The land of the daily deluge

We left Les Saintes for Dominica on Feb. 9. It was raining, which I suppose was an omen for where we were headed. It was a 20 mile trip. We were going about 8-9 knots, closed hauled in 5-6 foot seas, so not champagne sailing, but nothing Billy Ruff’n can’t handle. It was a little wet for me having to set the second reef but I got Andrew back when he had to go forward to take down the French courtesy flag.

We made the trip in 3 1/2 hours and were greeted in Portsmouth, Dominica by one of the professional boat services men. In Portsmouth, the men have organized a group called Portsmouth Association for Yachting Services (PAYS), in order to make it a safe and enjoyable destination for ’yachties’, like ourselves. We had contacted Jeffrey from Sea Bird to help us and he was on site when we had dropped sails and were close enough to pick up a mooring. Shortly after, another PAYS boat came by to sell us tickets to the beach barbecue that evening and a third man came by to sell us star fruit, passion fruit, bananas and coconuts from his kayak.

The PAYS barbecue that evening was a fun jump up. Many of the Salty Dawg crew we have come to know were there. The grilled fish and chicken was good and the whole place was dancing after dinner. Andrew tried to match moves with one of the locals and lost, landing on his butt in the sand!

Since we had arrived on a Sunday and customs was closed, we checked in the next day, with the assistance of our PAYS guy, Antony. He took us over to the customs dock, showed us around town a bit and brought us back to the boat to arrange for the next few days activities. The next day, Antony rowed us up the Indian River and pointed out the local flora and fauna as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean sets that were still in place as part of the tour. We found a coconut on the way, which Antony cut up for us to enjoy the milk and fruit. I had a chance to row back too!

Afterward, Antony came on board to check out Andrew’s fishing equipment and spent the next half hour re-arranging it into lures and lines for their fishing trip the following day.

We’ve found it pretty much rains every day in Dominica and often very hard, accompanied by roaring winds that slice through the mountains. One evening, I had just showered and changed to ride in town for dinner and of course, it poured on our way in. The great thing though, is the winds dry things off quickly and the mild temperatures (mid 80’s), keep things from getting too cold so you just carry on with whatever you were doing.

On Feb. 12th, Antony took Andrew for a fishing trip around the north end of the island. They caught 3 Barracuda and 1 small snapper, while I strolled through town and updated the blog. That night, we had the PAYS guys cook up our fish, after we assured them that it was caught locally and would not be poisonous. (Apparently, barracuda is poisonous in some parts, but not in Dominica and we survived eating it just to prove it!)

The next day, we took an island tour to Cold Soufriere, a bubbling stream, in the middle of the rain forest, that smells like sulfur and is cold; past a beautiful cemetery with a fantastic view for eternity and then on to the Point Baptiste Chocolate Factory, a small privately owned chocolate manufacturing facility, owned by the grandson of the first woman ever elected to a British West Indies legislative council, and run by him and his daughter. They showed us how the cocoa beans are dried and roasted and then stirred and mixed with various delicious flavorings. We bought 6 bars: spice, coffee, lemongrass, mint, ginger, and hot pepper.

From the chocolate factory, a Carib Indian fellow named Donny George, took us on what was billed to be an easy walk to the Red Rocks, on which the chocolatier’s home was perched. Barefooted, Donny scampered like a billy goat through the forest, over rocks and straight up a cliff, while we struggled to keep up, but the views were worth it.

In the meantime, our tour driver, Andrew (or Didi), had collected a sampling of grasses and leaves that he professed had all kinds of medicinal powers when smoked or dried and made into tea. He also showed us how to weave the banana tree leaves into decorations for the local bar.

The next few days it rained and blew hard so we didn’t do much but hang out on the boat and wait for a weather window to head for Roseau, our next stop in Dominica.

7 days in Les Saintes

Since it didn’t work out for us to rent a car in Basse Terre, we decided on Feb 1st to head for Les Saintes, a idyllic group of islands just south of the main island of Guadeloupe. The only town, Bourg des Saintes, is on the largest island, Terre d’en Haut. After a two hour motor sail, with wind on the nose, we were looking forward to picking up a mooring, but all 80 moorings set out for cruisers in the main bay, were taken. We happened upon the only remaining mooring in another bay, off Pain A Sucre. It was a pretty spot where boats stage for the morning hustle to pick moorings off the main town, as other cruisers leave them.

The next morning we were able to pick up a mooring off Terre d’en Haut and get our dinghy deployed to go explore the town. The town is full of small shops selling original artworks, clothing and island made rum or coffee, as well as some of the best restaurants we have come across yet. The first restaurant we tried was Au Bon Vivre, a lovely place, run by a chef from Toulouse, with seating outside on the street or inside in the plant covered courtyard. There we had the best cod fritters ever, a cold Karett beer, an incredible tuna steak prepared with leaks and a ceviche in coconut broth.

Les Saintes Multi-Services is where you check in for customs in Les Saintes. You can also use their computers and wifi while watching a big screen TV and getting your laundry done. They are normally not open on Sundays, but on Feb. 3rd, they got so many requests to watch the Super Bowl, that they opened just for the rabid American football fans to grab a beer and enjoy the game. It was fun to meet new cruiser friends there, in addition to running into some of the folks we’ve been seeing all along the island chain.

It was at the game that we got tipped off to the best street side grilled chicken on the island and a barbecue planned on the smallest of the islands, Ilet a Capri. The next day, a group of Salty Dawgs took our dinghies along with drinks, an item for the grill, and an item to share, to the beach where we ate, swam and hiked to the fort at the top of the island for some spectacular views.

We, meaning mostly Andrew, got some boat projects done in Les Saintes, including getting the water maker running, whipping some lines that had frayed and remounting the fishing rod holder so that it didn’t interfere with the outboard motor mount, while I explored on my SUP. We rewarded ourselves with a dinner out at 1 Ti Bo Doudou, a fabulous place with tables set right on the beach and claims to “the top local chef, especially when it comes to seafood”. Andrew had ‘to die for’ mahi in passion fruit sauce and I had lion fish in a fabulous onion cream sauce. Yum! The next night we bought some fresh mahi right off the boat and Andrew tried to emulate his dish. Not quite the same, but good.

One of our last days in Les Saintes, we rented a green ‘electric’ car to motor around the island, the highlights of which were: 1) the Baie de Pompierre, a beautiful tree lined beach off a secluded bay, 2) the Bay de Marigot, a small fishing village w/ a quiet anchorage and 3) Fort Napoleon, with a great view of Billy Ruff’n in the bay and the entire island of Terre D’en Haut.

Key tip for cruisers: The best ice in the Caribbean can be found in Bourg des Saintes at the bakery near Carrefour. It’s made in a shape, which I can only described as an upside down bucket of sand, that resists freezing to itself and is easily broken apart for drinks!

Cheers to that!!

Our daily bread in Guadeloupe

After a treacherous walk back to Les Jardins (straight up hill on a winding road with no sidewalk) to exchange the size for a dress I bought for one of my granddaughters, realizing she would have outgrown it by the next time I see her, I joined my friend, Bob from Pandora, on a milder hike up the creek to a freshwater pond. The water was cold but very refreshing. Later that evening, we watched the sunset and enjoyed cocktails with fresh baked baguette & cheese, with my hiking buddy, his wife Brenda and our new friends and hosts, Mary and Kevin on Pisces.

The next day, both breakfast and lunch were purchased at the local bakery, which has become a daily stop for us in Guadeloupe. We were headed out for Pigeon Island, an excellent snorkeling venue ~ 10 miles down island from Deshaies. After a 2 hour motor sail, we arrived at Bouillante, a touristy beach resort across from the island, bubbling with snorkelers, paddle boards, kayakers and swimmers enjoying the water. I could jump off our boat and find many varieties of fish and coral just 20 feet away.

Later, we went on a dinghy ride to find the laundromat but to no avail. We decided to try the next day and headed back to the boat to get ready for a lovely dinner at Le Rocher de Malendure, an excellent restaurant situated on top the rocks with a great view of the harbor, if it were daytime!

The next morning, we loaded our laundry bags into the dingy and went off to find this mysterious place that we must have passed at least twice the day before. It was behind a rock wall and had a very small entrance so the fishing boat marina inside was easily missed. We attached our dinghy line to a post jammed into the rocks and clamored up with our bags to the parking lot of a strip mall where the ‘laverie’ awaited. We were quite proud of ourselves for figuring out the coin operated system with instructions in French and rewarded our effort with croissants from the nearby bakery.

That evening, we had dinner on board and carefully watched the catamaran of Frenchmen that had anchored way too close to us. Neither of us slept too well with the rocking and rolling so we treated ourselves to a breakfast of French toast, prepared from day old baguette the next morning. What a great use of old bread! Later that day, we left for Basse Terre, where we had hoped to leave the boat in a marina slip and rent a car to tour the island. This was not meant to be when we found the marina too crowded and narrow for us to get into and the car we had reserved was not working. After grabbing some sandwiches at, you guessed it, the local bakery, we spent the night on a mooring and decided to head for Iles des Saintes the following day. I’m told they have bakeries!!

Le Jardin Boutanique de Deshaies

A visit to the botanical garden in Deshaies requires it’s own post because of all the great photo opportunities it provided. So here goes with pictures that speak clearer than any words I could muster:

And a view of the harbor where Billy Ruff’n is in Deshaies:

Bienvenue a Guadeloupe!

After completing few boat projects in Antigua, and meeting some nice slip neighbors from outside Boston (owners of Ted Hood’s former “Robin”, a Little Harbor 46), we finally set off from Jolly Harbor on 1/24. As the Gods of bureaucracy & process would have it however, we only made it 8 miles to Falmouth Harbor. It took a few hours to fill our fuel and water tanks so it was 10:30 before we got to checking out. After waiting for the Customs officer for 20 minutes, he told us we needed to start with the Port Authority. After meeting with the Port Authority officer, she told us we needed to go back to Customs. After completing the paperwork with Customs, we had to check out with Immigrations, etc. etc., thus we didn’t have time to make the 35 mile trip to Guadeloupe before dark.

Adopting the island mantra of ‘No worries’, we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon and evening anchored in Falmouth Harbor, a few boats away from Maiden (the infamous all female crewed boat that raced in the Whitebread around the world race). Later that night, we basked in view of a virtual city of mast lights from dozens of super yachts.

On 1/25, we set off around 8:15 am for an uneventful 6 hour motor sail to Deshaies, Guadeloupe, a quaint fishing town on the north western side of the island. To our surprise, we found ourselves anchored one boat away from our friends from the Salty Dawg rally, Bob and Brenda on Pandora. After an hour or so of unpacking the dinghy, pumping it up, and finding the dinghy equipment, we finally launched her and went in town to check in. Finding an appropriate place to land the dinghy was interesting in that the town dock had been proactively dismantled to prevent it from breaking apart in the surge so we had to find our way up a canal I happened to read about in my cruising guides.

The check-in process was very different from Antigua’s formalities in that the ‘Customs’ office is a computer in a souvenir shop. The nice French shopkeeper helped us through the all French on screen instructions and we were done in about 20 minutes. We explored town a bit and then stopped for a drink at L’Amer, a breezy cafe on the water, with a view of Billy Ruff’n, and the accompanying surf crashing and rumbling on the rocks beneath. We stayed long enough for a beautiful sunset and then bought a small baguette and some spiny lobster to cook up on board for dinner. It was a very good day!

The next day, we took the dinghy in town early to get fresh croissant from Le Boulanger when it opened. Right after we got there, a line of at least a dozen churchgoers and others formed to buy their baguettes for the day. Not much else was going on this Sunday in Deshaies so we went back to the boat to get the paddle board deployed. That evening, we met up for drinks and dinner at Le Madras with Bob & Brenda and some new Salty Dawg friends, Kevin and Mary on Pisces.

We’re back!

After a nice, but extended holiday break in Philadelphia, we are now back in Antigua with a mostly restored back for Andrew and all kinds of unfinished boat projects. We decided to rent an Airbnb in the Jolly Castle Hotel for a few nights so we didn’t have to climb up and down a ladder every time we wanted to get on or off the boat, since it was still out of the water. But, despite comfortable and inexpensive lodging, we’ve been quickly immersed in the world of ‘nothing is easy on a boat’.

Our first morning back, we enjoyed a homemade Antiguan breakfast (scrambled eggs, beans, mackerel and dumplings... that tasted like fresh baked doughnuts without the sugar) at Joseph’s right below our apartment in Jolly Castle. The apartment is comfortable, clean and supported by a very friendly and responsive staff. Arlene, who owns the place, arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the airport and met us at the hotel when we arrived. It is very convenient to the beach, restaurants, grocery store as well as the boatyard and the kitchen makes a nice place for Andrew to make Painkillers to reward us for our challenges.

When we got to the boat, we found the electricity was unplugged so all of the refrigerated and frozen foods we were trying to keep, were spoiled. Cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer were two of our boat projects on the first day back. In addition, Andrew removed 250 feet of chain from the anchor locker in order to inspect both and we had to flake it back into place. We had left a few folks from the boatyard with instructions for a handful of projects, half of which were done, so we spent the rest of the day supervising what was left to do.

We splashed the boat on Monday (1/20) and after a few days for provisioning and waiting for a weather window, we plan to head ~35 miles south of Antigua to Guadeloupe.