Jan 20–Jan 31 Guadaloupe to Antigua The day we left Rosseau turned out to be a good day to sail, so we sailed right on past our original destination of Portsmouth, Dominica, on to The Saintes in Guadaloupe. As we sailed by one of the anchorages, Jennifer was sure she saw her friend Nell’s boat, Moon Dancer. Even with binoculars Jim and Linda couldn’t confirm the name, the flags, the dinghy, or any other distinguishing mark, so they blew Jennifer off thinking she’d just jumped to conclusions since she’d seen a dark hulled boat. She was convinced though, so after we anchored she made a call to Moon Dancer on the VHF radio and sure enough Nell answered. No need for a formal vision test for Jennifer. She’s got eagle eyes when it comes to identifying boats! Nell and Phil had had a bit of a trying afternoon with boat problems and were happy for the diversion a 12 year old can bring. They came by Opus, we caught up on where we’d both been since Grenada and then they took Jennifer with them to dinner. The next day we headed for Deshaies, Guadaloupe, hoping to find Wendreda and Kiah. We got there in time to help celebrate Peter’s 9th birthday. After a day to play in Deshaies we headed for Antigua and we’re still there. On the way to Antigua we could see Montserrat with it’s smoking volcano. It blow rocks and ash about every 7 to 11 hours now. And speaking of activity around tectonic plates – there was an earthquake in Guadaloupe the day after we left. We didn’t feel a thing.
They say problems come in sets of 3. Well, Saturday, Jan. 23, was our day. It started early. The binoculars fell off the seat in the cock pit and broke into 3 pieces. Super glue is a wonderful thing! A few hours later the auto pilot, that steers the boat at a given compass course, died. This was not an easy fix. Jim jerry rigged it, but it really needs a repair. Luckily it’s under warranty. We just have to ship it off and have it sent back to us – sounds easy, but we have no mailing address and Fed Ex is very expensive! We made it all the way to English Harbor in Antigua and were almost anchored before the 3rd shoe dropped. The anchor was set well and Jim was letting out more chain when a connector piece between two lengths of chain broke. The anchor and 75’ of chain was on the bottom and the boat wasn’t connect to anything. Jim dove for it, but couldn’t find it (murky water). A small power boat dragged for it but couldn’t find it either. Bummer! Anchors and chain are expensive too. We scrapped the search for the moment and pulled out another anchor (an oversized North Hill that we keep for a storm anchor that looks like a big grappling hook when it’s set up). Everything was ready, we were back in the same place we tried to anchor before. The anchor went down, but darn, now it won’t set! It was dragging like it was caught on something, something like an anchor chain. Ours! Full circle – full recovery. After our regular anchor was reattached to the chain and the North Hill was back on deck, Jim put on dry clothes and rowed to shore to check in (and have a few beers). Linda and Jennifer cleaned up the muddy boat and stowed everything that had been pulled out in the last hour. When Jim got back we settled in for dinner and a quiet evening on the boat. Well, it wasn’t quiet. Onshore there was a benefit concert for earth quake victims in Haiti – live music from 6pm to 2am. With that day behind us, things got better and the rest of our stay in Antigua has been great.
While we were anchored in English Harbor on the south end of Antigua, we explored parts of Fort Berkley and the restored English naval yard at Nelson Boat Yard. From there we went to Jolly Harbor on the west side of Antiqua to rejoin Wendreda and Kiah. As we came into the harbor Jennifer used her eagle eyes again and spotted Ventoso. We hadn’t seen our Scottish friends, John and Janet, since June in Culebrita. We had a lot of stories to share over some good meals. John and Janet are both retired teachers so they even filled in as Jennifer’s substitute teachers one morning and managed to turn a composition assignment into a very pleasant experience. Jennifer and Linda both wish they were always close by and could do more of the teaching. School had to continue even after John & Janet left, but if the work got done by early afternoon there was good play time on shore with the 4 kids from Wendreda and up to 3 more in boats at the marina. I think Jennifer would say she had a good time there.
Jennifer’s friend Colette, from Wilmington, NC, has grandparents who live in Antigua and we we’re told we should look them up if we ever got there. Well here we are, so we emailed Agnes and Bob Meeker. Agnes came out the next day and gave us a wonderful tour of the island. She’s originally from Antigua and came back several years ago when Bob retired. When she grew up, sugar cane plantations still covered the island and she could tell us all about the history and economy of the island, pointing out the remnants of the windmills, smoke stacks, train tracks and tressel, and plantation houses. She knew the best places to go for beautiful vistas of the coastline and sandy beaches. She even knew a great place for rum punch and a pizza. It was a great tour and what made it the best was Agnes’s commentary on the history, economy, politics, geography and even geology of the island. We all saw a lot and learned a lot. Thanks Agnes.
Jan 11–Jan 19 We sailed from St Pierre, Martinique to Rosseau, Dominica on January 11, and Wendreda and Kia joined us there. The same day two guys from a French boat dinghied over and asked if we could help them identify a fish they caught. Yes, we could – a huge Spanish Mackerel. “Are they good to ear?” “Yes, they’re very good.” “Would you like some?” “Yes, thank you, merci.” Well, all the kids from Wendreda were playing on Opus that afternoon, so when the French guys came back with some fish for us, they brought 6 good sized steaks! That was a sign that our stay in Dominica was going to be exceptional. With all the kids and Jim & Sharon on board that day, we set a new record of entertaining 9 people on Opus.
Our first morning in Dominica, Jim and Jennifer went to shore to officially check in with Customs. They got to the dinghy dock about the same time a group of local school kids were getting ready to go on a whale watching field trip. To make a long story short, Jennifer was invited to go along for free and came back with a “Save the Whales” T-shirt and pictures to prove she’d seen sperm whales and dolphins. Can it get better than that? Yes it can.
We spent the next 2 days sight seeing using the local bus system for a couple dollars (US) per person plus park entrance fees. We snorkeled at Champagne where gas bubbles out of hot spots on the ocean floor and the coral and fish are great too. Then we took a bus ride inland to Trafalgar Falls where we hiked to 2 lovely waterfalls and soaked in pools of hot water and cold water. The best was a hot water pool with a little waterfall cascading into it that made it feel almost like a jacuzzi. I’ve lost track, but it think it’s been over a year since we’ve had a hot bath in a tub, so that was pretty exciting. We also walked to an area of hot springs and pools of bubbling hot water that were over 150 degrees – too hot to jump into those. Can it get better than that? It did.
We met a Swiss family with a 12 year old son at the dinghy dock that night - Zsolt, Tamara and Amaury. They’re also on a relatively small boat (36’) and we’d seen them in several other anchorages over the last month. We spent the rest of the evening swapping stories about our travels and our kids, how we got here and where we want to go. While the adults talked the kids played even though Jennifer spoke no French and Amaury spoke very little English. They were picking up a rental car the next day and if the car they got was big enough to hold all of us, they wanted us to join them. For the next 3 days we traveled around southern Dominica with all 6 of us in Toyota Corolla. Sounds tight, but we were actually quite comfortable. At one of our stops a bus driver, who had just dropped off a van load of about 8 cruise ship passengers, looked at us in amazement and asked if we all came out of the same little car. Just traveling through the country side here is an adventure. It’s lush tropical rain forest with steep mountains and valleys. The road are narrow, curvy and not well maintained. A sticker in the car advised to stay to the left and beep your horn a lot. You couldn’t see around many of the curves and the road wasn’t always 2 lanes wide. You beep to announce that you’re coming around a curve. The first morning we swam up Titou Gorge, a very narrow gorge that was using in the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean II. In the afternoon we hiked 45 minutes through the rainforest to Middleham Falls, the tallest falls in the Caribbean – too big in get the whole falls into one photo, but an awesome view especially as you swam in the pool under it and looked up at it Being under this falls certainly knocked off any dirt that hadn’t soaked off in the hot pools the day before. The second day we went snorkeling at Champagne again since Zsolt, Tamara and Amaury hadn’t been there yet. It was worth going twice since this time we saw sea horses and even picked them up and held them. We spent the afternoon hiking at Sulfur Springs where volcanic vents are close to the surface and steam bubbles out of the rocks and deposits minerals. It looked a bit like parts of Yellowstone National Park without the people and trails and guard rails. (no geysers though) If you wanted to put your hand over a vent to see how hot it was, you could. There were several large tubs built into the ground where you could soak in the hot spring water after you got finished with the hike. Our 3rd and final tourist day was spent at Ti Kwen Glocho. This was a private tourist attraction in the mountains that started out as a garden in the rainforest where they raised flowers commercially. It was lush and green with beautiful landscaping and flowers, a small waterfall and hotsprings. (Ti Kwen Glocho means little corner of hot water) After 6 years of raising flowers, the owners realized they could capitalize on the hot springs so they added 4 small hot tubs and a very large pool of hot water and a natural mud bath. The individual hot tubs were pretty bare bones – old cast iron bath tubs with hot water piped to them in bamboo pipes. The large pool was quite comfortable and we spent a lot of time just sitting in it enjoying the rainforest. We had a light rain all afternoon, but it seemed the sun was out all afternoon too. This felt more like rainforest than anything we’d seen so far.
We took 2 days to do some routine chores on the boat and recover from all our tourist activity. It was also time for Jennifer to focus on the book work part of her schooling after a lot of days of field trips. Dominica was great, perhaps our favorite island so far, but we’re ready to move on to Guadaloupe in search of Wendreda.
Jan 1–Jan 10 We started out the New Year in Fort de France, Martinique, with 2 full days of rain. After we got that behind us, got the water tanks full and the clothes washed, it’s been nothing but beautiful sunny weather. We also spent time in Anse Mitan, Anse Noir and St Pierre. Most of that time we were anchored near Wendreda so Jennifer, Shelly, James, Martin and Peter could play together. While the kids were busy playing we had a chance to get to know the parents, Jim & Sharon. We’re still awed by how well they manage 4 kids on a 39’ boat!
The beaches in Martinique were lovely and there seems to be something special about the water too. It feels soft – different than other places we’ve been. Maybe it’s saltier? We noticed more people (young & old) swimming in Martinique than any other country we’ve been to. The snorkeling was good at Anse Noir. Besides the coral and fish, Jim found a mask on the bottom to replace Linda’s mask that had started leaking. Jennifer’s been able to combine what she’s learning in her science curriculum with what she sees in the water. One day she scooped up a small squid in her net and had fun watching it in a bucket as it reacted to the edge of the bucket and her attempts to touch it – very inky! Another day she got to examine the sea cucumbers and star fish that were under the boat. Finding the sea cucumbers was a teacher’s dream. We covered those in her science lesson the same day she found them.
We did a little sight seeing on land in St Pierre. The whole town of 29,000 people was wiped out in 1903 when a volcano erupted. It was hot gases, not lava that destroyed the town, so you could see the remains of stone walls and other stone structures that survived and have been used as bases for new construction. To throw in a little more from our science course: most of the Caribbean islands are on the edge of a tectonic plate and are prone to volcanic activity and earthquakes.