MARTINIQUE
"Red sails in the sunset"
Protest march at Fort du France
The shops all close during the protest march at Fort du France
Mt Pelee, St Pierre
The remnants of the old theatre destroyed in the earthquake
Mural depicting the slave days
LEEWARD ISLANDS
DOMINICA
Roseau, the capital of Dominica
The children prepare for their Carnival Parade
Mr Nice gives us a great demonstration & tasting of the local fruit
Interesting sign!!!!
Interesting sign!!!!
Cooling off in the Emeral Pool
The Trafalga Falls, New Zealand? No Dominica
After a refreshing swim in the waterfalls we warm up in the hot mineral pools (Andy, KC & Joanne)
This bus came to an unfortunate end in 1979 when the Baboa tree was blown over in a hurricane, luckily there was no one in the bus. The tree lives on.......
Carnival
Carnival
Carnival
Lots of food stalls lined the streets
"We be jammin mon"
Carnival
Carnival
Pete's Carnival attire? No just his normal clothes, but he blended in really well.....
Steel Band at Carnival (click on arrow to play)
At least 10 ships lie wrecked on the shores of Portsmouth from the ravages of past hurricanes
Indian River, Portsmouth
Blood trees line the Indian River, one of the sites used for "Pirates of The Caribbean"
THE SAINTS
Terre Den Haut
Siesta time at Terre Den Haut
Cruise ship leaving The Saints
Sunbathing Iguana
Terre Den Haut
Local boats on the beach at Terre Den Haut
ANTIGUA
Time to say farewell to Cygnus II, the next time we see Trish, Morris & Alley will be in NZ as they are heading for Panama Canal & will be home by the end of this year.
Nelsons Dockyard
Pillars remaining from the old sail loft at Nelsons Dockyard
One of the original buildings restored at Nelsons Dockyard
The capstains at Nelsons Dockyard used for hauling the old sailing ships over so they could clean the hulls
Peter Blakes old boat Steinlarger moored at Nelsons Dockyard
The view from Shirley Heights looking down at English Harbour (foreground) & Falmouth Harbour (background)
The Sunday afternoon crowd at Shirley Heights
Steel band at Shirley Heights
One of the abandoned holiday resorts, this one never even got finished
Picture postcard beaches in Barbuda
Do you like my new friend? This scarecrow is at the end of the airport runway on Barbuda to keep the wild donkeys off the airstrip, apparently it works !!
A hard days work........
ST BARTS
We had fun watching the planes land on the airstrip at St Barts. The airstrip is very short & the planes literally drop down over the steep hill to land
Our friends Chris & Terry on Sedna comming through the bridge into Simson Lagoon, the bridge only opens at set times during the day
US VIRGIN ISLANDS
We had a brief reunion with Cathy & Werner on Legend II when we reached St Thomas before they continued on the journey north
Nelsons Dockyard
Pillars remaining from the old sail loft at Nelsons Dockyard
One of the original buildings restored at Nelsons Dockyard
The capstains at Nelsons Dockyard used for hauling the old sailing ships over so they could clean the hulls
Peter Blakes old boat Steinlarger moored at Nelsons Dockyard
The view from Shirley Heights looking down at English Harbour (foreground) & Falmouth Harbour (background)
The Sunday afternoon crowd at Shirley Heights
BARBUDA
One of the abandoned holiday resorts, this one never even got finished
Picture postcard beaches in Barbuda
Do you like my new friend? This scarecrow is at the end of the airport runway on Barbuda to keep the wild donkeys off the airstrip, apparently it works !!
A hard days work........
ST BARTS
We had fun watching the planes land on the airstrip at St Barts. The airstrip is very short & the planes literally drop down over the steep hill to land
ST MARTIN
Our friends Chris & Terry on Sedna comming through the bridge into Simson Lagoon, the bridge only opens at set times during the day
US VIRGIN ISLANDS
ST THOMAS
We had a brief reunion with Cathy & Werner on Legend II when we reached St Thomas before they continued on the journey north
WINDWARD ISLANDS
Martinique – 14th to 19th February
We arrived in Martinique late Saturday afternoon so we couldn’t “clear in” until Monday, which in turn meant we couldn’t go ashore until Monday. This was not altogether a bad thing cause it meant we had a day parked up in the little bay of Grande Anse D’Arlet. So with no distractions we could get on & spend the day doing maintenance & cleaning etc.
Monday we headed around to Fort du France, the island capital, & completed our clearing in procedures, this turned out to be the easiest yet. Often we have to visit a series of officials, including Customs, Immigration & Port Authority, & produce all our boat documents & passports. However this time we just filled out a form on the computer at the chandlery shop which was duly stamped by the shop attendant, we weren’t required to produce any documents, not even our passports. Anyway as we were now legally in the country we were able to start looking around the town. Unfortunately our visit to this island wasn’t very well timed as most of the workers were on strike. We saw a big protest march being held in town & all the shops etc were closed. They did start reopening after the march, but there was an air of caution about & the supermarkets were only allowing a few people in at one time. The strike was into it’s 3rd week, so the supermarket shelves were looking a little bare, however you could get most things, you just had to be careful about the expiry dates on perishable products. As there were no buses running we couldn’t do any sight seeing, so moved on up to the northern port of St Pierre. This was an interesting town that was once the islands capital, with a population of 30,000 people & lies at the foot of Mt Pelee. It was a thriving town with a big commercial centre. The harbour used to be full of ships taking rum, sugar coffee & coacoa produced on the surrounding plantations. However on Ascention Day, the 8th of May 1902 Mt Pelee erupted & a giant fireball of super heated gas flowed down over the city. They say it released more energy than an atomic bomb & wiped out all but 2 of the 30,000 residents, one was a cobbler working down in his cellar & the other was a prisoner being held in a stone cell. The fires that engulfed the town burnt for 3 days sinking all the ships in port. The town has been rebuilt, although not on the same scale, some of the new houses that have been built incorporate the stone walls from the original old houses. The 12 ships that sank all lie in depths of 30-150ft near the shore. We only managed to dive on one of the wrecks before discovering there was a problem with our air compressor, this meant we couldn’t refill our tanks. We also went for a tour around the town on a mini tourist train. The tour guide gave a continuous commentary that lasted 1 ½ hours about the towns history which was very informative, it was just a shame we couldn’t understand what he was saying – it was all in French!!!
Martinique is the largest of the Windward Islands & we had planned to spend a week there, however because of the stikes we couldn’t get transport to tour the island so we cut our stay short & moved on up to Dominica, in the Leeward Islands group.
LEEWARD ISLANDS
Dominica – 19th to 25th February
Dominica is very mountainous & is the island of rainforests & rivers, 365 rivers to be exact. We stopped off at Roseau, the islands capital. As it’s too deep to anchor you have to tie up to a mooring bouy which are spread along the shoreline. This was fine for the first 2 days, however we became a little concerned when our neighbour managed to drag his mooring bouy. We were just considering the situation when Sali decided to kick up her heels & go for a wander, a big gust of wind came through & the mooring line broke. Pete was not on board at the time & I was down below, luckily I came up in time to rescue Sali before she hit any obstacles (other boats). We moved to a new mooring & kept our fingers crossed that this one would hold. We met Andy (English) & KC (American) on their charter boat Stelena, along with their guests John, Joanne, Lois & David (on holiday from Halifax Novi Scotia). We invited our selves to join them on a day tour of the area. We had a great day up in the rainforest visiting Emerald Pools & Trafalgar Falls, we swam in the waterfalls & natural hot pools beside the river. We also went snorkeling at Champaign Beach where bubbles come seeping through the sea bed of rocks & sand.
We decided to stay in Roseau for “Carnival” This has about a month leadup where they hold concerts & singing contests to find the Calypso King & Queen, & culminates with a 2 day parade. The parade kicks off with “J’ouvert” at 3am, everyone turns up in their PJ’s (or whatever they happen to wear to bed) & dance around the streets accompanied by big trucks loaded with speakers blasting out music. As the day progresses people start tuning up in their colourful “Carnival” costumes & the parades continue. They also had a live steel band playing on a 2 storied truck which was great, the whole truck was literally “rocking” to the music. The streets were lined with make-shift bars & food stalls, & as you can imagine there were a number of happy “wasted” people around.
We stopped off at Portsmouth in the north of Dominica where we did an early morning boat trip up the Indian River. Our guide was very informative about the vegetation & wild life. It’s also another place that was used for filming “Pirates of the Caribbean” & you can see why, with the huge Blood Trees that grow on the edge of the river & form a canopy over head give the river a haunted feeling.
The Saints (Isles de Saintes) – 25th to 28th February
This is a group of small islands which are part of the French Gualedloupe. The only small town, Bourg de Saintes, is on the largest island of Terre Den Haut & although it’s very touristy it had a nice European feel to it & lots of lovely shops. It’s all very clean & tidy, & the cute red roofed gingerbread houses with their colourful gardens make the town very attractive. We had been forewarned that the island was being affected by the workers strike on Guadeloupe, so luckily we stocked up with provisions in Dominica as the supermarket shelves were rather bare!!!
Guadelloupe
This one of the larger islands with a population of 330,000. We had heard the strikes were quite bad here with one person killed in a protest march, so decided to give this island a miss. We did however stop briefly at Pigeon Island as we passed to snorkel in the Cousteau Marine Park. This was well worth while as the water was clear & the sea life abundant. We also saw Jacque waving to us from the ocean floor as we swam past.
Antigua – 1st to 10th March
We had a great welcome from Trish & Morris, off Cygnus II, when we arrived in English Harbour (we travelled with them through the Western Mediteranean last year). They had been in Antigua for 2 months, since their arrival in Caribbean, waiting to get various repairs done on their boat equipment which had just been completed. After spending 3 days with us they decided it was time to cut the umbilical cord & head south. They are planning to go through the Panama Canal this year & return back to NZ so they needed to get a move along.
English Harbour & Falmouth Harbour are 2 large natural harbours that sit side by side with about 50meters between them at one point. In 1700’s the British set up a Naval Station here which at one stage was commanded by Nelson. The original dockyards, now know as Nelsons Dockyard, have been restored to some of their original condition & are now a thriving hub of the yachting community who flock to the safety of these 2 anchorages. A lot of Super Yachts use the harbours & marinas as a base & it’s a popular port of call for the transient cruisers during the winter cruising season. It’s also a natural “Hurricane Hole” boats to shelter in during the summer months. There are a number of English people living here who have set up business to service the yachting community, but mainly the Super Yachts.
English Harbour is famous for the Sunday night “Jump Up” at Shirley Heights, so naturally we had to check it out for our selves. We were not disappointed, it was a great night with lots of people, a continuous BBQ, plenty of Rum Punch to go around & 2 great live bands playing ( a Steel Band & a Soca Band). We arrived around 4pm & decided to check out the Rum Punch, Pete had a great idea that if we asked for drinks with no ice we would get better value for money. Unfortunately this turned out to be not such a good idea because we were legless by 8pm & decided to go home before we disgraced ourselves, we did get to enjoy dancing to the awesome music before we left though.
Both harbours are generally always packed with boats of all shapes & sizes, of all nationalities during the winter season & everyone is very friendly. We made friends with a lovely Aussie couple Christine & Terry on their multihull Sedna, who also happen to be heading in the same direction north as we are.
We took a bus to St John, the island capital, which is a bustling town with an abundance of shops to swerve the local community. Although it‘s a popular stopover for the cruise ships, the people are very poor. As on most islands the passengers get straight onto a bus to tour the island so the local retailers don’t get the benefit of the tourist dollars because they are spent elsewhere.
Jolly Harbour was a great place to top up our provisions. This is a new upmarket development with a marina & apartments built around the waterways. The supermarket was very handy to the dinghy dock so for a change it was very easy to get our provisions. Unfortunately just as we finished loading our groceries into the dinghy when the skies opened to pour buckets of liquid sunshine down on us. We had quite a distance to go to get back to Sali who was in the outer harbour, so we found shelter by squeezing in under a pontoon in the marina, talk about doing the limbo!!! The rain continued for some time but we made a run for it back to Sali during a lull, luckily the rain had dampened down the waves somewhat so we didn’t get too many splashes on board to wet our produce. The joys of shopping on a boat, it’s certainly a lot easier shopping back home in NZ……….
Barbuda – 10th to 14th March
The waters between Antigua & Barbuda are relatively shallow which is generally a good place to catch fish. We have not caught a lot of fish since arriving in the Caribbean, but managed to hook up 4 on the crossing, unfortunately they were all barracuda. While you can eat barracuda in some area of the Caribbean, the can be poisonous in other parts. Not willing take the risk we returned them to the sea only to discover from a local Barbudan later that they are quite safe to eat from these parts. One of the barracuda also managed to flick a hook through the back of Pete’s hand, it was rather painful for him as the barracuda was still attached to the other end of the lure & was thrashing around madly trying to get off. Meanwhile I was busy locating the bolt cutters to cut the hook so Pete could pull it through & out the other side of the skin. The operation was a success the hand was saved!!!!
Barbuda was a lovely surprise, quite different to any of the other islands we had visited, with lovely long white sandy beaches (with a pink tinge) & aqua coloured water - just like you see on the brochures. The island is long & flat which is also unusual for these parts, it only has one village with a population of 1,600. There are 4 resorts on the island, but only one is currently operating. One has never been completed & quite a common site for commercial ventures in the Caribbean. The second was closed by the owner 4 years ago & has been trying to sell it ever since. The third was recently sold & is closed for renovations, it’s not in a particularly good position & gets hammered by the sea when the weather gets rough, apparently one of the units got carried out to sea at one stage. The forth resort is the only one currently operating, it’s a very exclusive club where the rich & famous go for time out away from the paparatzi & general public. Apart from that there is only a couple of small hotels, an small airstrip & Frigate Bird Sanctuary on the island. The island community own all the land collectively so have been able to save the islands unspoilt beauty from being carved up by ruthless developers.
Not many cruisers visit the island either as it’s a little bit off the beaten track & there’s not a lot of shelter in certain weather conditions. The snorkeling was great here with an abundance of fish & coral in shallow crystal clear waters. We met up with Paul & Jude on Seventh Heaven (English friends from Finike, Turkey & our last visitors Karen & Miles Crewed on Seventh Heaven from Canaries to the Caribbean the same time as we came across). Paul & Jude had an unfortunate incident leaving the beach in their dinghy which got tipped over by a wave & deposited Paul & Jude in the water. Unfortunately their outboard motor also got ripped off the transom. It was very fortuitous that we just happened to be going along the shore in our dinghy & Pete was able to swim ashore to assist them out so we could tow them back to Seventh Heaven. The next day Pete & Terry gave Paul a hand to flush the outboard motor & build a new transom on the dinghy. This was dejavous for Paul & Jude as they had the same thing happen 2 months prior when they stopped off at Barbuda!!!!!
St Barts – 14th to 17th March
The is French island was not dissimilar to The Saintes with its delightful red roofed houses & European feel, only it was a lot more up market with all the top label shops such as Gucci & Louis Vouton etc. with all the top label shops such as Gucci & Louis Voutton etc to cater for the rich & famous who frequent the island. You certainly needed a big wallet to spend time on this island & there were plenty of Mega Yachts in the bay who would fit this bill, unfortunately Chris & I only got to window shop. It’s only a relatively small hilly island, but they managed to squeeze an airport in just behind the main town. The planes come in low over the town & literally drop down a small hill onto a small landing strip which was cut short by the sea on the other side of the island. It’s a busy airport with lots of people arriving on private leer jets as well as small commercial planes.
St Martin – 17th to 24th March
Although St Martin is barely 7 miles in each direction it is divided in half with the northern half being owned by the French & the southern side is Dutch. The Dutch settled her originally for the natural salt ponds & like most of the Caribbean islands it prospered from growing tobacco & sugar cane, however these days it is not viable to grow these crops, so to save the island economy they made the island duty free. This has attracted a huge number of tourists who number around 1 million pa. The country is now experiencing a boom time with hundreds of duty free shops, resturants & casinos spread around the small island. It’s also a great place to get boat repairs & maintenance carried out as it has 2 large duty free chandlers, along with several smaller ones & lots of boat related trades people such as sailmakers & riggers etc. They cater mainly for the super yachts but the cruising yachts are also well catered for also. The island population is very mulit-cultural not only with Dutch & French, but also English, North & South Americans, Asians, Indians, along with decendants from the original negro slaves brought in to work in the sugar cane & tobacco fields.
We anchored in Simson Bay Lagoon which was also divided between the French & Dutch & although we entered through the Dutch side we were able to travel freely by land or sea between the 2 countries. Pete had a field day, in the chandlers, not to mention the shops, he certainly did his best to contribute to the local economy. He finally “bit the bullet” & brought a wind generator. We had been putting it off because of the low NZ peso, however in the long run we will save on diesel as the generator won’t need to run so often. It will also be a real benefit for us when we get to the Pacific as diesel won’t be readily available everywhere. There are plenty of bars & resturants around & a favourite for the visiting crews was the Soggy Dollar Bar where you could get a beer for US$1 at happy hour, naturally we had to check it out for ourselves…. We had heard everything was very expensive in the Virgin Islands, our next stop, so took advantage of the cheap bulk buying stores. As a result we’ve had to clear out some of our clothing drawers to accommodate the extra provisions, poor old Sali must be groaning under all the extra weight!!!!
Unfortunately this is where we said goodbye to our friends Chris & Terry. We had enjoyed their companionship for the past couple of weeks, however it was time for them to head back down to Martinique as they were due to meet up with a prospective buyer for their boat Sedna – good luck team.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
St Thomas – 25th March
We had a great overnight sail from St Martin with 15 knot winds.We arrived in Charlotte Amalie Harbour in time to meet up with our Kiwi friends Cathy & Werner on Legend II. We last saw them in St Vincent on 9th February & have been trying to catch up to them ever since to return a borrowed book, but they tend to move too fast for us. They have spent a week or two exploring the Virgin Islands so they headed off again on 26th March for their next destination, Puerto Rico, so our reunion was short & sweet.
The US Virgin Islands, consisting of St Thomas, St John & St Croix were formerly owned by the Danish, but in 1917 they were purchased by the US for US$25million. St Thomas is very “Americanized” with all the big shopping malls fast food outlets such as Mc Donalds etc. Like it or not, it appears we’ve now caught up with the modern world!!!! We’re spending the next 2 weeks in a nearby hurricane hole getting all our chores & maintenance done, along with installing the new wind generator, before our next visitors, Mandy, Bruce & Penny arrive.
Martinique – 14th to 19th February
We arrived in Martinique late Saturday afternoon so we couldn’t “clear in” until Monday, which in turn meant we couldn’t go ashore until Monday. This was not altogether a bad thing cause it meant we had a day parked up in the little bay of Grande Anse D’Arlet. So with no distractions we could get on & spend the day doing maintenance & cleaning etc.
Monday we headed around to Fort du France, the island capital, & completed our clearing in procedures, this turned out to be the easiest yet. Often we have to visit a series of officials, including Customs, Immigration & Port Authority, & produce all our boat documents & passports. However this time we just filled out a form on the computer at the chandlery shop which was duly stamped by the shop attendant, we weren’t required to produce any documents, not even our passports. Anyway as we were now legally in the country we were able to start looking around the town. Unfortunately our visit to this island wasn’t very well timed as most of the workers were on strike. We saw a big protest march being held in town & all the shops etc were closed. They did start reopening after the march, but there was an air of caution about & the supermarkets were only allowing a few people in at one time. The strike was into it’s 3rd week, so the supermarket shelves were looking a little bare, however you could get most things, you just had to be careful about the expiry dates on perishable products. As there were no buses running we couldn’t do any sight seeing, so moved on up to the northern port of St Pierre. This was an interesting town that was once the islands capital, with a population of 30,000 people & lies at the foot of Mt Pelee. It was a thriving town with a big commercial centre. The harbour used to be full of ships taking rum, sugar coffee & coacoa produced on the surrounding plantations. However on Ascention Day, the 8th of May 1902 Mt Pelee erupted & a giant fireball of super heated gas flowed down over the city. They say it released more energy than an atomic bomb & wiped out all but 2 of the 30,000 residents, one was a cobbler working down in his cellar & the other was a prisoner being held in a stone cell. The fires that engulfed the town burnt for 3 days sinking all the ships in port. The town has been rebuilt, although not on the same scale, some of the new houses that have been built incorporate the stone walls from the original old houses. The 12 ships that sank all lie in depths of 30-150ft near the shore. We only managed to dive on one of the wrecks before discovering there was a problem with our air compressor, this meant we couldn’t refill our tanks. We also went for a tour around the town on a mini tourist train. The tour guide gave a continuous commentary that lasted 1 ½ hours about the towns history which was very informative, it was just a shame we couldn’t understand what he was saying – it was all in French!!!
Martinique is the largest of the Windward Islands & we had planned to spend a week there, however because of the stikes we couldn’t get transport to tour the island so we cut our stay short & moved on up to Dominica, in the Leeward Islands group.
LEEWARD ISLANDS
Dominica – 19th to 25th February
Dominica is very mountainous & is the island of rainforests & rivers, 365 rivers to be exact. We stopped off at Roseau, the islands capital. As it’s too deep to anchor you have to tie up to a mooring bouy which are spread along the shoreline. This was fine for the first 2 days, however we became a little concerned when our neighbour managed to drag his mooring bouy. We were just considering the situation when Sali decided to kick up her heels & go for a wander, a big gust of wind came through & the mooring line broke. Pete was not on board at the time & I was down below, luckily I came up in time to rescue Sali before she hit any obstacles (other boats). We moved to a new mooring & kept our fingers crossed that this one would hold. We met Andy (English) & KC (American) on their charter boat Stelena, along with their guests John, Joanne, Lois & David (on holiday from Halifax Novi Scotia). We invited our selves to join them on a day tour of the area. We had a great day up in the rainforest visiting Emerald Pools & Trafalgar Falls, we swam in the waterfalls & natural hot pools beside the river. We also went snorkeling at Champaign Beach where bubbles come seeping through the sea bed of rocks & sand.
We decided to stay in Roseau for “Carnival” This has about a month leadup where they hold concerts & singing contests to find the Calypso King & Queen, & culminates with a 2 day parade. The parade kicks off with “J’ouvert” at 3am, everyone turns up in their PJ’s (or whatever they happen to wear to bed) & dance around the streets accompanied by big trucks loaded with speakers blasting out music. As the day progresses people start tuning up in their colourful “Carnival” costumes & the parades continue. They also had a live steel band playing on a 2 storied truck which was great, the whole truck was literally “rocking” to the music. The streets were lined with make-shift bars & food stalls, & as you can imagine there were a number of happy “wasted” people around.
We stopped off at Portsmouth in the north of Dominica where we did an early morning boat trip up the Indian River. Our guide was very informative about the vegetation & wild life. It’s also another place that was used for filming “Pirates of the Caribbean” & you can see why, with the huge Blood Trees that grow on the edge of the river & form a canopy over head give the river a haunted feeling.
The Saints (Isles de Saintes) – 25th to 28th February
This is a group of small islands which are part of the French Gualedloupe. The only small town, Bourg de Saintes, is on the largest island of Terre Den Haut & although it’s very touristy it had a nice European feel to it & lots of lovely shops. It’s all very clean & tidy, & the cute red roofed gingerbread houses with their colourful gardens make the town very attractive. We had been forewarned that the island was being affected by the workers strike on Guadeloupe, so luckily we stocked up with provisions in Dominica as the supermarket shelves were rather bare!!!
Guadelloupe
This one of the larger islands with a population of 330,000. We had heard the strikes were quite bad here with one person killed in a protest march, so decided to give this island a miss. We did however stop briefly at Pigeon Island as we passed to snorkel in the Cousteau Marine Park. This was well worth while as the water was clear & the sea life abundant. We also saw Jacque waving to us from the ocean floor as we swam past.
Antigua – 1st to 10th March
We had a great welcome from Trish & Morris, off Cygnus II, when we arrived in English Harbour (we travelled with them through the Western Mediteranean last year). They had been in Antigua for 2 months, since their arrival in Caribbean, waiting to get various repairs done on their boat equipment which had just been completed. After spending 3 days with us they decided it was time to cut the umbilical cord & head south. They are planning to go through the Panama Canal this year & return back to NZ so they needed to get a move along.
English Harbour & Falmouth Harbour are 2 large natural harbours that sit side by side with about 50meters between them at one point. In 1700’s the British set up a Naval Station here which at one stage was commanded by Nelson. The original dockyards, now know as Nelsons Dockyard, have been restored to some of their original condition & are now a thriving hub of the yachting community who flock to the safety of these 2 anchorages. A lot of Super Yachts use the harbours & marinas as a base & it’s a popular port of call for the transient cruisers during the winter cruising season. It’s also a natural “Hurricane Hole” boats to shelter in during the summer months. There are a number of English people living here who have set up business to service the yachting community, but mainly the Super Yachts.
English Harbour is famous for the Sunday night “Jump Up” at Shirley Heights, so naturally we had to check it out for our selves. We were not disappointed, it was a great night with lots of people, a continuous BBQ, plenty of Rum Punch to go around & 2 great live bands playing ( a Steel Band & a Soca Band). We arrived around 4pm & decided to check out the Rum Punch, Pete had a great idea that if we asked for drinks with no ice we would get better value for money. Unfortunately this turned out to be not such a good idea because we were legless by 8pm & decided to go home before we disgraced ourselves, we did get to enjoy dancing to the awesome music before we left though.
Both harbours are generally always packed with boats of all shapes & sizes, of all nationalities during the winter season & everyone is very friendly. We made friends with a lovely Aussie couple Christine & Terry on their multihull Sedna, who also happen to be heading in the same direction north as we are.
We took a bus to St John, the island capital, which is a bustling town with an abundance of shops to swerve the local community. Although it‘s a popular stopover for the cruise ships, the people are very poor. As on most islands the passengers get straight onto a bus to tour the island so the local retailers don’t get the benefit of the tourist dollars because they are spent elsewhere.
Jolly Harbour was a great place to top up our provisions. This is a new upmarket development with a marina & apartments built around the waterways. The supermarket was very handy to the dinghy dock so for a change it was very easy to get our provisions. Unfortunately just as we finished loading our groceries into the dinghy when the skies opened to pour buckets of liquid sunshine down on us. We had quite a distance to go to get back to Sali who was in the outer harbour, so we found shelter by squeezing in under a pontoon in the marina, talk about doing the limbo!!! The rain continued for some time but we made a run for it back to Sali during a lull, luckily the rain had dampened down the waves somewhat so we didn’t get too many splashes on board to wet our produce. The joys of shopping on a boat, it’s certainly a lot easier shopping back home in NZ……….
Barbuda – 10th to 14th March
The waters between Antigua & Barbuda are relatively shallow which is generally a good place to catch fish. We have not caught a lot of fish since arriving in the Caribbean, but managed to hook up 4 on the crossing, unfortunately they were all barracuda. While you can eat barracuda in some area of the Caribbean, the can be poisonous in other parts. Not willing take the risk we returned them to the sea only to discover from a local Barbudan later that they are quite safe to eat from these parts. One of the barracuda also managed to flick a hook through the back of Pete’s hand, it was rather painful for him as the barracuda was still attached to the other end of the lure & was thrashing around madly trying to get off. Meanwhile I was busy locating the bolt cutters to cut the hook so Pete could pull it through & out the other side of the skin. The operation was a success the hand was saved!!!!
Barbuda was a lovely surprise, quite different to any of the other islands we had visited, with lovely long white sandy beaches (with a pink tinge) & aqua coloured water - just like you see on the brochures. The island is long & flat which is also unusual for these parts, it only has one village with a population of 1,600. There are 4 resorts on the island, but only one is currently operating. One has never been completed & quite a common site for commercial ventures in the Caribbean. The second was closed by the owner 4 years ago & has been trying to sell it ever since. The third was recently sold & is closed for renovations, it’s not in a particularly good position & gets hammered by the sea when the weather gets rough, apparently one of the units got carried out to sea at one stage. The forth resort is the only one currently operating, it’s a very exclusive club where the rich & famous go for time out away from the paparatzi & general public. Apart from that there is only a couple of small hotels, an small airstrip & Frigate Bird Sanctuary on the island. The island community own all the land collectively so have been able to save the islands unspoilt beauty from being carved up by ruthless developers.
Not many cruisers visit the island either as it’s a little bit off the beaten track & there’s not a lot of shelter in certain weather conditions. The snorkeling was great here with an abundance of fish & coral in shallow crystal clear waters. We met up with Paul & Jude on Seventh Heaven (English friends from Finike, Turkey & our last visitors Karen & Miles Crewed on Seventh Heaven from Canaries to the Caribbean the same time as we came across). Paul & Jude had an unfortunate incident leaving the beach in their dinghy which got tipped over by a wave & deposited Paul & Jude in the water. Unfortunately their outboard motor also got ripped off the transom. It was very fortuitous that we just happened to be going along the shore in our dinghy & Pete was able to swim ashore to assist them out so we could tow them back to Seventh Heaven. The next day Pete & Terry gave Paul a hand to flush the outboard motor & build a new transom on the dinghy. This was dejavous for Paul & Jude as they had the same thing happen 2 months prior when they stopped off at Barbuda!!!!!
St Barts – 14th to 17th March
The is French island was not dissimilar to The Saintes with its delightful red roofed houses & European feel, only it was a lot more up market with all the top label shops such as Gucci & Louis Vouton etc. with all the top label shops such as Gucci & Louis Voutton etc to cater for the rich & famous who frequent the island. You certainly needed a big wallet to spend time on this island & there were plenty of Mega Yachts in the bay who would fit this bill, unfortunately Chris & I only got to window shop. It’s only a relatively small hilly island, but they managed to squeeze an airport in just behind the main town. The planes come in low over the town & literally drop down a small hill onto a small landing strip which was cut short by the sea on the other side of the island. It’s a busy airport with lots of people arriving on private leer jets as well as small commercial planes.
St Martin – 17th to 24th March
Although St Martin is barely 7 miles in each direction it is divided in half with the northern half being owned by the French & the southern side is Dutch. The Dutch settled her originally for the natural salt ponds & like most of the Caribbean islands it prospered from growing tobacco & sugar cane, however these days it is not viable to grow these crops, so to save the island economy they made the island duty free. This has attracted a huge number of tourists who number around 1 million pa. The country is now experiencing a boom time with hundreds of duty free shops, resturants & casinos spread around the small island. It’s also a great place to get boat repairs & maintenance carried out as it has 2 large duty free chandlers, along with several smaller ones & lots of boat related trades people such as sailmakers & riggers etc. They cater mainly for the super yachts but the cruising yachts are also well catered for also. The island population is very mulit-cultural not only with Dutch & French, but also English, North & South Americans, Asians, Indians, along with decendants from the original negro slaves brought in to work in the sugar cane & tobacco fields.
We anchored in Simson Bay Lagoon which was also divided between the French & Dutch & although we entered through the Dutch side we were able to travel freely by land or sea between the 2 countries. Pete had a field day, in the chandlers, not to mention the shops, he certainly did his best to contribute to the local economy. He finally “bit the bullet” & brought a wind generator. We had been putting it off because of the low NZ peso, however in the long run we will save on diesel as the generator won’t need to run so often. It will also be a real benefit for us when we get to the Pacific as diesel won’t be readily available everywhere. There are plenty of bars & resturants around & a favourite for the visiting crews was the Soggy Dollar Bar where you could get a beer for US$1 at happy hour, naturally we had to check it out for ourselves…. We had heard everything was very expensive in the Virgin Islands, our next stop, so took advantage of the cheap bulk buying stores. As a result we’ve had to clear out some of our clothing drawers to accommodate the extra provisions, poor old Sali must be groaning under all the extra weight!!!!
Unfortunately this is where we said goodbye to our friends Chris & Terry. We had enjoyed their companionship for the past couple of weeks, however it was time for them to head back down to Martinique as they were due to meet up with a prospective buyer for their boat Sedna – good luck team.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
St Thomas – 25th March
We had a great overnight sail from St Martin with 15 knot winds.We arrived in Charlotte Amalie Harbour in time to meet up with our Kiwi friends Cathy & Werner on Legend II. We last saw them in St Vincent on 9th February & have been trying to catch up to them ever since to return a borrowed book, but they tend to move too fast for us. They have spent a week or two exploring the Virgin Islands so they headed off again on 26th March for their next destination, Puerto Rico, so our reunion was short & sweet.
The US Virgin Islands, consisting of St Thomas, St John & St Croix were formerly owned by the Danish, but in 1917 they were purchased by the US for US$25million. St Thomas is very “Americanized” with all the big shopping malls fast food outlets such as Mc Donalds etc. Like it or not, it appears we’ve now caught up with the modern world!!!! We’re spending the next 2 weeks in a nearby hurricane hole getting all our chores & maintenance done, along with installing the new wind generator, before our next visitors, Mandy, Bruce & Penny arrive.
Mt
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