Iles des Saintes

Starcharger
Fri 21 Mar 2014 20:20
We have arrived back in France "15.52.01N 61.35.13W". Like Martinique this is part of France, so we are back to the Euro wallet!
We spent a week in Dominica it was beautiful. As we arrived we were hailed by Peter from "Ear to Eternity". We had arrived in the middle of the Ocean Cruising Club 60th Anniversary Rally, at least we got to join in the end of it and met several interesting people. The Boat boys have formed into an association and also now provide security in the anchorage. To fund it they run two barbecues a week, all the food and rum punch you want for 50ECD, about £12 a head. We had two great evenings there. The Indian River is where the voodoo lady in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films was based so one evening we did our research ( we watched the film) and the following day with Ian and Helen from "Callima" and guided by Alexis we went up the same Indian River and into the jungle. There are no motors allowed on the River so you row up. Alexis was great showing us all the plants he used to collect when he was a kid including the flower that he had to drain the water from every Friday so his mother could wash his five sisters hair!
The following day, now joined by Sue and Russell from "Mandolin" and three Americans, we set off into the jungle again, this time we saw Sisserou parrots and swam in a waterfall. The guide also gathered ginger, breadfruit, grapefruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, sage, and bay leaves for us all...who needs supermarkets!
The new dinghy and outboard are fantastic, we were flying round the bay and not getting soaked....so we now have two dinghies and two nearly new Mercury outboards.
The following day we went to weigh anchor....no windlass again. So I pulled it up by hand. We are now ridding to a buoy in Bourg de Saintes and so ends our 48 day run of not paying for a berth. I have established that we are getting power to it so tomorrow it comes out again, does anyone need a large useless paperweight?
Hopefully we will hire a scooter and set off to explore in the next day or so.
Have fun and keep in touch, we do miss you all
Love
Alasdair, Gill, Habitat, Pickles and Star Charger


Sent from Alasdair's iPad