Yuk.

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We finally made it to the anchorage opposite Pigeon Island on Guadeloupe and dropped anchor in 5m of water. It was a bit strange to not be able to see the anchor but with the storms from the day before the water had been stirred up a bit. We saw “Slice of Life” and “Laradae” anchored there as well enjoying a bit of kid playtime/birthday fun.We dinghied in and signed up with one of the local dive operators for 32 euro a dive – tanks and weights included.

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The Jacques Cousteau Nature Reserve says it all. He brought Pigeon Island to international attention by declaring it to be one of the world’s top dive areas and so the French declared the waters surrounding the island to be an underwater park and named it after the great man.

16996264_10207794583895464_4548691982076416606_nNext day it was off diving. The boat trip out is only 10 minutes and the dive boat pulled up to one of the mooring balls that anyone can use.

Our first dive was on the west end of Pigeon Island – Barracuda Point. The fish were very friendly and there was lots of action, and yes there were some barracudas. The highlight was a moray eel that was out and about. With a short break for lunch it was back in for a drift dive along Japanese Garden. I loved this dive – drifting over fan corals and passed walls full of interesting corals. At the end, we came across a turtle who was chomping away at some sea grass under a coral ledge.

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Second dive was to the Japanese Gardens – a drift dive. I loved this one with beautiful fan corals and lots of colour. Plus a turtle at the end. Brilliant.

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To top off the day we went over to Blue Heeler to introduce ourselves to Wayne and Ally and drink some red wine. Also on board were Mary and Dave from Leucat, who we had introduced ourselves to earlier in the day – me being a big fan of Dave’s Techno tips on his blog site. Was a great evening talking to some very interesting and experienced cruisers.

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Fred the Frenchman

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Carnivale over, it was time to get some boat jobs done.

We’d made a booking with Fred Marine for our engine work, as they were recommended by Chris Doyle and were the Yanmar dealer. Fred turned out to be the French owner and he sent two of his guys, Fabrice and Stephane to work on the engines and they were excellent. 

Fixing the leaking sail drive gasket was a big job. The engine needed to be lifted forward and up, to provide access to the top of the saildrive. And the gasket wasn’t cheap here in the Caribbean. In fact, none of the parts were. Now that we are doing a lot of sailing and not that much motoring, we can get the servicing done in the USA and we can buy parts there as well so that if we need to service anything whilst we are in the Caribbean we won’t have to fork out for (more) expensive parts.

The problem with the genset skimmer box going low on sea water was a Steve Tull useless mechanic error – I didn’t manage to retrieve all the bits of impeller from the heat exchanger when I last blew an impeller. Fred also suggested that I put some hose loops in before the skimmer box to help ensure the impeller doesn’t have to work so hard pulling sea water up from so far when it first starts. An easy and cheap fix.

Whilst Fred Marine was good to work with, Waypoint was proving elusive. We wanted them to run a replacement cable up the mast to the spreader for the BadBoy WiFi extender. We tried to find their email address on the web – their website plus google. Their phone number was proving equally elusive. All we could find was a Contact form, which we submitted twice without a reply. So when we rolled up we asked if they could send someone and this got pushed back to 4pm on the last day. They turned up to tell us they needed two workmen and couldn’t do it to the day after. We gave up and left it to another island.

It was a long day for Fabrice and Stephane so we had to delay dinner with Peter and Jenny until after dark. We headed for the Route De Rhum restaurant; sort of appropriate as this is where this famous race finishes.

Next day, we lowered the dinghy and took it over to Fred Marine for a service. I supplied the parts for this as they couldn’t source them – Honda, really??? – and anyway it helped keep the cost down.

Whilst this was all happening, we took a 20 minute walk into Pointe a Pitre, Pointe a Pitre main town. We ended up at the main square, famous for its guillotining during the French Revolution. There were some interesting fruit and vege markets as well as local fisherman selling their catch in the adjoining small harbour. After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed off to the new Slave Museum, a magnificent building right on the waterfront. It was just reopening after lunch, as everything does in France, and the lines were long so we gave it a miss and headed back to the Marina.

We got back just in time to greet the unusual Westerlies that were forecast. They were creating a bit of carnage around the marina and in the adjoining anchorage (which is fine mud with poor holding). There was a James Bond 70m power tri that was being blown all over the place and theyt scrambled all hands to get it off the dock and into safety. We were not immune either as the wind was pushing us back onto our pontoon and we needed to get the Marina guys to attach another line to the mooring buoys out the front so we could pull ourselves off the pontoon. Elsewhere around the islands people were being washed ashore as a lot of yachties were basically ignorant of the big change from the regular Easterlies to the unusual Westerlies.

With all our work done, it was time to once again head North for some diving at Pigeon Island on the West Coast.

 

 

Carnivale :)

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Sunday came around and it was time to head for the marina at Bas Du Fort, for another engine service. We also needed to attend to a leaking sail drive gasket and a genset that was losing sea water in the skimmer box.

But first we needed to check out the Carnivale in Baie-Mahault. We’d organised to go with Peter and Jenny from Modjadji on Sunday afternoon, and as luck would have it they had a hire car. Bonus as the bus situation on a Sunday was a bit dodgy/non-existent.

Carnivale in Guadeloupe was 100 times better that Dominica and Dee and I walked the length of the parade several times as Pete and Jen opted to stay in one spot and watch it as the parade went past. Dee being Dee, loves to be in the centre of things and we revelled in wandering up and down and sometimes through the middle of the parade. It started off slow and got better as the afternoon went on, with the crowd continually building. It continued into the early evening and some of the costumes even lit up. There were dances from all over the Caribbean and South America. It was so much fun. As night fell Pete and Jen decided to head back to the marina, but Dee wanted to suck every last morsel out of the night and we saw some great stuff right up to the end when we finally found a local policemen who kindly called us a cab.

We found Peter and Jenny at the Burger Bar at the marina and enjoyed a beer and a burger with them to finish off an excellent night.

Boat vs Jean-Roch

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We got back to St Francois and enquired about our friend Jean-Roch, who had been hit by a local fishing boat whilst snorkeling on their boat Teiva’s anchor. He had a deep gash on his arm from where he had lifted it to protect himself from one of the two propellers, plus bruising on his torso. He is probably a little lucky to be alive, it could have been far worse.

Looking across to Jean-Roch’s Outremer Catamaran

 

Gilbert and Isabelle had done a sterling job helping out, dinghying him and Marie-Claire to and from shore for their hospital visits; and looking after their young son, Theo.

We invited them all over for drinks on La Mischief and Jean-Roch was in fine form, getting stuck into Marie-Claire for her dinghy driving skills. They had worked out a system where Jean-Roch started the dinghy with his good arm so that Marie-Claire could drive. Lets hope it works okay as they will be staying put for quite a while. Gilbert and Isabelle came also and we did a fine job of sampling the rum we picked up from Marie Galante. Yet another fun night with our Gallic friends.

And it’s a good wake up call for the rest of us to make sure boats see us and we see them first.

Surfing into Iles de la Petite-Terre

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We left Sainte François at 7am heading offshore to Iles de la Petite-Terre, some 14nm away. We needed a few tacks to get there and we noticed all the day catamarans motored up the coast and then cut across to the Islands under sail, a sensible and scenic way to get there.

We got there around 10.30am and we were confronted with a series of breaking waves over the 2m bar that guarded the only entrance into the lagoon. It looked reasonably scary, even with Chris Doyle’s waypoints and mud map (which turned out to be excellent). 

As luck more than good planning would have it, one of the day catamarans arrived shortly after us and we decided we would follow him in. But not too closely as we didn’t want to surf up his bum. Even with a guide boat it was still exciting, as at one stage Dee goes “go, go, go” as the breaking swell threatened to catch us. With the two 75HP engines foing at full tilt we were able to run with the wave as it slipped under us. Then we were in. 

The lagoon is absolutely stunning – a picture perfect setting with crystal clear water, white sandy beaches, shaded with palm trees. My idea of heaven.

With a reasonable strong current running through the mooring field, we had trouble picking up one of the National Park moorings until one of the tour boat guys came over in his dinghy and helped us tie on. Then we went for a swim to explore the island. Whilst on the beach we saw a small sand shark swim by and numerous turtles. Back at the boat, we saw a single-handed Polish two ended ketch come in and proceed to the shallows where he got stuck aground. We dinghied over to offer assistance and went off to find the ranger to help pull him off. He claimed his guide-book showed an anchorage there. By the time we got back to him, he had managed to reverse out of his predicament and was busying his anchor. There’s no anchoring in the lagoon as the National Park has provided ample numbers of moorings so we told him no and helped him on a mooring. Next minute we hear shouting from the day catamaran as he has got his spear gun out to catch himself lunch. I’ve got to say that his Polish Guide book is a little out of date perhaps.

Dramas over, we got our snorkels and fins on and went exploring. Before we could even jump in we saw a barracuda, a couple of large jacks and a box fish off the back of our boat. This continued for the rest of the snorkel with another barracuda, a large sting ray and lots of reef fish and coral to look at.

Later in the day, we took the dinghy in and went for a nice sign-posted hike around the lighthouse and out to the western point. Got some nice photos of the view, and the ten million iguanas that sun themselves on the path.

As darkness fell, the fish came out to play. There was a bit of a current running through the mooring field and a school of large fish camped themselves beside the boat and gently swam against the current, occasionally snaffling smaller fish that floated past. Fascinating. We tried dropping a camera over the side on a selfie stick but it was just too dark to pick up anything.

Then at about 8pm we saw a small catamaran come over the bar and into the lagoon. Pretty gutsy (or possibly stupid) effort.

Next morning, we woke to a calm sea with not much action on the bar. This had a huge calming effect on the skipper who quickly ordered stumps to be drawn and off we went across the bar with minimal excitement, heading back to St Francois, via the scenic route along the coast.

A Couple More Saintes

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You feel like you are in the tropics when you motor through a gap in the coral reef and drop anchor in the sheltered lagoon in 2m of crystal clear water with nothing but sand everywhere. Tropical Paradise. St Annes on the south coast of Guadeloupe. The anchorage to the West, which is the place to be is small, but with a cat we could get quite far in and we managed to get a great spot, right next to the blow up water park.

After a quick swim to check the anchor, we dinghied a short way West to the town fishing harbour, which was a bit rundown and smelly, but otherwise a good place to leave the dinghy. Then we walked back East on the beachside broadwalk, past our anchorage and into town. We checked out all the street vendors, selling knick-knacks and deliciously smelling street food, stopping off at a beach side bar with some great music.

Next day, we hopped into the water for a much longer snorkel, and walk along the beaches. We loved all the full restaurants and bars that spilled out onto the beach front. It’s a very popular beach resort town and the various beaches were all packed.

Exercise over, it was back in the dinghy and into town for some internet and mojitos at one of the bars. Loading photos is always a good excuse for a mojito!

In the afternoon, we walked around to Club Med, which is in the next bay East. They have the whole bay with a beautiful beach, quite spectacular. There’s a small anchorage out the front, but we agreed we liked being closer to the colour and movement of the St Anne’s township.

Next morning we decided to change genders and head to St François, a very, very popular anchorage, 8nm further west. We followed the instructions in the guide-book and made our way through the marked channel, right into one of the most beautiful anchorages I have seen. But it’s no secret and there were lots of boats in there as well. After a bit of a motor around we found a spot and dropped anchor in sand in 2m of crystal clear water.

We were right behind a small sandbar, with a few doughnut BBQ/Drinking boats floating around in front. The occasional windsurfer or kite surfer made their ways around us. Also in the anchorage was Gilbert and Isabelle; and Jean-Roch and Marie-Claire. It was good to say hello again, although it was Valentines Day so we were all doing our separate things, being the romantics that we are (Well they are French and some of it surely must have rubbed off on me!).

Dee and I headed off to check out all the restaurants for V Day and settled on a beachside restaurant where we had a nice view out a window to a guy filleting loads of lionfish. Dee was there in a flash checking out how to deal with this invasive species.

After a few days of snorkeling, paddle boarding and checking out the cute little town, we decided to push on and head for Iles de la Petite-Terre.

Nothing Much to Report Here

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The sail across to Marie Galante can best be described as tack, tack, tack, tack……….

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Going East into the trade winds is slow going. 16665354_10207703042166978_6642751032015242993_o

We finally made it to the anchorage at St Louis at about 4pm. We picked out our anchorage not far from Balenac and pondered the fact that the water was not as crystal clear as the Cruising Guide suggested. Nice but not exceptional.

16602510_10207703068367633_7765160692832240781_oWe saw Balenac on shore – they had just got back from hiring a car and they told us about the Rhum Factory, where the Rum flowed freely. Given the next day was a Sunday, we decided to walk the 5km to the factory – a bit of morning exercise. We arrived at 10.30am and had a look at the factory, which being Sunday was not operating so we wandered around by ourselves. Then we returned and tasted a few rums, which weren’t bad. My backpack got a little heavier for the return leg, having purchased a 59% knock your socks off white rum – the Labat 59.

16711992_10207703046767093_2280276634769542427_nThe walk back along the beach was a bit longer but much more pleasant. Being Sunday, St Louis was dead so we made the snap decision to pull anchor and head for the main island. We thought we may be able to point as high as St Francois, but in the end we had to settle for St Anne – there would be no tacking this late in the day!

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Back in France Again, Again

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This is a bit confusing. One minute we are back in France (Martinique) then we are in an ex-British territory (Dominica) then we are back in France yet again (Guadeloupe).

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But who am I to complain as the French have made sure you can buy good French wine, champagne with the added bonus of French Rhum, together with all those nice apple tarts and bagets. Yum!

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Our first stop in French Territory was the small island group of Les Saintes, a short but exhilarating sail from Portsmouth, especially the last bit where we hit an acceleration zone between the small islands. A hot tip when planning to go to Les Saintes is to get there early as the mooring balls in front of the town fill up early. If you luck out then you can either anchor further around, which is a bit exposed or grab a mooring ball over on Ile A Cabrit, from where you face a lumpy 1nm dinghy ride into town. We were lucky because we got there by 10.30am and got the last mooring off the town – perfect. Check-in was as per Martinique, using a computer screen in a local business.

Then it was off to explore the really cutesy town, with its restaurants that overflow onto the town beach, and a million and one dress shops for Dee to window shop in. We bumped into Aura and BnG who had hired a golf buggy to explore the small island – all that you need.

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After a swim in the crystal clear waters off the back of La Mischief, we hopped in A Little Bit of Mischief for the 1nm ride across to Aura for dinner with Kim and Simon. As usual the hospitality and food on Aura was magnificent and we enjoyed our last night together for a while as Aura were making a dash for St Thomas and we were taking a much slower pace.

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Next day we organized an island bus trip – 10 euro each, which took us up to the very impressive fort. It had great views over the islands and across to Guadeloupe was full of museum pieces from days gone by.

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It took us a good hour to see it all then we drove down to the other end of the island before the driver dropped us off at the protected lagoon on the West side of the island. We worked the length of the beach and I went for a snorkel, before lunch called. Well, we thought it had but when we checked into the one and only restaurant near the lagoon we were told it was “Complet”. At 12.50pm. Theres another tip for Les Saintes – make sure you have your restaurant sorted by 12.30pm at the latest. So we gave up waiting for the bus driver to return and walked the 30 minutes back into town where we found a set of very nice bagets for lunch. Ah, it’s a tough life with soooo many hassles.

We waited for the shops to reopen in the afternoon and did some provisioning in Carrefour before taking an early night before heading off to Mary Galante in the morning after radioing Terrapin so they could come over and grab our mooring ball.

 

Superbowl and an All You Eat and Drink Beach BBQ – We Are In!

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We left Roseau on Sunday morning bound for Portsmouth, 15nm up the coast. It was a fickle sail/motor as we headed for a rendezvous with Bill on Moontide, in time for the legendary PAYS Sunday night BBQ and Superbowl.

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PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) was founded by the local boat boys to provide security for the bay and to promote Dominica as a sailing destination. I’ve got to say they do a great job and maybe it’s a model other parts of the Caribbean could take on – although being Caribbean newbies it’s a bit early to make any definitive statement on what should happen elsewhere.

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Anyway it was great to finally meet Bill who I’ve heard heaps about, his sailing experience and bar attendance being second only to Sir Frances Drake – evidently!

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After a few beers and rums on the back of La Mischief, it was off to the PAYS BBQ, an all you can drink and eat affair for 50EC, a bargain especially given the strength of the rum punches. It was a packed affair and even though we got there on time, we got the last bit of space on the last table. The BBQ is PAYS way of raising cash to pay for night patrols, searchlights etc.

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Dinner and punches downed, we went into the back room to watch the Superbowl half time show. Unfortunately we couldn’t hear it because of the great band playing at the BBQ but we got the general gist of things. The game resumed and it looked for all money like the Patriots were going to loose big time. With the Patriots falling behind we pulled stumps and headed back to La Mischief. With Dee tucked in, I hopped on the Internet and frantically tried to follow the greatest comeback win in all time. Oh well, who could have predicted that one!

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16473051_10207657115578842_4334812334138999594_nNext day we were off with Providence to do the Indian River tour, the marque eco tour up this end of Dominica. We set off in a small runabout and once in the river, the outboard came up and the oars came out. We got rowed up the creek through the mangroves. This is another of the Pirates Locations and there’s still an old river hut there that the witch used to hang in. The highlight however was the wonderful vegetation, including the small display garden at the end of the creek that we got to wander around.

16587352_10207702922203979_6850583955355197946_oIn the afternoon and the next morning we hung out with Bill and Klara (who swapped boats) before they sailed northwards to Antigua. Then it was off to check out the British Fort that overlooks Prince Rupert Bay. Pretty impressive location for a fort. We had sundowners at Felix Beach Bar with a whole heap of Americans – a lot of whom had been hanging around the Caribbean for 8-9 years. Dominica tends to attract the more adventurous and we got a lot of good info in between downing some of the best rum punches we’ve had so far.

16722600_10207702942604489_4495396112085289800_oOn Wednesday, we organized a full day tour of the North of the island with Armstrong to see the rest of the islands highlights. First up was a waterfall, followed by a walk in what is supposedly the best rainforest in the Caribbean. Then we headed back down the coast to Calibishie, along some wonderfully wild coastline. We stopped for some great ribs at a beach side restaurant, washed down with local beer, before continuing on to see the Chocolate Factory, the Red Rock beach and the cold sulphur springs. After finishing the tour we thought we’d managed to cover most of the island, with the exception of the Carrib villages. Back at the boat – but not for long as PAYS were putting on another BBQ because of the large number of cruisers in the bay – and because Carnivale was coming to Portsmouth on Sunday and they wanted to avoid a clash. It was another great affair with lots of punch consumed.

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Next morning it was up Anchor and off to a hot date with Aura on Les Saints.

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