DOMINICA, BOILING LAKE HIKE, MARCH 2017

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Without doubt the highlight of our time in Dominica was the hike to Boiling Lake and entering The Valley of Desolation! The highest point is Morne Nicholls at 3,200 ft. The Boiling lake is the world’s second largest boiling lake, it is located 5km east of Roseau, in the heart of the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Here’s the history bit, the first recorded sighting of Boiling Lake was in 1875 by two Englishmen, Edmund Watt and Dr Henry Alford Nicholls, working in Dominica at that time. With a Government botanist, Henry Prestoe, they were commissioned to investigate this natural phenomenon. They measured the water temperature and found it to range from 180 deg to 197 Deg F, (82 deg to 91.6 def C) along the edges!!!They couldn’t measure the centre as the lake actually boils, however they measured the depth to be greater than 195ft, 59 metres. It’s thought the Lake is a flooded fumarole, through which gases escape from the molten lava below, rather like a volcanic crater. Yipes…….

Terry, myself, Tim, Gayle, Ronald and Nicol met up at 6am (I’d almost forgotten there are two 6 o’clocks in the day….), we knew we could be hiking for about 6 hours and it’s advisable to start before the heat and humidity builds up and we had a car journey to Rosseau of one and a half hours to reach the starting point. The hike itself was not technically difficult, some sliding down rock faces, and using ropes to lower ourselves down a couple of other sections. Trekking through dense misty tropical forest we could hear parrots and again the curious human call of the Mountain Whistler bird. We stopped for a break at a river called the Trois Bitons, the breakfast river, so called as the slaves would stop here for breakfast as they travelled through the area. Onwards and upwards, the forest canopy is dense and we were grateful for the shade, through the gaps in the trees we could see rainforest mountain peaks all around us. Truly magical.

Then we broke through the forest path and ahead of us was The Valley of Desolation, the forest floor changed from the dense mat of mosses, tree roots and lichens to yellow sulphurous rocks. This Valley was once lush, now it appears to be dead of life, though incredibly, there is a special type of fumarole vegetation which survives here. These plants can tolerate the hot, dry conditions and high acidity, even some ferns can grow here! The wildlife is unsurprisingly limited to lizards, ants, mayflies and cockroaches. Very little kills off cockroaches! Bloody things. We trod rather gingerly over the steaming white rocks covered with sulphur deposits to a small river of bubbling, boiling water. The water escaped from mini geysers running over a bed of hot, boiling mud. Gayle, Nicol and I had brought plastic bags with us, this pale grey, smooth mud makes an excellent mudpack! We scooped up the mud, yelping at times, when we’d scooped a particularly hot lump of mud. Wasting no time, we three covered our faces with fresh, hot mud, this has got to be the most extreme spa we’ve ever been to! It worked a treat too, our faces definitely benefitted from the pure volcanic mud, we didn’t care how much our men laughed at us, we looked gorgeous afterwards!

Wending our way through the barren valley we climbed upwards, taking care along parts of the track where the sides had broken away, I didn’t look down…. We could see in the near distance plumes of steam rising to the sky. We climbed over some rocks into a small area of flat ground, this was a natural viewing platform for the Boiling Lake, which was extremely close! Only recently a sign warning you not to go near the edge has been erected. Apparently, the edge is in fact an overhang. What you think is firm ground is in only a couple of feet thick, under that, nothing……. We took notice of the sign. The heat from the lake could be strongly felt and for a minute or two the surface can’t be seen due to the dense clouds of steam covering the round lake. Then, the balls of steam clear, it’s quite a shock to see this cauldron of pale grey boiling water, the centre of the lake forms a huge boiling bubble which bursts and boils constantly, it’s pretty alarming actually to be so close to it! We had our lunch break there, as the steam rose from the lake, we were regularly obscured from one another, caught in the clouds of sulphurous vapour! It was just incredible.

We had a reward for our three hour hike to the Boiling Lake, on the way back we stopped at a fairy grotto and waterfall which fell into a perfect pool of water heated by the volcanic activity underneath and around us! We changed into our swimming gear and sank into the pool, it was a perfect Jacuzzi as hot water fizzed out between the rocks, all that was missing was glasses of champagne! We took it in turns to lean backwards against the rock and let the waterfall cascade down onto us, the force of the water pummelled our shoulders, loosening the tight muscles, bliss! We really didn’t want to get out, and begin to hike for another couple of hours, however, at the end of the hike, we could all get into another natural pool, filled by a different waterfall, this one would be cool, our feet would thank us! When we reached it, we got back into our wet swim gear, and sank into the soothing, cool waters, and as if things couldn’t get any better, there was a guy selling beers from a cool box by the side of the pool!!!! I’m not making any of this up! How good can life get?!

We rounded the day off by enjoying freshly cooked Marlin steaks at a beachside bar, washed down with beers, then we slept…..

We spent a few more days hiking and exploring Dominica, it’s a stunning island, we’ve loved here most of all the islands we’ve sailed to. It has so much to offer, it’s unspoilt by tourism to a great extent, incredible scenery and mountains to hike through, for all levels, friendly people, true soul food and the sea is clear and full of turtles. It was time to move on though, we have more islands to discover and we need to head south to escape the hurricane season. We waited a couple of days for the strong winds to abate, then after a day of boat jobs, finishing our last bits of laundry, took down the sunshade, tied the Rib to the deck, lowered our wind generator and made the interior of Sisu secure, and got an early night, ready to sail for Martinique when dawn broke.

 

 

 

 

PORTSMOUTH, DOMINICA, MARCH 2017

21.3.17 We left Ilet a Cabrit at 0940hrs in light winds with a light drizzle to sail the 20 nautical miles to Portsmouth, Dominica. We arrived at 1340hrs after a great sail, with full main and head sail, 4 to 7 knots only having to motor when we reached the lee of Dominica. After anchoring up easily on sand and seagrass, we dinghied to the Immigration office, just catching it before it closed at 1600hrs. This time our clearing in was by the old fashioned method of paper forms, in duplicate, then to nearby Sandys Bar for local Kubuli beer and wifi, joining up with Tim and Gayle for sundowners.

Whilst here we hiked some of the 14 separate Waitukubuli National Trails. Tim and Gayle have been here twice before and we appreciated their local knowledge with the trails. There is approx. 184km of trails around the Island, starting at Soufriere in the south ending where we are anchored in Cabrit in the North. To walk the Trails you need a pass, a weeks pass cost Euro 33 each, a small fee for the incredible experiences and awe inspiring panoramas laid out before us when we reached the summits.

On the 22^nd March we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am to walk a section of the Trail. Hiking here is unsurprisingly, nothing like Terry or I have ever encountered. Much of the forest is dense and jungle like with huge buttress trees spreading their wall like roots along the forest floor, securing them to the ground during hurricanes. We felt like we were in a scene from Avatar. We could also hear parrots and Mountain Whistlers, a bird which sounds exactly like a creaking wheelbarrow and also a human whistling their dog. We thought at first it was Tim or Gayle whistling Pip or Gem! Lizards of all sizes ran up the barks of trees and across the forest floor, apparently there’s boa constrictors too, but we didn’t see any of those, though I imagine, plenty could have been watching us……..The terrain was steeply up and down, during our hike we met the owner of the section we were walking. He kindly cut me a walking stick, for which I was very grateful. I was nicknamed Gandalf ……… I can live with that! On the steep, muddy descents my staff and I became inseparable, acting as my brake and on the ascents helping to hoick me upwards! The views are just jaw dropping, raw, wild, luscious and primitive, the scenery really made us realise just how far we’ve sailed, as we could see the Atlantic on one side of the island and the Caribbean sea and other islands we’ve yet to visit on the other side. The finale of this hike was a suspension bridge which Terry enjoyed rocking as I crossed! We walked the last stretch into town and called in at a café for fried chicken and rice, washed down with freshly made vegetable and fruit juices, we had tamarind, rather spicy and beetroot. The people are rightly very proud of their food and everything we’ve had whilst in Dominica has been delicious, fresh and full of flavour. Johnny cakes, a kind of deep fried dough pattie filled with either cheese or tuna were our favourites!

We also made new sailing friends who joined us on our next hike. Ian and Julie, s/v Moven, an English couple and Ronald and Nicol from Holland who liveaboard their boat s/v Fairy Queen. The hike on section 11 was tough going, I was very glad of my Gandalf stick! Boulders, tree roots steep inclines, the ground was clay based, or at least seemed to be, in some areas, but the challenge felt good, one moment we were slogging through dense jungle, the sweat just rolling down our faces, when suddenly the view just opened out before us, like a National Geographic magazine opening at one of its incredible mountain photographs, except this was real! We felt like the explorers, seeing this country for the first time. If you ever travel here, you must do these hikes, make the effort! Just think of how good the first beer when you’re parched will taste, works for us!

Saturday is market day here, the town is full of stalls and banter. It’s a great opportunity to pick up fresh veg and fruit, mainly bananas, I ever realised there were so many varieties! We sampled Ronald cakes named after our new Dutch friend who was the first of us to discover them, scrumptious little pasties filled with either fish or chicken, or sweet ones, glazed with honey and filled with coconut, we tried the lot of course…… Naturally here, the fresh food you buy is whatever is in season, you cook accordingly, we’ve lost the joy in that back home, here they look forward with anticipation as respective fruit and vegetables come into their season. We also bought freshly landed Marlin, Euro 8 for several large steaks of this meaty fish!

Sunday 26 March No day of rest for the gang, in the morning through gentle, warm drizzle we hiked Section 10 and part of 11, this time doing Section 11, the opposite way! The hike took us through banana plantations, walking under immense buttress trees and up and down rocky areas, our legs were worked hard, and the humidity is very high, again it’s so worth it for an experience you will never forget.

We still need to keep on top of jobs, and the afternoon was spent resting after the hike, making water. When we make water I catch up on any laundry. We don’t have regular access to a launderette, in fact that’s a real treat! So I had an upper body workout, washing clothes and bedding in large buckets in the cockpit, hand wringing it all out, rigging up the washing line each side of the boat, and hanging sheets and clothing whilst balancing on top of the boat coach roof!

Sunday night heralds the PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yachting Services) Charity Beach BBQ! In 2005, a group of local boat boys formed a non profit community organisation to improve the quality of the services that they were providing such as water, fuel etc, taxi runs from boat to shore, tours and all through the night they patrol the bay, quietly motoring round our boats, ensuring we are safe. They are a tremendous bunch of guys and the Sunday BBQ’s are legendary, we couldn’t miss out on this experience! Through the day we could see the guys at their PAYS open fronted office and meeting place, sweeping and getting the BBQ area ready. The tables and benches laid out on sand under the large tin roofed area. Terry, myself, Tim, Gayle, Ronald and Nicol dressed up and for EC 50 which equates to around £18 each we had as much fresh bbq’d chicken, fish, rice and salad as we could eat, plus fruit juice and…… rum punches, as much as you wish to drink! The evening was well supported, over a hundred cruisers, the food was delicious, rum punches were innocent tasting but you knew they’re absolutely not…… After the food and plates were collected up, the tables and benches were put away and the DJ, a lad in his early twenties, set up his laptop, put up his speakers and got the party started! Reggae to get us in the mood and then a non stop eclectic range of gotta get up and dance music, pop, Elvis, upbeat Glen Miller, current and local music, the common thread being a beat you couldn’t sit down to! The locals joined in with the cruisers, all dancing with each other and having an absolute blast! These people have rhythm in their genes, they took us by the hands, us girls and the guys too, and showed us how to shake our booties! It was just magic and definitely one of the highlights of our time away. We danced so much our legs hurt in the morning! The PAYS night will take some beating in hosting a well run, good fun night where all nationalities ate, chatted and danced the night away!

Needless to say, Monday was quiet in the bay, the boats rocked gently, and my hips and knees hurt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 – 20 MARCH 2017 LES SAINTES

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We were very kindly given as a present by Alex and Carla, s/v Ari B, a cruising guide to the Lesser Antilles, Grenada to the Virgin Islands by Jacques Patuelli. I’ve used some of his facts and figures in our blogs and the Guide has become our bible. It’s fascinating to see the archipelago of islands on the maps in this guide become reality as we sail. Jacques describes the Lesser Antilles as “a Garden of Eden randomly scattered in a dusting of Islands – offer all the beauties of nature.” A very accurate description, each island has its own beauty.

We arrived in Antigua on the 12^th January 2017 one of the group of islands referred to as The Leeward Islands. We’ve sailed to Antigua, Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, Saba, Statia, St Barts, Guadeloupe, (inc visits to Guadeloupe’s nearby dependencies Les Saintes & Terre de Haut), and the next one we sail to will be Dominica. Of the islands we visited in the Leewards, two are independent ex British islands, Antigua and Dominica, two are French, Guadeloupe and the French half of Saint Martin and three are Dutch, Saba, Statia and the Dutch half of Sint Maarten, each one reflected its political history where it has gained independence or its mother country in the case of the French Islands which are part of France and the EU, it’s been fascinating. We still haven’t got round all The Leewards, we’ll save those for another time!

 

We set off from Guadeloupe at 10am to sail for Les Saintes, an archipelago of six small islands just a short journey of 23 nautical miles. The sail itself consisted of very little wind either end of the journey, to 25 knots in the channel towards Les Saintes. We dropped anchor at 3pm at the tiny island of Ilet a Cabrit, five minutes Rib ride away is the larger island of Terre de Haut. We anchored, put out the Rib and with Tim and Gayle Evans s/v Wildbird we had time before sundowners to have a quick explore of Ilet a Cabrit with its ruined 19c French fort Josephine. The little bay we’re anchored in is 35 metres deep, whilst we have enough anchor, it’s deeper than we’d like to anchor so early next morning we watch a catamaran cast off from a mooring buoy and grab it! At Euro10 a night for a mooring it’s cheap for a secure night’s sleep!

We dinghy over to Terre de Haut. As it’s French there’s several Boulangeries with fresh croissants and baguettes, good restaurants and very nice clothes shops. To clear in immigration we do it ourselves on a laptop in the corner of a lovely boho shop, in between on screen form filling I make a mental note to come back and enjoy some retail therapy, there may not be an opportunity as we travel on and these are my kind of clothes! The town is very colonial, the bars, restaurants and shops are generally prettily painted in a range of pastel and vibrant colours. I point out to Terry some of the more gaudily painted house fronts, he doesn’t seem to agree that bright turquoise walls edged with white bargeboards with cut out butterflies would look as fantastic in St Judes.…… I’ll work on him. The narrow bustling streets are crammed with scooters and golf buggies. The scooters are constantly revving as they progress slowly through the town, slotting into spaces between people and the buggies filled with tourists off the cruise ships, they move slower than pedestrians! Despite the noise and number of scooters and buggies there’s a friendly, chilled vibe and we really like it here.

Terry’s birthday falls during our time here and to celebrate Tim, Gayle, their dogs Pip & Gemma and ourselves have a birthday Bbq on Ilet a Cabrit beach. In true birthday spirit Tim and Gayle deck Terry out with a birthday sash and bright orange flower lau garland! We also have balloons which once blown up, make for a tremendous dog game, and the dogs tear round exploding the balloons as they bite into them. Such is their fervour for balloons that even when Tim tied balloons 12 feet up a tree, Pip and Gem scrambled and leapt up into the trees branches so no balloon escaped, they didn’t care about the birthday boys balloons being popped!

Tim and Gayle were sailing on to Dominica the day after, we would catch them up a few days later, we wanted to explore les Saintes a bit more. Such is the nature of cruising these Islands, no sooner than Tim and Gayle vacated their mooring, Steve and Jody s/v Enaviga sailed into the bay from Dominica! Steve and Jody are also Ocean Cruising Club members. We first met them in Madeira last year, and we’ve bumped into them since then a couple of times, it’s always good to see them, we enjoyed catching up with their ventures over beers in town and dinner on Sisu before they set off for Guadeloupe where we had come from!

Boat jobs always need to be done, and Sisu’s keel was in a very poor state, covered with marine plantlife. Each day here we would snorkel up and dive down to painstakingly scrub away at the barnacles and crap for want of a better word. Whilst Terry used the sucker to hold on with, I tackled the rudder, by diving down and hanging on to it, I could scrub quickly before coming up for air. Finally, she was clean, for a while anyway….

There is a very good launderette here, for Euro10 we revelled in clean and tumble dried bedding, luxury!

We enjoyed our time here, exploring the history of Les Saintes, and, referring to the Guide, the biggest ever naval battle was fought between the French and English in the Caribbean in 1782. The French built a number of fortifications and outposts on these two Islands, and you can feel it as you walk over the parade grounds and especially around the big Fort Napoleon on Terre de Haute. Certainly as we walked around, you can see in the faces of some of the locals, that their descendants were Breton and Norman. We loved the chilled atmosphere of Les Saintes, time to sail on to Dominica.

GUADELOUPE, 9 th MARCH 2017

 

9 March 2017, Deshaies, Guadeloupe in crappy weather.

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In January I left our blog with a happy ending and honestly thought that once we’d reached Antigua family and friends wouldn’t be interested in what happened next. We’d given you lovely readers back home tales of adventure, thrills, fears, tears, and insights into our relationship living with each other 24 hours a day for months. Terry and I thought you’d be satisfied and not be interested in reading any more of our blogs. But no, you’ve asked for more! More?!!!!! More?!!!! I am reminded of Harry Secombe as Mr Bumble in the classic film “Oliver” bellowing this very word whilst peering down at Oliver with a look of total incredulity on his face. Whilst we don’t have a young blond haired cabin boy stashed away on Sisu, nor am I wearing a tricorn hat, I do feel like Mr Bumble, “More?!!! Really? Well, having thought I’d got off the hook and could quietly leave the blog alone, you’ve asked for more so Terry and I will post periodic updates. I enjoy the writing process, and hope you get something out of my blatherings. We’ve had some interesting times since arriving and we’ll pick through those. Not sure where our blog will go content wise but you can rest assured it will be honest, warts and all…… We’ll start at the present to reacquaint ourselves and then go back to bits of what we’ve been up to since we arrived.

 

9.3.17 I’m writing this as cabin fever has definitely set in, it’s the second day of torrential rain squalls and 25/30knot gusts. It’s too lousy for us to get off the boat, so we sit here hoping the anchor will hold. Hardier souls than us have been to shore in their dinghies which are normally hard bottom inflatables known as Ribs. Our friends Tim and Gayle on Wildbird are anchored nearby and have two Patterdale Terriers, Pip and Gemma so they make forays into the wind and rain in their Rib to walk their dogs. We’re running out of UHT milk for tea and coffee, crisis! Alcohol wise, we can manage..….. We’re also down to one and a half bottles of home-made ginger beer, but that’s ok I can make more having stocked up on fresh ginger so we’ve got a mixer for the Rum. But no milk is a serious issue, but not enough of a reason to go ashore if we really don’t have to. This nasty double front roaring in from the North showed itself on a synoptic chart whilst we were in Falmouth Harbour. Antigua was set to cop it so we skedaddled off to Deshaies, Guadeloupe where we are currently sheltering. We had to make a move anyway from Antigua as it’s time to head South. This front is set to last for another day or so.

 

Terry has plenty of jobs to do, so he’s a happy bunny. We set up the wind generator to capture the wind’s power. The wind generator itself is big and heavy, its blades are like black machetes when they whizz round in these conditions. We hoist the wind generator just above the bimini. I go up to the mast and taking a couple of turns on the winch with the rope attached to the wind generator I haul the energy beast above Terry’s head as he controls it with another rope, tying it about three feet above the cockpit. We can’t mount it on the back rail as we need this space for the outboard motor, so fixing it somewhere is restricted to where it’s whirling dervish blades can go and where it won’t slice through sheets and halyards. We look at each other and grimace, if it comes down in the cockpit, whoever is in the cockpit will be beheaded! Plan B, re jig the ropes and hoist it high above the sprayhood, tethering it so the blades can’t slice through the mainsail’s lazy jacks. Plan B works and in between the heavy squalls we haul her up. When a 30 knot gust blows through the bay, the blades safely hiss, hum and become a black blur, power!

Next learning curve. We discover that silicone shrinks in the heat. All sealants tend to shrink in this heat, they dry out more here. Not a problem encountered at home. We find that four silicone filled holes in the port deck now leak water into our wardrobe. At least this foul weather gives Terry the opportunity to fill holes, in between squalls, and I dry the clothes out.

On day two of this rain and winds cabin fever is setting in for me. Terry’s got lots of engineering and electrical jobs to do to keep him occupied. I’ve washed clothes, and hung them under the bimini, threading sleeves through the straps to keep them on the boat. A total waste of time really in these conditions, but when we make water we use the initial not quite good enough to drink water to wash clothes, otherwise clothes washing uses up valuable drinking water. However it was good exercise bracing myself in the winds trying to hang up t shirts! It was too rough to swim yesterday, I’m a strong swimmer, and today the wind eased for ten minutes so I took the opportunity to get off the boat and swim round! Asking Terry for a bailer, I leant over the stern of our Rib and baled it out before the next series of squalls. I got back on board just in time before the seas became wild again, the squalls bouncing off the waves, like smoke on the water. Even the turtles, ever present around our boats have gone for shelter, we’ve only seen one in the last two days, and he didn’t hang around!

 

It’s a good time to practise my bagpipe chanter and get the small pipes out. I run through some tunes I’ve been wanting to learn, sitting under the sprayhood whilst the wind blew around us. Hard to believe, but we have been so busy since we arrived, there’s been little time for music practise!

 

5 March 2017 Falmouth Harbour to Guadeloupe 42 nautical miles

We had a cracking sail to Guadeloupe from Falmouth Harbour. Setting off at 7am with a steady 15 knot wind on the beam. With the main and headsails up we held 6 to 7 knots of speed, just lovely for Sisu. Tim and Gayle Evans in their Trintella Wildbird set off after us, we enjoyed being first for most of the way, their boat is bigger carrying far more sail area than us so in the manner of good sports, we let them go past not that we had much choice! This is the kind of sailing we came here for, steady wind and when we do occasionally get a rogue flick of a wave over the side, it’s warm! A pod of bottlenose dolphins come up to us, there must have been thirty or more. By the time I’d dived down into the saloon to get my camera, the dolphins are moving on. They were fishing so with a quick spectacular show of leaping, the hot sun gleaming off their wet backs, they get back on the job and quickly move on, chasing after their next meal.

We were lucky this day. As we drew near Guadeloupe, about ten miles out, and of course once I’d put the good camera away, I suddenly saw a huge black back of a whale! Alerting Terry, he looked round to see its elegant tail fluke arc and dip back into the sea. I don’t know what type it was, there wasn’t enough time or enough whale above the sea to identify it, it was a big one, dwarfing the boat, that’s the best I can give you.

If that wasn’t enough, a short while later, after negotiating our way through twenty to thirty pot floats barely visible in the water we saw the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen so far. We’ve seen flying fish, had them land on us and on the deck, but this was a bright dark blue fish. Thin like a Pipe Fish, perhaps about eighteen inches or more tall. I say tall deliberately, rather than long. And here’s the weird thing. It ran across the waves!!! Using its tail like feet, it actually ran, skittering fast and for some distance, at least 30 feet, maybe more. Long enough for us to watch it for a short time as it sprinted, we could actually see its tail fins working like feet, I should add here we’d had a dry night prior to sailing, so it wasn’t a case of the DT’s.   Its snout faced the sky, like a runner going hell for leather to the finish line, the fish was putting all its energy into that run. If it had had arms they would have been pistoning on either side of its blue body. When we had anchored by Tim and Gayle, I described the fish and was told it was a Needle Fish. Since doing a bit of research on the world wide wait, the Needle Fish’s flight response is to launch itself out of the water, it can “run” at speeds up to 38mph! The fish occasionally launches itself at humans, resulting in severe injuries or even fatalities from being hit by its pointy, long beach full of razor sharp teeth! Google it up, its bizarre! Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo, we were nearing Deshaies and it was time to focus on getting Sisu ready to anchor, darn it…..

A secure spot to anchor took a couple of goes. We found a sheltered area from the forecasted big swells and gusts coming down from the valley and had to ensure our anchor was embedded and more than enough chain laid out to keep us safe when the bad weather hit. The seabed of the little bay is a combination of sand, seagrass (hence the large turtle population, this is the turtles favourite food) and rocks. Terry chucked on his snorkel and fins and jumped in to check our holding, big thumbs up from the Cap’n, our anchor had dug itself in nicely and the chain was free from wrapping itself round the rocks. Next job when we arrive at most of the Islands is visit the local immigration office. Guadeloupe is a French Island which is actually a Provence of France. (Ever wondered where your EC money goes?) Checking in here is d-i-y and online, and was inside a very nice boho clothes shop, so whilst Terry checked us in on the laptop in the corner of the shop I browsed through the bikinis, dresses and t shirts, excellent! After paying our Euro 4, we met up with Tim and Gayle for very expensive Leffe beers, considerably more than we pay at The Trafalgar on the quay in Ramsey! Not that we drink it often there.

Which brings us to updating our blog. Once the weather picks up we’ll be sailing south again to eventually lay-up Sisu on the Dutch Island of Curacao near Venezuela for the hurricane season, spare time will be limited. In the following blogs we will cover what we’ve been up to since we arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARCH 1 TO 12, 2017

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1 – 12 MARCH 2017

FALMOUTH HARBOUR, ANTIGUA

We meet up once again with Mike and Lulia Brookes, s/v Exultans and enjoy a day out around Antigua including visiting the Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds and watch the England team practise. We’re not into cricket, those of you who are, would have got a buzz out of it I’m sure! England won the next test. We were rather surprised as whilst practising they looked like a load of Dad’s having a bit of a play in the park! The Stadium was impressive however. Tim and Gayle arrived back from Green Island, so the six of us gathered together and enjoyed a very convivial few days exchanging more sailing stories, forging new friendships over sundowners in cockpits and hogging the Marina Skullduggery Bar!

 

GUADELOUPE

We need to begin our migration South to lay up Sisu. Unfavourable winds are due into Falmouth, so, with a one day weather window open to us, we check out of immigration in Antigua and head for Guadeloupe, a short hop of 42 nautical miles. Guadeloupe is a French island of 1,175 sq km with a population of over 420,000. Looking at the map, the island is in the shape of a butterfly, each wing quite contrasting. Grande Terre is largely a plateau of limestone whilst Basse Terre is high and densely forested. It’s an island we shall have to come back to, as there’s hill walking, waterfalls and many historic towns we didn’t get to this time round.

We set off an hour earlier than Tim and Gayle, we had a lead until nearly three quarters of the journey, the friendly racing makes for exciting sail! In two metre high swells with perfect winds we were urged on by a large pod of Bottlenose Dolphins, leaping out and dancing around us. Their presence still lifts our hearts, we can never become blasé when we see dolphins! Just off the coast of Guadeloupe we also saw the short black dorsal fin and wide tail fluke of a whale as she surfaced and dived. I don’t know what type of whale. Humpbacks are seen here, it may well have been one, but without seeing more of the whale, I’m not sure. We also witnessed the strangest fish we’ve seen so far! We were sailing along when suddenly a long, thin, sharp snouted bright blue fish at least two foot high, and I say high rather than long, because it was literally running across the surface of the waves!!! Its tail fins ran exactly like a pair of legs, skittering a fair distance away from us! We couldn’t believe what we had seen! Since then we’ve seen these fish, called Needle Fish, several times and it makes us laugh out loud each time, they are so bizarre! Their running straight out of the water is a flight response, they can achieve speeds of up to 38mph!! This flight response has caused serious injuries and even death when a frightened fish rockets out of the sea beneath swimmers effectively skewering unwary bodies! Ok, so that’s black sea urchins and Needle fish to look out for, Paradise is not without its perils………

We anchored in the generous bay of Deshaies, in Basse Terre. It’s a pretty small town, the shops, bars, restaurants and low houses nestle around the church with its distinctive bell tower on slightly higher ground, like a mother hen surrounded by her chicks. Tim and Gayle and ourselves enjoyed a fantastic three hour river walk up the Riviere Deshaies cooling ourselves off in an icy cold rock pool, bliss! The environment is jungle like, with armies of leaf cutter ants carrying huge bit of leaves, and termite nests, like enormous dark brown rugby balls suspended between branches, no sign of termites though, thank goodness! Another day we four took another three hour hike over the headland, it’s so thrilling to see Islands we’ve sailed from and Islands we’ve yet to sail to!

8.3.17 & 9.3.17 The last day or so has seen an increase in wind and today gusts of 25 to 30 knots and torrential rain blast us virtually all day, the arrival of the double cold front storming from the North which the synoptic charts had forewarned us of.  We didn’t get off Sisu for a couple of days, so no fresh French baguettes or almond croissants….. it’s tough…… We daren’t leave her in case she or other boats drag their anchors. To be extra safe, Terry puts out another anchor. Back home we don’t have problems with heat, here though, certain products used on Sisu don’t cope with these temperatures, as I discovered by the wet clothes in the wardrobe! Four holes in the deck directly above our wardrobe were filled with silicone. Perfectly fine back home, now however the silicone has shrunk, allowing the torrential rain to leak into the wardrobe! I hang out the wet clothes under the bimini to dry, bracing myself against the railings in the cockpit, the wild gusts whip the clothes into my face. I manage to secure the clothes to straps in the roof of the bimini, just in time for the rain to soak them! A pointless exercise I know, but it’s still hot despite the wind and rain, so to hang the clothes to dry in the saloon would result in our living space becoming as hot and humid as the jungle forests we walked in! To avoid cabin fever during the rough weather we catch up on boat jobs and I practise my chanter, Terry prays the wind will drop so he can escape my noise!!

Terry’s prayers are finally answered, the front has blown through, people come out of the houses, cruisers get off their boats and the bars and shops buzz once more. Gayle and I indulge in shopping for dresses and bikinis, us girls enjoy scrubbing up of an evening! Tim and Gayle invite us over for a delicious fish curry and heavenly cheesecake, great reason to wear one of my new dresses!

ILETS PIGEON

This secluded anchorage is close to a marine reserve called Marine Cousteau after the famous Jacque Cousteau. We spend a couple of nights here. We revel in the best snorkelling so far, the sea is packed solid with all manner of exotic fish, fishing of any kind is banned here, when diving down amongst the glorious riot of fish, chequered, striped, spotted, a veritable Dulux paint chart of colours swim around us, from tiddlers to parrot fish to a beefy barracuda, stretching out our hands in front of us, we can almost touch them! My underwater camera is deeply missed here! Replacing it is top of the list when we get home!

On the beach is a freshwater fountain, built to make use of the natural stream that pours out from the rockface into the sea. We can’t miss an opportunity of obtaining fresh water, so take our biggest water container ashore to fill up. To our surprise the water is quite hot, the effects of the volcanic environment is never far away. There is also a very good Leader Price supermarket here, we fill every available space with French cheese, boxes of wine, cases of beer, even going back to Leader Price early in the morning before we haul up our anchors to do another swoop on the booze shelves, just in case we run out en route to Curacao!!!!