Guadeloupe to Iles Des Saintes, Dominica, Martinique
Guadeloupe to Iles Des Saintes, Dominica, Martinique June 2018 Crew: Ken Robertson, Jenny Thomas With added incentive, due to the receiving of an award presented by The Royal Cornwall Yacht Club – The Holman Cup for best cruisers log by a club member, plus the number of people who have expressed enjoyment in reading my blog (thank you), I continue with Lady Rebel’s adventures!
It was noticeable on return from our six week’s visit to the UK how it gets dark so much earlier in the Caribbean than the UK, with sun setting at 1830 hrs as opposed to 2100 hrs! It was also noticeable how much hotter it is at 290C with mixed sunshine and occasional downpours as we move into the rainy/hurricane season. To see so many friends and family back home was wonderful and even more wonderful to have enjoyed an amazing hen weekend in Bath and the perfect wedding of Bill and Nicky for whom I was proud to be maid of honour.
On opening up Lady Rebel’s front door – the companion way, and on further inspection, it was a great relief to see we had avoided the invasion of the dreaded rats, mice and cockroaches. All these unwanted critters have the ability to detect an empty boat and move in like squatters, equally as difficult to rid. They simply climb up the mooring lines and hop aboard, or in the case of cockroaches, fly in and find a tiny gap to crawl through and Bob’s your Uncle, their new abode. (Well I never knew that: In 1887, British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil appointed his nephew Arthur James Balfour as Minister for Ireland. The phrase 'Bob's your uncle' was coined when Arthur referred to the Prime Minister as 'Uncle Bob'. Apparently, it's very simple to become a minister when Bob's your uncle! As simple as that!) The Boric Acid (a white powder) that we sprinkled below decks, worked a treat against potential insect infestation – despite it appearing we had a very large cocaine habit! So, back to our cruising ‘way of life’. As I tried to explain to many people (unbelieved I feel!!), cruising is not continual sailing in gentle breezes, hours lazing on white sandy beaches, swimming in warm turquoise waters, dining on lobster and relaxing in the sunshine with a gin and tonic! I describe it more as ‘an experience, a lifestyle’, certainly not a bad one at that! Having spent the last twenty months juggling boat maintenance with exploring – boat maintenance winning, we returned to Lady Rebel with the intention of re-juggling and prioritising the exploring side, whilst somehow keeping on top of the essential boat repair and maintenance issues. We have been to so many different countries, yet only had a taster of some, because we let boat chores take over, sometimes unavoidably admittedly. The purpose of our trip is to explore and experience different cultures and landscapes, meeting interesting people along the way. We have started off our new mindset pretty well! We hadn’t yet explored the town in which we were moored – Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe, plus we needed a SIM card that would give us phone and data along the island chain. A two-mile walk took us into the centre, passing through a bustling fish, fruit and veg. market, where we purchased a Dorado and some fruit. It was hot walking but the exercise was good and the town ‘buzzing’ apart from the outskirts that were a little run down.
The next day we prepped the boat for moving on. Ken went up the mast to change the steaming light bulb, I utilised the marina water and hosed out the bilges where the standing water had become stagnant and smelly. We checked the engine, anchor winch and bow thruster. All fine, although the propellers on the bow thruster were a little ‘barnacled up’ having been left for six weeks un-spun! We also cleaned out the growth that had made its way into the thru-hull fittings/stop cock filters i.e. engine, fridge, freezer, toilets (heads), generator and air conditioning water inlets. After some route planning and navigation we were good to go. Tuesday 5 June – Guadeloupe to Iles Des Saintes (Island Terre D’en Haut, town of Bourg Des Saintes). 24 miles, 5.33 hrs, 2.5 engine hrs, 4.69knots av.speed. Total Miles since leaving Falmouth Aug 2016: 10790 It was trickier getting out of the marina berth than we anticipated due to a cross wind, small area to turn and barnacled up bow thruster. The Harbour Master was there to untie our bow lines (attached to a mooring buoy at the front – it was stern-to mooring, the stern being attached to the marina pontoon. He kept hold of one of the bow lines and pulled us round. We’d watched him do this with many boats arriving and departing; it was common practice!
Sailing was pleasant to start, 14 knots gusting 20, from a good direction. We motored the last couple of hours due to a decrease in strength. The beautifully sheltered bay was too deep for us to anchor so we picked up a mooring buoy for the equivalent of £11/night. Bargain!!
The town was small, quaint and beautifully presented with its red roofed houses, colourfully painted walls, immaculately kept gardens, boutiques, restaurants and churches in fine repair. Checking in with Customs was easy – a computer form to complete, print and have signed by an officer. Even better we could check-out at the same time which would eliminate going back prior to departure.
We walked the 2.5km uphill to Fort Napoleon which was well worth the effort. The views over the town, anchorage and other islands of Iles Des Saintes, plus Guadeloupe further afield was absolutely breath-taking. The camera doesn’t do it justice. The Fort housed an interesting museum, cactus garden and wild area for iguanas.
Our return walk took us via Marigot Bay with its wooden fishing boats resting on the beach. 6.3km total earned us lunch out and delicious home-made ice cream to follow – a treat I allow myself having stopped drinking alcohol – for the time-being anyway!
Portsmouth Harbour on the island of Dominica, just 23 miles away was next. It was a good brisk sail! We heard another boat on the VHF radio arranging an ‘Indian River Tour’ with one of the local guides. We radioed them to ask if we could join them to which they agreed (makes it cheaper!). It was a quick dash to Customs – this time a paper form to fill in that enabled us to check in and out at the same time, then back to the boat to be collected by Albert the tour guide who had already collected Dwight, Diane and guests off the other boat.
Part of the film The Pirates Of The Caribbean was filmed along the Indian River, however, the home of Witch Calypso in the film, a small shack perched in the mangroves, had unfortunately been destroyed by hurricane Maria seven months previously. A great number of trees were down but the greenery was returning remarkably quickly. We learned that a lot of the greenery was in fact vines and grasses growing around dead trees. There were Swamp Bloodwood trees with massive buttress roots on the river banks housing small Green Backed Herons and Iguanas very well camouflaged – we’d have not seen them if Albert had not pointed them out!
At the head of the river was the Jungle Bar with ornate gardens and exceedingly strong ‘rum dynamites’ – I hasten to add I stayed with fresh passion fruit juice! Roy, the barman showed us (Ken and I – the others had gone back to the river boat) an Iguana hiding up a tree, gave me some lemongrass to make tea and flavour this evening’s curry and he shelled fresh almonds with a machete for us to try! He was clearly very pleased we’d shown an interest in his gardens and produce. Remember this barman Roy – there is a little story to tell involving him later!
Jungle Bar
Roy Shelling Almonds
The following day we did a tour with Alexis, aka ‘Shadow’, to the Northern Forest Reserve at the foot of Mount Diablotins, at 4747 feet, the highest in Dominica. We hiked into the rainforest and onto Syndicate Water Falls. Shadow was quite shocked at the bareness of the forest due to the hurricane damage – to us it still looked amazingly green.
Massively Thinned Out Rain Forest Due To Hurricane Maria In Northern Forest Reserve
At the dinghy dock on our return we met an English lady called Suzie, from Fowey of all places (the next harbour along from our homeport of Falmouth). Suzie, boat name Spirited Lady, was cradling an injured sea bird, suffering a broken wing. None of us knew how to fix a broken wing so the only option was for the bird to be put out of its misery ☹ That evening we met Suzie, who certainly was a ‘Spirited Lady’, at the beach bar. She has been cruising the Caribbean for 18 years and is very familiar with Dominica, the locals and assisting with the aftermath of hurricane Maria, clearing debris, aiding the elderly with food parcels, helping get food for her friend’s horses plus campaigning for the abolishment of use of plastics to save our oceans and the environment generally. We also met two guys in the bar, coincidentally from Sutton Coldfield – one of Ken’s previous home towns of 25 years. They discovered they had probably been drinking in the same bars at the same time, in their youth, many many years ago ha ha! Suzie didn’t take kindly to the occupation of these two guys as they were involved in the building of a hotel complex on the island. Suzie’s argument was they were disrupting the environment, wildlife and natural swamp area. Their argument was they were building the resort as environmentally friendly as possible, avoiding encroaching on the swamp land and the complex would bring much employment to the island. A very heated discussion ensued, assisted (or not) by the consumption of alcohol!! After agreeing to disagree Suzie and James, her crew from St Vincent, showed us many other local bars. Ken had already sampled each and every type flavour of rum at the beach bar – including some lethal ‘under the counter’ variety, so by the time he’d had one or two more in each of the other bars, his dialogue was undecipherable!! Getting him back aboard Lady Rebel was amusing to say the least; needless to say he disappeared to our cabin, not surfacing until morning, with complete memory loss. I reassured him he’d had a very good night and very tasty ‘street food’ chicken wings with fried plantain for supper😊! We missed the early morning market, funnily enough, but later caught the bus to the chocolate factory at Calibishie on the NE coast. We enjoyed the free tour, learning the various processes and particularly the tasting (not so much the chilli, pepper and salt flavours). We would also enjoy our purchased tangerine, lemongrass, ginger and dark flavoured chocolate!
We waited in the local village for a return bus, and waited, and waited….. and waited. It was too far to walk but we figured we may as well start as could flag down the bus or hitch a lift. Two miles in and still no buses and the few and far between cars that stopped were not going our way. We were in the middle of nowhere and starting to get a little concerned, although we were passing more of The Pirates Of The Caribbean film locations! A white car approached so I stuck out my hand and put on my best smile. It drove straight past!! We noticed it stop just around the next bend. Was this a good sign or should be worried?! A man jumped out. As we cautiously approached we noticed a lady and presumed her daughter in the car so immediately felt it was a good sign! They asked our destination and offered us a lift. After 15 minutes or so of interesting chitter chatter it came to light that they were the owners of the Jungle Bar at the head of the Indian River and the driver was in fact Roy; the guy who had chopped up almonds for us with his machete! He had recognised us, hence the lift, for which we were most grateful.
Sunday 10 June we set sail at 0400 hrs in order to complete the 72 miles to Martinique, Fort De France, arriving in daylight. The wind was calm in the lee of the islands and very brisk between the two. An enormous pod of dolphins came to say hello and show off their jumping skills. It took two attempts to anchor; the first we hooked some stainless-steel wire which stopped the anchor digging in. The winds were strong but we were reasonably sheltered under the Fort. Here, town was as far as we got. The supermarket to provision, the soda-steam shop for gas and concentrate and the yacht chandlers to check-in/out and purchase a new engine starter battery. We had every intention of visiting the Fort and taking a ferry over to some remote beaches but researching insurance renewal and fitting the new battery became the priority. Insurance premiums have increased massively and sailing areas covered decreased due to the higher frequency of hurricanes last year. Ken contacted seven different insurance companies, which took a great deal of time, to complete their forms and read their individual, lengthy, sometimes complicated contracts! Was this the start of boat chores taking over our life again!!
Fort De France Town
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Syndicate Falls
The Road To Nowhere!
