Blog

February 23rd – 28th, 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,

Yet again, we had a lovely 32 mile sail on a close (just forward of the beam) reach to the island of Rainbow\’s and Rivers – Dominica. The French call it Dominique. Dominica was formerly French, now independent. Interestingly, English is far more spoken than French. When Columbus first tried to describe this island to King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella, he crumpled up a piece of paper and told them that this was the topography of Dominica, it certainly has many contrasts – from volcanos to rain forests, waterfalls and hot sulfur springs. The main reason it has been spared the tourism development phase is that there are really no \”white sand beaches\” and hence no mega hotels here. There are cruise ships daily in the Capitol, Roseau. This dramatically increases the population of the island\’s main town and brings in much needed cash to the local artisans and merchants. This island is also home to the last pre-Columbian society in the Eastern Caribbean with 2,200 Caribes. Originally, these were a very aggressive and warlike culture which was decimated by modern European firepower in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries. That of course is the \”short story\”. Local resistance to being absorbed by European Colonialism certainly had it\’s controversy.

We arrived in Roseau and quickly found a mooring. The area is very steep and deep and as such, moorings are advised. Otherwise, anchoring close to shore can be daunting as the water is quite deep right up to the shoreline. On our first full day, we did a tour and hike to Middleham Falls with friends Doug and Ursula of s/v \”Island Explorer\”. Ursula had twisted her knee and we weren\’t sure how she would do on what turned out to be a fairly moderate to difficult hike. Ursula proved to us how tough South Africans are. Knee brace, walking stick and all; she did great. Nikki found a lovely stream at the end of the hike and we went for a swim while waiting for Doug and Ursula to finish. They weren\’t that far behind! We returned to Roseau for lunch and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We did a bit of shopping and Nikki bought a huge mortar and pestle. She\’s still wondering how she might get it through Australian customs one day as they\’re pretty strict on unfinished wood imports.

The next day, we motored up to the northwest side of the island to the town of Portsmouth. The moorings here are regulated and maintained by \”PAYS\” (The Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security). This group actually patrols their anchorage and makes sure all is on the up and up. Tourism is key to their survival and they want no bad \”yachtie stories\” hitting the grapevine. They also arrange whatever services you might need, such as tours, fuel, water, etc.

Portsmouth town wasn\’t much in the way of sight seeing but was a place to try and see the Cocorico Parrot up the Indian River which is only found on Dominica. We didn\’t see any, but hear they\’re a most re-splendid bird.

We had been \”chasing\” sister ship s/v \”Lady Amelie\” (Switch #4 – Beach House is #11) for several weeks and we finally caught up to Ron and Kathleen Hamilton from Toronto, Canada. Ron just missed making the Canadian Olympic team in Tornado Cats – twice! As such, he knows how to make the boat go. \”Lady Amelie\” is much lighter than we and has an 8 1/2 foot taller mast with lots more sail area. In light airs, she would sail right by us. Poor \”Miss Piggy\”, she\’s a heavy girl, but still our favorite…:-)

Nikki made some very Australian \”ANZAC Biscuits\” and we had Ron, Kathleen, Doug and Ursula over for coffee, biscuits and boat tour. We all became acquainted and as we would be following a similar track to Ron & Kathleen, we\’d spend most of our time on the next three islands north together. Doug & Ursula would be traveling at a slower pace, but we\’ve kept in touch via email. The night of the 27th, we saw a clear and distinct \”Green Flash\” at sunset. The Green Flash for those of you who don\’t know, is where the sun refracts as it sets and the top separates into a distinct moment of green just as the sun disappears over the horizon. Many think it\’s a legend, but I\’ve seen dozens of them out here over the last 6 1/2 years. The first one I ever saw was in Marina del Rey at Dockweiler State beach with Cindy.

The next day, we set sail just ahead of Ron and Kathleen and headed to our next French Islands – Les Saintes and Guadeloupe. Les Saintes are a small group of islets just south of the main island of Guadeloupe and a magical little spot. That will be our next tale…so stand by!…
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

February 17th – 23rd, 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,

Yet another blustery 25 mile sail was at hand! A close reach with reefed main and (mostly) genoa.
Martinique would be our first French island of the season as well.

We pulled into Marin Bay at the southwest side of the island and picked up a mooring. Most notable was that the well protected bay was very much like many lagoons in the South Pacific and there were several hundred boats at mooring, on the docks or anchored out. This would be our first experience with \”e-seaclear\” check in system too. We went to the Marina office where the lovely local ladies, all very French, guided us through the computerized check in. This is an attempt by many of the islands to expedite the hundreds of boats coming and going while reducing time and costs of having customs and immigration officials having to be on site.

There are lots of marine services here and our most pressing need was to get a new battery for the dinghy motor as well as figure out why we\’re flooding the carburetor all the time? We had a nice meal at the \”Le Mayday Cafe\” and after much ado, found a reasonably priced battery. Our old one was load tested and they said it failed, but as future \”fixes\” would indicate; the battery may have been fine! The dinghy did indeed start with the new battery, but alas, that didn\’t last long…more on this later.

We did some area touring and for the most part, it was what it appeared to be. A picturesquely lovely giant boat storage and service area. There are a few nice beaches in the bay, most notably at the Club Med. There do not seem to be the hotel crowds we would expect to see, but there are lots of boats. The hotels we suspect are still in recovery from the world\’s economic woes. En-route to Fort-du-France, we stopped at Grand Anse for the night as it was getting dark. Along the way we passed Diamond Rock. Diamond Rock has a very interesting bit of history. It\’s a 250 foot high island, only 1/4 mile off shore and perhaps 100 yds wide. It is almost inaccessible by sea. Therein lies it\’s story. Apparently, when the British and the French were \”unhappy\” with each other in the late 1700\’s, a British officer figured out that the French ships had to pass close aboard Diamond Rock en route from Fort-du-France to Marin. As such, they hauled several cannons up on the rock which the French could not aim their ship\’s guns high enough to hit. The British called the rock \”HMS Diamond\” and in essence treated it as a vessel of the Royal Navy. As such, the British became a thorn in the side of the French along this short 15 mile route. Eventually, French Admiral Villeneuve took \”HMS Diamond\”, but had much difficulty in doing so. Napoleon, who never really understood the problems of fighting at sea, was most disappointed in his Admiral who took so long to overcome the British at Diamond Rock. Admiral Villeneuve, who was also tasked with chasing British Admiral Nelson (and couldn\’t find him), feeling slighted – went off to the Battle of Trafalgar to \”die in a glorious battle\”. Oddly, Lord Nelson was killed by a French sniper aboard his flag ship, \”HMS Victory\” and Admiral Villeneuve survived. The British won the day however and as such, Admiral Villeneuve, gained no fame for his actions. Napoleon as you can imagine, was not pleased.

As we entered the main bay at Fort-du-France, a most notable part of the area is the south side at \”Trois Pitons\”. This was the birthplace of Empress Josephine, Napoleon\’s wife, which of course was the reason Napoleon was so upset by \”HMS Diamond Rock\”. Napoleon was incensed that the birthplace of his wife was being bedeviled by the British and to defend her honor (and presumably his?), the rock had to be taken at any cost!

Fort-du-France, which would be our primary base of operations while here in Martinique is a lovely mix of the old and new. The anchorage is in the lee of the old Fort and there is a lovely dinghy dock provided by the town. Our first impression was a good one as there were literally a dozen English speaking tourist office personnel, scattered in town. They were very helpful in finding lots of places, shops and hire cars. We decided to hire a car and drive up the coast to see the town of St. Pierre, do the Mt. Pelee volcano and rain forest drive. While we had the car, we took advantage of shopping at Carrefours and the Hyper-U mart (which was actually much nicer). We were a bit pressed for car time as we couldn\’t return the car at the waterfront on the weekend and had to take it to the airport.

The next day we motored up the lee of the island to St. Pierre. We had visited the town on the northwest corner of the island the day before and found out lots about it\’s fascinating history. The area in the north of Martinique was covered in Sugar Plantations. In 1902, Mt. Pelee began to \”act up\”. After many months of showing that an eruption might occur, one did. It buried one plantation completely, many of the workers and owners were lost on the side of the mountain. Local officials, knowing that the harvest season was upon them, discouraged the town\’s populace and nearby plantations from evacuating. Tax revenues were at stake. On May 8th, Ascension Day, Mt. Pelee awoke in a big way at 8:02 a.m. There were 30,000 people in St. Pierre and 12 ships in the bay. Within minutes, all but two people perished and all 12 vessels lit on fire. A few managed to escape, but most of them did not. They are now wreck dives, part of the marine park off St. Pierre.

The original disaster film of the 1960\’s was \”The Devil at 4 O\’Clock\”. It starred Spencer Tracy as a French Priest and Frank Sinatra as a criminal.
The group of three criminals were told if they helped evacuate the orphanage on the side of the volcano, their sentences would be commuted. The last ship would wait for them till just before \”4 O\’Clock\” the next day. If they were late, they would be resigned to their fate by the volcano. I\’ll let you rent the DVD to see the film, but just as in the film, one of the only two survivors of the real event was a criminal locked in a stone cell.

We\’d spent time ashore there as we visited by car the previous day. We also met up with s/v \”Island Explorer\” from South Africa. Doug and Ursula were our slip mates during the off season in Trinidad. After a one night stay, we were off to Dominca, one of the lesser developed islands of the Eastern Caribbean.

Stand by for more,
Scott and Nikki (writing from St. Bart\’s and the famous \”Bucket\” Regatta…an entire blog will be devoted to this event!)

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