A sea horse, not for riding - it's about 3 inches long
After the last breakneck blog when we roared through the Virgin Islands, with poor and time limited Wifi I finally have a bit more time. Though still not many photographs. Ian Stevenson and Frances McArthur had been on board for 5 weeks and I really enjoyed their company and help. They arrived into Puerto Rico and departed from St Lucia. After wending our way through the Virgin islands (Spanish, US and British) we set out for an overnight passage to Saba. As usual the East winds were blowing from the East and the best we could manage was motorsailing with the number two genoa out. Sometimes we just had to motor straight into the wind - at about 3 knots. The further I go down the Caribbean chain the more they curl around to give better sailing. From St Lucia south I should be beam reaching - the best point of sailing. Here is a map to orientate yourself. From the BVI there are two chains of islands. The NE one is Anguilla, St Martin, St Bart and Antigua - I had travelled up this route last year - at least visiting Antigua and St Martins. This time I resolved to follow the alternative route of Saba, Statia (St Eustatius) St Kitts& Nevis and then onward to Guadaloupe via Montserrat.
The red arrows are Saba (where we didn't land) then Statia/St Eustatius where we anchored off and had a couple of dives with a dive school. We also used a dive school at St Kitts/Saint Christopher.
Approaching Saba, a tall volcanic plug (think Ailsa Criag on Steroids.)
No easy access, there is a tiny beach with a staircase of something like 461 steps, the beach was untenable in the swell though, very steep pebbles.
There is a "port" but we had too much swell on the mooring buoys here to risk dropping the outboard onto the rubber boat, Once ashore the "town" is away up the hill.
And so we decide to cut our losses and head for Statia. There is a better sheltered anchorage there and although it was a bit rolly, we found that Shadowmere is better than some in swells - a long keel and 15 tons of weight, a lot of which is low down in the keel probably helps over fin keelers with lower ballast ratio. Grand old lady.
Statia is interesting - it has a pretty interesting volcano, a long hike which we refrain from on this occasion. The main town of Oranjestad reveals its Dutch origins, Also a British influence as has most of the Caribbean. In fact the island changed hands 22 times in 20 years between the French and the British before ending up definitely Dutch. The anchorage in the South was once the biggest anchorage in the Caribbean with over 400 ships here at a time. It was a staging post for goods (including slaves) and the Island had some tobacco and sugar planted too. The dockside has now a couple of dive centres, a couple of hotels and a couple of restaurants/cafes spread along the shore.
Then there is a 200 yard steep slope to the town proper which has supermarkets, churches and more restaurants. People are happy and busy. It passes my test of having somewhere to buy bread and somewhere with a decent church. I am also learning that it is common on many islands to have hens running around all over the place - It is interesting to note that the hens here are not scrawny but well fed - another indicator of the state of an island perhaps?, how skinny are the hens?
The climb up the hill is through a gate. The only old goats climbing up are human ones...
The dive centre here is well run with brilliant staff, thanks Mike, Alex, Kirsty and Mitch. Mike has also published books on Padi signals; there are scores of these including how to ask someone to marry you underwater so I think his tongue is in his cheek but his underwater fish Identification book is an excellent tome. The BSAC who trained me use 5 or 6 signals so there is a big difference between these two organisations.
His staff give really good fish briefings (to the humans) before we hit the water too - and are good pointing out the life as we dive with them. The visibility underwater is startling with a gorgeous Deep Blue in the distance. The coral is buzzing with life too. I would happily come back here for a weeks diving and stay in a local hotel perhaps Shirley and I can visit in a year or so.
Mike explaining the logo of the dive centre. The Dutch West India company used blue beads to trade with. You can find these stones underwater so Mike created a logo of the pentagons with ripples emanating outwards. Mind you he also tried to say the Pentagon in the states has a similar heritage. There is a curious link between Statia and the US. Statia fired a cannon in welcome when a US ship anchored here, much to the annoyance of the British as the US wasn't an official country yet. The first Caribbean island to officially recognise America. Wonder if it was a mistake?
And then we move on to the nearby Islands of St Kitts and Nevis - staying in a cheap marina so we can get water. We dive here too, a lower key affair, nice coral areas with lots of gulleys. We see this again in Dominica which has much better underwater terrain
I had visited St Kitts on the way North a year previous and my comments in that blog still stand - an old authentic poor town with reclaimed land now between it and the sea where they have parachuted in a Disney village of cruise ship shops - Gold. jewellery, handbags, good clothes (and t-shirts, hats and liquor and cigars as well as a plethora of bars and restaurants.) The old town is where you buy loafs of bread and got to church - and visit a bank. I think St Kitts is the banking capitol of the Caribbean - I think I see 8 different banks and the post office has hundreds of numbered mail boxes. I wonder how many companies have registered "offices" with 8 inches square of shopfront.
We leave St Kitts and anchor for the night off Nevis - I had no wish to clear in here and had cleared out of St Kitts so we did not go ashore but left at first light for a passage to Guadaloupe with an option to top at Montserrat. In the end we keep going and arrive in the beautiful town of Deshais (again). This time the bar used in the TV series Death in Paradise is open (and packed)
After a pleasant stop we move down the coast to the Jacque Cousteau Marina park at Pigeon Island. We anchor here and go ashore, slightly North of where I had previously been to a large collection of beach based huts offering diving, snorkelling, boat trips and kayaking. And good coffee.
Frances and I dive from Shadowmere but the buoyage system has changed since Eamon and I dived here (and Doros and Peter) last year. Previously there were blue and white commercial dive buoys and yellow buoys for visiting yachts. Now there is no provision for visiting yachts and the bay between the two pigeon islands is buoyed off for the swimmers and snorkelers. In the end Frances and I dive and Ian takes Shadowmere off a bit with us promising to surface near one of the swimming bouys. We do, although by this time there are a dozen divers and snorkellers in the water near us and it gets a bit busy. Eventually Ian sees us and comes in and drops the dinghy off and retreats. I have practiced taking my gear off in the water, tying it to a rope (the painter). This allows me to clamber into the dinghy, recover my gear (and Frances!) and head out to clear water. What a Palava! But the diver was really good - the SW corner has a dropoff - a nearly vertical cliff dropping to 50m and we go a bit of the way down this to see the bigger fishes moving up and down the cliff. Nice.
Phew, we head on to the Isle le Saints off the bottom corner of Guadaloupe. We had anchored here on the way north but not gone ashore. This time we do.. A lovely French island, a bit like Isle de Yeu
We anchored off the island and used the dinghy to get to the town. It gets visited by hundreds of day trippers from Guadaloupe.
Who hire electric bikes with big tires! or golf buggies
The French so water sports well
Ian Stevenson
And Frances - she is the one on the left - the Pelicans are on the right - they are not afraid of humans!
And then onward to Dominica - I had gone straight from Martinique to Guadaloupe on the way up and passed Dominica in the middle of the night. We stopped off the town of Portsmouth in the North of Dominica (third arrow from the top above) and set off ashore on two missions, I was to check in and F&I were to book a dive for the next morning. It was 4 pm on Saturday. I asked a policeman for directions and he sent me on a mile hike to the far end of the town. The town was very poor, houses in disrepair, skinny hens...
They did have a hurricane pass through a couple of years ago.
Debris dumped on the shore
Hi rise shanty? I am asked twice for money, second time I say "I am on a boat trying to get home, do you have any money to help me." the guy looks a bit discombobulated at this suggestion and doesn't give me any money. Frances has a similar experience at the other end of the town. The beach bar near the dinghy dock, near the boat boy association headquarters feels safe...
At the far end of the town I met a security guard on a dock and he said, the customs had gone home early - come back tomorrow. I did and they had also gone home early, again, so I am afraid I confess to being an illegal immigrant to Dominica but I did a runner on the Sunday night... Don't tell them.
Frances was more successful and we all got a lovely dive with Don and Frankie - Frankie stayed on the dive boat and supplied us with Banana bread and iced tea with extra added Lime juice between dives. Recommended!
We met boat boys here but they were well organised and polite, Martinique to the south is clear of these but they start up again in St Lucie and from there south I think. One had arranged the dive with Frances - he had got the guy on his phone and handed the phone to FRances. He then appeared at Shadowmere the next morning for his tip $10 I think. Might have been 10 or 20 Eastern Caribbean dollars which is 4 to 8 USD approx
The diving was excellent too, outstanding Vis and really unusual rock coral formations - tunnels that we swam through. Also a nice wreck dive and good life.
Octupii are usually only seen at night.
A wee Barracuda I think, not yet with an evil sneer.
After our dive we move onto the South of Dominca to anchor for the night to reduce our journey time to Martinique. The town of Roseau - we go ashore for a meal and beer at sunset.
Martinique has a tall rock plug on its bottom corner that we had failed to dive last year. HMS diamond is the only island that the British navy christened as a ship, placing cannon and crew upon it to fire on the passing french. This was a while ago - before we joined the EU.
We manage to anchor this time and take the dinghy around to a dive buoy. The dive is excellent, big rock tunnels and arches as well as good fish life - and 2 or 3 hoards of padi dive groups.
After Ian S got Frances back into the inflatable I elected to swim the 4 or 500 yards back to Shadowmere at a depth of 5m. Good exercise. I pass two Padi instructors who are dragging their raw recruits along the seabed. One has both hands on the trainee's bottle and is manhandling the diver along while fins and arms flail about. By God they are giving good value for money, I suppose... In my day trainees had to do 5 snorkel dives and spent months in a pool training before going diving. They could use fins by then... <sigh>
We head for the fleshpots of Martinique - the Port du Marin at the SouthEast end of the Island, we had been here before. Good cheap marina. I was hoping to buy a dive bottle as the Diving compressor has stopped working and 3 bottles would be easier diving when Eamon and Kieran arrive. The dive shop sold its last one the day before we arrived and would not get stock for another 3 weeks. A Pity. I did get a new o-ring for my regulator though. Maybe Grenada will have bottles.
Next day we head 20 miles to St Lucia 24 hours before Ian and Frances are to fly home. The first port is Rodney's Bay Marina. In a narrow lagoon entrance to a large well appointed marina - moorings have a charter fleet here and the ARC Atlantic Rally for Cruisers ends here.
In the Gap, there are anchorages outside but we need a marina berth to get Ian and France's luggage safely ashore.
There are beach resorts ashore and two of these ships in the bay - this one is Club Med 2
A couple of quirky boats come around the boats - this one sells fruit.
This one sells fruit and booze!
Large Marina, swimming pool and 4 restaurants and bars, Laundry manned by humans (womaned actually - I drop off my washing and she gets the stains out of the tablemats!!! major result!!!!)
I go looking for a dive shop, it's shut, it is attached to a nearby hotel
So St Lucia has lots of expensive housing developments around, I walk some distance to get to real housing and shops (I want to buy eggs!)
Why did the Chicken... note this is a "fat" one.
On Ian and Frances's last night they take me for a meal and we get a final "snap". It has been lovely having company and I have really enjoyed having them on board, the 5 weeks have flown and I have only 10 days on my own before Kieran and Eamon join me in Grenada. Thanks for everything F&I
And the next day I head off on my own. 15 miles down the coast to the "Pitons" famous lumps of rock and a national park. I am met by a boat bou who takes me to a park buoy and ask for 20 ECD to tie me up. It is the last buoy and anchoring is prohibited - we beat a catamaran to the buoy and I am glad to be safe. The park ranger comes and takes 54 ECD for the hire of the buoy (about 20 USD) I sleep soundly and head off at first light for a 50 mile passage to Bequia, bypassing the larger island of St Vincent to reach a safer harbour as winds are rising.
To date the Virgin islands have impressed me, at least Culebra and St Johns and the sailing amongst the BVI. I found Statia lovely as the people seemed happy and the diving was so good. The French islands I adore too, as I love France a lot. The rest is also good so it is hard to pick favourites. In truth I hate picking favourites, I am enjoying all of the journey.