For the weekend, we anchor outside of Le Marin in Sainte Anne again so we can snorkel and relax. We are free diving for shells and I've noticed I am getting quite good at spotting Octopus dens as I find a lot of them here. An opportunity which is too good for Michael to pass up on... As an evening passtime, Breaking Bad is finished, so we get started on Black Sails to keep it Caribbean.
The rest of the week is spent in Le Marin, doing some shopping, organizing and tinkering. We attach an extra reenforcement to the bimini top so we can keep the shade cloths up in stronger winds, arrange for a new screen to be made to protect the cockpit from wind and rain and try very hard to get our sail here as soon as possible. We also meet with some Greek people working here that Michael got talking to and subsequently some Belgian sailors who know the Greeks. Got to stay social ;-)
The last few days in Anse à l'Ane were spent relaxing and snorkeling. I found an abandoned anchor on the bottom of the bay and after some effort we manage to salvage it. It is a 20kg stainless steel Rocna anchor which retails for about €1000!! Also, it is about as perfect an anchor for Tortue as money can buy, so we are obviously very happy with it. On the same night Michael also manages to reel in a beautiful snapper for us to eat while bottomfishing. All in all, a pretty successful quarantine. Today marks the end of it though, so we set off immediately for Sainte Anne, but we stop first in Grand Anse for Michael to complete his Divemaster certification at Alpha Plongée. Congratulations, Cap!
As far as anchorages go, we are being spoiled rotten by our current one. Good holding, plenty of chain out, steady eastern winds. Every night, like clockwork, the wind dies and the sea becomes almost a mirror until the next morning. We've been binging on Breaking Bad (another todo list checkmark) and making small repairs and maintenance on the boat. We are allowed to go shopping and do boat work, but for the rest we have to stay on board. Michael has taught me to play backgammon, but I suspect he did that just to be able to beat me at it... Every. Single. Time.
After anchoring, we send our friend Mourad off to shore for some essentials (rum, beer and croissants) and settle in for a sleepy, lazy day and a dinner/rum-tasting in the evening. Surprisingly, we are knocked out around 20h and I'm in bed and asleep by 21h.
Off we go. Projected sailing time ~20 hours. We leave around 10 in the morning for a full day and night sail. Conditions start out absolutely perfect though we need to keep a pretty tight course in order to move with the slightly southeastern wind. The first part between Guadeloupe and Dominica is as great as you can ask for. Sunny weather and a good steady 20 knot breeze means we are surpassing expected speeds. In the lee of Dominica however, the wind drops (as expected) and the more we sail south, the more the wind turns south too (as not expected). It seems Dominica isn't prepared to just let us pass by without a fight. Finally, as the sun goes down, we pass the southern headland of Dominica and the wind turns back to it's normal direction and strength. I have been snoozing off and on since 20h and am ready to take the first shift from 12 to 5. Another hauntingly beautiful night passage with clear skies, nearly full moon and empty seas. So far we've seen one cargo ship as we passed Dominica and we meet another as we approach Martinique, but that is all traffic we see during the entire trip. Finally, at 8am we arrive at our destination of Anse à l'Ane, Martinique. Total time 22h. Not bad indeed. The only moment of excitement on the trip is caused by the snapping of our reefline around 1 am, causing the mainsail to bunch up a bit unelegantly and we probably lose a knot or two of speed, but we can't do much about it in the current seas, so we live with it until we reach Martinique.
Normally we would have left by now for Les Saintes to shorten the sail to Martinique, but strong winds keep us here for another day and we'll just have to add the extra 4 or 5 hours to our long sail to Martinique instead. More reading and snorkeling ensues.
Because we saved a day (or two) by not going to Point-à-Pitre, we take advantage of Felix's onboard compressor to go for a short (probably illegal) dive on Pigeon island. It is the Cousteau reserve after all, what are we supposed to do...? The rest of the day we get a taste of onboard quarantine life. Which isn't too bad considering local temperatures and the availability of a rather large swimming pool over the side of the boat. So reading a book and going for a snorkel takes up the rest of the day.
As we both wake up slowly after sleeping like a log, there are fresh croissants and a baguette on the deck courtesy of Felix (the Danish skipper who we anchored next to). Fellow sailors know what we've been missing on the english islands and we couldn't be more grateful ;-)
After some organizing and telephone calls (my phone and data are useful again in Guadeloupe, yay!) we manage to get the spare part delivered here instead of going all the way around to Point-à-Pitre to pick it up, which saves us a day of motoring up into the wind. Again our Danish friends are key in getting it from the shore to the boat along with some light shopping. At night, we are invited to dinner on "Jelena" with Felix and his family (wife and two kids aged 3 and 1)
Back on the seas again. Feels good. We have a wonderful 10h sail due south towards Guadeloupe and arrive at the Cousteau reserve where we know a skipper who has been there for 7 weeks now. We arrive in the dark and park the boat next to them, using their anchorlight as a guiding beacon.
Before we go there's still some small chores to do, so I spend the better part of a day hunting to refill our gas bottles and doing some shopping, while Michael deals with clearing out and communicating with Guadeloupe and Martinique authorities to clear up what we can expect upon arrival. In the end we can go to Guadeloupe without clearing in and having a spare part delivered to the boat before continuing to Martinique to spend our 14 day quarantine there. Also some days of the transit will count towards our quarantine, so all looks good. Last night in Galley Bay... We're all feeling strangely emotional, especially Michael and Cyril as their extended time together has now come to an end.
As we are looking for the best time to start moving again, we have been invited to the Galley Bay owner's house for an early goodbye dinner (since we can only be out until 18h). Thank you James, for your amazing hospitality! I am also taking the opportunity of constant power and internet to brush up on my video editing skills, so a lot of time is spent reading up and playing around with it.
Nothing to report. Apart from an EPIC tennis match between Hansel and myself... Hmmm, seems familiar? Tomorrow we pick up the boat from English Harbour to sail it back, shiny and good as new, to Deep Bay. At least if all goes as planned...
As it seems our stay here in Galley Bay is coming to an end soon, I took the opportunity to finally update the blog and shoot some gopro footage on the property. Which I hope I can soon show you in a YouTube link somewhere...
Nothing to report. Apart from an EPIC tennis match between Cyril and myself... Moving on.
Slightly hung over back to English Harbour to check on the drying and to visit some yachts on the dry which are for sale. Not yet, but a man can dream... Bad news on the boat front though, we discovered a pretty serious problem with the rudders and so those will both need fixing too... The boat will still be here until the end of the week, but we return to the resort at 17h as there is nothing we can do further and we need to be back by 18h to follow curfew.
The past few days were spent on the dockyard where every afternoon silence descends as people go home for the lockdown and swarms of mosquitoes come feast on the poor souls left behind. We had the surveyor come and inspect the boat and determine what else needed to be done and I met some fellow belgian and dutch yachties in lockdown. Always nice to trade latest news and rumours. But today we can return to the resort as we've done all we can here at the moment and some things need to dry out over the weekend.
After a harrowing, mosquito-filled night, the guys haul out the boat in the morning and start powerwashing the hull. As people are still only allowed to work from 7am to 12am, the boatyard turns into a ghost town again after 12, which is a very strange atmosphere to find oneself in. As I take a scraper and start scraping barnacles from the hull, every scrape rings out seemingly so loud, that I fully expect I'll be arrested for breaking the silence.
The past week has been the same old routine, but news has reached us that tomorrow the boatyards are starting work again. So we obtain special permission from the coast guard to sail the boat down to English Harbour again and set off around noon. In the afternoon we arrive and tie off next to another ship in the dockyard, but as everyone is still under lockdown, the place is like a ghost town. Only the crickets let themselves be heard. And the mosquitoes... Lots of mosquitoes...
Today we celebrate Easter together with a few 'co-quarantiners'. We have a great afternoon drinking beers at the pooltable and playing ping pong and tennis.
In order to add insult to injury, the currents have changed again and the sea is calm as can be. So after taking off the outboard, I take the dinghy out and row to the boat to pick up the necessary tools and head back to the beach, where Marian instructs us on the proper maintenance of an outboard. Together, we manage to fix the outboard and our selfconfidence. High fives all around!
Still the surf is too much for the dinghy, so we swim out to the boat (good excercise) and return with some material to try our hand at fixing the outboard, but we are still missing some tools, so the keyword of the day is 'Mañana'.
For the past few days, we've been looking for an opportunity to get out to the boat and today we made the attempt to get the dinghy through the surf. Big mistake. After a first unsuccessfull attempt, the sea has had enough of our puny efforts and casually flips the whole dinghy and attached people back on the beach after a washing machine like experience for all parties involved. End result: outboard full of seawater, lost pair of sunglasses and a serious dent in our bravado. We unanimously decide this was enough excitement for one day and retire to the rooms to nurse our wounded egos.
In the first week of our lockdown, we settle into a routine to while away the time as best we can. The main activities are gym, tennis and - for me personally - finally getting around to playing Icewind Dale. The day after our arrival here the currents changed and the otherwise calm beach is pounded by the waves, effectively stranding us here as there is no way to get the dinghy through. The boat will have to stay safe on its own for a while. We were confident in our anchoring, but it's still a bit of a worry.
Day 1 of the official Covid-19 lockdown...
Got up at 5am and got back to the boat to sail down to English Harbour. After a smooth motorsail, which I spent mostly sleeping, we arrive. It is an absolutely lovely natural harbour and the look and feel of the place is just great! A yachtie's dream harbour if ever I saw one. Of course the otherwise bustling place is also completely shut down, with none of the bars or restaurants open and almost nobody around. After a visit to the wharf offices, we are quickly convinced we did the trip for nothing... Haha, April Fool's guys, now go back up north. For real, though, nobody was there to do the haul out or maintenance, so after filling up the fuel and water tanks at the fuel station, we head back to Deep Bay. This leg, it's the captain's turn to sleep, while I guide us back to our previous spot. After anchoring again, we grab some more stuff off the boat and make our way back to our rooms.
Over the last few days, things have progressed to the point where we are now almost certain we will be stuck here for an undetermined period. The rumours are that day after tomorrow will be full lockdown, with a 24h curfew for at least a couple days apart from absolutely necessary movements. Unfortunately, it looks as though this will also include movement by sailboat, so we won't even have the opportunity to cruise around Antigua... We were planning a haul out of the boat to get it prepped for further travels and so tomorrow we will still sail down to English Harbour where we made some appointments over the past few days, to see if they can still manage to haul out the boat and at least start the work.
Today we go and visit the resort for the first time and it is amazing. Beachfront appartments, pool, tennis court, gym, wifi connection and today the last guests are being repatriated, leaving only the general manager and his family, a skeleton staff and us on the large domain capable of housing 100 luxury rooms. If it turns out we'll be stuck here for a while, well... , there are few better places to be stuck for sure.
After a 3 hour clearing in procedure which included numerous questionnaires and a temperature reading for all of us, we are allowed into Antigua without mandatory quarantine. Pfew! Our next move will be to go to Cyril's future workplace called 'Galley Bay Resort', where the general manager has kindly offered us all rooms to stay until the situation gets clearer. A million thanks to you, sir! But before we go there, we anchor the boat in Deep Bay right next door and spend another night on the boat to ensure our holding is solid as we'll be leaving the boat for at least a couple days.
The uncomfortable passage to Antigua. Straight into the wind motoring for 12 hours. A bumpy ride on any boat, but catamarans are a bit worse than others... Everyone was thrilled to arrive at our destination, but after anchoring it was too late to clear in, so we prepare for the night in St. John's Harbour. The point of light for the day was the nice Mackerel who liked our bait along the way and who ended up providing a nice meal in the form of Michael's excellent fish stew recipe.
Antigua it will be! The decision is made and we are fairly certain we will be allowed into Antigua, so today we head off to Basseterre to pick up a fellow traveller seeking passage to Antigua and sleep one final, amazingly peaceful night in White House Bay before getting up at 5am the next day.
These past few days have been mostly days of awaiting news and the end of the rains. It's been rainy and (relatively) cold for three days now, which we mostly spent by trying to figure out the next move and binging on Vikings. We do get news from Antigua and we should still be able to use our reservation to get into the island. Still, we're trying to confirm our authorization, before we end up floating between the islands as pretty much all the Caribbean islands are now also in lockdown.
This morning we held a bit of a meeting to figure out our next move. There is a chance we may find some shelter on the island of Antigua, but it is a bit doubtful and will become clearer over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we do stock up on some dried and canned food and make a move out of Basseterre to a, hopefully, quieter anchorage a bit further south. It is only a short while away and we soon drop anchor in White House Bay. A lovely bay with a fancy beach bar and almost no swell. Unfortunately the wind does very strange things here behind the low mountain range and it varies from totally windstill to short 30 second long bursts of 20 to 30 knot winds. Very peculiar. Also our anchor didn't seem to be as steady as we'd hoped as I spot our boat dragging anchor whilst sipping my cold drink. Michael & Cyril head out to reanchor while I do the necessary supervising from the safety of the palm shaded terrace. The hardships of cruising life, I swear...
Today we're starting of with two dives, one of which brings us to two wrecks lying on the seabed at 20m down. Both dives are excellent though, with the other dive bringing us up close to a snoozing nurse shark of over two meters in length. Spectacular creatures! The rest of the day we rest up and bingewatch Vikings.
Upon clearing in to St Kitts, it is immediately obvious that the Corona measures have arrived in the Caribbean. The main port, which was constructed almost solely for receiving cruiseships lies deserted and the customs lady told us that all cruiseships have been prohibited from docking on most of the islands. After getting some wifi access, this is indeed confirmed by some yachting sources. All french islands are closed, even turning away arriving sailing yachts and many other island states have followed suit, leaving us more or less stranded on St Kitts. Still determined to follow something of our program, we head into Basseterre for a look around and then grab a taxi to visit Brimstone Hill fortress on the western side of the island. The fortress lies below the crater of the active volcano and sulfurous smells come and go. Maybe I've seen too many caribbean forts by now, but I'm not too impressed with the visit, though looking at the volcano stirs my hiking appetites. If I can manage, I'd love to hike up the slopes to the top to look out on the surroundings from 1200m up... Maybe another day.
As we expected, today the wind died down completely so we had to motor all the way over to St Kitts. Almost flat seas and 2 knots of wind made it a rather peaceful endeavour, but we were all grateful to shut of the engines upon arrival in Basseterre at dusk. Overall a rather uneventful day, except for sighting some whales a hundred meter from the boat while passing between Statia and St Kitts.
After a rough night and feeling like we stepped out of the washing machine, we set foot on land in the marina of Gustavia. Again, one superyacht next to the other here, no surprises there. What was surprising was that the island seemed in the grasp of the Corona virus mania. For the first time we are personally affected when we are made to wait outside the capitainerie and let in only one or two at a time (and then only the captain). During the wait, we hear from a fellow sailor that Barbuda has apparently decided to turn away even sailboats, denying everyone access. A while later we get the news that our next expected visitors would not be able to fly out to Guadeloupe and also Michael's wife will not be able to join us as she would again be travelling through Paris and with the doubtful situation she understandably does not want to risk getting stuck there again. The rest of the visit to Gustavia is rather uneventful as it is Sunday and the shopping mall that is Gustavia, with luxury boutiques everywhere, stays dormant. We briefly checked the house prices, but quickly decided that €2.5M for a house without a pool was just simply not for us...
Today, we move down to St-Barthélémy. But before we go, we pay a visit to a local shipyard which is hosting a sailor's flea market on it's grounds. Finding no hidden treasures among the offering, we head to the chandlery to clear out and then we head out. We arrive among the superyachts (including Abramovitch's Eclipse, which I had already seen a number of years back whilst sailing the Ionian Isles in Greece) and anchor in the rolly and uncomfortable anchorage just outside Gustavia.
We got up early, determined to take a ferry for a day visit to Anguilla just 6NM to the north of Marigot. Unfortunately, Michael's South African passport was not up to the task, needing an additional visa which he did not have, so instead we hired a car and did a tour of the small island. Starting, obviously by heading up to the high point of 'Pic de Paradis' where we got some nice pictures by climbing a broadcast tower at the top. Next stop was lunchtime on the beach of 'Grand Case' and finally, after driving through Philipsburg, a stop at Maho beach and the sunset bar, which is well known on You Tube as the beach where giant jet planes land straight over your head and you are blasted by the wash of the jet engines.
We spent the day in Saint-Martin getting a bunch of things in order, chief amongst which sorting out our mobile internet access which is not working properly for a while now. So a lot of time is spent in the telecom store and other assorted shops and chandleries.
After a walk around trying to get Michael's mobile hotspot working again, we walk up to Fort Louis for a nice panorama on the bay. Afterwards, the Karamanofs need a fix of the Champions League in a local bar while I stay on the boat to finish up the blog (and have a loooong siesta because I'm still feeling the nightsail in my bones).
Even though the conditions were very good, the boat still makes a lot of noise going at 6 knots over the waves of the Atlantic, so not a lot of sleep is had during the night. As I get up in the morning we are just passing Saint Barthélemy with Sint-Maarten straight ahead. It is still a good 6 hours to get to our destination on the north side of the island, but we've made excellent headway. Right as we pass by the most famous beach on Sint-Maarten, right behind the runway of the international airport, I land my very first fish after almost 2 months of being on the boat. Hurraj! After we anchor in the bay of Marigot, we take the dinghy out for a tour around the big lagoon on the western part of the island, also known as the biggest superyacht garage in the region. The amount of wealth gathered here does not seem to impress everyone, though.
After a night in the reserve, we head up to Deshaie to clear out of Guadeloupe to make our way up north to Saint-Martin / Sint-Maarten in the late afternoon, bypassing all the other islands in between for now. We plan to visit at least some on our way back down over the coming week or two. The nightsail is an amazing experience with the best conditions for sailing yet. Winds are steady from the east-southeast between 15 and 20 knots, giving us a wide beam reach and an average speed of 6 knots during the entire sail. With the three of us the shifts are only 4 hours each and I take the first one.
We leave the bay early to go up to the Cousteau Reserve where Cyril and me have a dive planned at 13h. A bit disappointing really as the landscapes we are diving through are quite uninspiring, though the fishes are a lot bigger than elsewhere. There is an underwater hot spring which is kinda neat, but all in all I'm a bit let down. Hopefully there are other dive sites around which will live up to the reputation of the reserve, but those will be for another day as we move on tomorrow up north.
Enough time spent in Point-à-Pitre, it's time to move on, so we head south first before rounding the southern cape of Basse Terre and then turning north again. Right as we are rounding the cape, Cyril lands a beautiful Mahi Mahi. Much to the delight of everyone on board since this is an excellent eating fish, free from the risks of Ciguatera. Soon it is expertly sliced into sashimi which is devoured with mucho gusto in an amazingly peaceful bay near Marigot.
After all our running around over the past few days, we have a lazy day on board whilst Michael visits the doctor. Since I haven't yet posted a picture of our new dinghy with it's cover, here you go.
Today, Michael is really feeling bad, so he decides to stay behind on the boat, while Cyril and myself head up to Sainte Rose again to visit the Reimonenq distillery. After the visit we drive around the western side of Basse Terre and return via the road passing through the middle of Basse Terre. We have to drop off the car at the airport in the evening and make our way back to the marina with the help of a friendly local and €10.
Today we still have the car and we drive around the western part of Guadeloupe, called Basse Terre. It keeps surprising us how big Guadeloupe is in contrast with the other islands we visited so far, but we make it to the Chute de Carbet for a hike in the mountains. Michael, not being well enough to go hiking, stays around the entrance as Cyril and myself hike up to the waterfall and back in less than 3 hours. Cyril does this on flip-flops to the astonishment of all the well equiped hikers we pass along the way. After the walk we head back up to Sainte Rose where an ex-colleague of mine is vacationing with his girlfriend and we spend a lovely evening with them before heading back to the boat.
Michael woke up with a pretty bad cold today. No Corona, we are sure, but still it will change our plans to go diving in the Cousteau Reserve since you can't dive with a cold and this one seems settled in nicely. Anyway, first we do take Cyril and Leo on a drive around the eastern part of Guadeloupe, Grande Terre. We visit Saint-François, the eastern tip of the island and Le Moule in the north before dropping off Leo at the airport in the evening.
Not every passage can be smooth sailing, I suppose. It starts off rather nice with sun and a nice breeze, though it is unfortunately on the nose, so we have to motor a bit. Then a few hours later as we finally change course to allow us to sail up the coast to Point-à-Pitre, the wind picks up and so do the waves. On top of that we're stuck in some kind of 'fish trap minefield'. Everywhere we look are the telltale bouys, made of empty bottles or canisters, that indicate where a fisherman has lowered a fish trap to the seabed. Our sail becomes more of an obstacle course and, because of Murphy, at a certain point during maneuvering our main sail decides to just drop down into it's lazy jack, possibly feeling rather lazy itself... We decide we had enough and pull in the genoa and motor our way out of the danger zone and into the harbor channel. To be told there is no room in the marina for us. One of the largest marinas in the Caribbean does not have space for a visiting boat for a couple days. It's busy here, Folks! We decide to anchor across the channel from the marina and once we're set and a little fed, Michael and Leo hop in the dinghy to make their way to the airport to pick up Michael's eldest.
Unfortunately we can't prolong our stay in Portsmouth as we need to get going. So off we go for another smooth passage to Les Saintes, where this time we anchor in the lovely but small and rolly bay of Terre-de-Basse. I take it upon myself to jump in the water, armed with snorkel, fins & handbrush to try to clean up the hull a bit. Good excercise! I highly recommend trying it for yourself...
Turns out we know the bay better than we thought. In the daylight we can pinpoint our anchorage as being almost the exact same place as last time. In the dark... Well done us! We go ashore to clear in for a day to give Leo the opportunity to see a bit of the island and after a slightly less smooth clearing in process than last time (...), we head to the Cabrits for a walk at the fort and afterwards visit the Indian River again. This time in the company of three jovial Norwegians. Needless to say our stay in the 'Bush Bar' is quite a bit longer than last visit...
We head into Saint Pierre for some last minute groceries and clearing out before we set off on another beautiful sail up to our favorite anchorage in Dominica, Portsmouth. Again we need a bit of motoring once we are in the lee of the island, but otherwise fine. We will be there only after dark though, but no worries, we know the bay very well by now. An immediately successful anchoring later, we go for a quick dinner at C&D's on the beach right across from the boat. During the voyage, I also managed to put together a diving video for Leo as a memento of the diving in Grand Anse.
Time to get out of holiday mode and sail up to Saint Pierre on our way up to Guadeloupe where we need to be by the 2nd of March to pick up Michael's eldest son. A more pleasant sail is hardly imaginable. The sun shines in a blue, almost cloudless sky and we are finally able to put some sail out (except for 1 reef in the main). Only in the afternoon we need to help a bit with the motor because the wind died down. We arrive in Saint Pierre late afternoon and take a stroll through it's streets. The sunset is spectacular (no green flash yet) as we go for a meal in town.
The past few days were spent in holiday mode. Diving once a day and relaxing (or studying for Divemaster exams for certain people) for the rest. We had a lovely, rum-fueled evening with some nice folks we met during the dives (fellow yachties). A couple from New Zealand and a German couple out on their own great adventure. All of them in their 30's and taking time off like myself.
We make use of the car which we still have until the afternoon to go on an excursion to the East side of the island. More particularly for a visit to the ruins of Chateau Dubuc at the tip of the peninsula. An old, ruined estate that used to produce sugar in the 18th century, set in a beautiful spot on the Atlantic coast of Martinique. Early afternoon we do return to the marina to drop off the car and we then head off to our well known diving spot at Grand Anse d'Arlet where we drop anchor around sunset. It feels a bit like coming home already :-)
This morning was still spent putting on the dinhy cover securely with some velcro straps, which also needed to be glued to the dinghy with special two component glue, but the result is looking very nice indeed. Around midday we hop in our car and go visit Habitation Clément (one of the many rum distilleries on the island). Purely for culturally relevant research purposes of course... Then we end up in Le François for a taste of the carnival celebrations and finally return back to the boat.
Since we are now safely tied off at the marina it's again time for some maintenance work on the boat. The hydraulic steering needed some TLC as well as the windvane at the top of the mast. The nicely finished dinghy cover arrived and we replaced a broken zipper on the mainsail cover with a nice new one. In the meantime I've also got us a car from the rental place nearby and around 20h we head to the airport to pick up Leo.
Continuing the saga, it appears that only Michael's son Leo will join us (travelling with a Greek passport) as the officials in Paris won't issue the necessary additional DOM visa at such short notice. A lesson for all non-european passport holders wanting to visit the French Caribbean islands! On our end we spend another day trying to organize some more maintenance on the steering system and also trying to get a berth at the local marina. Also we need a car to do some chores and excursions the coming days, so we're looking for a good deal there as well. After lunch we receive word we are welcome at the Marina Z'Abricot in Fort-de-France, so around half past three we head there and take our designated spot and we can relax again after all our anchoring worries.
We can safely say today is another disaster day... Michael received word from his wife that they were stuck in Paris because as a South African resident, just having a Shengen visa isn't enough for Martinique and Guadeloupe. So she travelled all the way from South Africa only to be turned back in Paris. We spent all morning trying to help however we could by researching what we could and calling around as much as we can, but finally there is only so much we can do from where we are. In the end it's up to the administration in Paris whether they can still issue the additional stamp or not. So around 1pm we head off into Fort-de-France to do some chores and have some lunch. When we come back it seems to me our boat has moved closer to shore... Hmmm. So we haven't been back 5 minutes on the boat as another dinghy arrives and a friendly Polish chap informs us our boat had been dragging anchor out to sea. Barely missing several other boats along the way. Our kind saviours managed to get on board and reanchor the boat closer to the fort. The only problem now is they put out a lot of chain and the winds so close to the fort do crazy things, so we're swinging around like crazy. As Michael went and headed back into town, I was on active anchor watch for an hour or two before we finally reanchored again a bit farther out. What a day...!
Early start today as we're out of Portsmouth by 6am and set course South. Seas are again pretty rough, as they have been for over a month now. Still winds of 25 to 30kts and a swell of about 2 to 3m. Nothing exceptionally wild, but we haven't once sailed with less than 2 reefs in the main... Suffice to say we made excellent progress and we anchor off at fort St. Louis in the Baie des Flamands (fitting) around 6pm. Just before sunset.
We're heading back to Martinique with a stop for the night in Portsmouth. Set off from Les Saintes around midday and had a wonderful sail back to Portsmouth where we were greeted by the local welcoming committee. Charming :-)
The past two days have been remarkably similar. In the morning leave at 8 to row ashore, then 40 minute walk into town and go diving. Then walk back 40 minutes and row back out to the boat to have lunch and do some excercises. Then spend the rest of the day trying to recover from this gruelling schedule and bingewatch Pillars of the Earth at night. Good times :-)
2am and I'm awoken by a squall passing overhead. Decide to check up on deck to find our neighbours dragging anchor dangerously close to the rocky shores of the island. Luckily they are also on watch and respond to the situation. I watch them try to reanchor dangerously close to us and am worried they've crossed our anchor chain. They are still dragging and come close to 1 boatlength off of our bow before I go to the fore and tell them kindly to go bugger off somewhere else... They do take the hint and anchor a bit farther out on a good distance from us. Back to bed at 3am. When daylight comes three hours later, I turn around and try to fight off the light, but it's a losing battle... So snorkeling around the bay and then we move to a mooring bay on the next bay of Petit Anse where we row the dinghy to shore and walk into town (a 40 minute walk) to go book a dive and see what's what.
It is the moment to say goodbye to Dominica. We are off at 10 to go 25nm up towards Les Saintes, a small set of islands directly South of Guadeloupe which were once the setting for one of the most important naval battles of it's time. The Battle of the Saintes in which the fleet of the Comte de Grasse was soundly defeated by the british under Baron George Rodney. A historical fact strangely absent from the entire island... Weird :-)
Upon arrival all the mooring bouys are already taken and we search ourselves a place to anchor at Anse Grawen on the Soutwestern side of Terre-de-Haut. We are alone there until around 5 in the afternoon another catamaran finds a spot next to us.
Since we had the car until 10am, we profitted by taking a quick drive up North to the Nortwestern point of Dominica. Afterwards we decided to walk back along the beach to where our dinghy was a good 2km further, in order to take a look at the stranded husks of different ships deposited on the beach after one hurricane or the other. Michael took the opportunity of scavenging a part that we could use off of one of the derelict craft (we did notify the owner and paid for it squarely!).
We rented a beat up old Suzuki Vitara to go around the island and walked the Syndicate trail and saw Syndicate Falls and Trafalgar Falls before heading into Roseau for drinks and dinner. Beautiful spots again, though the falls failed to overwhelm me. Madeira has inocculated me a bit I think...
Bad weather again. I'm beginning to think the geography of Portsmouth is partially responsible for the never ending showers. Anyway, no real issue in the tropics. So off for a walk at Fort Shirley in the afternoon. Beautiful spot and I saw a lot of the native lizards and even a little snake. In the evening the P.A.Y.S. (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) guys organized a barbecue which was a nice opportunity to socialize with the other yachties around the bay.
A little intermezzo about Dominica. It is an interesting place with a troubled recent history. The total population is about 70000 people, but over half of them live abroad after Maria hit the island in 2017. This leaves just about 35000 people on an island only marginally smaller than Martinique. They no longer enjoy any financial support by the UK and don't have the advantage of being a tax haven economy, so you can imaging that taxes alone here don't go very far. On top of this, it just keeps getting pounded into the ground by hurricanes every few years. As a result the infrastructure is poor and most of the island is just jungle.
And it is almost entirely 'unspoiled'.
It has been a rough night. Squalls coming through the bay kept me up every couple hours and I woke up to this here beautiful sight. No worries, 30 minutes later our dive boat is picking us up to go diving anyway. No trouble with the rain underwater. It does mean no walks or further discovery of the island this afternoon... Ah well, off to the beach bar to write this here blog then ;-)
Starting off with excercises, followed by a relaxed morning. We're both still a bit weary from our nightly crossing. In the afternoon we went and set up a dive or two for tomorrow morning. Then met some other yachties in the beach bar where we're anchored and we invited our neighbours over for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening swapping sailing stories of all possible seas and situations. It's clear our neighbour has led an interesting life judging from his stories. At the same time we get an introductory lesson into why the rum is always gone when sailing in the Caribbean. And they still had to row themselves home too... ^^
I wake up to a grey and wet morning with Michael at the helm and motoring towards Portsmouth. During our passage my cabin got drenched because I'd not secured my little window on the side of the boat, so I went to sleep trying to lay on the driest parts of my bed. Fun! Luckily, after we anchored, the weather started to clear up and as we went to shore to clear in to Dominica things had started drying quite nicely. Clearing in was an easy and painless process which took maybe 30 minutes and 15EC and with that out of the way, we headed into Portsmouth to take a look around. It is a change from Martinique. Dominica is much poorer and, I hear, much more representative of the other Caribbean islands. Even so, I quite like the atmosphere here. People are rougher, but friendlier and the towns, while admittedly not much to look at, are smaller and less ... European (the best word I could come up with at this time). After walking around a bit and buying some fruits and vegetables from the local market, we head back for lunch and a much needed siesta. Around 16h, our local guide and 'boat boy' (although more of a grandfatherly type than a boy) took us for a row up the Indian river to visit Portsmouth's greatest tourist attraction: The river and little shack that's left over from the production of the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Even though a bit of a tourist trap, the river is breathtakingly beautiful and I can only imagine what it must have looked like before Maria destroyed much of it in 2017.
In the morning we finished off some loose ends: I got a key made extra for the lock for the Dinghy because Michael had lost the spare a couple of days ago in Grand Anse, we topped up our water tanks and had the girl of the dinghy cover come over to take measurements. A celebratory drink to mark a successful marina stay and off to the capitainerie to go clear out of Martinique. By 15h00 we are on our way out of Le Marin and setting course for Diamond Rock. Afterwards the course nears 360° as we head up North along the leeward shore of Martinique for our first real passage. I'm on first watch from 20h00 to 02h00. It is a beautiful night with a near full moon and easy going on a nice beam reach with about 15kts of wind coming from the East, giving us a nice 5kts speed. Then as we pass the North cape of Martinique and enter the channel between the islands around 00h00, the real sailing starts. Winds pick up to 25kts with gusts of 30 and later 35kts and the speed averages 7kts now with peaks of 8. I'm alone on the helm surfing the waves and watching the moonlit sea and generally having a blast. Even so, I'm happy to be able to go to bed at 02h00 when Michael takes over for the next 6hrs and probably until we reach our destination.
The list of things done is starting to look pretty nice: 1) Both engines services 2) An electrical problem with the port side engine fixed so it charges the batteries properly 3) We fixed the generator which hasn't worked since before the Atlantic crossing 4) Gave the dinghy a wash and made an appointment to have a cover made for it out of some old canvas 5) Put in some fishing gear for maintenance 6) Went and looked at some second hand diving equipment; and although it wasn't our original plan, we decided to spend an additional night in Le Marin because we're both too tired to set off for Dominica tonight. Tomorrow afternoon we go!
It's Michael's birthday today, so we'll have a drink tonight, but first we decided to take the dinghy to shore and walk 2,5km to Les Salines. Beautiful walk and a great beach, only already quite busy at 10am. Then motored into the Marina and started working on the boat. Cleaning deck, sorting out the anchor winch and fixing the alternator on the primary engine. This took the afternoon, but we now have a working anchor winch again (hopefully for the rest of the trip) with the added bonus of having winch control at the helm! Excellent. Afterwards some necessary shopping and then a birthday meal and drinks for the birthday boy.
We had a relaxed sail down to Sainte Anne where we dropped anchor in the bay and went for a spearfishing expedition. We took the dinghy out towards the shoreline, but the sand and currents made it so visibility was almost zero. No fresh fish today. Tomorrow we'll have a berth in the marina as of 12:00.
The last day here in Anse D'Arlet. Tomorrow we will move back to Sainte Anne in order to go to Le Marin on Monday morning, for another try at appointments with some mechanics and to get the anchor winch sorted out. Also the last dive for now in the afternoon. In the morning I took advantage of the facilities at the dive shop to edit together a video of the dives of the last few days. Who would have thought that the first video on this sailing trip was going to be a diving video...? Link to the video here.
Spent the morning working on this here fine timeline. Went for another dive in the afternoon where I got up close to another big sea turtle. I uploaded the video here on YouTube
Got up at 6 to be at the diving shop at 7 to go to Diamond Rock to dive.
What an excellent dive. Beautiful surroundings and three giant sea turtles to gawk at.
Morning was spent finishing the last exams for the PADI certification. I am now certified down to 18 meters. Fantastic. In the afternoon I did my first true recreational dive.
No diving today. Chores on the ship. Attempt #1 to fix the anchor winch. Studying and doing the Padi exams part 1 and 2.
Sunday. The day of our Lord, where everybody goes to church and rests for the remainder of the day. Except for a large number of Martiniquais who all came down from Fort-de-France in their speed boats and on their jet skis to turn this lovely, idyllic bay into a madhouse. They line up in front of the coast side by side, each boat blaring different music, resulting in a cacophony of mingled sound. All the while the jetskis are zooming around causing a tonne of wake and getting cursed by all the yachties. Finally around 22h (which is late by Caribbean standards seeing as it's light by 6 and you're usually up and about by 7) the last stragglers head into the darkness of the sea to return, slightly drunk I'm sure, to wherever they emerged from.
Day 3 of Open Water Diving Certificate. I am now done with my 6 dives required and now have to go through the online course material in order to obtain my certification. So I'll be studying for the next days whilst doing a maximum of 1 recreational dive a day.
Got up at 5.30 to go to Le Marin only to find the office of our mechanic closed and him unreachable on his phone. Did catch a nice Mackerel on the way so had a very nice lunch. Oh yeah, and the anchor winch shorted out somehow and started pulling up our anchor at 1 in the morning. So any anchoring is now done by hand...The trials of boat life. Anyway, not being able to do anything there we head back to Grand Anse in the afternoon.
Day 2 of Open Water Diving Certificate. Really enjoying the course and turns out I have a knack for it. Having a good constitution from running means I'm naturally conservative with my air and the rising and falling motion while breathing underwater is something that feels pretty intuitive to me. Pretty happy about all of it and of course the underwater world here is pretty amazing. Unfortunately we have to head to Le Marin tomorrow to do some maintenance...
Day 1 of Open Water Diving Certificate. For the next few days I'll have two dives a day in which I'll learn the practical things I need to know to dive. We will need to head back to Le Marin on Friday for appointments for maintenance, but we'll be back on Saturday to finish the course.
Bussi's departure day. First thing we walk him to his taxi and bid farewell. Then it's back to the boat and deal with anchor winch issue. Do a bit more shopping and get ready to go. In the afternoon we can finally get out of that fucking marina. We need to be in Grand Anse D'Arlet because tomorrow the diving course starts. We enjoyed a beautiful sail up to it and arrive just before sunset. Anchored, ate and went to sleep.
Hectic day in Le Marin where nothing seemed to work out. Me and Bussi tried to fix some dents in the boat, but the Polyester fixing kit did not want to work. Then we tried to fix a new cable to the anchor without success (had to have an electrician come out to look at it in the end). Unable to book a rental car for Bussi to go back to the airport, because all the rental places close at 12h and don't open again in the afternoon. Don't ask me why. In the end we gave up and instead invited over Carl (an English solo sailor) for dinner and stories.
Disaster strikes. Woke up and during breakfast Michael posed the dreaded question: "Guys. Where is the dinghy?" Whether it was stolen or just came undone in the night we'll probably never know, but the dinghy along with outboard motor, fuel tank, dinghy anchor and chain are all gone... What a way to ruin the morning. So today we'll not have the planned snorkeling and visit to Saline, but instead we'll head back to Le Marin to go see about a new dinghy...
Le Marin is the largest marina in the west indies so we took advantage to go provisioning in the 'centre commercial' (Carrefour) which you can reach with your dinghy. There is a dinghy dock right next to the store. Did some waking up with a coffee and pain chocolat in the boulangerie. Then back to the boat to get in line for fuel. Only to find that the guys went on their lunchbreak until 14h. Tied off alongside a beautiful Amel 55 and waited until they got back. After fueling up, motorsailed around the corner to Sainte Anne. Anchored and took the dinghy out to the pier. Took a look around the center of town and walked over to the bungalow where I stayed 16 years ago. On the way back, had beer and ti punch and went back to the boat where I made pasta with pine nuts and Michael made bananas flambées for dessert. Some rum and a cigar to finish off the evening. Life is tough...
Starting with excercises and a swim. Then back to the diving shop to finalize arrangements for diving. I'm going for PADI Open Water Diver and Michael wants to finish his Divemaster course. Afterwards motored to Le Marin because the wind came straight ahead and we needed to be there to inquire about repairs and maintenance for a bunch of stuff. Grabbed a cold one in a bar and headed back to the boat where we finished off the rest of the Octopus and grilled the other fishes caught by Michael.
Started our excercise regime today (a 30 day push up challenge as well as sit ups and planking. Gotta stay active on the boat. Otherwise a pretty lazy day, our only other activity consisting of informing about diving lessons. Grabbed a snack and a glass of wine on the beach bar. Then I took a siesta while Michael went spearfishing and came back with two octopi which had to be processed. This involved slamming them both 40 times against the deck to finish them off and soften the meat. Then remove the mouths and rub them on a rough surface for a few minutes to get rid of excess water from the bodies. Interesting experience.
Got up and had a swim and a shower, then into Trois Ilets town for some shopping, breakfast and coffee. Raised anchor afterwards and sailed to Grand Anse d'Arlet. Perfect conditions for sailing, broad beam with just the Genoa with two reefs and still averaged 5,5 knts. Did our first bit of snorkeling and had some cold ones and a snack after.
Got into town for some more supplies and fishing gear and then went to Jardin de Balata with the Taxi Communal. After the visit we left F-d-F and motored across the bay to Trois Ilets. Took us 3 attempts to anchor but finally we're good. Played some guitar and went to bed early. Being outside all the time takes some getting used to.
Woke up with a slight headache but otherwise unharmed after my first night on board. Slept great, but was awoken a couple times by the rainshowers which are falling every hour or two. The weather is pretty shitty by Caribbean standards. Went shopping in Fort-de-France and rested for the rest of the day.
Took superexpensive taxi to Fort St Louis. Finally met Michael after just messaging and talking over WhatsApp. Spent the day getting settled, lazing around, adding my belgian flag to the crew flags and having a lovely, yet way too drunk, evening with fellow sailors Christoph, Alejandra and their 3 year old daughter Lena as well as Bussi (our German fellow crewmember) and Michael. Learned that Michael is an excellent cook! Hurraj! :-)
Departure day!
Travel to Charleroi to take the flight to Martinique where I arrive in the airport only to find the boat delayed. Booked a B&B to stay for the night. Met 'Paco' & Melissa, two fellow travellers stranded because their boat is stuck in Dominica.
Cut off my hair
Donated ~30cm of my locks to Kom op tegen Kanker.
Happy New Year!
Dinner with family.
Celebrating New Year's Eve with friends.
Last day of work in Belgium.
Goodbye to all my colleagues @ Ingenico.