05/25/2009 Leeward Islands

05/15/2009 I am leaving St Martin after two weeks. I had not thought I would stay there that long, but it is a nice place and it was good to hang out with friends from Colorado while I was there. I did meet another Seawind owner on my last day there. We may connect as I head south. He was deciding on whether to go north to the states or stay south for another hurricane season.
I have been undecided how to make this next leg. I have horror stories of the beat down south. I do need to keep working east until at Antigua or Guadeloupe. I have had different inputs from others but I have decided to go the original course I planned. That is to sail to St Barts and then on to Antigua.
I left at 6:45 in the morning from Simpson Bay. I had the intention to sail straight on to Antigua when I first left. There is a charge and I need to check into St Barts Customs even if I had no intention to go ashore. But after I started and calculated the time to arrive in Antigua, I decided that I would do this trip in two legs. It did in the end make for an enjoyable trip.
I anchor in Anse du Public (Public Bay) on the north end of the town of Gustavia at 11:00am. That was an easy trip. I had engine problems with my outboard for the dinghy last night when I came back from town. It would not start today so I had to row into the beach to make it ashore. I walked into town from the bay and visited the Port Authority and paid for my right to anchor in the bay and signed in with Customs. The charge was 6.5 euros.
Since I paid for the night I figured I may as well get a taste of this part of the island. I walked around town and hiked to the top of the hill overlooking the harbor and a bay behind the hill, Anse du Grand Galet. There are a couple of boats anchored in there with a nice beach. It looks like a great place to anchor if I ever make it back through here again. There is the remnants of Ft Karl and Ft Oscar on top of the hill. It amazes me how small the forts were built compared to the forts in the US overlooking the large harbors.
The town of Gustavia was fairly quiet while I was there. There was no cruise ship in the area, but there was a lot of car traffic buzzing through the small narrow streets. It is a clean town and island from what I saw. After a cold beer, I headed for the airport. This is something I needed to see since I read about it in Jimmy Buffet’s book. Where my boat is anchored in the bay was the flight path for the runway. I would listen to the engines on the plane as they came in and it sounded like the pilots would shut down the engines as they were approaching the final approach. Then the plane would fly through the cut in the hills and drop out of sight. The runway is built right up against the hill and the planes would literary glide down the back side of the hill and hit the runway. The runway is not long so the pilots cannot use much runway to land with. It was interesting having the planes fly right over your head on the approach.
05/16/2009 This morning I took off at 5:30AM. I have a 70 mile run to make it to Antigua and I would like to get there before sunset. I expect to be there by 6:00PM if all goes well. We have had 20+knots of wind it seems like forever, but there is suppose to be a slight decrease in speed and the wind is expected to shift a little bit to the north. I started off with a double reef in the main and sailed out of the lee of St Barts. The wind did not shift, but the sea state was down with 2-3 foot seas and the wind was about 15 knots. I shook out the reef and gained an additional knot of boat speed.
The trip was another non-event. I was able to hold the same tack all of the way to Antigua. I made it into St John’s Harbor at 7:00PM. I was just behind schedule, but I did arrive right after the sun set. I was quite surprised to not see any other sailboats in the harbor. It is a large harbor, but must be used for commercial traffic only. There are plenty of anchorages and I went into an anchorage just west of the commercial dock and had the whole place to myself. It is probably the most green island I have seen in quite some time. I look forward to exploring around the island for the next few days before I head south again.
05/17/2009 This morning I pulled the anchor early and headed south to Jolly Harbour. This was recommended as an easy place to clear in with Customs and they have plenty of shops, restaurants and a bus stop. When I went into the marina to get information, I was told that Customs was closed on Sunday, not true. I found the dinghy dock and walked around the marina area. Sunday became a lazy day for me. I caught up on some email and banking on-line while having a beer and pizza at one of the restaurants. I added this picture of the blue water here as I hav enot seen water like this since the Bahamas.
05/18/2009 Today I went into Customs, Immigration and the Port Authority. I did find out that they were open on Sunday. I luckily did not get scolded for taking so long to check in. After fueling up the dinghy, I took off for the bus to head into St. Johns. St. Johns is the capital of Antigua. This is one of the few islands that did not ping-pong amongst the European powers during the 18th and 19th century. It was held by the British since the first settlers arrived and started the sugar cane production. The town still has many of the old structures that date from the 1800s. There are the typical shopping areas around the cruise ship pier with open markets and high end retailers. I also walked up to see the Cathedral that overlooked the town. This Cathedral has survived a couple of earthquakes and several hurricanes. It has hard wear, but still standing.
Antigua is not a cheap place. It is not uncommon for a meal to cost EC$100.00. I would usually have a pizza or salad and even that would cost EC$40.00. The good news is that the EC$1 =US$.42, but it was still expensive. The national government also had a 15% tax on everything bought. A gallon of gas cost EC$11.00 at the marina.
05/19/2009 This morning I took No Rush into the marina to get fuel, water and ice. As I said before, this is not a cheap place to stop. This cost EC$180.00 and I only took on 14 gallons of gas.
After fueling up I motored down the coast and stopped at Crab Hill Bay for a swim and walk along the beach. I anchored off of the beach and swam in. I am surprised out how little tourism there is going on anywhere on the island. St John was busy when the cruise ship was there, but not much activity anywhere else on the island. The beach was the same. There are several bars and restaurants and they were either closed or very few patrons.
After walking the full length of the beach, I pulled anchor and motored around the point to English Harbour. This is now a National Park. It is a smaller harbor that is protected very well from hurricanes and in the early from the French and Spanish by way of Fort Berkeley. This was also Nelson’s Dockyard during the colonial times. Ships that crossed the Atlantic or cruised the Caribbean Islands could come in here and be hauled for work. Many of the structures are still standing from the early days. This is also the headquarters for the annual Antigua Race Week. It is the largest regatta in the Caribbean and becoming one of the largest in the world.
05/20/2009 Today I took the dinghy to shore to clear out of through Customs and then hike around the area. I am able to clear out of the island up to 24 hours in advance. This allows me to not have to wait until Customs opens the following morning to leave and get an early start on the next sail. I walk around and check out the museum they have there and some of the structures. I walk out to the fort. As most of the forts, it is a relatively small structure, but nature provides a good area for the British to protect this harbor. There is still the powder magazine standing. It was designed to be bomb proof and hold up to 30 kegs of gun powder for protection.
Afterwards I walked over to Falmouth Harbour. It is fairly empty at this time. A few weeks earlier it would have been hopping with all of the boats in town for the regatta.
05/21/2009 This morning I readied the boat for the crossing to Gaudeloupe. I take the motor off and remove all of the equipment from the dinghy. This has helped a lot with transporting the dinghy if I get into any large seas. I sailed out by 6:30AM and started across. Again I have favorable winds and make good time. When I get to the lee of the island, the winds pretty much came to a stop. I motored down the coast until I reached Basse Terre. This is a beautiful island to sail along. There are steep mountains with plenty of vegetation.
I anchored off of the coast along with a couple of other boats for the night. I am glad I was in a catamaran and not the monohull anchored next to me. There was a swell there that would cause the monohull to roll about 15-20 degrees. That could not be fun. I just had to deal with some halyards banging.
05/22/2009 Decision time again. Do I keep heading south and go straight to Dominica without any stopping in Guadeloupe or do I go around the south end of Basse Terre and sail north to Pointe a Pitre. I decided to hang out in Guadeloupe for a few days and sailed north to Pointe a Pitre. It was a good sail with only one tack for the whole trip and I made it into Pointe a Pitre by 1:00PM. I looked into staying at the marina but decided not to as they did not have any mooring balls and I would have to tie into the dock European style with tying off a line to the bow to a ball and backing in stearn first. I am sure at some point I will to do this, but I am not ready. I decide to go across the channel from the marina and drop anchor. It turns out to be a pretty good place. The wind is open from the channel, which provides a great breeze through the boat and there is a reef right in front of me that keeps the seas pretty flat. Not a bad place at all to anchor.
After setting the anchor, I ready the dinghy and go back into the marina to clear through Customs. This is different as Customs does not have an office there. All I need to do is fill out a single form, pay the marina 2 euros for a fax and they fax it to Customs. I wait 15 minutes and I receive a fax back and I am cleared in.
I check out the area around the marina. There are again plenty of shops and restaurants to spend time in. if I needed any work on the boat I am sure this would be a good place to have it done. I walk into town to see what is going on and I also want to find an ATM machine. I am low on euros. There is a large public square in town and plenty of shopping. I mean a lot of shopping is available here.
Tonight for dinner is McDonalds. There is one located right next to the bank. I had an interesting experience here. Dinner cost 7.5 euros. I handed the attendant a 50 euro bill. He asked me to have a seat and he would bring my change to me. The machine was busy with another order. I have never seen this done before in a McDonalds and I was a little apprehensive. I did go sit and with a minute he brought over my change. It is another time just trusting someone and there was no issue.
05/23/2009 While I was here I wanted to get out and see the islands. Guadeloupe main is actually two islands. To the east is La Grande Terre and to the west is La Basse Terre. I decided to rent a car for a couple of days and see what I see. I was able to rent a car right from a shop in the marina district I am staying in. The car was 33 euros a day and that appears to cover all expenses including rental, taxes and insurance, I think. The bad news is I am in a French country where there is very little English spoken and hardly any on the signs or menus, the car I rent is a stick shift and I have not driven a stick for 13 years. The good news is that at least they drive on the right hand side of the road as we do in the States and I was able to pick up the shifting real easy. “Just like riding a bike”, like they say.
Since I had a late start on Saturday, I decided to drive around La Grande Terre. There is a highway system here and all told there is suppose to be over 1500 miles of roads between the two islands. Most of all the highways are two lane roads and the speeds are around 50-70 kph. I drove along the south coast out to St Francois with a stop in St Anne. In St Anne there is a nice hopping beach with plenty of vendors out selling everything from homemade ice cream to all this shop with all blue and white clothing. In St Francois they had a large marina. I also drove around in circles for awhile trying to find my way out of town and the highway that headed north.
I found my way out and drove through Le Moule and then over to Morne a l’Eau. Located here was two things. I cross road that took me north to Anse Bertrand and this cemetery I have a picture of. As you can see most of the crypts are decorated in a black and white checkerboard. On my way to Anse Bertrand I drove through a lot of farm country. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sugar cane fields. I was not aware that there was any sugar cane still grown in the Caribbean. That was like gold in the old days and was the driving economy down here into the mid 1800s. There was sugar cane everywhere here like corn is grown in Nebraska and wheat in Kansas. From Anse Bertrand I made my way back down to Pointe a Pitre and the marina.
05/24/2009 I made an early start this morning with plans of driving around La Basse Terre. I took off and drove across the canal and towards the north end of the island. Again I have a problem traveling around here as I do not speak any French. I would like to take some tours, but everything is in French so there is not much I can glean. I did try to stop at the Le Musee de Rhum (Rum Museum) but they were closed.
I drove to Deshaies on the northwest coast and then down the coastal highway. From the water I saw this road and thought it interesting to drive as it appeared to follow the coast. From the water it did not appear to be any homes away from the coast. This was true, but the highway did not stay at water level. There were many hills to climb and it was pretty much like a roller coaster down the coast.
I was worried as I was low on fuel and it was Sunday morning. I needed to make a fuel stop and again I can only be thankful for sign language to be able to instruct the gas attendant on how much fuel I want in the car. I was worried as I was low on fuel and it was Sunday morning. After fueling up I drove eastward on Route de la Traversee. This is an east-west (sort of) road that cut across the mountain tops. I drove about half way as I wanted to finish driving back down the west coast. All of my driving up to this point had not been a problem with other cars on the road, but on this steep, curvy road, it seemed like everyone wanted to drive twice the speed limit.
After making my way back down to the coastal highway, I headed south again to the town of Basse Terre where I anchored the first night I was here. I stopped had some lunch and took a nap in the air conditioning of my car. Afterwards I kept on the highway south around the tip. I stopped at the light house I saw from my boat and there was the Fort de l’Olive which was built in 1636. I sat at the light house and watched people swimming, fishing and riding wind surfers.
After there I followed the road along the coast and started to head back to Pointe a Pitre. All of the sudden I saw a sign for the National Park and Chutes de Carbet (Carbet Waterfalls). I decided why not. The National Park is mostly rainforest and I would like to see the waterfalls that are written up as a sight to see. I got off of the highway and drove up the steep winding road for about 5 miles. The road at some points was so steep I would need to drop the transmission into first gear. Along the way I saw enormous banana plantations. As I was climbing higher into the mountains the temperature is dropping and the clouds are thicker.
I drove to the end of the road that was the entrance to the park and the walking trail to the many different falls. The coast was 1 euro to enter and it was well worth the cost. The main falls was about a one and a half hour hike. I figured I would go as far as I could and while on the way, enjoy walking through a rain forest. The trail started out very nice with paved stones laid out and good stairs. I had to hike down the hill to the river and cross a bridge. The I started up and the trail became a nice stone walk, but not paved. Then I climbed higher and it turned into mostly board walk and many stairs. Then I reached the peak of the trail after about 45 minutes of the most intense stair master work. Then the trail became trail. There was some carved rock and a few wooded steps, but most of it was narrow steep trail back down to the water again. I made it to a river and it was getting late. I thought about turning around and made the mistake of pulling out my map. I was able to determine where I was and it did not appear that the falls would be much further so I pushed on. I then had to climb back up the mountain and when I came to the section that took me back down towards another river I decided I would turn around. As I was heading back I came across a sign that indicated that the falls was only 15 minutes away. I looked at my watch and new that I was moving faster than the typical times for travel were so I pushed on. One of my concerns was that I really wasn’t prepared to be hiking in the forest. I had no raincoat, fresh water, I was dressed in cotton shorts and a t-shirt and best of all my hiking shoes are my flip-flops. I climbed down the rocks and make my way to the waterfalls. When I was almost all of the way to the falls I passed a family and the wife looked at my flip-flops and just shook her head.
I did make it to the falls and here is a picture. There is actually three cascading falls. As I was standing there viewing the bottom of the three, the mist appeared to clear or my vision was becoming acclimated. In the second photo you can see the rim above me and a glimpse of the second or middle cascade. Unfortunately I did not have time to climb to see the other two falls. After a few photos I high tailed it out of there trying to make it back to my car before it was too dark to see anything. I made good time, even passing the family ahead of me. I took my time as going down was less exercise, but required more caution getting down some of the rocks vs. stepping up.
When I made it back to the parking lot, I saw this man feeding a bird right from his hand. I also saw two Mongoose crossing my path. As it was a lark to drive up here, it was the highlight for me renting the car and driving around the island. Up there was to see the sugar cane and banana fields. You just don’t see those in Colorado.