Dominica

February 28

Woke up this morning to see fishermen bringing in their nets and fish just a way beyond our boat.  Fresh fish tonight (cooking on board) or wifi (restaurant, if they have it)?   A cruise ship has arrived this morning as well.

Poncho picked us up prompty at 9 a.m. and we loaded into the bus with Miguel, our tour guide and Johan, our driver.  We were also accompanied by four French people from St. Malo. Drove up steep, windy roads to Middleham Falls which was a 45 minute hike.  Hike is not the word!  Climb! And along rocks, narrow paths, through water.  Hikers only as not much to see except for the waterfall at the end of the trail.  Swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall was not recommended and no one was doing it.  Park pass was 13.35 EC to get in.  Next we were going to go to the fresh water lake which was another park pass and a huge nothing.  After speaking to Miguel, who was going to take up to Trafalgar Falls and another park pass, we decided to skip as Peter and Dave had already seen and the French people agreed.  Instead we went for a lovely lunch with a beautiful view overlooking a river down in the gorge.  There we saw hummingbirds, finch and flora and fauna.  Lunch was excellent.  After lunch we drove to Miguel’s property that had been in his family for years….there was vegetation, animals and sulphur hot baths.  Interesting the sulphur did not smell as they used bamboo to filter the water.  Lovely!  They also had a mud bath which we did not use.  

Kabrit, Peter and Dave in the hot tubs with hot sulphur water

Stopped at the Alliance Francais which has a bakery and according to the French we were with, the baguettes better than in Martinique.  Bought baguette and three pain au chocolat as no croissants were available. 

Dinner was light, salad, baguette and cheese.

February 27

Wild bird of paradise that Martin brought this morning

Left Portsmouth after a great swim to the beach.  Arrived in Roseau after a motor and a sail.  The winds were forever changing.  Poncho and his side kick Miguel greeted us and took us to our mooring.  No wifi was available so we moved.  Gave him our laundry….wife does it very well….and still no wifi.  He left and said he would be back shortly but actually didn’t get back to us until we were eating diner.

We dinghied in to the dock and walked the town.  Except for the cruise ship area, I felt as if I was in a time warp.  Perhaps this town was the same as it was in the 1700 and 1800.  Busy place and the most posh place was Fort Young. 

We have arranged with Poncho to take a tour of the island, 100 EC per person.  It begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and apparently goes until 4 or 5 p.m.  

 February 26

Indian River

Indian River

Jungle Rose

Fabulous dinner last night of fresh salad, tomatoes and mahi mahi.  Hailed Martin from Providence Tours to take us on a tour of the Indian River.   Martin was delightful and entertaining and rowed all the way up the river.  I thought perhaps we all should have helped him out.  Perhaps then we could all look like him….45 years old in March but I thought he looked like 22.  Lots of flora, fauna and birds.  He mentioned that we should be here Sunday nights as the PAYS have a beach party and it is lots of fun.  Apparently we missed a full moon party last night.

Peter and I swam to shore while Dave had a swim at the boat.  We tried to decide which restaurant was going to have our business.  Either Purple Turtle, Big Poppas or Blue Bay.  We walked into town to the market, I bought some lettuce and another lady had beautiful tomatoes.  I really wanted to buy some but had just bought yesterday and didn’t need them.  These people are so poor that any little bit helps them.

No rain so far as previously reported by those in the know!

February 25

Entering Portsmouth Harbour, Fort Shirley

Portsmouth home and laundry

Portsmouth street

Portsmouth dinghy dock, looking out to harbour

A good breakfast of pain au chocolat which we found out was the same price as the plain croissants.  Into town for a garbage and then headed out.  Nice sail and called up Cobra when we arrived at Portsmouth, Dominica but he seemed to be out for lunch.  Ended with Martin from Providence who helped us out with the pin.  Into town to check in, walked for two miles and paid 14 EC to check in and out.  On the way to the customs office, I stopped and a fisherman was bringing in his catch.  I bought tuna steaks, six of them for 20 EC.  On way back from customs office, stopped again at the fisherman’s catch and he was scaling a mahi mahi.  He had had it hidden in his basket.  Too bad! Next time.  Stopped and bought lettuce which looks excellent and tomatoes for 10 EC, then again for some avocados, five in total for 4 EC.  Long walk balk again and decided to stay on boat for cocktails and hopefully fresh tuna will be excellent!  Dinghy raised and locked tonight.  The PAYS boys do apparently patrol in the evenings for safety here.

Portsmouth is building a new hotel even though very small and funded by the Government of Morocco.  This should certainly help with their tourism.  The town of Portsmouth is poor, even though it does have a medical school with a lot of students from all over coming here. 

Guadeloupe

February 24

Leaving Les Saints, Pain au Sucre

Forgot to mention an incident upon our return from shore yesterday.   I was in the cockpit and noticed the Douane in their dinghy motoring about.  The next thing I knew they were tying up to the Mistress.  I called for Peter, one, two, three times and dah he finally clued in they were coming aboard.  All six of them in their navy uniforms.  I felt as if we were under siege and wondered why they choose us.  All very nice, asked to see boat papers, passports and asked where we had come from, where we had been.  Filled in some papers and asked what we all did for a living.  Finally, after about half an hour later, they left but did leave a mess from their gun holster and shoes on the deck.  An experience for sure!

Dolphins in the bay here today…teasing snorkelers.  Tried hard to get a picture of them but virtually impossible.

Walked over to Pompierre Bay today which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  It is protected from the Atlantic by the Ilet Roche.  Beach itself would need a raking but the vista and the location is really beautiful.  You almost feel as if you are in a lagoon and not Simpsons Bay Lagoon.  Peter and I hiked up to the top of the island where apparently goats used to feed.  We saw none there but the views were really incredible.  It was a lovely day. 

Entrance on right into Pompierre Bay from the Atlantic

Pompierre Bay, taken from the top of Ilet Roche

Need I say there are some more problems.  Never ending it seems on a boat.  This morning the forward head stopped working.  Even though the macerator had been replaced, this time it seems to be the switch.  Nothing could really be done, so it looks as if a new head will be installed….this time non electric which the skipper has been talking about for a while.

February 23...Spent yesterday afternoon walking the town, a bit of shopping and of course, beers for Dave and Peter at the public dock.  Pretty little town but touristy.  Found a hair dresser and made an appointment.  Charge for shampoo, crème rinse, cut, colour is all separate.  Price of 55 Euros does not include styling. 

Last night dinner was at Pieds dans l’eau, Feet in the Water, a restaurant right on the waterfront.  Two cuttlefishes and one coquillel’angostino lobster, which is probably what is running all over the dinghy dock.    Town was deserted when we left the restaurant.

Dave arranged for fresh baguette and croissants to be delivered to the boat this morning so before setting off to the French hairdresser had a delightfull breakfast. Met up with Peter and Dave at the market. No fish today, the seas are too rough.  We walked back to the Tourist Bureau to find the Customs office as it was no longer in the place remembered.  It is now up in the Cyber Café downtown.  Spent some time there checking out and then walked over to the other side of the island, past the cemetery and walked over to the Grande Anse.  It was then lunch time so went to La Toumbana and had the price fix menu for 10 Euros.  Mahi mahi, rice and salad and two scoops of pistachio ice cream.  Pleasant sitting for lunch.  Came back to the boat full and satisfied.  Light dinner tonight!

Grand Anse with view to Dominica

La Toumbana, Dave and the restored chic!

La Toumbana, six of the seven dwarfs are not Happy!

GAS…..P!  Correction to be made.  A very pleasant suggestion was made that any mention of gas should be corrected to diesel….what would some people think.  So rather than searching for the mention of gas I have noted it here.  Gas…diesel, la meme chose!!

Grande Anse, wild woman and friend(s)!

February 22...Swam this morning and took a long shower as Jerome charges 30 Euros for any amount of water.  We figured we may as well empty the water tanks.  Interesting getting water from Jerome.  A pin in the water, hose is attached below, and you let him know when to start pumping the water.  Peter had to dinghy in to shore to pay which was a major feat.  Waves crashing on the shore again made it difficult for him to dinghy back to the boat.  The mooring pins, which the mayor had installed, all 80 of them, are a pain to pick up.  They have a large 10 inch ring at the top of them which one would think would be easy…..not!  After a minor injury, Peter and I decided that he would use the dinghy to pick up the line and I would hand him the bow line. Those pins are heavy as well and almost impossible to pick up.  Dave steered the boat in the right direction and it seemed to work much better.  Lucky there are three of us!

Bourg de Saintes

Bourg des Saintes Harbour

February 21...Off this morning.  Weather seems much calmer.  We were unsure of where exactly we were going.  Pigeon Island anchorage was a choice.  We knew we had to get water and some gas.  We stopped at Anse a la Barque thinking we may overnight in that lovely bay but it was crowded.  We decided to move on to Marina Riviere Sens for gas and hopefully water.  Arriving at Riviere Sens, just south of Basse Terre,  there was no one at the gas dock to help us but amazingly a fine job was done by the three of us.  No crash landing.  The thought was to stay in the marina overnight and then we could get some water.  The marine was very hot and since we were early enough we decided to move on to Iles des Saintes (The Saints).  We decided to give Jerome a call the next day to fill our water tanks.  Arrived just before dusk and took a mooring at Ilet a Cabrit, just off Terre den Haut, one of the lslands of The Saints. 

Southern end of Guadaloupe with a view to The Saints

farming on Guadaloupe, great produce is available

February 20...Well, that was certainly a ride last night. It felt like the entire boat was pulling away from the anchor and we were going to drift back to Montserrat. A lot of clanging, banging and swaying back and forth but luckily we did not meet anyone in the middle of the night. Damage report….snubber broke loose and was easily replaced this morning. Whew!

February 19...Early lunch today so that we could take the bus in to Ste. Rose.  It is only a short ride from Deshaies.  Caught the bus at the church again.  Once at Ste. Rose, we walked down into the older part and then the road along the water.  There are all kinds of restaurants which were pretty full and interesting fishing boats and nets along the shore.  We stopped at the supermarket, Carrefour.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Wonderful produce, all kinds of lettuce, cheeses and dry goods.  Could have spent much longer in there.  Caught the bus back to Deshaies, a different route again but saw some very well kept homes.  There is a resort close to the Grand Anse, I think the name of it is Carib Resort.

Ste. Rose

Ste. Rose harbour

February 18...Took two buses in to Pointe a Pitre, each cost 2.50Euros.  The streets were very busy with stalls and stores and just generally ladies selling underwear on the street.  Walked to tourist bureau to get a map, talked to an Austrian from Columbus, Ohio who said we were the first English speaking people he had met in four days.  We wanted to go to the marina, Port de Plaisance, and the tourist lady assured us that it was a 20 minute walk but said we would prefer to take a bus as we would have to walk through the red light district and the ladies would have bare breasts.  So, of course, we ended up walking but it sure was longer than the time specified and not much to see either!  Had lunch at Pirates of the Carribbean.  I ordered scallops and had this stuff attached to them (research later and it was roe).  Taste was excellent, done with parsley and garlic.  Then caught a bus back to the main square.  All the markets were basically closed at that time so missed out on the shopping.  Back to the bus station and caught another bus, this time direct supposedly and arrived in Deshaies approximately two hours later.  This time it was 4 Euros each.  Baguette, gouda from St. Martin, olives and tomatoes for dinner.

Pointe a Pitre, Covered Market

Pointe a Pitre street view

Pointe a Pitre street

Pirates of the Carribbean

Had a wonderful fish dinner last night...fresh caught and bought from the fisherman at the docks....we think it was a small tuna.  We dinghied over to the beach around the corner from the harbour....big swells so we couldn't beach the dinghy; however, I jumped off and went for a swim.  Lovely place to anchor.....sand bottom but the swells would be too great.  Unfortunate.Tomorrow off to Pointe a Pitre for the long bus ride in.  Looking forward to the adventure.

February 17...Short dinghy ride to the boulangier for pain au chocolat and even though we didn’t need a French stick, I couldn’t resist the warm bread.  Guess what lunch is going to be?  Gouda from St. Martin and bread.  Hmmm can hardly wait.  Plans now are to stay until Thursday.

Peter went up the mast again to get the topping lift but not 100% successful in putting it back in the mast.  Brought it down and redirected it.  So clever!  Next time I’ll have to get a picture of him hanging up there!  He says he'll have to take a camera up so that we now what the view is from the top of the mast......maybe tomorrow, right!

Deshaies, new dinghy dock, looking out into the harbour

February 16

Deshaies, view in to the town at sunset

Had plans to take a bus into Pointe a Pitre but decided we needed to chill after the last two days.  Took some time to check in, bank machine for Euros and then hit an Internet café.  Spent over an hour there catching up on emails, doing the blog, etc.  Decided to come back to the boat for lunch and plan to go in later.  The dinghy ride is short.
Back into town to walk around, check out supermarkets and decided to come back in for dinner later. Deshaies is a quaint little town. The harbor is crowded but pleasant. Unfortunately, the pizza place was full so we ordered and took our pizzas back to the boat.Beautiful evening, no wind and we were able to sit in the cockpit for the first time in many weeks.

Deshaies Street

Deshaies Boulangerie

February 15...Arrived at Deshaises by 4:30 p.m. which is a very crowded anchorage and it took us a while to find a spot in shallow enough water.  After the sail over, we assessed the situation for wreckage, the open and thought to be riped bimini zipper was able to be repaired quickly, the sail tie was recovered again, however, we noticed our nemesis, the ever confounding Dutchman system was again a problem.  The topping lift had gone into the mast.  Finally, someone else besides me won the rummy game….Peter, and hopefully Dave will win some other time.

Montserrat

February 15...Left Rendezvous Bay at 8:30 a.m. under lovely conditions. Surprised at the large and lovely homes along the coast of Montserrat. Passed by the devastation left by the 1995 and subsequent volcano eruptions. Seas began to build with waves building to six to seven feet and howling winds of 30 knots. As usual, the winds were coming at us from our intended destination so we had to tack back and forth in order to reach our destination which was Deshaies, Guadaloupe. Hit by a squall forcing us to reef the sail. I slept. 

Plymouth, Montserrat.  The small brown buildings on the ash as the buildings that are partially buried.  Very eerie to see from the water.  Like a ghost town.  All of this is part of the exclusion zone.

Volcanic Ash, Plymouth, Montserrat

Leaving Rendezvous Bay, Montserrat 

February 14...Got up early and left Nevis approximately 9 a.m. expecting to arrive in Montserrat six hours later.  Unfortunately, the winds did not cooperate and had to tack four times,.  Motored in the last five miles.   Arrived 1 ½ hours after our expected time.  No mooring balls as stated in the guide.  Main anchorage at Little Bay was crowded and rolly and checked out Rendezvous Bay and spent the night. George Martin did not come out to greet us.  Rendezvous Bay is the only white sand beach on the island…..not much beach, nor is there too much white sand.  Decided not to go to shore as tours were $100 US for four people….more expensive than Nevis.  Off tomorrow for Guadeloupe….not sure where as Peter doesn’t want to tack so much again.

Little Bay, Montserrat

St. Kitts and Nevis

February 13...Yesterday was spent on boat all day.  Rummy, shanghai, reading and rain, rain.  Swells were just too big to get to the beach.  Positives were the beautiful rainbows, one behind the other and both ends were right in front of us.  The cloud over Nevis just never seems to go away.  I wonder if one ever does see the top of that mountain.  Waiting for the winds to die which hopefully will be today so that we can move on.

We tried to anchor the dinghy so that we could walk to Sunshines for wifi.  Very deep along the beach but I did manage to jump in and walk for an hour today.  The Four Seasons resort is lovely, they have four infinity pools.

Nevis beach

February 12...Quite chilly last night and this morning.  Heavy rains a couple of time but we remained dry.  Well, Dave didn’t close his hatch on time and was a bit wet.  Huge swells on the beach which will make landing and launching the dinghy a challenge.  Wifi as promised in the bay here is non existent.

February 11 ...Peter and I dinghied in to Basseterre, St. Kitts to get our boat pass to go to Nevis. It took about a half hour. When we arrived the customs officer had gone to look at a boat. One cruise ship was in the harbor and another was arriving shortly. After about a half hour, the customs officer arrived and we got our boat pass and left. Interesting the harbor was not as rough as it was when we anchored there….probably the cruise ship was blocking the waves.

Left White House after coffee and had an uneventful sail to Charlestown, Nevis. Picked up a mooring ball, which is included in the fee paid to the Marina Office in St. Kitts. I walked the town, a very old town and the pictures actually make it look better than it is. There is some rejuvenation going on as indicated by the picture of the police station. It is a lovely building.

Charlestown, Nevis, police station

Charlestown, Nevis, square

February 10...Spent a lovely day at White House Bay, no dinghy dock there but did beach? or rock the dinghy.  Walked over to the new development in process near Ballast Bay.  Not much activity but looked as if a new marina and supposedly a golf course was going in being developed by Christopfe Harbour Development.  This is where the dinghy dock was but needed to go in through Ballast Bay.  Looks as if this will be a long time coming.

St. Kitts, Basseterre, big tree

 Basseterre, St. Kitts, Circus Square modelled after Picadilly in London, UK  

February 9...Tried to contact the dockmaster at Port Zante but to no avail.  They did not answer VHF or telephone.  Didn’t want to take the dinghy off the deck but had no choice.  Found the dinghy dock after going back and forth in the marina several times.  New buildings here, all for the cruise ships.  There was no ship in today…they start coming in on Monday.  Wanted to check in but the customs man wasn’t there so we walked around town a bit and stopped in at Ballyhoo for wifi.  Back to customs and the man had been back and gone again.  Waited this time.  Talked to a couple from Elora and they advised that we leave for Nevis and check in there.  However, as luck would have it, the customs man arrived.  Now began the saga. I filled in the customs form and as doing so, customs man advised that we had to go to immigration at the airport.  We also need a boat pass to sail to Nevis and could not get one until we cleared immigration.  We decided to stay at an anchorage.  We also had to declare the name of the bays on a form.  Then we had to go to the marina office to fill in another form and give them money for port fees, anchoring fees and mooring balls fees.  Harvey the pilot was a laugh.  Off to the airport and luckily we arrived before all the flights came in, otherwise we would have had to wait.  The kind lady at the airport stamped our passports with exit stamps and then wouldn’t sign off on them.  Back to the boat and off to White House Bay.  Mooring balls here with no leads on them but the anchorage is calm and there are no rolly polly waves.  First swim for me in about two weeks and we plan to stay until Monday when we have to go back to Bassterre to get our boat pass which cannot be issued until 24 hours before leaving.  We also were told that we had to check in at Nevis, show the boat card and also check with immigration.  Strange, supposedly St. Kitts and Nevis are the same country!  We should have left and gone straight to Nevis.

RECOMMENDATION:  IF PASSING THROUGH ST. KITTS AND NEVIS, RAISE YOUR Q FLAG, SPEND THE NIGHT IN ONE OF THE BAYS AND CONTINUE ON WITHOUT CHECKING IN.

Approaching Nevis

Passing by St. Eustatia