2024-12-29 Guadeloupe - Lindsey visit

Sunday we sailed north to Pointe-a-Pitre Guadeloupe.  Had a nice sail.   There is a very nice mooring field in Pointe-a-Pitre so we were happy to pay the $52 for 4 nights on the mooring ball.

We headed into town on Monday, and saw the sights, had lunch out, and got groceries.

Marina Christmas decorations

Touristy area near the marina

Walking downtown - Dean said the tree had a big butt

Pointe-a-Pitre has more of a Parisian feel than other towns

Church in large open square

Inside of church

Downtown narrow streets

Shopping district was very busy with everyone out before Christmas

Lunch - easy and cheap - but not delicious.  

High rise buildings downtown

Near the downtown dingy dock

There was not a great dinghy dock near downtown.  We found a nice dock to tie up to at the yacht club, but the yacht club was closed, so we had to use the pallet that was leaning against the fence to climb over - which is why the pallet was there.  On the way back, the yacht club gate was open, so that was much nicer.

Tuesday we went into town to look for a boat part.  There are about 5 chandleries right at the marina.   We found on part, and on the way back saw that this large catamaran had a little accident.   They were working on the mast hydraulics, and must have lost a shroud.  Luckily no one was hurt, and they did manage to get the mast upright again.

On Christmas day, we had a relaxing morning, and then in the afternoon, our niece Lindsey flew in to join us for the week.  She brought us some stuff we ordered on Amazon, and also two precious blocks of Tillamook cheese.  She wrapped them up in Christmas wrapping paper - so it was fun to have something to unwrap on Christmas.

Kris unwrapping the cheese

The next morning, we left Pointe-a-Pitre and headed south to Les Saintes.  Had an OK motor sail.  Encountered a large cruise ship coming in as we left.  Pointe-a-Pitre had cruise ships coming in and out regularly, and it is also a major port, with container ships coming and going as well.

We gave them plenty of room in the channel.

In Les Saintes, we walked the town of Terre-de-Haut, and had a nice lunch out, then that afternoon headed out for a nice snorkel.

Touristy main street in Terre-de-Haut

Beautiful plant, but don't brush up against it.  It was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk

A narrow walkway, Dean had to turn a bit sideways.

We headed out to Islet a Cabrit to snorkel, and we were not disappointed.  It was finally some decent snorkeling

Lindsey coming up from a deep dive

An octopus and a fire worm were our snorkel highlights.

The next morning, we headed up the hill to visit Fort Napoleon des Saintes.  It was never used, and is a nice museum, with a garden and beautiful views.

What would a fort be with a cannon

Entrance is decorated for Christmas

View looking East

View looking Southeast

Many beautiful plants 

Harbor view, we are out of sight anchored close to land in middle of photo

Had never seen a spiral cactus before

The fort

After the fort tour, we had a nice lunch onboard, and then decided to sail north.

Kris and Lindsey, reading books while eating lunch

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Had a beautiful sail up to the Vieux Fort Lighthouse, where we anchored briefly, while Dean and Lindsey snorkeled around the lighthouse area.  Then we headed further north and anchored near Pigeon Island in the Jacques Cousteau reserve.  

Next midday we headed out by dink to Pigeon Island to snorkel.  Had good visibility, and although there were lots of folks out snorkeling and diving, it was not too crowded.

Lindsey helped Kris scrub the waterline when we got back to the boat, and we spent a relaxing afternoon on the boat. That night winds shifted NE, so we all got a minimum of sleep with the rolling of the boat, so early in the morning we headed to Deshaies and got a mooring.  Still rolly, but calmer.    We have to go to Antigua on Monday, might be a motor sail, for Lindsey to catch a flight back home.

2024-12-21 Unexciting week in Dominica

We checked into Portsmouth, Dominica on Monday morning.  Elected to walk to the Customs office, which is 1.9 miles from the dinghy dock at the PAYs (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) dock.   You can dingy to the customs office directly, but it costs $10 EC to use their dock, and we decided to get some exercise and save money.

We checked in and out with a two-week stay at the same time, which is a great service Dominica offers.

After the check in, we walked another mile to find a grocery store that Kris had seen on Google Maps.  We never found it.  When we got back to the boat after our 6-mile walk, we looked on maps again, and must have been 100' short of the store when we gave up and turned around.  Oh well - did not really want to carry groceries back the 3 miles anyway.  Saw a cannon in a storefront on the way back - wonder what the story is on that?

Old cannon in abandoned store

Tuesday was an exciting day - not!   Rainy off and on, with gusty winds, so just hung out on the boat.  There were at one time 4 large multi masted cruise ships in the harbor, shuttling people back and forth.   

Large sailing cruise ships in harbor.

Wednesday was another unexciting day.  Rainy off and on, with gusty winds, so just hung out on the boat.  Water tanks are full.

Thursday we went t town.   Kris had gotten an ear infection, so we went into the doctor.   $100 EC for the office visit ($37 USD)  Doctor super nice, and took almost a full 20 minutes to inspect the ears and talk about causes and prevention.  Then we went off to the pharmacy - a new one we had never seen before, quite large.   Another $24 USD for the week of antibiotics if needed, and ear drops for the week as well.

Dean wandering the large pharmacy while waiting on prescription

Stopped at a couple of stores on the way back, but found nothing to buy, but did see some chickens - a staple of any walk in the Caribbean.  (Kris always loves seeing little chicks)

Momma chicken with two chicks

We made plans to take a tour on Saturday, as Friday was rainy.

Friday - rainy day - hung out on boat.  Kris cleaned and hung up Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations up

Saturday - tour day - pouring rain, the most of all week.  Not forecasted.   Cancelled the tour, as we don't think hiking the mountain streams to see a waterfall is a good idea in pouring rain.   Oh well. It rained so much the blue water of the anchorage turned brown, and lots of floating wood, coconuts, leaves and such - water is brown, but not much trash at all which is good to see.

Rainy and cloudy

You can kind of see the hills in the background through the clouds

Had to fend off a couple of large logs that drifted out in the anchorage, washed off shore in the rain.  

Disappointing not to take the tour, but we are OK with it.  We spent a lot of time in Dominica with Derek 11 years ago and did quite a bit of touring.  We would stay longer and wait out the weather, but our niece is coming to visit on Christmas, so we will head out today to Guadeloupe, as the winds are favorable for a sail.    Guadeloupe has some nice spots we have never seen, so can hopefully make some good memories with our niece seeing those.

2024-12-15 St. Anne to St. Pierre to Dominica

 We stayed in St. Anne until Friday.   We had an issue with our mainsail on the last trip, where the sail was pulling out of the track when we reefed.  Kris noticed that the bolt rope on our luff had parted way, which is why our sail probably seemed a bit baggy in that area as well.  We decided to get a quote from the local sail lofts on repair.   We found out that only one sail loft could do the repair, as the others lofts were too small.  

We talked to the lady at the desk, who spoke good English, and she said they were only booked out a couple of weeks, so we could get a repair within a couple of weeks.  We then asked price, and she went off a bit, saying that we had to bring the sail in, that they would not quote time or price until they saw the sail. 

Then Kris dared to ask if they had any examples or photos of their work.   Well, that did it.  She was quite offended and went off on a full minute tirade, basically saying that if we did not trust them, then leave as they did not need our work.   Love that French attitude.

We decided not to have them fix our sail, so then spent some time looking at the track, and taking measurements of the sail and mast and boom to get some quotes for a new sail.   This involved a trip up the mast for Dean, to check out the track, then a trip up the mast for Kris when the tape measure we hoisted up to measure parted ways from the halyard, so we had to go up and retrieve the halyard.

We also got some new line for our dinghy hoisting, as the old like was getting a bit worn.  Dean did an excellent job putting in a couple of eye splices.

Working on splicing the line

Finished splices look good

We also did take time to walk in for an ice cream, and get some more groceries.

View of St. Anne anchorage from shore (while eating ice cream)

St. Anne town square.  Nice shady benches for enjoying ice cream.

Lovely sunsets

Friday we sailed up to St. Pierre on the north end of Martinique.   OK, no sailing, just a motor trip.  The island blocks the wind, and it was a calm day as well.  

St. Pierre was destroyed in the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee.  There are several monuments in town, and a museum that we had not gone to.   It was Saturday when we went to town, and a small cruise ship was also in, and the Saturday market was going on.

Anchorage at St. Pierre.  Cruise ship on left.  Mt. Pelee center

The main welcome building at the end of town pier had burnt recently.

Busy Saturday market

We took a bit of a walk around town.

Narrow streets with houses side by side

View of harbor and town 

We went to the Mt. Pelee 1902 Memorial museum.  Interesting, but not as well done as we had hoped.

Dean, reading about the eruption.  All information was in French and English

Inside the memorial

After visiting the memorial, we walked a bit more around the town and side streets.

Very quaint town, narrow streets and some nicely tended yards

Very large church for the size of the town

We were going to get ice cream again, but it did not open until 1:00, so we headed back to the boat.

Sunday we went in early, and checked out, and then sailed up to Portsmouth, Dominica. Had a nice sail, where we started on motor only, then full sail, then one reef, then full sail, then two reefs, then full sail, then one reef, then motor, then full sail and ending with motor only.  Quite the day.

Sailing by Roseau, Dominica.

We will most likely be here for a week, but we don't really know.