Guadeloupe – Deshaies, Guadeloupe, April 27, 2023

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Sally

Guadeloupe – Deshaies, Guadeloupe, April 27, 2023

Our weather window was holding so after some good Mexican and snorkeling, we took the chance to make our hop over to Guadeloupe. It was a nice sail with a bit of rain at the end. The harbor itself was very crowded so we anchored in the bay next door and wanted to get ourselves checked in. This is one of only two places that have customs in Guadeloupe and it was one computer at the back of a gift shop. She never checked our passports, and it was all very informal unlike places like BVI. Deshaies is a gritty little town, and it was one of the first times we have felt a bit unsafe. The people here have not been as friendly as they have been in other places. I’m not sure if this is the French influence or they are just tired of all the tourists.

We took our chance early the next morning to go to the botanical garden and it was amazing! It was a one mile walk straight uphill buy hey – not so bad. They had flamingos that were so close to them I could have reached out and pet one. So cool! They also had goats, parrots, Koi fish, and flora and fauna from all over the world and it was 700 acres. It puts the Franklin Park Conservatory to shame in Columbus since it was 3 times the size and half the price. We saw everything from a banana tree to mango, avocado, banyan, you name it!

Since our anchorage was very rolly due to the unusual southwest winds, the next morning we decided to snorkel at Jacque Cousteau National Reserve before heading out to someplace calmer. It turned out to be one of our more interesting snorkeling trips. First off we saw the underwater statue which we have not seen since the Bahamas last year.

The water around the island had quite a bit of current so we thought we would swim halfway then just cut through the two small islands and head back to the boat. Well, it wasn’t two islands so we ended up climbing out over extremely slippery boulders and walking across the island to then swim to our boat. It was a bit sketchy but the coral was still pretty cool and I saw a puffer fish. It still doesn’t hold a candle to the Blue Tang Reef in Puerto Rico which was the best we have seen but still lovely.

As the day was young and our anchorage sucked, we popped anchor and headed south. The only place we would be able to find shelter from the west swell was going to be Terr-De-Haut, a small group of islands just south and still part of Guadeloupe. It was a short 4-hour sail to Le Saintes Harbor, and we were nicely settled into a calm anchorage by 2:30 which was so much better! It is a touristy little town much nicer than Guadeloupe proper. Lots of restaurants, shops, snorkeling, and hiking. It will be a fun few days discovering what is here.

They Are Back! – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, April 25, 2023

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Sally

They Are Back! – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, April 25, 2023

Since we had odd winds out of the west, we decided to take our opportunity to see Antigua and took the day to sail over. It was awesome because as we were approaching the island a whole pod of dolphins came to see us. Buddy & Biscuit are back!

Buddy and family.

We picked up a mooring ball in the harbor but boy was there a lot of seaweed!

Jolly Harbor is a lovely little seaside community but outside of a good grocery store it was mostly private houses. We walked around a bit but there wasn’t much to do here. Since it was the first day here we dinghied to snorkel “the five sisters” which is a little group of island and some surprisingly good reefs. Sadly, the coral was about 50% dead but I am not sure if this means it is recovering from the two major hurricane hits (Maria & Irma) a few years ago or if it is dying due to rising ocean temperatures. It was nice to get back in the water since it has been too rough to snorkel at all in St. Martin (although we tried) and we had been moving ever since.

The next day we tried to rent a car, but the guy couldn’t have cared less and since he had such a bad attitude towards us that we decided not to give him our business and as it turned out, he was the only game in town. So we walked the town but there is surprising little to do here and the vibe of the island was rather unwelcoming. It is the first island where we have felt that way. The good news is there is a fantastic Mexican restaurant. Gotta love that!

The Clock is Ticking – Charlestown, Nevis, April 21, 2023

Posted on April 22, 2023 by Sally

The Clock is Ticking – Charlestown, Nevis, April 21, 2023

Sailing Hubby finished his rigging project while we rested in Marigot Bay, St. Martin. Even though he is diligent in inspecting our rigging and I also keep an eye on it when I clean the stainless on the boat, it had been over a year since we had had an official inspection. St. Martin is the cruising capitol of the Caribbean, and we had a rare opportunity to get access to some top-notch riggers. We were lucky enough to be able to get an appointment with one of these such riggers, and had them come to take a look.

I swear he is part monkey climbing the rig bar hands

This included them reviewing all our running rigging, Ron’s new re-rig of the main sail to be operated from the helm and take a run up the mast. This is a job Ron hates to do and was well worth the money to have done. Good news is they didn’t find any major issues even after the rough sailing we through the thorny path.

As much as we had enjoyed the people and food of St. Martin, the clock is ticking for us to get south before hurricane season begins. Our haul out date is mid June and we would like to be to Grenada well before this time. In an effort to make our next jump shorter we took a quick 4-hour day sail over to St. Barth’s. And let me tell you as we passed the Rolex store on our way to customs that it is every bit as high class as its reputation implies. There was a lot of money sitting in the harbor between the racing and mega yachts.

And then after paying $9 per beer, we had dinner on the boat and left the next morning to make out way to Nevis, the southern island for St. Kitt’s. It’s a beautiful volcano and a clean little town. We got in a bit of trouble for docking the dinghy at the four seasons dock but had a great dinner at a little place down the street, Zanzi. The $2 beers there with vegetarian options were more our style.

Perhaps we hike to the top of this monster?

The French Know How to Eat – Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, April 15, 2023

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Sally

The French Know How to Eat – Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, April 15, 2023

We have done little more these past few days but eat and shop for boat parts. Let me tell you the French know their food. It is all very simple and extremely high quality. We went to the most amazing breakfast place for my birthday and it was so good, we went back the next day. It serves several types of eggs benedict, one of which is vegetarian with avocado and the best cappuccino. Hubby had order envy when he saw mine, which is why we had to go back on day two. I am certain we will be back there again before we leave.

We also found “a meat store.” This city has what I imagine to be a very European vibe to it and makes me wish I had paid more attention in French class. It’s something you don’t find in the states. They have a farm in France and everything was organic, butchered and frozen on the farm, then flown here. Hubby was able to restock his filets and they were very reasonable since it was duty free. Everything is much more affordable here than it was in BVI that’s for sure. The grocery stores are also excellent here but shopping in a French supermarket required us to get good with google translate. The fresh bread, high quality cheese & wine, and fresh food is so refreshing after eating frozen and canned food these last few months.

To offset all our eating, we decided to hike to Fort Louis at the top of Marigot Bay. The French built the fort to protect themselves from the Spanish and Germans who routinely invaded the island.

Sailing Hubby has also decided to do some re-rigging of our main sail. Currently, we have to go out of the helm and up to the front of the boat in order to raise and lower the main. This is not such an easy or safe task in bad weather. He is changing the rigging so he can raise and lower the sail all from the helm meaning the dangerous task would no longer require him to go to the front. This will certainly be better as we continue down the Leeward Island chain. The boat stores here are so well stocked it was easy to find the last few remaining clutches and pulleys he needed for this project.

Birthday Week – Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, April 13, 2023

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Sally

Birthday Week – Marigot Bay, St. Maarten, April 13, 2023

Well birthday week started out with a bang since the first thing we did was traverse the Anegada passage, which is a notorious stretch of water connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for its high winds, rough sea state, and large swells. It was a bumpy 18-hour ride with 10-15 knot winds directly on the nose and 5–7-foot seas at times. It was the best window we were going to get this time of year, so we took it. This, of course, meant that I was seasick for at least a part of the ride but at least not the whole thing. I did 7 hours of watch, which is the most I have done in any passage thus far. I am improving.

It was worth it since now we are in Marigot Bay in St. Martin. We are on a mooring ball since Simpson Bay lagoon is crowded, stinky icky water and has quite a few derelict boats. The bay is a bit rolly but beautiful and clean! We checked in on the French side since it is free and on the Dutch side of the island, it is not. The French side of the island is also duty free and awesome marine stores.

The first night we were here we accidently met a couple from Austria (she was royalty there) and they gave us the lay of the land since they had been here for 2 weeks vacationing. We were the only people in the restaurant and ended up chatting with the restaurant owner who was a “healer.” I had pulled a couple muscles in my shoulder a while back and she offered to do a healing treatment on me so of course – yes! She said she takes the aura from the plants and transfers it to the hurt area and is able to remove the pain. I am not sure if it is just psycho sematic or not but my should her does feel a bit better.

The next night we ended up going to a Moroccan restaurant recommended to us by the Austrian couple, which was AMAZING. It was built like a fortress and one of the few things that survived hurricane Irma. As a vegetarian, it isn’t always easy to find vegetarian food, but middle eastern food is very friendly, and I had couscous, roasted vegetables, and chickpeas. So good. We even had a belly dancing show with our dinner. The place was incredible and one of the coolest restaurants we have visited so far!

In action

Sailing Hubby asked what I wanted to do for my birthday and I decided on the tourist activity – Maho Beach to watch the planes fly over. The airport runway ends right across the street from the beach, so the planes have jet blast when taking off and land right over your head. Happy Birthday to me!

Waylaid by Weather – Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands – April 6, 2023

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Sally

Waylaid by Weather – Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands – April 6, 2023

Well we have been waiting out the weather the last few weeks and been moored hoping the wind and squall pattern changes. We had hoped to be moving to St. Martin by now but have yet to see the appropriate window come up. That means in the meantime, we have managed to find some pretty fun things to do here in the BVI’s. It is a bit of a flashback of Luperon except that the BVI is 3x the price.

First off, we decided to go back to Anegada, and although it was a bumpy ride, I am definitely glad we took the only chance we had to go. It is just as beautiful as I remember. We rented a scooter for the day and toured the island, which we had not done last time we were here. I even got to see the Flamingos! Sadly they were too far away to get a decent photo but cool none the less. The color of the water here and the white sand beaches are the most beautiful I have seen since the Exumas. Outside of that, there isn’t much else here.

We then sailed back to Virgin Gorda to wait out the big squalls that were predicted in our nice protected anchorage. Ron had been consulting a bit and after a day or two of catch up, we rented a car to tour the island of Virgin Gorda. The BVI’s in general are very mountainous unlike Anegada, which is very flat like the Bahamas. This makes the driving a bit treacherous but the views spectacular. We even got to see how the other half live by driving through Nail Bay where an AirBNB rents for $12K a week! It’s where Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis have vacation homes if that gives you any indication.

We also took the chance to go and see The Baths again but even though we were there by 9:00am, there was an entire cruise ship of people already there and it was PACKED!! It is a strange rock formation and no one is really sure exactly how it got there. The theory is volcanos shot these huge boulders there but others think it was aliens…who knows?

At that point we decided to go and see the ruins of one of the old copper mines on the island which was pretty cool too. It was abandoned in the 19^th century and is currently maintained within the national park here.

Interesting place to have a copper mine.

You can see the copper exposed on many rock.

As far as the after effects of Hurricane Irma (which leveled the island in 2017) and was the first category 5 to ever hit here. The island has largely recovered but there is definitely poverty here and a very wide gap between the haves and have nots and there are still signs of the destruction and a rebuilding effort going on. We had a chance to walk with one of the locals who was here during the storm and has lived here 20+ years. He hid out in his cistern (which he converted into a one bedroom) and after the storm when all was destroyed, he spray painted on his room “Dad’s OK” in white as the only option to let his family know he had survived the storm. A helicopter flew over from the news media and the photo went viral. Since his boat had been destroyed he had to paddleboard across the bay from Biras Creek to Leverick Bay to get groceries and supplies. Pretty interesting guy to say the least. Outside of that, we have had quite a few days to snorkel which has been great and although there are a couple reefs that are dead there are a few others which have been beautiful. We hope early next week we get a chance to move south.

Cement Donkeys

Monthly Archives: April 2023