Sperm Whales!

On May 29th, 2013 Published By B.J.

OK, I know I owe you all a blog post or three about St. Lucia and the last couple of weeks.  I’ve already been chastised by my best friend for being a slacker in this.  But I’m going to jump ahead with this post and talk about our sail from St. Lucia to Bequia today.

This morning we left the stunningly beautiful Pitons, near the town of Soufriere in St. Lucia to head to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  Soufriere and St. Lucia get their own posts, but here is a look ahead picture anyway.

It was an overcast gray day with rain, but the comparison to the logo of our favorite local beer on St. Lucia was still quite evident.  The currents around the Pitons are nearly as tricky as the winds – they rip around the points and converge in a ripply mess in front of the mountains.  Whereas the winds come sheering down off the mountains, and between the mountains, around the mountains and from what I could tell maybe even UNDER the mountains as the wind shifted through about 180 degrees while we were trying to sail out. 

But the day was generally windless and after giving up trying to sail in anything close to a straight line away from here we motorsailed towards Bequia.

Several times throughout the day we found rain, but in a short time the winds picked up and we we able to set full sail and cut the engine, reaching along at an easy seven knots.  Right into a found current that was slowing is and seemingly pushing us off course to the West by some 1-2 miles every hour.  Compensation was the order of the day.

At some point Will observed that this day was a gray overcast day, just like the time we sailed across the Stellwagon Bank and saw some Humpback whales (sorry…no blog entry, I was even worse then).  And how cool would it be if we saw some whales?

Dad, being Dad the the Authority on These Sorts of Things replied “Yeah it would, but I’m sure all the humpbacks are on their way North by now, we won’t see any of them.”

Well I was both right (no humpbacks) and wrong (no whales), not ten or fifteen minutes later I saw a big spray and a black back ahead of us and to starboard.  “WHALE!  Or some sort of marine mammal!” I shouted.  We all looked and we saw a group of 3-4 whales at the surface, breathing and moving about.  We weren’t really close enough to get a good identification on them, but we knew they were much too big to be pilot whales.  Unfortunately while we had the camera handy we didn’t have the good telephoto so we didn’t get much more than a spout in the distance.

We were all charged up as we watched them drop behind us in the distance.  Danielle went and retrieved one of her whale guide books and we started trying to figure out what we saw.  As we were doing this, we sailed right up to this fellow, who was lounging at the surface not more than 10 yards from the boat.  He very obligingly poked his distinctive blunt head above the water for us to have a good look and confirm that we were looking at our first Sperm Whales!

We were obviously quite close, as you can see our main sheet there in the foreground, but we were also sailing along at a pretty decent clip and he quickly fell behind as he circled behind the boat.  As we pulled away, he sounded with a goodbye wave of his flukes.

This day is definitely one of the memories that will always last!

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City Life

On May 7th, 2013 Published By B.J.

It’s been a while since we’ve been near a city.  You don’t hear police sirens or traffic with a small rural island like Dominica, Deshaies on Guadeloupe wasn’t much more than a village.
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But Fort de France in Martinique – this is a city.  High-rise buildings, buses that look like buses not jumped up minivans with a cardboard sign in the window, shoe stores, traffic.  Serious MEGA shopping stores, malls, and the like; I can not remember the last time I set foot in an actual mall with a food court.  This is also an occasional cruise ship stop…you can tell by the KFC and McDonald’s that are in sight of the pier.

It is our understanding that Fort de France isn’t the most charming spot on Martinique and I’d concur, but necessity brought us here.  That necessity being getting mail and packages sent to us, in particular a replacement rudder for our Portland Pudgy.  Trying to get things sent to us is usually an expensive and difficult attempt to hit a moving target.  To make it work we have to stop moving, or at least be somewhere for a predictable window of time.  Of course, international shipping to the islands isn’t exactly predictable either.  We lost five days waiting for our ship’s documentation to arrive in Antigua via Fedex because of the Easter holiday when the entire island shut down from Good Friday through the Monday afterwards so our package languished in the Fedex office in the capitol over the weekend.  Similarly here the rudder was slated to arrive on April 30th, of course none of us knew that May 1st is the French Labor Day…so we took a couple more days to get our goods since the package arrived late in the day on the 30th.  A big shout out to DHL for sending the package out to us instead of making us pick it up, with mangled Franglais over the cell phone the driver and I managed to make a connection and get it delivered.

Don’t get me started on the COST to get stuff sent down here!  Suffice it to say that for some things you could buy two or three of them locally instead of shipping one from the States and still end up ahead of the game.

But back to Fort de France, which is actually a pretty nice town in spite of lacking a proper boulangerie – at least we could not find one.  Although it’s not a yacht-centric town like Le Marin where we moved recently, it does have a chandlery and decent buses to what for us seems like stunning shopping.  Large, clean grocery stores and a “Mr. Bricolage” which seems to be the French equivalent of Home Depot.  We had great chuckles checking out of there with three liters of concentrated Hydrocholoric Acid and a new machete in our cart.  No, we aren’t planning to dispose of a body.  We just needed to de-calcify our toilets and open coconuts.  One thing I learned on Dominica is that the machete is the perfectly designed tool for opening coconuts, from peeling the raw husk to popping off the top to get to the water and meat inside.  Since we will be travelling in coconut infested parts of the world for some time it seemed…logical.

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Foreign food!

A short bus ride from downtown Fort de France you can get to some of these malls and stores.  It felt like a strange return to civilization, I felt a little out of place as a grubby boat dweller returning to the air conditioned splendor of Paris fashions and leading edge electronics and gadgetry.  We headed to to “La Galeria” for the HyperMarche (literally…Hyper Market) which is supposed to be a huge grocery store.  It did not disappoint, though we didn’t realize that it had a lot more in common with the newer Target and Walmart stores with expanded hard and home goods offerings besides the food.  In sort of the reverse expansion from being able to buy food where you used to go for clothes and lawnmowers, several of the French grocers seemed to have expanded their supermarkets to sell clothing, electronics and small appliances.  Also in the “Foreign Foods” aisle they even have a USA section where you can get Jell-O, Oreos, Betty Crocker cake mixes, microwave popcorn, beef jerky and other American delicacies.  Though I was a little confused by the Molson Export beer on the shelves – perhaps really the Canadians are the only ones that are completely clear on their being a separate country?

IMG_1108In addition to the “city” aspects of Fort de France like shopping and restaurants, there are some interesting sights to see in the town and it does have an enjoyable flair and bustle during the midday.  The Librarie Schoelcher was disassembled in France and shipped to Martinique.   We went inside and had a look around, it has spiral staircases to get up to the stacks of old books on the upper levels.  It holds the original collection as donated with the library in the main building.   As in many French cities and towns there are a number of small, delightful parks and gardens scattered throughout the town.

The actual fort part of Fort de France, Fort St. Louis, is not open to the public.  It is an actual working French navy base still in spite of being as old as any of the forts we’ve seen on these islands.  They have a handful of navy ships there we’ve seen at dock and out on maneuvers. 

On the whole it was a refreshing change for a few days. 

We’ve since moved to Le Marin on the South side of the island.  Le Marin is a town that is, like the name suggests, really focused on all things marine.  Though it is smaller than Fort de France it is huge from a yachting perspective.  There are well over 1,000 small boats in this harbor, the largest marina holds about 700 boats on it’s own.  Never mind the sprawling anchorage and smaller marinas.  In Le Marin you can get just about anything done – there are three chandleries on the main docks in town, plus sailmakers, engine shops, metal workers, and specialists in just about anything you might need done on a boat.

The feel of the anchorage reminds us a lot of the French lagoon in St. Martin, with the large number of permanent live aboards and transient cruisers.  It really is set up for yachts, one of the larger discount grocery stores has their own dinghy dock, with a rack of shopping carts behind the store near the dock. 

We’ll be here for a couple more days, then head on to St. Lucia when the trade winds settle back in later this week.

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I Can See Clearly Now!

On Apr 25th, 2013 Published By B.J.

Yeah, the rain finally ended.   That video above was clearly filmed on a Caribbean island not too different from this one.

River Tour

Shortly after finishing the last blog post we got to take our river tour up the Indian River.  Sure, the water was still murky and the river a bit swollen – but it was still well worth it.  The river we headed up reached the ocean in the middle of town, but very quickly you felt like you were poling up a river with Charles Marlow, miles from humanity and civilization.  Fortunately for us there instead of a mad Mr. Kurtz there was a nice looking little restaurant with much interesting native vegetation growing around.  Unfortunately it was close, but Martin found a coconut for us.

Recreated hut from the movie.

One of the things that distinguishes the Indian River from others on Dominica is that not only is it one of the longer, deeper rivers, but some scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest were filmed on this river.  There is a shack that was (according to the local story) supposed to be left from the movie, but apparently was removed after filming but later re-built as closely as possible to the original in order to recreate the scene as it was filmed.  It’s not the witch’s house, but one they pass as they travel up river.

Looks familiar…

Rowing slowly and quietly up the river, the most prevalent wildlife was the crabs.  Lots and lots of river crabs.  Apparently these are a staple of the Dominican diet during crab hunting season and are quite tasty.  Several different species are in evidence and appear to be on almost every flat surface and in every crevice.

Passive-aggressive crab glares at passerby

In addition to the crabs we saw a number of different birds – egrets, kingfishers, herons and others.  The variety and beauty of the trees and flowers was just overwhelming.  Roughly 600 meters up stream the current becomes too much to continue under oars and engines are prohibited, so the typical tour end is at a little restaurant in the woods.  This is quite literally in the middle of nowhere and seems reachable only by boat or goat path from what we could see.  Sadly it was closed when we took out tour, it seemed a lovely place to stop for lunch.

We did walk around and admire the flowers and plants, and get to sample a coconut that our guide, Martin, found and opened up for us.  All in all well worth the trip!

A Brief Word on Coconuts in Dominica

I must make a brief diversion to talk about coconuts, and all we’ve learned about them.  Several times here on Dominica we’ve been walking around with our guides and they stop and grab a coconut off the ground.  With dexterity, skill, and a machete they quickly clean it up, crack open the top and pass around the water then break it the rest of the way open.  You have never, in your life, bought a coconut in Stop & Shop or paid for one anywhere but on an island which is half as good as this thing that was lying on the ground under a palm tree.  Kathy, who has had nurtured a life long hatred of coconut, loves them.  The kids…forget about it, the will eat the whole thing and try to find another.  And they are lying around on the ground in the forest.  So when I write “Martin found us a coconut” it’s much, much, much better than it sounds.

Demonstrations of Manliness

After a couple of days of drying we were ready to head back to some of the rivers and waterfalls we had to pass up.  One of these was the Chaudiere Pool, which is on the upper reaches of the Hampstead River.  It is supposed to be about a 15-20 minute hike from the head of the trail to the pool, however we were warned that the rains from the past few days had washed out some of the road.  So Paul, our guide, opted to park well before the head of the trail so we didn’t get stuck or caught on a road that on it’s best days was pretty near impassible without four wheel drive.

The gravel road back was the usual up and down through the jungle.  The trail head itself headed into the semi rainforest, where we were once again treated to some of the spices that grow in the wild here – this time some fresh cinnamon bark.  And Paul found a coconut…

The Chaudiere pool is so named because it looks like it is boiling due to the way the small falls crash down into it.  Surprisingly this pool is more than thirty feet deep.  Which of course means you can jump into it from great heights.  We were a little unsure of this at first since with the bubbles we couldn’t really see to make sure the pool was clear, but shortly after we arrived another party showed up.  Their guide climbed a tree over the pool and jumped off.  This of course encourage some of us to climb up onto the cliffs, thump out chests and make the manly leap off the cliff.

That motion blur is me, leaping from the rocks in manly fashion

Some of us of course being me, my friend Matt, and Danielle – who went off twice.  OK, it’s STILL a show of manliness for us old farts even if we’re being joined by a thirteen year old girl.

After a few leaps from the heights and an hour or so paddling around in the bubbles.  There was allegedly some discussion about whether to take the “long way” back that we came down, or take a short cut that “might involve a little climbing”.  Somehow I missed the actual discussion, but we went the steep way.  Most of us were ready for another swim by the time we got to the top.

Eventually we made it back to the van and headed off to another excellent lunch of local food at the same lovely waterfront restaurant we had lunch at on the prior tour.  The final stop of the day was at Red Rocks, which was just visible from the lunch restaurant.

Red Rocks as a name is a slight misnomer.  It looks like rocks, but the area was apparently causes by the packing of volcanic ash mixing with some of the iron in the soil.  The surface is loose and crumbly, and a touch slippery when damp.

The landscape looks almost alien – you could fake up a report from the Mars rover if you kept the lens angles tight enough to cut out the water and vegetation.  It’s one of those spots where you get that beautiful desolation, and you can feel the fresh breeze and clean air and just enjoy the peace.

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Dry Season on Dominica

On Apr 21st, 2013 Published By B.J.
That dramatic cloud…ends up on your head as rain.

Apparently the rainy season in Dominica is in the high summer.  I’d really hate to see that, since the last five days in the “Dry Season” have felt like living in a monsoon.

Dominica is the first of the islands with a “Boat Boy” system that we’ve come to.  This is a term I dislike, as the “Boat Boys” are really responsible, grown men running businesses and I think it’s demeaning to them – so I prefer something like “Yacht Helper” or “Boat Concierge” better.  But like many older not so great terms there really hasn’t been a great replacement for this one that rolls off the tongue as easily. 

Originally this term comes from the fact that these guys all have small boats, and when you pull in to a harbor you are approached by a bunch of different fellows offering you all sorts of services like garbage pickup and fresh fruit for sale.  Fortunately on Dominica the system has matured over the years, and now in most places you pick one of these men to be the primary person you work with, though they all work together and anyone will help you if you need it.  Once you’ve set up this relationship the other guys leave you alone except for occasional visits if they have something they think you might like – its very low key and low pressure.  The relationship you set up is like a permanent concierge or guide for the island you are visiting.  This fellow can help you arrange tours and visits, find services you need, take your garbage, arrange laundry for you – almost anything you need or want is a lot easier to do with a local who knows where everything is and what there is to see and do.  Dominica has taken it one step further, with the PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) group, which is almost like local guides guild.  They ensure that standards are met in knowledge and professionalism, and they also undertake responsibilities like patrolling the harbor at night to provide some security for the yachts.  Their efforts have paid off and it is a good system and they are continually refining it.

We’d been advised that Martin Career from the boat Providence was a first rate professional guide and we should contact him on arrival.  Our friends on Troubadour were arriving in Dominica before us, and we decided to follow this recommendation and use the same assistant as we would likely do our tours and sightseeing together.  When we pulled into Portsmouth on Dominica Martin was expecting us and greeted us as we anchored with a warm welcome and a bunch of local bananas.

Talking with Martin we quickly learned a lot about the local area and made plans for a trip to see some of the islands highlights as well as a rowing tour up a local scenic river.  Set with our plans for Wednesday for our first tour, we went to bed Tuesday night with our alarms set ready for Martin to pick us up at 8:00 the next morning.

After packing some swimsuits, towels, snacks and water we were met by Martin the next morning where he took us ashore to meet our guide, Dillon.  Dillon has been doing guide work for a number of years, and also works for the forestry service in the national parks.  Our tour was to be a driving

One of many beautiful spots, though the water is brown from the runoff

tour, with some walk in side trips to some cool destinations, a stop in a local restaurant for lunch, with more tours capped off by a hike to a waterfall in the afternoon.  

As we left the boat with Martin it was already an overcast day with a light rain.  As we started our driving tour the rain picked up.  Climbing into the volcanic mountains the rain became heavier, and the clouds that frequently mask the mountains turned into a fog.  This didn’t stop Dillon though – we gamely stopped as we passed sites, showing us a Bay Rum distillery and many local plants and trees.  We sampled several different species of Bay Leaves (who knew there were so many, and so different), tried fresh Guava from the tree, sampled wild growing coffee beans, cinnamon bark, lemon grass, and more local herbs and plants than I could keep track of.  Dominica used to have plantations for cocoa, sugar, coffee, spices, bananas and other crops and with the collapse of the plantations many of these crops have gone wild and can be seen growing by the side of the road or growing in the woods.  The difference between what we see as a dried, preserved spice in the stores and what you can taste and smell with the fresh, wild herb or spice is profound.

Apparently you do not have to rappel down to the crops

Dillon is a storehouse of information about the local flora and fauna.  He also taught us much about the local lifestyle.  Dominica produce most of its own food and has numerous farms for growing vegetables and fruit.  There is also are considerable export crops for certain items, such as bananas that are sold in Europe, but much of what is grown is for local consumption.  The farming methods are less involved and more labor intensive than factory style farming, and farming occurs in what we would thing of as…improbable…locations.  Such as on the steep sides of what most of us would think of as a cliff. It’s hard to picture planting or harvesting bananas on a hillside so steep you’d think a misstep would send you tumbling to the bottom, but they do.

Part of the tour featured some of the places where Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 were filmed.  Some of the nature and jungle scenes were filmed here in Dominica, and some of the remnants  of the filming still can be seen.  In Pirates 2 the river trip up to the witches house was shot on the river we are still planning to tour, and the house was left on location.

Argh…there be Pirate movies filmed here.

Eventually we arrived at a location at the top of a volcano called the  “Cold Soufriere”.  After a short walk in, we came to an area that showed some signs of active volcanic activity.  At the end of the trail the ground…bubbled.  There was a lot of rain and a stream, but all over this area there was a constant stream of bubbles coming up through the water.  The bubbles clearly contained some Hydrogen Sulfide gas in the mix of whatever else the volcano was emitting.  Hydrogen Sulfide, for the less chemically inclined, is also produce naturally by such process as eggs going bad.  It is not an excellent smell, but here there were more whiffs of it rather than any sense of oppressive foulness.

Cold bubbly pool

What is interesting about these bubbling pools though is they aren’t what you’d expect.  There are some hot bubbling pools on Dominica where you can cook an egg in the water.  But these bubbles weren’t boiling, the bubbles were gases seeping up from some deep underwater volcanic action.  And the water was cold, quite chilly in fact.   At this spot was some volcanic mud which is quite prized for use in spas.  I declined to rub it all over my face but others were happy to give it a try!

Kathy trying out the totally unnecessary youth & beauty mud.

Moving on from the Cold Soufriere, we stopped for lunch at a great little local spot on the water.  We had some choices of all local fare – ribs, fish, chicken or peleau – a local chicken and rice dish.  The food was excellent and reasonable, with many sides of local dishes such as friend plaintains, “provision” (local root vegetables), rice, and beans.  A locally made hot sauce (now stocked in our galley!) topped it off.

One interesting thing we tried was a locally made Ginger Beer.  In the sailing circles back in the states the “Dark and Stormy” is a popular drink – it is made with Ginger Beer and dark rum.  I’ve never liked any of the bottle Ginger Beers that we’ve had, and I’ve always politely grimaced down any Dark & Stormies that were bought for me by people that did not realize I could not stand them.  However, the home-brewed ginger beer here on Dominica was a revelation.  It was milky, not clear like the Ginger Beer we’re used to.  But it was also surprisingly delicious, with a sharp bit of ginger hotness to it without the cloying ickiness I never like in the bottle brews.  Suffice it to say, I could happily survive on a Dark & Stormy made from the local home brew!

You can really see the runoff; normally crystalline waters!

During all this the rain had continued.  Sometimes it was so heavy we couldn’t see out the windows, sometimes it mostly stopped or stayed light.  But the water kept coming down and some of the rivers we passed over (Dominica has 365 rivers) were swollen and brown from all the run off and had a lot of stuff – coconouts, bamboo, branches and the like floating down stream.  This is not bode well for the waterfall trip, as the waters there were known for their clarity and part of the fun was jumping in and swimming.  Not so good of the water was brown and the currents dangerous.  So the call was made to abort that waterfall trip and to a different part of the island – through the Carib Indian reservation and to a place called the Emerald Pool in one of the national parks.

The Carib reservation wasn’t much to see – there were some places to buy some local hand crafts, but there really was not a lot by way of traditional Carib lifestyle to see or learn about.  Like many native cultures the Caribs had a rough time of it when the Europeans arrived and their culture, language and lifestyle hasn’t really survived very well, at least not visibly in day to day life.  They were notable in that they resisted the Europeans pretty forcefully, essentially beating a fighting retreat for years to more and more remote parts of the island until eventually they were put in a reservation – which is better than some islands where they were completely wiped out.

The final stop was at one of the National Parks, to visit the Emerald Pool. This  involves a short walk through what feels like a pretty deep rain forest, though from what I understand it’s not the true deep forest.

Add your only wild jungle sound effects here.

The parks are well maintained here, with clearly labeled paths and bridges. The trail to the Emerald Pool winds through the forest beside a strong stream, down into a ravine where the falls are.  The area is wet (well, it was raining most of the day) and lush with tropical plants and growth.  At the bottom of the ravine is the pool, with the waterfall.

On a sunnier, more sweltering day this would be a cool and refreshing stop.  It was still a beautiful and secluded place, with water misting down over the sides in a curtain beside the loud and busy water fall.  Everyone got in for a swim to the back of the waterfall, though the water was rather chill it was still refreshing.  We’ve been living on salt water so long that it was odd not to be sticky with salt after coming out from a swim!

The Emerald Pool

After walking back, and drying and changing we got back in the minivan for the drive home.  The rain and weather were lightening up and we saw much of the island’s beauty as we drove up the coast on the trip back.  The same island with those huge, lush tropical plants also has a dry side, with cacti and other succulents where the rain doesn’t fall so much.

The Deluge

Two days after the first tour we were scheduled to take a trip up the river on Friday morning.  We were to start early – at 6:00 – so as to “wake up with the river” when a lot of the birds and wildlife were at there most active shortly after sunrise.  In the night though, the rain continued to pour and as we stood yawning and rubbing our eyes Friday morning we awoke to a harbor filled with brown water and flotsam.  The rains had been so heavy that the crystal clear water of the harbor had been turned as brown as the Mississippi river.  The river tour, which must be conducted with oars since motorized propulsion on the river is prohibited, was a washout for the day.  And for the next day, with more constant rain and occasional heavy downpours. 

Since we called the tour for Saturday, we were able to catch the local Market Day, though Danielle was soaked while being caught in a torrential downpour while returning to the boat for our forgotten grocery bags.  The rain was on and off all day, and we took a gap in the rain to go in to town and do some more grocery shopping.  That evening we decided to get pizza delivered (to a dock, for dinghy pickup), and Will and Graham (from Troubadour) donned foul weather gear to make an after dark dinghy run through monsoon-like conditions to pick up dinner.  An adventure; they arrived back dripping wet in the foulies, laughing about their crazy trip in the dark and rain and the odd people they met on shore while waiting for the pizza man.

As I type this we are waiting to maybe have another go at the river tour.  The rain and wind persisted last night, though it has let up for now.  In spite of the rain we like it here, though we are NOT waiting around for the rainy season!

Posted in Cool Stuff, Dominica, Pirates, Rain | Comments Off on Dry Season on Dominica

Les Saintes

On Apr 21st, 2013 Published By B.J.

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Bluff on one end of the Pain de Sucre anchorage

Les Saintes (“The Saints”) is a small archipelago off the South end of Guadeloupe.  Also a part of the French territories it is considered to be a part of Guadeloupe.  Clearing customs into Guadeloupe also clears you into the Saints, and you can clear out of France from the Saints.  Of course, customs here is in an internet cafe rather than a cute gift shop, but it is all typically French in it’s casual approach.  No one even looks at your paper work.  Which is slightly unfortunate, when we got new passports before we left we ordered the optional extra thick book to accommodate all the places we’d be sailing.  But the French never stamp anything, so we’ve got no visa stamps to commemorate some of our favorite places!

Our visit to Les Saintes quickly became a visit about friends.  As we approached the harbor we were hailed by our friends from Daydreamer, another American family boat that we’d met up with in St. Martin.  They have three girls, the oldest being a little older than Danielle, and in St. Martin trips to the beach with Daydreamer became regular occurrences.  Daydreamer also tipped us off that our sister ship Infinity was in port. 

Evenstar and Infinity anchored together
Evenstar and sister ship Infinity

We first met Infinity in Tortola, where we sail them heading in to Road Town when we were sailing there.  There were only eighty-eight of the Hallberg-Rassy 53 built, so when we see a sister ship you rarely let it pass without at least saying hello.  Infinity is a British family boat, with three girls on board as well, though a bit younger than our children.  They were coming to Road Town to sort some things out with their boat, and we were headed in to provision and pick some things up.  We’ve shared harbors with them a few times since (Virgin Gorda, St. Martin) , but every time we crossed paths with Infinity since then one or the other of us was headed someplace else or trying to get some work done so we’ve not been able to connect.

Daydreamer was anchored behind a point called Pain de Sucre, a protected but deep cove a mile or so from the main town of Terre-de-Haut.  We decided we’d try to anchor near town, shorter dinghy rides are always nicer if you are planning to go to town.  We saw Infinity anchored and dropped our hook up next to her, the anchor caught firmly on the first try and we started settling in.  Easy.  Too easy.  Within a few minutes of anchoring we heard a knock on the hull, it was the local gendarmes telling us we were anchored in a prohibited area and needed to be behind some yellow buoys.  Since it was getting late we decided to go join Daydreamer over in Pain de Sucre – our friends from Infinity weren’t on the boat to get the boot, but we figured they’d follow us eventually when the gendarmes (or more accurately the Douanes, which is more like French marine police) caught up with them.

We’ve been anchored almost every day since last June, we’ve anchored in a lot of different places.  Suffice it to say that we’re getting better and better at it.  It took us about four tries to find a spot and stick to it which is unusual.  Several problems – the water was deep and the bottom profile steep, and in one place we dropped and stuck we were concerned that we were so close to land that if the wind swung around 180 degrees we’d be resting almost on the shore.  Suffice it to say, we found even with a large modern anchor design it was a tricky spot to anchor…this is important to know for later.  Foreshadowing extra:  a lot of charter boats come in and out of this harbor every day.

So we finally got ourselves settled in behind a charter boat full of of middle aged Speedo wielding Frenchmen and were shortly joined by Infinity.  The next few days were a blend of socializing, school, and checking out the islands. 

Terre-de-Haut is a charming little town, with a few markets and a number of nice looking restaurants.  And the all important Boulangerie (French Bakery!) for baguettes and the occasional pastry.  Les Saintes gets much of its tourist custom via ferries from Guadeloupe so the center of town, while not as garish and built up as a cruise ship port, did have a number of charming shops and eateries at the center near the ferry piers.

Excitement

One afternoon while we were on the boat and Will was off exploring with the Pudgy, Kathy and I were preparing to head in to town to pick a few things up at one of the markets.  As we were getting ready to leave our friend Neil from Infinity pulled up in his dinghy and told us “You’d better have a look at this, this boat has been dragging through the whole anchorage trying to set the anchor and I think they might have pulled up someone’s chain.”

Turns out, it was our chain they’d trawled up. 

Most serious cruisers use only chain for their anchor rode ( the line/chain to connect their anchor to the boats).  The reasons for this become clear the first time you spend time anchoring with an all chain rode instead of a rope/chain mix.  The extra weight holds much better and you can put less of it out for the same holding power, and there’s no risk of chafe from sharp things on the bottom like rock and coral.  And of course the all chain rode is much better to have when some idiot in a charter boat runs over your freakin’ rode with both of his propellers running on high RPMs.

Somehow this French couple in a 47’ charter catamaran named Good Times had caught our anchor rode with their anchor.  As Neil noted they had set their anchor WAY upwind of us and had dragged it through a large part of the anchorage trying to get it to catch on the bottom.   Not the recommended approach when there are a lot of other boats with anchor rodes spread out on the bottom.  Instead of the bottom, they caught on our rode.  When I came up to look they had hauled their anchor up and had somehow managed to pull it taught from our bow right across the surface to under their boat where the chain was caught – probably on one of their underwater protrusions.

Now, if I have something like a taught length of 7/16” chain caught under my boat my first reaction is NOT to slam down the throttles.  In spite of my yells of “ARRETEZ!  ARRETEZ!” this guy figured that was the best thing to do – push the boat forward and over my chain, running over it with both of his propellers.  It made a trully impressive noise and both boats did a bit of jerking around.  It was clear this fellow did not speak English, whether he was deaf, stupid, or just incompetent remained to be determined but never once throughout this process did he or his partner acknowledge anything I said in French or English, though think some of my arm waving might have sunk in eventually.

At the start of this he was hooked onto my chain to the starboard side of my bow.  Then he proceeded to run over it,  heading across my bow from right to left.  For some reason, he decided that he needed to circle around my stern.  Common sense might tell one that wrapping the anchor around under another boat might be a completely idiotic thing to do, but clearly common sense had departed Good Times some time ago.  The risks to my boat doing this were pretty large: he could further entangle and foul the anchors and cause me to drag which would be a horror show with two boats tangle together, he could run his chain across the bottom of my boat damaging my propeller, rudder, and so on – it’s not a smart thing to do.  This did not stop Capitaine Sans-a-clue, around the stern he went dragging us into shallow water and closer to shore.  We got lucky though, his chain wasn’t pulled taught so it was deep enough not to touch my boat.

Experience with my ground tackle has taught me that it is tough, it can hold a lot of weight.  We had four boats rafted to us the first time we used the new anchor, and rode out the night with twenty knots of wind and more than 200,000 lbs of weight on our hook.  So when this guy was dragging us around what he was really doing was dragging our slack chain, I hoped he had not dislodged our anchor.  So long as our anchor was still buried in the bottom we should be able to hold him, but if he’d hooked our anchor and pulled it out of the bottom we could drag.  But it is tough to tell when you are being dragged around the anchorage which is really happening, and our anchor drag alarm was shrieking at us since we’d been moved quite a bit.  By this time also we had three of us up on deck with fenders, because with all of his maneuvering the other boat had made some scary-close passes to our hull and we did not want to get damaged.  For him it’s a charter boat – if he breaks it he flies home with a short vacation and a bill for the deductable.  For me it’s my home, if I need to get major repairs done it’s a major problem!

Some time after had moved around to my aft starboard quarter, her captain decided that he should unwind his trip around my boat.   It was then that I noticed that he’d been pulling so hard on my chain that he’d managed to slide his anchor up to the point where I could clearly see it under water – and he was NOT tangled with me, just hooked over the chain.  I looked back though and saw him revving his engines up for a pass back around my stern to drag his now-taught rode under my boat for another pass.  I could see his partner pointing down in the water below their boat, as if she thought she could see the anchor, I couldn’t tell.  But I could and knew where it was – off my bow about ten feet under water.  Again I tried communicating, yelling in my best French (which I admit is not terribly good, especially when bellowed with adrenaline enhancement) “Je peut voir votre anchor!  C’est ici! (pointing) ICI!  (pointing more expressively) Non!  Arretez!  Arretez!” (I can see your anchor!  It is here!  HERE!  No!  Stop!  STOP!) and so on.  Finally, eventually, and just before he went roaring off back around my boat again I think the message got through to one of them and he slowed down and started taking up chain.  Coming closer and close to us, of course.

Fortunately another French sailor (apparently WITH a clue) came over to help.  He didn’t say much to me but starting talking to Good Times, getting them to slow down, calm down, and try to tie up their anchor at the water level where it now could be reached.  Of course it is still heavy, and hooked over my very taught chain and hard to budge.  But taking the tension off the anchor would allow it to slide back down my chain.  With a gradual process of pulling in their chain and again moving scary-close to us the anchor could finally be positioned close enough to the surface, right under my bow, for someone to reach it.  From our deck I tried to knock it off with the boat hook, but fortunately the helpful fellow in the dinghy came up and wrestled it off.  End of adventure.

If it were me tangling up another boat with my anchor and generally making a mess of it I would have eaten some crow and dropped by with a bottle of wine and an apology for almost causing thousands of dollars of damage through my mistakes.  Fortunately, I think the abundance of caution I tend to use when close to other boats has paid off to date – I’ve not had to swallow my pride like that yet.  Of course, neither did Captain Clueless – when clear of us they motored off to another part of the anchorage and set again and we never saw them after that.  Our thought was to be thankful that this hadn’t happened 5 or 10 minutes later, when we would have been off shopping with only Danielle on board by herself to deal with this trauma!  Or worse, with no one on board to witness had there been any damage.

Friends

As nice as we found Les Saintes to be, I think the best part was still connection with some other great cruisers.  We shared some cocktails and swapped Hallberg-Rassy stories with Infinity – always and educational and amusing experience to talk to a sister ship owner and bond how they deal with the same things that sometimes give us fits.  Our last night in Les Saintes we met for a nice evening with all three boats, and bid a fond farewell to each other with hopes that we could all cross paths and share an anchorage again some time in the future.

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Guadeloupe – Dolphins!

On Apr 18th, 2013 Published By B.J.

Even without a friendly pod of dolphins our stay in Deshaies, Guadeloupe would have been pretty special.  The the natural beauty of the area along with the food and culture of the island would have been enough.

But Saturday, just as we were finishing up school, Will looked out the window and said “Hey look, dolphins!”.  We all raced up and saw a pod of dolphins splashing around the anchorage in the middle of the boats.  Cameras were fetched…

Danielle (foreground) as a dolphin comes for a class pass

There were a few people in the water with snorkels near this pod of dolphins.  We quickly saw the dolphins were not the least bit bothered by the snorkelers, in fact the seemed to be weaving in and out near them.  Danielle immediately wanted to go in the water with them; I opted to stay on deck with my camera to take some pictures from the boat; no one else was inclined to go in.

Very quickly I realized my mistake!  Danielle was having the time of her life with the dolphins.  Though they only surfaced to breath, and splash and play a bit they were quite visible below the water.  With excellent visibility in the clear harbor waters, she could see them playing and frolicking below the surface while they weren’t visible from above the water.  When they did come up, they came up close enough to touch, though Danielle didn’t try to since she didn’t want to spook them.  She saw a number of interesting and amusing behaviors, including one dolphin that was making a game of blowing bubbles and playing with them!
As the dolphins lingered the number of snorkelers increased from a small handful to about twenty.  At this point I decided to join in and see what was going on.  Unfortunately, I was too late.  After an hour of swimming around the anchorage the dolphins headed out to see before I got so much as a glimpse of them.   A bit later another small pod came to visit but they did not linger, much to my disappointment.
But two days later, about the same time (just as school was ending) along came what we believe to be the same pod of dolphins!  There were a couple of juveniles with them, and one distinctively marked adult with a scar from some sort of net or other bit of garbage he’d gotten trapped in.  Danielle and I quickly grabbed our gear and headed for the water.
We were not disappointed.  Again they stayed around for about an hour.  We watched them scratching their backs on the bottom, chasing each other around and playing what looked like tag – and we watched them watching us.  This time we had them to ourselves, no one seemed to notice them or us…or perhaps it was the few jellyfish in the water that was keeping people away.
A few things were clear watching these gorgeous animals.  Clearly, they were completely aware of us.  They would frequently swim towards us and turn away as they got close, keeping an eye on us as they passed.  There was also what appeared to be quite a bit of play going on.  Watching the young dolphins wasn’t too different from watching a couple of young puppies chasing each other around and wrestling – right down to trying to nip each other’s tails.  There seemed to be a lot of touching, particularly with the young.  And they didn’t seem to be fishing or hunting; we didn’t see a lot of fish and we did not see them catching or chasing any fish.  They just seemed to be taking it easy and having a bit of fun.

Danielle has had the opportunity to have some “dolphin contact” before, both she and Will enjoyed a Dolphin Encounter at the Curacao Dolphin Academy a few years ago which they loved.  But this was very different, she said, and a lot better.  Because these dolphins were wild, and they were there because they wanted to be there with us.  I’d have to agree with her.

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Guadeloupe – Deshaies

On Apr 18th, 2013 Published By B.J.

That’s “De-hay” to all of you.

We’re quite happy to have gotten back to France again!  Guadeloupe is a French territory, so when you clear into customs there you fly a French tricolor courtesy flag.  You may also hum “La Marseillaise” but that is optional.

We truly enjoyed our time in the French side of St. Martin but had some small amount of trepidation approaching Guadeloupe.  Mostly because some friends of ours didn’t have a great experience there; but ours was quite different.

First of all, Guadeloupe is a whole lot more French than St. Martin.  How so?  Well…not a lot of people speak English.  When I cleared into customs (an easy task, complicate only by the bizarre French keyboard on the computer) the woman in the gift shop where customs was located (yes…”Customs” is in a cute little gift shop called “Le Pelican”) didn’t speak a word of English.  The whole stay in Deshaies really pushed our French to the limit.

The trip to Guadeloupe from St. Martin wasn’t too bad.  It was plagued by shifting winds and rain squalls, but over all it was an easy trip.  We arrived in the early afternoon and I cleared us in.  That evening we went in for a nice dinner at a charming waterfront restaurant in town.  The waiter, when he tried English, confused us more than when I tried French – but it all worked out.  We also found a decent French Boulangerie (bakery) with good bread and Chausson Pommes (like an apple turnover) that were to die for.  Add in a grocery with decent French cheese and wine and we were set, and glad to be back!

Around Deshaies there are a number of interesting things to do, including a nature walk up a creek to an alleged water fall and a botanical garden.  We set off to the botanical garden on our second day with mixed enthusiasm…mixed in that only Kathy was really excited about it.  My memories of “Botanical Gardens” were mostly of the duller sort back in the states where they were pretty limited by what could be grown in temperate climates. You know…green stuff.  So we all waited patiently in the light rain (also not an excellent omen for a day outside) for the free shuttle from the Jardin Botanique to come pick us up.

After an afternoon walking around the Jardin looking at the stunning riot of colors and beauty there, I can freely admit I was completely, totally wrong about it.  Being in the tropics means they can grow almost anything and everything, and they do.  The gardens are packed full if colors from every bit of the visible spectrum.  Masses of brilliant hues assault you from every direction, as you walk from one spectacular sight to another.  From tiny flowers the size of your fingernail to massive trees and flowers bigger than your hand there was a little of everything.  Also they had Lorakeets, Parrots, and Koi pools scattered around the grounds.  The rain cleared up, and left everything fresh and vibrated with a delicate glisten to it.

We have a long photographic record of Lorakeet feeding in our family.  These parrot like birds are brilliantly colored and feed on nectar.  They are a popular attraction in many nature/animal type venues and our children have feed them in places from Sand Diego to Cincinnati and now to Guadeloupe.  The Lorakeets are not at all shy and will be quite forward if they even suspect you have some nectar concealed on your person somewhere.  Lorakeet feedings have varied from a five year old Danielle who simply had enough of the Lorakeets standing on her head, to a new teenaged Danielle who seems to have them all much more in control!

Proper Lorakeet technique

In addition to the Botanical Gardens, we decided to take a hike up the river on the edge of town.  According to the cruising guide this is a couple of hours hiking that eventually takes you to a scenic waterfall at the top.

For many more pictures from the Botanical Garden (and other places), please check out the Sail Evenstar Facebook Page.

A couple of days after the Botanical Garden we set off to see this waterfall.  Clouds loomed a little as was set off, but this was nothing new.  It had rained a little every day we’d been on Guadeloupe, but it never lasted.

We took the dinghy to the edge of town, up the river a bit, and set off.  As we’ve learned from experience, we brought a bag along with water, bug spray and a few other supplies.

The “river” is rather small, what we would have called a “Creek” where I grew up in Ohio (or a “crick” if you were actually born there).  The start to the trail is a small, rough road heading out of town into the forest/jungle.  Reaching the end of the path, we headed into the river bed and began walking upstream.

Growing up in Ohio, living near woods with ravines and lots of “cricks” left me particular well prepared for rock hopping up stream – that and scrambling over ocean front rocks and tide pools.  Much of my youth was spent doing just that, though I often had a fishing rod and tackle box in my hands as well.  We made pretty quick progress up the stream bed, scuttling over boulders and rocks.  The stream was full of small fish and crabs, and the vegetation got more and more jungle like as we got further out of town.

Unfortunately, the rain did not go away.  Something that anyone has spent some time scrambling over rocks in a creek or at the beach – when they get wet it makes the whole thing a LOT harder.  Not only doe the rocks get slippery, but it also makes it much more difficult to tell which rocks to step on.  When dry, it’s fairly clear which rocks have slippery spots, or moss and slime that make them slick and dangerous.

The jungle closing in

We were expecting a two hour walk up the river, it ended up taking more like three hours.  When the rain starts halfway up the walk, it’s not like you can exactly turn around and go back – you’ve got the same walk either way.  It didn’t pour rain the whole time of course, we had sunshine and breaks.  But we definitely got a decent soaking downpour a few times – enough to make the footing more treacherous.

Close to the top of the river, before the waterfall, is a road that can be taken back down to Deshaies.  We finally reached this road – wet, tired, muddy and some of us a little banged up but still in decent spirits.  After all the walk of the river was very beautiful and we still felt it worthwhile.  From this point it was supposed to be a twenty minute walk to the actual waterfall.

One of many quiet, shady pools good for resting near.

Three of us decided to try to reach the falls, Danielle had some scrapes and wanted to sit out the walk up.  So Will, Kathy, and I headed across the river one more time to make the final push.

The final path to the waterfall ran mostly through the jungle (I hesitate to say “forest” because this seems quite alien to what I grew up with as “forest”).  We had to cross and re-cross the river a few times which wasn’t a problem.  We didn’t really hit a problem until the trail got very steep.

Remember the rain?  Well it got steep…and muddy and slippery.  As we pushed up this steep hill we reached a spot where the trail blazes seemed to disappear.  So we back tracked to the last blaze, and looked around carefully.  We finally spotted another blaze…almost straight up the slippery, muddy hillside with no end in sight!  Maybe it was around the next hill or vale, but we decided at this point that discretion was the better part of valor and turned back.  We’d seen enough pretty for the day.

Certainly if we weren’t all pretty exhausted from the three hour scramble up the river we could have made it pretty easily.  But when you are tired is when you start slipping and turning ankles, and the conditions weren’t exactly easy by this time.  So we headed back for the “15 minute walk” back to town (more like 45).  Which was also beautiful, we had no idea how high we’d actually climbed!

The best part of Deshaies is coming in the next post – when we get visited by a pod of friendly dolphins!



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Antigua – the Rest of the Story!

On Apr 3rd, 2013 Published By B.J.

We’ve been on Antigua almost a month, and it’s time to go.  Much like St. Martin, it’s a seductive place to stay with beautiful weather, nice places to go and decent services on land.

Tonight we’re getting ready to leave Antigua to head South.  Time is running short for our visit in the Caribeean and there is still much to see.

Highlights of Antigua (outside the last blog post) include:

Shirley Heights BBQ

The view from Shirley Heights

Shirley Heights as an old fort location and part of the Nelson’s Dockyard National Park.  Every Sunday night they have a great barbecue up on the bluff overlooking Falmouth and English Harbours. They have two bands – one incredible steel drum band that starts out the night, followed by a local caover band that plays reggae and dance music.  The food is reasonable and good, the music great, and the view from the heights at sunset…absolutely unbeatable.  Everybody loved it!

We didn’t actually get to Shirley Heights as a park visit, as it is not really a walk from town and you need to take a cab…just never did that.  But we did head up with some friends for the BBQ night and it was well worth it.

 

Donkey Sanctuary

Antigua has a donkey problem, sort of like the Monkey Problem on St. Kitts and Nevis.  Original settlers brought donkeys to help with the work on plantations and farms.  When the sugar plantations collapsed, all the donkeys were left behind.  Many of them roamed free and now may be found all over the island.  The trouble is that the donkeys are frequently involved in bad car accidents when they wander in the road, and they tend to annoy people by doing things like eating their gardens and knocking things over.

The humane society has helped create a sanctuary for the donkeys.  They have about 150 donkeys there, they neuter any males that come in but a lot of females come in pregnant and deliver at the sanctuary.  It seems the goal eventually is to get all of the wild donkeys into the sanctuary eventually to control the problem.  They aren’t really “wild”, nor are they indigenous or endangered as a species.  So controlling the population and eventually reducing it may be the humane thing to do.

The donkeys themselves are quite friendly and seem to enjoy human contact when they get visitors.  They will happily crowd up to you for ear scratching and petting, even going so far as to lean into you and rub against you almost like cats.  We were surprised how friendly they were, given that many of them were captured from the wild.  Pleasantly so, they are cute charming little creatures if you are into that sort of thing.

Provisioning / St. Johns / Buses

Maybe this was less of a “highlight” than an “ongoing adventure”.  There is a decent bus system on Antigua, like many of these islands it has “routes” more than schedules, you get on the route…and the bus shows up.  Eventually.  You really see very, very few white tourists on the buses – mostly other cruising types like us, way too cheap to take taxis to get around.  But you can get to the capitol, St. Johns, from Falmouth for $EC 3.75 (about $1.38 US) each way versus $30 or more for a cab ride.  And you see a lot of the island this way.

From the bus you can, in theory, get almost everywhere.  In practice it is sometimes a little more challenging as the maps of the island we’ve found sometimes bear but a passing acquaintance with the reality on the ground.  And shopping by bus?  Let’s just say it is to the bus driver’s advantage to pack as many people as he can in the bus…so you get really intimate with your grocery bags.  Almost as intimate as you get with your seat mate.

Some of the “newer” (and I use that term loosely) buses even have some entertainment on them.  One bus added to the memorable experience by showing a locally produced, very low budget…I think it was a soap opera.  They were speaking the local island dialect, not English, so I couldn’t understand it.  But it had the beauty of being shot from a single handheld video camera.  From what I could see it was mostly about a churlish woman that looked a lot like a man in drag with very bad taste in clothes, who ran around yelling at people and beating them with her bag.   Occasionally she pushed someone in a river in one extend waterfront yelling scene.  I missed the other, more subtle emotional overtones…not speaking the language and all.

Antigua Yacht Club

Once again a local yacht club has a great setup to attract visiting yachtsmen.  In this case you can join monthly and it’s not unreasonable, and they’ve got a fleet of boats from Optis up to some day sailors around 19 feet that members can use free of charge.  Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday there is Laser racing which Will joined in on more than a couple of occasions.  Both children took out some boats and had a great time sailing around the harbor.   We never made it in for drinks or dinner though…seemed nice, but we just never got in for it.  

Falmouth & English Harbours

The pluses here are numerous.  Good services, some decent restaurants, a couple of grocery stores and vegetable stands with good local fruit and vegetables, and easy trash disposal.  You can’t appreciate how important “easy trash disposal” is until you’ve lived on a boat and you can’t find someplace to take your stinky garbage.   It’s also on the bus line, there are always cabs available and there are some good happy hours.  The only downside is the daily fees to anchor in the harbor make it…not free…but you do get some decent value with the trash services and it’s a pretty clean place.

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Round About Antigua

On Mar 29th, 2013 Published By B.J.

If you follow us on Facebook than you know we arrived safely on Antigua almost two weeks ago, and had some family visiting.  Apologies for not getting updates out more quickly, but we’ve been busy…

A visit from Kathy’s father and his companion was planned when we arrived in Antigua.  We decided that getting out of Falmouth Harbor (I will talk more about life here in Antigua in a later post) and having a look at the island might be a better way to spend the week or so we’d have company on board.  Making a counter clockwise circumnavigation of the island was the eventual result; of course we didn’t plan anything so methodical.

Initially we spent the first night in Falmouth and enjoyed a nice dinner out.  The following day we headed out to Nonsuch Bay, sailing upwind around to the East side of the island.  The entrance to Nonsuch Bay from the South threads through a narrow gap between reefs and islands, with a wrecked sailboat helpfully propped up on the reef to help and inspire your navigation.  We decided to take this approach under power…

Evenstar in the center, from Harmony Hall

Nonsuch Bay

Nonsuch Bay is a beautiful, quiet spot.   Atop one bluff near our anchorage in the Southwest corner is Harmony Hall, a tastefully done art gallery, boutique and restaurant.  The courtyard is swarmed by glittering, singing birds as you walk among the trees and flowers; a very charming spot.  I’m not one for art galleries personally, but I liked this one.  The eclectic mix of art styles and the local crafts were fascinating.  Reputed to be an excellent spot for a meal, we didn’t catch it at meal time but stopped for a drink and enjoyed the view and rode out a short sprinkling of rain under the canopy.  Later we explored the bay by dinghy, it does have a lot of little nooks and crannies with a number of different spots to stay, each with a slightly different feel.

From the beach on Green Island

The following day we moved across Nonsuch bay to Green Island and picked up one of the free moorings there.  The water was riled up and snorkeling was a disappointment but we went ashore to check out the beach was was quite nice.  Free moorings are provided there, a nice convenience that encourages visitors.  Overall it’s a great spot just to sit and look around!

North Sound

Continuing to head around the island we headed for the North Sound and the town of Parham.  We’d read there was a restaurant or two there and figured that after a couple of nights of cooking on board it would be nice to get off the boat and not do dishes.  Reading Evans Starzinger’s comments on this area, I think his assessment that these areas sounded like “reef infested death traps” if you take the popular cruising guides at face value but they were in fact navigable we thought to give it a try.  The upside was it was sunny and bright – good for reef watching.  The downside was that the water was really roiled up and churning, and so cloudy you couldn’t see anything anyway.  But the charts for the area are decent, and we picked our way through the reefs and a long, barely marked channel to Parham.

Breadfruit in the trees in Parham

Parham used to be in important town.  Now it’s quiet, a bit run down, and a fishing port.  A Japanese project over a decade ago built a fishing facility to support a revitalized fishing industry.  There are a couple of tiny groceries there, and two restaurants.  We had dinner at Sugar Apple Alley which seems about as local as you can get.  A few choices for dinner only and a limited bar, we had a tasty and inexpensive dinner surrounded by trees, birds, cats, chickens and local residents.  We were clearly the only people around not from Parham.  Though it’s not haute cuisine I think it may be the closest to an authentic local experience we’ve had yet.

West Side

With winds from the North and West, and some North swell to join it, we headed out from Parham into a stiff breeze and riled up, cloudy waters.   Our original target was Deep Bay, just outside the cruise ship port (and capitol) of St. Johns.  There is an exposed wreck in the bay which is supposed to be excellent for snorkeling, and some restaurants and places to go on the beautiful beach.  However, the breeze and swell mad that harbor look pretty uncomfortable. So we headed to Five Islands Harbour.

In hindsight we should have headed straight for Jolly Harbour instead, as Five Islands Harbour is pretty desolate.  Protected from the wind and swell and pretty – true, but with milky, cloudy water and no real place to land the dinghy to get off the boat there just wasn’t much happening there.

Jolly Harbour on the other hand is a pretty nice stop.  We didn’t realize it was only forty-five minutes past Five Islands Harbour, quite literally “just around the corner”.  The outside of Jolly Harbour is a bit shallow, but there is a channel inside and there are reasonably priced moorings inside the harbor which we picked up.  The Jolly Harbour area is an ambitious development, full of waterfront homes and condos with a full service marina and a number of marine facilities and services available including a good sized grocery store; always a treat when it’s a short walk from the boat.  It’s not at all remote seeming but with restaurants, bars and other amenities its still a nice break.

Montserrat in the distance with her smoking volcano

Eventually though we had to return our family to Falmouth Harbour so they could get their bags together and get ready to fly home.  Our last day was clear and sunny, though the sky and water had an unusual cast to it.  Maybe it was caused by the still turbulent waters, but it was an interesting and beautiful site for our last day coming around the island.

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St. Kitts – Part the Second

On Mar 5th, 2013 Published By B.J.
IMG_0164
Oh look, a stupidly tall thing.  Let’s go climb it!

For our last full day on the island of St. Kitts we did want to SEE a bit of the island.  More than we had walking around the cruise ship mall and the fairly empty South end of the island looking for monkeys.

In truth there is enough on St. Kitts to amuse for quite some time – rain forest, volcanoes, snorkeling, and so on.  But we had one day so we thought we’d go visit the famous for on top of Brimstone Hill.

Being cruisers, we are generally to cheap frugal to spend money on frivolous things like cabs when you can walk or use any local mass transportation.  Taking a cab is the de rigeur approach to most North American tourists to these places when they get off the cruise ship; I must continually decline offers for taxis no matter where we go. 
Taxi Guy #23 of the day: “Taxi back to de ship, sir?” 
Me: “Not unless your taxi can drive out to the anchorage there…”

I do try to be polite, but it IS trying every ten steps in a cruise ship town!  Part of my problem I think is that I suspect that I still try to dress reputably, so in fact I do tend to look like a cruise ship passenger, rather than a shiftless drifter without an East Caribbean Dollar to pay for anything.  Concern over alarming the local gendarmes has precluded any more experimenting in this line…but I digress.

We decided to take a local bus to the fort rather than the taxi.  The reasoning is easy – it costs about EC$ 3.50 per person to take the bus.  One U.S. dollar is about $2.70, so one EC$ is about 37 cents – making the cost of the bus about $1.30 per person each way.  A taxi on the other hand would likely cost us $30-$40 each way for the four of us.   So EC$ 28.00 (about $10.50) versus $60-$80 USD.  You can see how this is a no brainer.

The “buses” in much of the Caribbean are quite different than those we might be used to in the U.S.  First of all the buses are not really run by the government.  They may be regulated, but the buses themselves are frequently privately owned by a local entrepreneur or company.  These buses tend to have routes, but not schedules, per se.  The implication here is that while you do know where the bus will take you, you don’t always know exactly when it will come.  So you need to leave a little time.  Finally, they are frequently a bit informal in terms of vehicle standards, stops, and packing people in to the bus.  You can often grab a seat riding shotgun to the driver, however if you aren’t used to driving at high speeds on narrow roads on the wrong side of the road this view may not be for the faint of heart.

Of course the other disadvantage of a bus is that it doesn’t always drop you in front of the place you want to go.  In St. Thomas, for $20 each way (plus tip) we took a cab out to the Home Depot and were dropped off and picked up at the store.  Later we went to see The Hobbit at the movie theater which is in the same complex as the Home Depot – it cost us $8.00 round trip for the whole family of four on a trip that would have cost us $10/person if we took a cab from our anchorage in Red Hook.  However we were dropped on the road at the base of the shopping center, we had to make a short walk up to where the theater was.  Big deal, for $72 I can walk a little.

My first tip something was amiss was when I asked the bus driver “Does this go to the fort” he gave me an odd look and asked “Where?”  Eventually he figured out what I was asking about and confirmed the destination.  So we boarded the small red bus and off we went.  Given the private nature of the bus ownership, it’s driver’s choice on the environment…music, etc.  In this case we were on the Loud Rasta Bus, which was fine with us because we like Reggae even if it was at teeth jarring volume.  But it worked, zooming along on narrow roads, dodging other vehicles, parked buses, goats, and so on as the reggae thumped and boomed.  We had some small concern because there were no little “stop request” buttons, we soon learned you indicated your stop simply by bellowing at the driver that you needed to get off.   Since we didn’t know exactly where we were going we had to keep a sharp eye and be ready to yell at any moment.

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Cistern and magazine

Eventually, after a long and scenic tour with a few minutes that looked like screen captures from Motor Storm: Pacific Rift, we spotted the Fort off in the distance.  Quite a ways in the distance actually, since it sits on Brimstone Hill which is elevated close to 1,000 feet at the top.  Whoops…that bus was going to let us off on the curb, not at the fort…wasn’t it?

Oh yes, we saw the huge sign for it with an arrow saying “Entrance, 1/2 Mile”.  1/2 Mile…up?  You can barely see the fort from the road up close, it is so far up.  None of us prepped for another Volcano Climb – we didn’t have water bottles, hiking boots, moisture wicking undergarments and other necessities for a schlep through the jungle up a hill.  And IT WAS PAST LUNCH TIME.

But we were game.  We started walking up.  And walking.  And talking some more about St. Kitts, and how cool it was to see monkeys and how we weren’t likely to see any more since the monkeys on the North end of the island were supposed to be more shy and we were right on a road

HEY LOOK A MONKEY!!!

Yeah, we got so see some more monkeys on the way up.  And up.  We were passed by several cars going up and down, mostly taxis, and I knew the drivers were sniggering to themselves about the too-cheap tourists that took the bus and had to hump it up to the top of the fort.

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Eventually we did make it to the top, and immediately stopped at the surprisingly good snack bar for a spot of lunch with spectacular views.

This is actually a very, very impressive fort.  We’ve stopped at more than a couple of places like this since we started travelling – this place made Fort Louis on St. Martin look like something that was build out of couch cushions in a living room.  Small wonder it became known as the “Gibraltar of the Caribbean”.  

Fort George (as we learned it was called, not “Fort Brimstone”) could house over 800 soldiers and families as well as the craftsmen and support people needed to keep them ready.  Cannon and gun emplacements offered a 360 degree field of fire.  Though the guns back in the 18th century didn’t have spectacular range, add a thousand feet UP to the equation and you get a bit more reach.  And we weren’t sure that a warship from that era could even tilt their deck guns up high enough to get a shot into the fort while all this misery was raining down on them.

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The engineering to create this large structure several hundred years ago was quite impressive.  A rain catchment system led to cisterns that could hold 250,000 gallons of water for the soldiers.  There were parade grounds, magazines, bakeries, plumbing, and support facilities.  Just to meet the daily ration of flour for the soldiers that bakery would have to put out over 800 pounds of bread per day.

One can not overemphasize how stunning the views are.  The soldiers in this fort would never be surprised by an approaching vessel – the line of sight took in Saba, Statia, St. Martin, Guadalupe and Montserrat.  We figure the only way to attack the fort was with troops landed on a moonless night or in the blinding rain.  You can see for miles and miles…

A big shout out goes to the people at the Brimstone Fortress National Park.  They did an excellent job recovering this historical site after it was abandoned and neglected for half a century, and have developed sme informative and interesting exhibits in the fort that give you a good picture of the histor of St. Kitts as well as the ecology.

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Once again, it was worth the hike to the top.  The walk down seemed a lot shorter, as Will commented “I didn’t notice it was this pretty on the way up”.  I guess because were all heads down sweating and puffing up the hill.  At the bottom of the hill we had but a short wait for the Loud Rasta Bus to pick us up on the way back.

Oh yeah…and we saw more monkeys on the way down.

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