Lagniappe: Windward Islands

The Windward Islands

6/8/2015 We left Prince Rupert Bay in Dominica at 0530 and had a GREAT sail to St. Pierre, Martinique. We turned the engine off about 0700 and sailed until we were about 1 hour out of St. Pierre. We arrived in the anchorage at 1540. St. Pierre is a small town with a small anchorage area that is also crowded with fish traps put out by the local fishermen. There is a steep ledge not far from shore where the depth drops to over 70 feet. We found a spot close in south of the dock. We were near a French couple on a charter boat who were not very friendly at all and stared at us while we anchored. When we started to swing closer to them, they got ugly. We tried to determine how much scope (anchor chain) they had out so we would know how much they would swing with the current. He said he had 17 meters (about 56 feet) of scope out. And he was in about 35 feet of water!! For you non-sailors, the amount of scope should be about 5 to 7 times the depth of the water so he should have had at least 175 feet of scope out! He said his scope was “appropriate for the length of the boat.” We decided it wasn’t safe to anchor anywhere near this guy and moved farther south. We found a nice spot near a cliff which was quiet and we felt more comfortable.

We walked around St. Pierre the next day and checked in with immigration at the tourist office. Check in here was actually FREE! We toured the volcano museum which was very small but informative. We had a nice docent who explained everything in English (all the exhibits were in French) and learned how the earthquake in the late 1800’s destroyed the town and surrounding farms. Everyone in the town died with the exception of one man in the prison.

Unusual house on the beach in St. Pierre

Part of the old fort in St. Pierre

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Harbor in St. Pierre

We also walked ( a long, hot walk) to the DePaz rum distillery and took a self-guided tour. We got to see the machinery and processes close up. You would never be allowed to get that close in the U.S. They use the bagass (waste from the sugar cane) to fire the boilers so nothing is wasted. We tasted the rum and bought a bottle to take back to the boat. However, we realized later that we didn’t like their rum very much. It is rum agricole which is made directly from the juice of the sugar cane. It is too harsh for us. Other rum is made from the molasses which is made from the sugar cane. You wouldn’t think there would be that much difference but there is.

The town square

Results of the volcano

Sugar cane fields

at the DePaz distillery

Sugar cane being unloaded for the rum

The DePaz Chateau

Sugar cane and the sea

The hugest ficus tree ever!

Ruins of the old church destroyed by the volcano

Along the shoreline in St. Pierre

After a long walk back to the town, we went to check on this little restaurant we had heard about and wanted to eat there. However, it was closed for several weeks for vacation. Bummer!

6/10/2015 We hoisted anchor at 0649 and headed to St. Anne near the southern end of Martinique. Winds were variable in speed and direction along the coast until we got near Fort de France and then we had 18 to 20 knots on a beam reach. We made 6 to 7 knots until we got near the southwest tip of the island and the wind came honking out of the bay right on our nose and whipped up a high chop. We fell off and turned on the engine, went around Diamond rock and came into the St. Anne area making only 3.5 to 4.5 knots even with the engine. But it seems we got lucky for once by taking the route we did because we didn’t get caught in any fish traps which several other boats did get fish lines caught on their props. While in St. Anne, we dinghied over to Le Marin several times which is the main maritime area of Martinique. It is crowded with huge boats, noisy and expensive. We preferred our free anchorage in St. Anne and would dinghy over to Le Marin occasionally for a grocery or marine store run or to go to a restaurant. They did have a couple of nice groceries in Le Marin which made stocking up on provisions convenient.

We met Lynn and Ken on S/V Silverheels III and they invited us to go with them to Fort de France to go shopping. They had rented a car and were familiar with the island so it made for an easy trip. We went to a sporting goods store called Decathlon which had every type of sporting goods you could think of and great prices. We were able to get some microfiber towels which dry really fast and are so much better for using on the boat. We also got some wicking ‘’technical”shirts for about $6 to $8 each. Great bargains for us sailors. We also went to a store called Hyper U. I can only compare it to Wal-Mart as far as the variety of stuff they have. But this store is bigger than any Super Wal-Mart I have ever seen and has all sorts of stuff from clothing to food to great produce and cheeses. It was a fantastic find! Thanks Ken and Lynn! We will be making our way back there many times in the future.

A group of us including new people we met in St. Anne, hiked around the tip of the island (about 1 ½ hours) to a very nice beach on the southern side and had a beach day. The waves were quite large and knocked us over several times. We had lunch at one of the little beach shacks but that was disappointing. Next time, we will bring our lunch. When we got back to the boat after our beach day, we discovered the spinnaker halyard had come loose and had been flying around in the wind and got caught on the wind generator. It broke one of the blades. We tried to find a replacement but couldn’t get the right type here in Martinique. We contacted the manufacturer and they are sending us a new set of blades to Grenada. We also realized there is a loose wire or bad connection in the wires in the wind generator and we will need to fix that. So for now, we only have our solar panels or the engine to charge the batteries.

Nice beach we hiked to in St. Anne

Yole sailing in the harbor in Le Marin

Lunch at the beach

We went to Mass in St. Anne and of course it was in French AND it was Confirmation!! We seem to catch the special occasions every time we manage to get to church. After another 2 ½ hour Mass, we walked out onto the town square and they had a folk dancing troupe performing. That was a fun entertainment. We spent the afternoon on the beach in St. Anne near the Club Med which was closed for the season. It sure didn’t look like much compared to the image I had of Club Med in my mind. We had another nice beach afternoon and picnicked on the beach.

Accordion player with the dance troupe

Dance troupe in the square after church

6/19/2015 We departed St. Anne, Martinique at 0645 and headed to the Pitons area in St. Lucia. We decided we would bypass St. Lucia for the most part to try to get farther south while we had the weather in our favor. We should have already been in Grenada by June 1 but as there were no tropical storms around, we weren’t too worried. We had a fantastic sail to St. Lucia. We made over 7 knots most of the way and even hit over 9 knots a few times. That is like warp speed for our boat! We made it to the Pitons mooring park at 1245 and took a mooring for the one night. We didn’t check into St. Lucia since we weren’t getting off the boat and would leave the next morning. We got to look at the Pitons and hope to come back and climb them and visit Rodney Bay on our way back north.

The Pitons in St. Lucia

A resort we could see from the anchorage near the Pitons

6/20/2015 We left St. Lucia at 0530 and headed to Bequia. We skipped St. Vincent Island because of all the reports of crime against cruisers there. Bequia is part of the island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The passage between the southern tip of St. Lucia and the north end of St. Vincent was a washing machine! We had a 3 knot current against us and made very slow headway. Along the northern coast of St. Vincent we had nice 18 to 20 knots winds for a while then had to motorsail off and on until we got to the Bequia channel. Once in the channel, we were able to sail making 6.8 to 7.2 knots until we got to Devil’s Table. We dropped anchor In Admiralty Bay at Port Elizabeth and got hooked in on the second try.

Bequia is a small island with quaint little restaurants and shops. We walked to the Old Hegg turtle sanctuary and learned lots about the Hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles. Then we walked to the Firefly resort and restaurant and had drinks and swam in their pool while our lunch was being cooked. We were introduced to rotis which are wraps with various meats or fish, usually lamb or goat, or vegetable rotis cooked in a curry and then wrapped with a pastry. Much of the shoreline we walked by was covered in Sargasso weed (type of seaweed) which smells awful and keeps the turtles from nesting on the shore. It also hurts their tourist industry as people don’t want to stay at the resorts because the beaches smell and aren’t usable.

Admiralty Bay in Bequia

Neat bar in Bequia with whalebone bar and vertebrae for seats

Shore on the way to the turtle sanctuary: all the brown sargasso on beach

Old Hegg turtle sanctuary

Old Hegg himself

Mr. King with Sherry

Along the road from the turtle sanctuary

Firefly restaurant

Resort grounds with the pool in view from the restaurant

A goat who tried to join us in our swim

One of the beautifully prepared lunches: a roti

Several of us gals had a girls’ day ashore and visited the shops and had lunch at a local place. Bequia also had their version of carnival while we were there. It was a very small affair with a few people painted or in costume and lots of rum drinking and loud music. We were offered pot and Greg and Paul were given shots of 170 proof rum that just about lit their throats on fire! Another day, we took a strenuous hike to Peggy’s rock which was purportedly a lookout spot to see when the ships were coming in during the olden days.

One of the costumers for carnival in Bequia

This group in pink T-shirts walked down the street following the loud music from a truck

View of Admiralty Bay from the hike to Peggy Rock

Peggy Rock, Bequia

Hiking back down from Peggy Rock, one of the longer and more strenuous hike we did

Such colorful insects!

View of the Bay coming back from Peggy Rock

Our crew hiking back dwon from Peggy Rock- had to walk thru someone's yard and under their clothesline

Weird carving on the beach

6/25/2015 We had a leisurely sail today to Carriacou (one of the islands that make up the country of Grenada, along with the islands of Grenada and Petite Martinique). We ran the engine for about 2 hours to charge the batteries and then had a broad reach sail the rest of the way. We checked in with immigration near the Slipway restaurant in Tyrrel Bay. The bay was quite full of boats so we had to anchor a bit farther out than we usually like to. There is a long story to our check in but to cut to the chase, the immigration “officer” was quite rude and enjoyed giving us a hard time. We warned Tehani and Mythago before they went in.

We did an island tour in a local taxi/van and could see Mustique and various other islands from different viewpoints. We went to the main town of Hillsborough but there wasn’t much to it.

Laundry day on Lagniappe: our washer,a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger

Our solar powered dryer: lines strung all over the boat

Pretty little boats in Hillsborough harbor, Carriacou

On our tour of Carriacou

Hillsborough

Sheer and Dave, Sherry and Paul and LizAnn and Greg on our tour outside the hospital in Carriacou

flower of the Flamboyant tree

Remains of an old windmill

Old well hand dug by slaves

Shoreside cemetery

Rusted out hull of an old ship with cactus growing through it

Local shipbiulding using the local trees

Knees chopped fron local trees

We did have a great dinner at Bogles Round House restaurant at the northern end of the island. The best meal we have had at a restaurant since we left the states.
Unfortunately, the owner/chef is moving back to England at the end of June so there won’t be a repeat trip on our way back north.