Bequia and Carriacou

St. Vincent is an island more like Dominica. Intensely green and not very developed. It also goes straight up from the sea and so the anchorages are reportedly difficult. Therefore, we by-passed it and headed straight to Bequia. Bequia has an active whaling station and locals whalers can take four whales a year (although it was noted that some years they do not get any). This reminded us of a certain B&B in Ocean Park, WA!

Wonder if there is a message here???

El Capitan!

I think this might be the most up-hill road of all of them.

When we left Bequia we sailed by the Tobago Cays and other Southern Grenadine Islands. Most are either privately owned, or a part of the National Park and uninhabited. All beautiful, although we were hit by a series of squalls during the sail and sometimes visibility was limited.

We anchored at Tyrell Bay, Carriacou next to this establishment. Carriacou is part of Grenada so we cleared customs here. This island is sparsely populated and has a long history of boatbuilding. It also has Simon, the boat vendor with wine. He had a good Chilean Merlot featured the day we arrived, so I bought a bottle. Like many other islands, one hurricane or another has touched it through the years. This area was devastated by Hurrican Lenny but is springing back to life.

Leaving St. Lucia

Overlooking Rodney Bay from Pigeon Island, we sighted the Brig Unicorn - 136 feet long and supporting 15,000 sq. feet of sail. Glad I am not a crew on this ship so I do not have to climb masts! The Unicorn was featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as the Henrietta. Now you can be a pirate for a day, if you take one of the tours on the Unicorn.

Yes, Pigeon Island has Fort Rodney protecting the bay. Fort Rodney has a bit more recent history in that it was used as a U.S. Signal Station in WWII. From here, you can see Martinique to the north and all the way down the coast beyond the Pitons to the south.

Pigeon Island National Park is also famous as the mainstage venue for the St. Lucia Jazz Festival. We were there the day after the final event so saw the clean-up detail hard at work. There is a beautiful view of the water behind the stage. It seems fitting this area should be so identified with music and entertainment. In the 1960's, a wealthy singer Josset 'Ma Snowball' Leigh of Britian's D'Oyly Carte Opera Company retired here. Reportedly, she had the run of the island, led quite the bohemian lifestyle and had lavish parties where she entertained a constant parade of A-list houseguests.

A toast with local beer to St. Lucia.

After leaving the hustle and bustle of Rodney Bay, we anchored off Vieux Fort, St. Lucia. We shared the anchorage with local fishing boats and no one else. Hard to remember the last time we were the only pleasure craft in an anchorage. This was a beautiful place with calm waters. We had a good rest before heading down St. Vincent and onto Bequia.

St. Lucia Tour Part Deux

Jean, Jonah and me exploring a roadside attraction.

We did not go out of the vehicle to get a better view of this roadside attraction.

Just a street scene.

Jean and Allan with the Pitons in the background.

Our guide at the sulphur springs.

St. Lucia tour

When we arrived in St. Lucia, we met Al and Jean sailing on Ryen's Quest from Novia Scotia. The four of us hired a taxi driver (Jonah) to take us on an island tour. One stop was at the Government House in which resides the Queen of England's representive, Dame Pearlette Louisy. St. Lucia is a parliamentary democracy with its own Constitution modeled under the British system.

The Pitons overlooking the town of Soufriere.

Sulfur springs in the volcanic park.

Boiling water in the sulfur springs.

One of many waterfalls in the forest. All the people are there because you can swim in the pool this waterfall forms. Al and I went in and stood under the waterfall - that is the most fresh water I have had on me since I left Albuquerque. It was very refreshing. In addition to many waterfalls, this island seems to have more butterflies than other islands. We see them everywhere.

St. Lucia Evenings

The St. Lucia Jazz Festival is held the first week of May. What started as a marketing event to boost tourism during a slow time period has developed into a major international musical event (kinda like the Water Music Festival on the Long Beach Peninsula!). We sat with people from London, England and from the Ivory Coast who had come to St. Lucia specifically for the festival. The concert on 5/5 featured great shows by the St. Lucia School of Music, 22 year old Irish phenom Laura Izibor, and jazz guitarist legend Earl Klugh. On 5/6 with Caribbean jazz nicely performed by the St. Lucian group, 3M, shown above. They were followed by the incomparable Jean Luc Ponty!

Could he do things with a violin! Great! Great! Great! The festival itself continued through the weekend. Rodney Bay Marina, where we stayed, was filled with French jazz aficionados who sailed from Martinique for the weekend concerts. Restaurants in the Marina had very good live music throughout the week, as well.

Friday, May 7th, we attended our first Caribbean Jump-Up - like a night-time street fair. The streets of Gros Islet, right up the road from Rodney Bay, were closed to traffic. Bars and street food vendors set up and music blaired. Eventually everyone dances in the streets and parties til the wee hours.

This bar gave its proceeds to a local youth group. My new favorite bartender made a heck of a rum punch with "extra strong rum" which is the double strength variety - 80% alcohol. I am not going to be buying a bottle of that! By the way, I am holding Ralph's beer, I was NOT drinking beer with my rum punch.

This woman grilled various meats on skewers and served them with a creole sauce. It was the best creole sauce I have ever had. I asked if she had a restaurant because I could have had some of her food everyday, but she said she did not, she just had her own recipe and only cooked at street events. She was very pleased that her food was so appreciated.

St. Pierre

St. Pierre on Martinique lies at the foot of the Mt. Pelee volcano. This is in the area where the European settlers killed the last of the Carib tribes in 1658. Legend has it that the last Caribs to die cursed the area by asking the volcano to revenge their demise. Instead, the town became known as the Paris of the Caribbean as the years went by thanks to the wealth generated in producing and shipping rum, sugar, coffee and cocoa. This picture shows the entry to the large town theatre. St. Pierre prospered until 1902 when the volcano erupted, killing 29,993 of the 29,995 residents. It is now home to about 5,000 people who have re-built among the ruins. It is now predominantly a tourist area.

Ruins of the interior of the theatre. Ferdinand de Lesseps reportedly stopped here to see a play on his way to Panama while working on his early failed French attempt to build the canal. We read about him when we were in Panama!

One of the two survivors of the 1902 eruption was the murderer Cyparis who was imprisoned in this stone jail cell. Although he suffered burns from the blast, he was able to survive by drinking water that leaked into his cell until he was discovered and sent for medical treatment. Upon recovery, he was released and became an exhibit in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The other survivor was a cobbler who was in his cellar. I do not know what became of him.

Ruins on the waterfront - described on the plaque below. Hope you can read it!

Martinique

When we arrived in Martinique, I had the best gin and tonic ever with the limes from Antonio Banderas! Fort de France is a a bigger city than others in the French Caribbean. Although definitely French, it has more of the Caribbean feel than Guadeloupe or Iles des Saintes. Like the other French islands, it has its church and bell tower which rang off the hours from dawn to dusk. And there are croissants, baguettes, crepes, quiche and great French food to be enjoyed throughout the city.




We anchored right off the old fort. It is not a tourist attraction, however, it is a functioning naval base.

While Martinique has the narrow roads of other islands, there are plenty of cars and buses here. Many of the roads in Fort de France are one way, so it looks as if the traffic flows pretty well. There are several nice pedestrian walkways in the old part of town. We found a couple lovely cafes that served great food/drinks along with wi-fi in air conditioned bliss!

The Schoelcher Library is a metal wonder that was built in France and reassembled in Fort de France is 1889 for an exposition. It is named in honor of the famous French slavery abolitionist. He is a real hero in these lands and each island had something named in his honor.

Dominica

Dominica is a less affluent island than some and has its share of crime. A group of water tour guides in Prince Rupert Bay formed a security association that is funded partly by rental fees collected on mooring balls that they maintain. Rather than anchoring here, we tied to their mooring ball so we could support their efforts (and benefit from their security patrols!).









Each day, we were astounded at the size and number of turtles that we saw swimming about. They were plentiful and were the biggest turtles yet. The bay also featured a nice snorkeling area, a fort, and beautiful swimming beach. There were also many vendor boats who came by regularly to see if we needed trinkets, fruits, vegetables and various services. One of the vendors was the Antonio Banderas fruit boat. I could not find limes anywhere (even at the big Saturday morning local produce market in town). The day before we left, Antonio was coming back from his delivery run to various boats at 5:30 p.m. When he passed by our boat, I asked if he had limes. He said "not on me, but I can get you some" I told him not to make a special trip. However, at about 8:30 p.m, in the dark, we heard a boat approaching. It was Antonio with 12 of the most fragrant limes I have ever smelled. He apologized for being late! I paid his price and gave him a tip, thanking him for providing such beautiful limes. He said, "that's why I am the fruit man".









The building on land, in the middle of the picture, houses Big Papa's Restaurant. One night, Big Papa (who hails from Switzerland) had a birthday party for his son who was turning 18 years old. We were warned that the music would be loud, but loud does not begin to describe the sound! It BLASTED, BLASTED, BLASTED from about 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. Happy birthday, Little Papa!





Andrew "Dede" Nicholas rented us our mooring ball. At that time, we arranged for him to take us on the Indian River Tour. The scheduled day happened to be the day after the birthday party. Andrew, when he picked us up at 8 a.m., told us that he had been at the birthday party and had only one hour of sleep. In spite of that, and the fact that no motoring is allowed on the river, Andrew gave us a great tour - rowing the entire way while describing flora and fauna and telling us all about his country.

The river gets quite shallow and narrow at spots. We happened by a group of women doing with wash at this spot. Interestingly, while St. Kitts has no rivers, Dominica has over 350. In travelling down the coast of Dominica, we found it the most beautiful of all the islands. Less developed than some, it is the most dramatically beautiful. Lush and green, its topography is a fantastic mix of valleys, gorges and mountain pinnacles.

This area on the Indian River was used as the site of a small house with a witch in residence in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie (I think that is the one Andrew mentioned-I don't remember the movies well enough to know). We have seen lots of places on various islands where Johnny Depp and the filming crew have been! We have a new appreciation for the actors who had to brave this heat and humidity with all those clothes on!

Iles de Saintes

From Guadeloupe, we sailed to Iles des Saintes and anchored off the largest town on the largest island - Bourg des Saintes on Terre d'en Haut Island. This is a prosperous fishing village with two storied red roofed buildings with balconies that are decorated with flourishes of gingerbread. Flowers abound in beautiful gardens and homes are furnished with great taste. There is just a bit of a Caribbean feel, but we are definitely still in France. We had one of our best meals yet featuring locally smoked fish, grilled shrimp and tuna with green peppercorn sauce. These islands were never involved in agriculture and so never imported slaves.







Walking is easy on this tiny island although the roads are very narrow and filled with locals and tourists on scooters. We spent a morning exploring the area and various bays on our walk to Fort Napoleon.

Another island, another fort! Fort Napoleon was built in 1867 and is kept in great condition. The grounds contain well maintained gardens that feature various types of cactus.

Everything is colorful on this island.

Guadeloupe

We left St. Kitts on 4/15 and had a lovely sail that day to Montserrat, the island with a currently very active volcano. In 1995, the Soufriere Hills Volcano first erupted. It destroyed the capital city, Plymouth. Much of the island today remains in an exclusion zone and on bad days boats going by get covered with ash. Fortunately, this day, we saw only clouds. However, the anchorage was the worst one yet. The boats were all thrashing about. After one catamaran started dragging anchor, Ralph thought we would need to do anchor watches the rest of the night. It was apparent that neither of us would get any sleep, so we raised anchor at 10:30 p.m. and did a slow overnight passage to Guadeloupe.










We arrived at Deshaies, a lovely fishing village, on a gentle bay. It looked to be a popular spot. There were 40 sailboats at anchor the first night we were there. Viola! We thought we had been transported to a Breton fishing village. It is very French. Each evening, a very good looking, very blonde young man from a bakery came out to take orders for baguettes and croissants for delivery the next morning. The stores have pates, wonderful cheese selections, duck breast, veal, etc., etc. French restaurants abound. The Euro was strong while we were here making it all quite expensive. And the people speak French. We did not hear any Creole spoken here!










There is a lovely river walk in the village and small remains of an old fort at one end of the bay. Right outside of town is the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies with a koi pond, waterfall, flamingos and a lovely trail through a large variety of beautiful plants from all over the world. I think I saw examples of every houseplant I have ever had.

And parakeets!