Les Saintes and Montserrat now in St Kitts

Les Saintes 4th March

Making short stops a little more frequently now to check out where we will return another year when we have more time buy now heading more northerly  to where we want to spend more time. 

The French islands do seem very organised and more “upmarket” and checkin and formalities are so much easier to to say cheaper in the least. The British isles are so expensive customs 40 $ and immigration another 30$. Les Saintes 1 Euro and you checkin yourself on their pc's and have a printout for that.

Les Saintes is a group of 5 small islands which are part of Guadalupe a French dependency so the currency is the Euro, at least we recognise the coins there.
So many anchorages to visit when we return again and hopefully spend more time there.

Dominica and Les Saintes are one of the favourite stops so far they will be on our list of places to return to.

Crossings, some have been great others like from Guadalupe to Montserrat and Montserrat to St Kitts reminds us of the med, NO Wind again and fishing markers everywhere. Some of which are even smaller than in the Med, maybe a small plastic coke bottle or a bit of polystyrene about 4 inches normally just above the water. Mind you we did see a battered weather buoy which maybe worked, or not, you wouldn’t want to hit one in the dark even though its only small, I do wish I had taken a photograph.

Montserrat volcano still active

Don managed to catch a huge barracuda but said he didn’t fancy losing an arm and no way was it coming aboard this boat. I did have some amazing pictures but the Nikon has finally given up and lost all the photos we took in Montserrat, the crossing and more so pictures from now on will have to be with the little Sony which is not so good. We are hoping to find a Nikon repair place when we get to the USA.

Friday 8th March in St Kitts

Stayed in the anchorage not far from the small marina so we can take advantage of the dinghy dock, leaving the dinghy on a beach is just asking for trouble.

Yesterday we walked into town and ate at a restaurant above "the Circus"  square its said to be based on Piccadilly circus, it all seems to be very busy and a meeting point and always have traffic. Last night there was so much very loud  music from the streets when we asked why someone said well everyone gets paid on Friday so we "party" we were tired and didn't hear much after 8 at night but when I went to the loo at 4 in the morning it was even louder.

Yesterday we came into the marina and asked where the fuel pontoon was and had a blank look, no fuel in this marina so Don took a taxi to the filling station this morning to organise some fuel which came on a truck on a 50 gallon drum to the marina. 

He also came back with 2 live lobsters which was ok until they decided they wanted to fight their way out of the fridge, they destroyed the bag they were in so I guess they don't like the cold. Dinner was very nice, prepared one at a time in the biggest pan we have which is the pressure cooker, they went down quite well with 2 mojitos.

Yes that is a red phone box from the UK

So our adventure continues on Agua Therapy.

BFN

Glenys and Don

Dominica March 3rd 2013

Here we are in Dominica, Prince Rupert Bay hanging on to a buoy, its a huge bay, since we arrived we have seen lots of boats come and go including a square rigger named Sea Cloud.

Sea Cloud, we spoke to the crew who said the passengers were from National Geographic.

When we first arrived the boat boy Martin came out to help us tie up and has since told us quite a bit about Dominica its pretty obvious he loves his island and has a thriving business organising tours and fund raising for PAYS which helps to provide funds for the security and many of the events here. Tonight we go to the beach barbecue no doubt to try their local rum punch and juices.

Martin took Don ashore to checkin with the customs department.

Each day boat boys come by to see if we want fruit or selling something or some kind of service or other.

Just the beach

Palm tree, seed washes onto the beach and plants itself.

The dinghy skippered by both of us has ferried us in and out of the beach and town dock when we explored the local town and on Saturday there was a local market selling fresh fruit and vegetables direct from the farmers themselves. You do have to check prices for everything here as some will push their luck if they can.

Our courtesy flag with the Sisserou parrot

The national flag has a Sisserou parrot on it which is their national bird. They are roughly the same size as Beaky my bird at home but the Sisserou is very colourful, bright green back, purple neck, green tipped red tail and purple underneath.  If you google it you will get all the info, its an endangered species and only here in Dominica, quite rare roughly 250 are remaining, as one of the hurricanes destroyed much of their habitat.

Parrots habitat in the canopy, so high, what a view!

So on Friday we took a tour with 6 other people into the forrest and to see a couple of tiny seaside villages. We were picked up by boat from Agua Therapy and taken to a minibus the the driver Paul started the trip inland explaining what we would probably see along the way.
Ok if we were told it would involve trekking I would have definitely taken stronger more robust and suitable footwear. Oh well never mind I ended up wading through the rivers and streams while others balanced on some very slippery rocks at least I only managed to go half way in once, up to below my knee and that was when someone was holding on to me.

This was an easy crossing

Milton waterfall 80ft, it made a lot of noise!

A weird tree inspired by Salvador Dali I think

The hike to the parrots habitat was stunning a little climb passing the most amazing trees some huge and enormous ferns, plants that we have at home as house plants. Our guide showed us huge trees that grow to 300 feet or more, they are used to make dug out canoes, some others which are very hard wood which are used for building. Farmers grow coffee trees, cinnamon trees, cocoa, grapefruit, nutmeg, wild watercress, ginger in the ground in fact so many things that we can't remember everything. He explained that most things are used for herbal medicines even marigolds which help when a baby is sick. Almost all of the trees are protected and permission has to be given to cut down anything.

The bananas and grapefruit here are the best we have tasted, and the grapefruit are very juicy.
No photographs of the parrots sorry they move to fast for any of us to take a decent shot but we did see quite a few and heard them too.
We saw tiny humming birds, bright iridescent blue and green, they too are incredibly fast, just like the large bees we see in Spain but slightly bigger. I am determined to have a photo sometime.

Prizes if you know what these are then, zoom in you will see 

Can you see the bird? Its very similar to a hawk

As we were walking away from the hot spring a "rasta" guy was walking towards us carrying a bunch of leaves so I asked him "what are you going to use those for", he said "if I went with him he would show me" I replied err I don't think that my husband would be very happy and declined his offer. I never did find out and I often think "what if I had gone with him"

On the return trip Paul took us into 2 tiny villages both make their living from fishing, in fact in one the minibus could only get in so far. The first one no way can anything pass by the van. All of us did take a drink and a little roll to eat opposite the local post office.

The post office was closed for lunch

During the walks to the waterfall and hot springs at times was difficult clambering over moss covered rocks to say the least but it was all worth it, I did enjoy the dip in the hot spring but so small only 4 of us went in.

This is just across from the beach oh are those reefs and rocks unkind to boats

Guess this poor yacht was beached then

This little guy had his fill with Don's chips

Last nights sunset but wait

The green flash now you have seen it too.
I didn't even see it myself until I had uploaded the picture to the computer, it must have been a split second 

Ok now going to change ready for tonight, we may leave this island soon but I think we may be back sometime.
BFN
Agua Therapy
Glenys and Don

Martinique hmm not bad!

17th –26th Feb 2012 

Departed St Lucia last Sunday after a couple of nights at anchor outside in the bay there were so many yachts at anchor, there is a Sandals resort on the beach which wasn't too far away. 

Sandals

The crossing to Martinique was quite good apart from the swell, it took about 4 hours. Entering the mouth of the bay  could be a little tricky as there are reefs everywhere so thankfully the pilot books and the electronic charts kept us out of trouble mind you it is quite well marked. 

Well what a different place, in fact as you approach Martinique you can see its very lush with plants and trees, the colour of the water is lovely, so our first impression was good. So we wound our way through boats and markers we dropped the anchor in what we thought would be the best protected spot not too far away from the mangroves. The whole place seems to be full of boats, hundreds, some huge catamarans down to tiny monohulls with people living on them.  After being at anchor for a couple of days the wind increased and having made wet trips with the dinghy into Le Marin Marina we decided to take the boat into the marina for a couple of days. 

Looking for lunch 

Martinique is French and uses the Euro, both of us do try our best at times and so far we haven't come unstuck, most of the marina staff speak English and the customs and immigration checkin was easy, you just do it yourself on the computer, click print, hand over 5 Euros and the paper that’s it! Eaten out a few times nothing special yet and a surprising lack of fresh fish, we have seen snails on the menus and frozen prawns that had come from Indonesia. Prices are more expensive for everything I think, I won't even go into the internet rip off. 

So far from what we have seen the people seem much more affluent, the roads are better and we haven't been asked for money unlike St Lucia. I guess by the amount of puddles and mud in some places they always have enough rain.

The marina is huge, 750 berths I think, the office is at the other end from us so its a long walk from the boat but at least its quiet at night, although the kids on wobbly skateboards are beginning to drive us nuts on the wooden pontoon. 

One of our trips into the marina was lets say choppy, the waves and the wind touching 20 knots decided they would half drown us so it ended up  an expensive trip to buy dry clothes and a pair of flip flops. After lunch and few hours checking out the place we collected the dinghy so we could go to the dinghy dock close to Carrefour, well we didn't make it that far, someone had not checked the amount of fuel had he, and then the engine decided she wasn't going any further. Picture this, there we were, no where near the shore or the boat, traffic going in and out was heavy and the sea was lumpy. Don said he would have to row, oh heck it was a dreadful thought, as Don started to take out the oars thankfully another dinghy came by with 2 very kind french guys took our lines and started to tow us back to the boat, well now first boat with 2 hefty elderly guys one driving and steering, the other holding our lines by hand tied to us. Their dinghy stacked with cases of wine and bags of food from Carrefour, their engine was only a 4 HP going at full speed so he could plough through the increasing wind and sea. Then trying to explain by hand signals as neither of us speak French no its not that boat its way over there, I half expected their engine to run out of fuel too. There's me in a new dress, (Don said you will be fine we wont get wet on the way back) oh and never mind the torrential rain that decided at that moment to saturate all of us great!

My dress after the soaking in salt water, oh did the colour run.

Wednesday 20th Feb: Walked about a mile to a bus stop and waited for the bus to Saint Anne, its on the south side of the approach to Le Marin, in fact we passed it on the way. On the bus we passed fields which have huge cows some with calves all very pale skinned which are not at all like ones in the UK.

St Annes church inside a little plain compared to most

We were anchored just outside this pretty lagoon, I think the hotel nearby made this.

The dinghy dock in Point du Bout a little way from where we anchored.

The anchorage looks very wide  and very pretty, real picture postcard stuff. There is a small market everyday that sell spices, rum, fresh fruit and vegetables and gifts. 

Chocolate smells so good

So many to choose from the smells were fantastic

So we moved on to Saint Anne and had a couple of nights at anchor just went ashore twice to look around and bought some of that fresh vanilla peppercorns and choc but have to figure out how to use it now. 

Friday Moved on to Fort de France and although the bay is huge there are lots of reefs and ferries tearing about at silly speeds  finding a sheltered place with enough space to swing can be difficult but tucked ourselves in a corner away from the swell. We caught the fast ferry to Fort de France main anchorage close to the fort which is a naval base.

Don on the ferry wondering how to take the ferry out, this tiny marina is packed

While ashore we met an smashing American couple who were on the boat next to us, they very kindly asked us onboard for sundowners and nibbles. While we sat there watching the sun go down no sooner than I asked Ruth if they had seen the "green flash" (very famous google it) she said they had seen 3 and all recently the sun appeared to have a green tinge and looked surrounded by green, I thought it must be my glasses but I wasn't wearing them. I can hear you all saying it must have been the cocktails, NO it wasn't the drink I had hardly touched mine by then and Ruth saw it too! So I thought that ones for the blog! Pity I didn't have the camera with me

Fort De France anchorage in front of the fort where we are anchored

Don and Mr Grumpy, he stole Dons hat!

Not sure if Don is saying "look into my eyes" or the big guy

Didn't really suit me but it did cover my ears and matched my bra colour

Well what do you think did he buy them?

Went to a mexican place for fajitas and loved the sign.

Come on do you get your fruit and veg delivered like this, the bananas were the best I have ever tasted.

How this thing stays upright and in 20 knots of wind is amazing. However someone said he rolled over in the marina and fruit was floating everywhere

Tuesday:  Moved into the anchorage inside Fort de France and went shopping by dinghy twice to re provision and pop into McDonalds so we could use the internet and of course a mac flurry, nice sitting under the air conditioning but by the time I came out I was frozen and it was way up in the high 30's outside. 

Next an overnighter to Dominica so  I guess we won't be updating the blog or be in touch with anyone for a few days so don't worry.

Back soon

Agua Therapy

Just loving the life!

Don and Glenys