Category: 2014 – Caribbean Islands – Trinidad to Florida Voyage

February 9th-17th, 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,

We departed Chateaubelair, the northern most anchorage of St. Vincent for the VERY BLUSTERY 25 mile sail to St. Lucia. We actually had two reefs up for the first half of our very close reach. The Caribbean continues to be a bit of a boaters freeway as we counted well over twenty boats going either too or from between the islands.

St. Lucia is a very geologically dramatic island when approaching from the south. The two prominent peaks are the Petite and Grand Pitons.
Behind these are the \”soufriere\”,(yet another soufriere – and there will be more), where a bubbling mud vent from the dormant volcano resides.

We took a mooring just north of the Petite Piton and the view was spectacular. We checked in at Soufriere Bay, did a little wifi and had an afternoon
glass of wine. The waterfront buildings were a Creole style and we found a marker at the church grounds in town where the French has set up a Guillotine.
Colonization back in the day was not necessarily a pretty site.

Despite the beauty, we wanted to move on (but would include this spot as part of our hire car tour). We departed Soufriere and headed the short trip up the coast to Marigot Bay which is a lovely narrow cul-de-sac at the innermost side. We again picked up a mooring, did a bit of a beach tour and restaurant stop.
James Michener spoke of this bay as one of the most lovely in the Caribbean. We could see where he was coming from, but today, it\’s a bit \”touristy\”. Jacko came by in his small dinghy selling lovely fruits and vegetables. We also bought a lovely palm frond woven basket to keep them in. The entire bay was essentially a mangrove and mossies\’ were a bit of an issue. We again had a bit of a \”been there, done that feel\” after one night and moved on again to the major yachting center of Rodney Bay at the top end of the island. This would be our base for touring, etc. We took a dock here to get the batteries fully charged, the air conditioning on and to have good access to hire cars and the shopping. We could actually dinghy about 1/2 mile inside the harbor to the shopping area which was nice.

Our second day, we hired a car and drove back down to the Piton\’s. Their was a great deal of traffic, especially around Castries, the Capitol. Nikki and I had flown in here en route to Florida last August and we recognized the runway as we entered Castries. It\’s parallel and right along the shore in the Capitol city. Often, landing fields in the Caribbean are a bit of an odd puzzle as the constraints of getting a long enough, flat enough strip that is NOT mountain adjacent, can be challenging.

We did a bit of local marketeering in Castries and caught it on an \”off cruise ship day\”. This was nice as the crowds weren\’t bad, but the locals are indeed a bit jaded over haggling with tourists over their wares. We continued down the coast and the very windy road back to Soufriere passing Marigot Bay along the way. This time, we drove through town and up to the actually mud vents of the \”Soufriere\”. Soufriere means a place of sulfur in French. We did indeed get the smelly sulfur and were a bit surprised by how popular coming here just to see a smelly mud vent was!..:-) The \”tour\” (really a talk), takes 10 minutes. That\’s it…back to your cruise ship and next. We did enjoy the view…and the smell. On our way back to town, we decided to stop at the \”Sugar Beach Resort\”. This is located between the Grand and Petite Pitons off the town of Soufriere. The setting is spectacular and it\’s very up-market. We had lunch at the lovely beach restaurant and I found Nikki\’s Valentine\’s present in the gift shop. A lovely sheer chiffon blouse. We were taken around the resort from the guest parking by golf cart. It was the highlight of the day. We made the 2 hour drive back to Rodney Bay and did a grocery shop as we had the car.

The next day, we\’d made arrangements to be picked up at the marina to go on the rain forest tram and zip line tour. We drove up with a group, were suited up in our gear including helmets and instructed on \”how to\” by our guides. First, we took the 20 minute trip thorough the rainforest on the tram. The views were fabulous and we could see both the east and west sides of the island. Our guide told us much of the history of St. Lucia and much about the local plants and endemic animals. This was another of the Caribbean islands that had gone from French to British and back again before obtaining their independence. Nominally, the locals speak a Creole patois, but really they speak English.

Once we arrived at the top, we took a short hike to begin the 1 hours series of zip lines that essentially led in a big circle. I think there were 12 or so of them and it was quite fun. Nikki really enjoyed looking straight DOWN to observe the rain forest. We were also lucky that we weren\’t rained on in the rain forest! Our highest elevated platform was at least 150 feet high. We again did a short hike back to the tram and this time, the views were even better on the way down (no neck craning!). We returned to the boat to relax and cool off. The next day was a bit of fuel toping, boat chores and maintenance.
We took a taxi out to Pidgeon Island park, but we arrived to late to do a tour of the old fort. The French history here dates back to the 1500\’s where they used it as a base to attack the Spanish. British Admiral George Rodney, fortified Pidgeon island to monitor the French. This would be the staging area for the final decisive battle of \”Les Saintes\” (Guadeloupe) in 1782 which precipitated most of the final definitions of who owned what in the Caribbean between the European colonial empires; ending with the Treaty of Versailles.

On the 17th, we were off to Martinique, our first full fledged French Island in the Caribbean!
Stand by, more soon!
Scott and Nikki

February 4th – 8th, 2014 (-4 on UTC)

NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ON OUR \”POSITION REPORTS\” NOTIFICATION LIST (WHICH HAVE A SHORT UPDATE AND ARE SENT AS WE MOVE THE BOAT FROM PLACE TO PLACE), LET ME KNOW VIA EMAIL AND I WILL INCLUDE YOU.
IF YOU ARE ALREADY ON THEM, YOU WILL REMAIN SO.

Dear F&F,

We had a bit of a bumpy departure from Bequia to St. Vincent for the short trip to the \”Blue Lagoon\”.
Blue Lagoon is an enclosed reef with a very shallow entrance on the south side of St. Vincent. The trip was only a few hours and it was nice to get inside the lagoon for rest on a nice mooring. This would be our main base for exploring as it was close to the Capital (Kingston) and very secure.
The shopping was just so so, but we\’re well stocked and that\’s not of much concern…..yet!

We took the dinghy for a tour of the area and went to Duvernette Island where the English placed cannons for defense on top of the very steep cliffs. The island is only a 3 minute dinghy ride around and about 250 feet high, but very secure defense for aiming down on unsuspecting ships. These were placed in the late 18th century and used primarily as defense against the \”Caribs\” who were very fierce and warlike; presenting the largest obstacle for European colonization of the Eastern Caribbean.

Just shoreward of Duvernette, was Young Island. This is a fairly exclusive resort that Bill Gates apparently rented out once upon a time. We had some nice drinks a mini tour of the island and it\’s facilities. Most of the island is cliffs, but the resort has a very protected nice stretch of white sand beach. A dinghy dock was a nice feature and their welcoming of \”yachties\” to use the restaurant. We met an M.D. from the US who was here as a volunteer surgeon in the local hospital. We\’ve met lots of volunteers around the world. They volunteers are always interesting, do great work and meeting them enhances our voyage.

The next day we hired a car and drove up to Georgetown on the windward coast to do the Soufrierre volcano hike. Soufriere in French means \”a place of sulfer\”. There are several volcanos in the Caribbean referred to as \”The Soufriere\”. Their is a new international airport being built along this shore as the current airport is a bit dodgy and cannot take the long haul aircraft. As we approached roads end to begin a bit of a climb up the lower east side of the volcano, we went over several detours and washed out bridges. This was the result of a short duration late season tropical storm on Christmas Eve.

We were told to drive to the parking lot and our guide \”Butcher\” would meet us. He was not as threatening as his name sounds! Quite a nice chap. This approach to the volcano is the easy way. A four hour round trip hike through the rain forest to the top. These mountain tops are often in the clouds and unfortunately, we picked a very cloudy day. Nonetheless, it was quite an exciting hike and I literally walked the bottom off my tennis shoes. I ended the hike in the tops of the shoes with my socks completely on the ground (photos to follow when I can!).

The hike was in the mist and the river was flowing, but not too much. When we got above the canopy, the rain came and believe it or not, we were freezing cold! Yeah, I know it sounds strange. The temperature in the forest was a humid 85 deg F. The top of the volcano\’s rim was about 60 deg F. Add the wind and rain and you quickly see the problem of wearing shorts and light shirts. When we got to the top, we were clouded out. We could see perhaps 100 feet down from the rim. We were told that on a clear day, you could see the existing lava dome forming and a bit of steam. A few people told us you can see where the lava is close to the surface. The hike from the leeward (west side) is apparently 6 hours round trip and quite steep. It was hard enough as it was!

After the excitement of the day, we decided to move on to Kearton\’s Bay, home of the \”Rock Side Cafe\”. Just before we left, we did a quick breakfast at the Cobblestone Inn in downtown Kingston. The experience was lovely and the most interesting thing was….there is NO PARKING anywhere. When they designed town, they literally forgot about where to put the cars. As such, it\’s a hodgepodge and quite daunting as we had to park inbetween two open drainage ditches in the middle of more than a great deal of traffic.

We checked out Walliabou Bay first, but all the mooring were taken or too close to each other and the anchorage was very deep. As such, we moved back around the corner to the Rock Side Cafe. The cafe is owned by Orlando and Rosi (Rosie). Rosie is an expat from Germany and Orlando a local chap. Due to the tightness of the mooring field, we had to tie up bow and stern. Only one other boat was there, he too from Germany. They knew friends Nancy and Burger Zapf of s/v \”Halekai\”. We enjoyed the meal and had a lovely nights rest. Just before dark, we had a customs vessel come by to check papers. A first in the Caribbean.

The next day, we dinghied around the corner to Walliabou Bay. This is the bay where the last \”Pirates of the Caribbean\” film was shot. There is a kitschy museum with the memorabilia and we took a few photos which would look familiar if you watched the film. The town was worth the hour we spent there. Their dock was severely damaged from a Hurricane in 2008, so it was a bit tricky getting in and out of the dinghy.

We decided to move on to the final bay, Chateaubelair, before our trip to St. Lucia. We anchored in the north side of the bay with several other boats who had the same plans as we did. The checkout ashore was very simple, but landing was not! Their town dock was also wiped out in 2008. I anchored the dinghy off the dock and Nikki stayed with it while I scampered up the dock and took our boat papers. The customs gal met us at the dock and asked why \”my daughter\” wasn\’t coming ashore? Nikki got a kick out of that! We were approached by a local guy (Boy Boy) with fruits and veg to sell. He made an arduous shore hike to get near the boat almost a half mile from where we met him. We took the dinghy to the beach where we bought Limes, coconut, nutmeg and papaya for 20EC (about 7$US). Boy Boy saw the stainless steel wheel struts and big tires I have on the dinghy and was insistent that he wanted to buy them. Right then and there!
I told him I needed them and he could look at them and copy the design with a local welder. He really wanted to buy them. He asked how much, so I flippantly said 1000.00 US. He didn\’t seem too dissuaded, but I again quickly re-iterated that I needed them and they weren\’t for sale. Yes, there are strange happenings out here in cruising land…:-)

The anchorage was tropical with high cliffs completely covered in jungle. There were goats and cows running wild and we could here them along with the ubiquitous tree frogs that have an unusual high pitch and are everywhere in the Caribbean.

We had a charter boat anchor right on top of our anchor and fortunately, the next morning had just enough room to clear his boat when we picked it up.
The winds were up and we had a blustery 25 mile sail to Soufriere, St. Lucia. The arrival there is breath taking with the Grand and Petite Pitons. More on that in our next installment.
Stand by!

At the time of this writing, I\’m behind. We have been onward to St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda! We are currently back in Antigua in a very private and calm bay with emerald green water; gin clear. We think our next stop will be to Montserrat.

I\’l try and catch up as quickly as we can, internet allowing!
Scott and Nikki (Ten Pound Bay, Green Island, Antigua)