6/7th April - Isle Fourchue 17:57.407N 062:54.240W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Tue 9 Apr 2013 20:35
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"Isle Fourchue
- 6th April"
We left Anse de Colombier this morning and headed back to Gustavia to "Clear Out", buy a baguette or two and check out our emails over morning coffee and croissant (the bonus of French islands!). We anchored in the bay as close to the harbour as possible so that we did not have to dinghy too far in the choppy waters of the bay. Two other yachts actually anchored in the buoyed channel! They obviously had not seen the oil tanker and two freighters which came in the other day, there certainly was not a lot of room for them to manoeuvre and swing round in the mooring lined channel. Mission accomplished we were soon back on board and on our way again having had the extra delight of seeing two turtles in a very short space of time, they certainly like Gustavia Bay. We headed out to sea towards the small deserted island called Fourchue. This is a private island and is part of the Marine Park. The owners are happy for people to explore it, so long as they don't light fires. It used to have a flock of goats roaming wild there, but because they ate all the vegetation they almost became extinct. Eventually the last remaining goats were removed and the vegetation is now returning with small trees growing around the beach. The large sheltered horseshoe shaped bay is surrounded on two sides by steep red cliffs with a small stoney beach in the middle gently rolling up and meeting the hills on either side. It is all very rugged and very much like a Scottish island. On the tops of the rock hills previous explorers have built cairns so the skyline is decorated with small spires. We have been entertained this afternoon by pelicans and boobies fishing, a fly past of several tropic birds and a white heron. We also saw another bird catch a fish, which was so big for it that it could not swallow it. It sat on a rock tantalisingly too far away for us to be able to identify it, although it did look kingfisher shaped. An hour later it was still sitting there with the fish in its beak unable to swallow it whole. I presumed that it was more accustomed to catching the right size fish to swallow in one, but interestingly it did not use its claws to hold the fish so that it could peck at it, neither did it appear agitated by the problem. Apart from occasionally beating the fish on the rock it seemed content that it had a meal no matter how long he had to wait to digest it. Luckily for him there were no Frigate birds around, they most certainly would have mobbed him before stealing it from him. "Isle Fourchue - 7th April A lazy showery day! Good snorkeling was enjoyed during a sunny spell with the most amazing experience of coming up against a complete wall of a huge shoal of fish, we appeared to be in the middle of them with the larger predators below. Later the wind dropped and we were left to roll aimlessly on the swell, it becomes very tiring towards the end of the day. Skies have now cleared and the stars are bright in the sky tonight. |