Guadeloupe for Christmas

We entered Guadeloupe in the Isle de Saintes. The Saints are an archipelago of French islands, just off the southern coast of Guadeloupe. And if there was one word to describe Les Saintes, it would be charming. The main town of Bourg des Saints is really just a quiet fishing village. It is quaint and picturesque, all the houses have red roofs and the church steeple in the center of town can be seen from the anchorage (and the church bells ring every 15 minutes throughout the day and can be heard in the anchorage as well). The town is built along the waterfront and very accessible by dinghy. We shared the anchorage with a few boats that were a tad bigger than us.

There are many great boutiques and restaurants in The Saintes, a few art galleries, a patiserrie which sells delicious baguettes and pain du chocolate, and a gelato shop that has the best ice cream in the Caribbean. We had a great time exploring town, buying trinkets and sweets, and had many delicious meals of local fresh seafood. The locals figured out what to do with the poisonous Lion Fish... they eat them!

There are many locals selling fruits to the boats out in the anchorage and we even had warm croissants and pain du chocolate delivered to the boat at 7 AM on two of the three mornings that we were there.   

We all went to a nice restaurant to celebrate Laurie’s 50^th birthday from Moanaroa.  They were also getting ready to leave us and dash north to pick up additional crew before heading to the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean.  Can you imagine crossing the largest ocean in a small boat?…Oh yeah, we did that…

We took advantage of relatively low seas to head downwind and enjoyed the flat water on the west coast of Guadeloupe as we motored up to Melendure and Pigeon Island where there is a Cousteau Marine park.  We enjoyed the snorkeling and did two SCUBA dives on our own while there.  It was nice to dive again as a family and we had no problems with our equipment or getting our SCUBA tanks re-filled.  There were plenty of turtles all around our boat and sightings became common.

Emily played with the other kids many days after homeschool and we agreed to take some time off lessons between Christmas Eve and New Years.  All the cruisers got together aboard Day Dreamer for a Christmas Eve pot luck dinner.  It seemed funny to be eating sushi and pizza in 85 degree sun for the holidays!   

Emily memorized the poem “The visit from Saint Nicholas” and recited it in front of the 20 cruisers.  It was a proud moment for parents who have trouble remembering what we had for lunch.  Here’s a video of her for those readers that could not make it to the Caribbean for Christmas.

We spent a quiet day aboard Emily Grace on Christmas day as Kim made a nice turkey with stuffing and pies while Emily played with all the toys that Santa delivered.  Life is good and we are trying hard to store away the memories of our last Christmas at sea with tropical warmth. The crew of Emily Grace hopes that each of you have enjoyed your holiday season too and have every blessing for the coming year.

 

Tom

Martinique and Dominica

We spent about a week in Le Marin in Martinique.  It was very calm there and the water was surprisingly clean and clear.  There were quite a few boats anchored near but we found a nice spot.  Access to the town was made easy by numerous dingy docks.  Emily got an eye exam and 2 new pairs of glasses with detachable magnetic sunglasses for less than $200 US.  Tom refilled some more prescription drugs and all they needed to see was an old Rx bottle.  It should be this easy in the USA!

From there we headed overnight to the north of Dominica and dropped the hook in the harbor of Portsmouth.  There we enjoyed a hike up to Fort Shirley.  This English colonial fort overlooks the harbor and is among the ruins found at the Cabrits Historical and Marine Park. It was fun hiking with the other kid boats.

Moana Roa were die-hard hikers and they organized for us to hike segment 12 of the Waitukubuli Trail.   

 

What was advertised as a 3 hour hike turned into a 6 hour slog up some pretty steep and muddy trails.  Several sections were so overgrown that it was hard to determine where the trail was and we were reminded of some of the “death march” hikes we did with Lovina.  Kim slipped and fell at one point and stretched a tendon in her knee that would slow her down for several weeks.   

We did, however, get some nice views along the way and saw some land crabs.  Most surprising was the “elephant” we saw on the trail!

In Dominica, we also organized a guided van tour with 9 other cruisers and kids and did an inland trip.  We first hiked about an hour deep in the forest to see the Chaudière Pool.  The fast flowing waterfall had carved a deep pit in the rocks that allowed diving the 20 feet into the pool below.  Everyone had a chance and the cool clear fresh water felt good after the hike.

After a decent restaurant lunch, we visited the descendants of the Caribs, the first inhabitants of Dominica, or Waitukubuli, as they called it.  We visited a bakery where we bought warm coconut and ginger cassava bread and had a chance to buy more of the baskets that they weave here.  The Caribs live in eight villages in this reservation.

Along the roads our guide stopped several times to shows us cinnamon, bay leaf, grapefruit and orange trees and we picked great bunches of samples as well as lemon grass to make tea.  Many of the beaches were all fine black sand from the volcanic activity.

We also spent some time exploring the unique Red Rocks, a caved landscape in Calibishie, which also offered a great view of some neighboring French islands and the beautiful north-east coast of Dominica.

 

After about a week but too soon, the group decided to move north to Guadeloupe and visit the Saints.  Come along with us.

Tom

St Vincent and St Lucia

St Vincent and the Grenadines is actually a group of islands and we checked in at Union Island, stayed 3 nights at Tobago Cays and a few nights in Bequia (pronounced Beckway) before checking out.

The Tobago Cays are the main draw to this area.  These are a group of islands surrounded by a protective reef system.  The water is blue and relatively clear.  Every day small boats come out from the main island selling ice, fresh fruit, bread, lobster, conch and pretty much anything you would need.  This is very Caribbean and we will enjoy it as long as our wallets can stand it. On average, prices are double what might be considered reasonable, but we splurge when we don’t feel like taking the dingy to town.  The whole area is a marine park.  Taking any marine life is prohibited and they charged us about $20 per day to anchor in the white sandy bottom. Every day we snorkeled and enjoyed the green and hawksbill turtles and saw some fish life outside the reef. 

From there we bypassed Canouan and stopped in Bequia.  This is a lovely town with clear water and a nice main street.  The town is lined with small crafts shops and Emily bought an Queen Triggerfish carved from whale bone. This is one of the few places where limited whaling is allowed using harpoons and open boats.  They were quite proud to say they took the annual maximum limit of 4 whales this past season. 

The snorkeling was good around the boat and Emily found an enormous hermit crab just under our boat. 

They have talented model shipbuilders here and we paid them a visit again.  We talked with the owner and for a mere $2500 they could make me a scale model of Emily Grace and ship it to me.  My dear Readers may want to take note of this since Christmas is coming up!

We checked out of Bequia and made an overnight run past St Vincent and dropped anchor in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.  After two days, two kid boats caught up to us here.  One morning we hiked up Pigeon hill with the crews and 4 kids from What If and Polluxs to see Fort Rodney. The hike was nice with good views of the surrounding area.  We could see Martinique, just 4 hours to our north.  Emily is looking forward to heading there since she will get new eyeglasses there.

 

St. Lucia also has great local vendors that come out to the anchorage each day in small boats selling fresh fruits and vegetables.  Here there are great dingy docks, major supermarkets, hardware stores and marinas only a short dingy ride away.  We managed to find a Butterball turkey, egg nog and all the fixings for a Thanksgiving Day meal. Kim made her traditional stuffing and even baked blueberry and mincemeat pies.  We could have had a pumpkin pie, but since we have found pumpkin everywhere, we opted for the extraordinary!

 

We had forgotten how easy Caribbean cruising was compared to most of the countries we have visited.  Shopping, groceries and parts are always close by and shipping parts from the USA is relatively easy if needed.  This “downhill” sail back to the US is welcome by both captain and crew.

Tom

Grenada

 

Grenada is certainly not without many charms, the weather is warm and the water pretty clear.  There are beaches, mountains, volcanoes, water falls, and of course warm water and water sports.  Grenada is known as the "Isle of Spices" and with good reason.  It is the second largest producer of Nutmeg in the world (and its associated spice, Mace, which is the red vein like coating around the nut), as well as a producer of a wide variety of other spices.  There's no excuse for using old dried cinnamon sticks in your curry when you can get fragrant cinnamon bark still damp from the tree!

We took the advice of Daydreamer and checked into the country at a marina and enjoyed a nice lunch before setting the hook behind Hog Island.  There we found a bunch of kid boats and we stayed put for about two weeks.  Emily played on the beach or sailed around the small bay with about a dozen kids of varying ages.  We had the sail on our kayak and even Tom zipped around the bay. We exchanged schedules and agreed to meet for Christmas in Antigua if not before.

 

Again we rented a car for a day trip.  We crossed the island and got lost on St. Georges one way streets before heading north on the west coast.  We stopped at the Gouyave Nutmeg Processing Station for a tour. 

 

Grenada produces one-third of the world’s nutmeg and this is the largest of the 3 processing station.  We learned that most of the crop was wiped out by a 2004 hurricane and is just now coming back.

Our next stop was the Belmont Estates cocoa plantation.   The plantation provides the organically grown cocoa beans for the Grenada Chocolate Company as well as growing other spices and local products.  

 

Kim and I remembered it a little more than Emily did at age 8, but we enjoyed another tour and sampled chocolate tea and chocolate chunks.  The meal at the restaurant was as good as we remembered as were the hot towels served to wipe our hands before dining.

Following lunch and a tour of their animals and birds, we headed to the Mt. Carmel Falls, which is a stretch of river with two separate falls on it.  We made the winding trip through the foothills into the mountains where we got off at the trail head for the falls.  The walk is quite short and easy, and the path littered with mangoes and beautiful vegetation.  The upper falls are scenic and the water breaks up into a cooling mist as it cascades down more than seventy feet.  These are the highest falls in Grenada.

 

A short walk back up the path and a fork down the river takes you to the lower falls.  As falls they aren't as impressive - as you can see from the picture they are more like a long rock slide.  Our guide explained how to ride the falls from the top all the way down to the big splash in the pool at the bottom.  Emily and Dad made the trip once, but the muddy climb back up prevented us from going again.  It was cooling, however, and made the hike back to the car a little cooler.

We said our goodbyes to the kid boats and decided to seek out another anchorage on the west coast of Grenada which would break up the trip between Grenada & Carriacou.  We headed to Moliniere Point and Dragon Bay, just north of St Georges. We managed to take a mooring buoy and then snorkeled the Underwater Sculpture Park.   The park was created by sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor. Taylor′s aim was to engage local people with the underwater environment that surrounds them using his works which are derived from life casts of the local community.

“Vicissitudes” installed in 2007, at a depth of 14 feet is Taylor's most recognized work in the park, a ring of 26 standing children, holding hands and facing outwards into the current. The design took six months to make, weighed 15 tons in dry cement and was constructed to withstand strong currents and tidal motion. The ring symbolizes the concept of life's ongoing cycle and highlights the importance of creating a sustainable and well managed environment for future generations, holding reference to the ability of children adapt to their surroundings.

 

Although the visibility was very good (for Grenadan waters) some of the sculptures were difficult to spot. The ring of lifesize people, which looms up at you out of the gloom was quite spooky !   We saw the oldest ring first and several of the children had fallen over.  Later in the snorkel, we saw another, more recent ring and all were standing proud.  We toured the bay and saw several other sculptures including a mermaid, several faces, a praying girl and several smaller creations looking like Mayan artifacts.

We pressed on North at daybreak and stopped at White Island for a snorkel before going into Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.  There we will check out of Grenada and move north to the Tobago Cays.

Tom