Antigua, St Barth's and St Martin

We arrived in Antigua with Out of Africa on 16th February after a wonderful sail up in light winds on the beam, just perfect for full sails and a great photo shot from by Jo of Moosetracks under full sail.

Moosetracks with full sail up

We are only here for a short stop in Jolly Harbour on our way north as we will be back in Antigua for the Classics Regatta in Late April. We check in and get a little shopping done at the marina and grocery store. Our friends Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo are in the marina so we stop by their boat for a cup of tea.

The anchorage at Five Islands is one of our favorites as it's less crowed and the resort has good open internet so we can catch up on our communications too. Since we have to file our US taxes this week we love good internet to download all our necessary stuff before filing. We get it all done over a few days and can relax again, no more work for a while.

The lads of to explore

We have a few walks into the marina again and try snorkeling but the wind has turned from the west so the water is not clear enough to snorkel, oh shame maybe another time. We have a couple of BBQ's on the beach with other boats here before deciding we have a window to go north.

We arrived in St Bart's on 4th March after leaving on a down wind sail in 20-25 knots of wind. Now since we are down wind the wind we feel aboard is much less as we are running at 7-8 knots with the wind on our backs, so we feel about 15 knots on our back. Just like riding a bike really. So it was a huge surprise when the clew on the headsail exploded, this means the lines controlling the sail are in the water and the sail is flogging itself to death. We furl the sail quickly and get it under control and assess the damage. The clew is a stainless steel ring sewn to the corner of the sail with webbing straps so you can tie the lines to the sail. Well the webbing gets degraded in the UV and eventually it broke. Devin had to stand on the front bow sprit in 25 knots with 8' seas to try to wrap a sail tie on it to prevent the sail corner flogging. We tell our buddies on Out of Africa of our break and John suggest wrapping our spare spinnaker halyard around the sail to make sure can't unravel. So Devin goes forward again to do this, Liz holds her breath all this time as we don't want "Man Over Board"drills in this sea. All is now secure and we set the staysail to help balance the boat a little more, not much else to do unless we change to our spare sail. We have lost 1-2 knots boat speed but since we are nearly half way we figure we will be OK and still get in well before dark, which we did.

Anse Columbier

The anchorage at Anse Columbier has a few mooring balls for free to protect the sea grass for the turtles that feed in the bay. So we take a ball ball and wait for John and Jo. Well they have engine issues with it overheating so they tack in as close as possible and then motor for just a few minutes to set the anchor, they mange to do this just as the sun sets. So we both have had a pretty rough day.

We decide the next day as the wind is too strong to address dropping the sail in the harbor so we dinghy around to Gustavia to check in and walk around the shops.

Checking in

We do get a slight wind drop so we remove the headsail while we can and measure it. Then we have to get it folded on the side deck and stowed on the forward head, it's awfully big to wrestle the thing but eventually we get it all put away. We then take a day off to walk the west coast of teh island and see if we can find a little internet.

West coast beach

A great day for a walk

We dinghy over to Wind Pony next to us as they are flying their SSCA burgee and we introduce ourselves. A very nice couple called Dick and Lynn who have a friend, Molly on board for a few weeks. We ask them to join us for a walk to Gustavia and they jump at the chance to stretch their legs. John wants to see the airplanes landing at the airport on St Bart's as its one of the most difficult landings in the world for pilots. So we take the roads to the hill above the airport, stopping on the way to by baguettes at the bakery.

A tortoise on the path

The airport runway

We have lunch whilst watching the planes come in to land. It's very thrilling as you are almost at eye level with the pilot as he comes over the hill and drops to the runway. We are there about an hour before the local police arrive and tell us it too dangerous and we have to stand by the road. We apologize as there are no signs to this affect and they tell us it's for safety as a girl slipped on the ascent to the hill a few days earlier.

We the walk down into Gustavia for a look at the shops again and to have a cold beer and Internet before returning to the moorings.

Gustavia

On 4th March we set sail for St Martin, the forecast is light winds and calm seas and it's only 2-3 hours across but we time it for the Simpson bay bridge opening at 3pm. We get there a little early as the wind and seas were a little higher than forecast and suddenly find the Heineken regatta is on and boats are sailing around the island right in front of us. We keep out of their way as we have plenty of time and just watch the spectacle. When we arrive in the anchorage it's a little busy because of the race and we wait for the bridge. As we are waiting the whole race fleets comes around the corner! We are now in amongst almost 100 boats  waiting for the bridge, oh so not good. We hang back to let the aggressive sailors through but find out to our dismay several late finishers are rushing for the bridge too! We get really really close in the confinement of the bridge passage but manage to keep the other boats from hitting us even despite one boat doing a U-turn a couple of boat lengths ahead of us. We wait for the bridge tender to cycle on his bike to the inner swing bridge and make it safely through into the French side of the Lagoon and anchor. 

Race boat antics at Simpson Bay bridge

Waiting for the swing bridge

We are going to be here a while as we need to do a lot of boat work, Out of Africa wants to remove the mast and paint their decks whilst we want to repair our water maker and do lots of sewing and other projects. We both have new sails to order as well and that's going to take 3 weeks to have made in Cape Town and shipped by air here. It still works out at half the price of the same brand here!

So here we are working on the boat in exotic places, well nearly so, it's nothing really strenuous so we get in plenty of social time visiting friends like; Steve & Joy of Ocean Angel, Ken & Lori of Reality Check, Greg & Jo of Serenade, Keith and Linda of Euan Mara, Rene & Stacey of Pipe Muh Bligh, Ully of Andrea Helena, Chris and Karen of Skabanga and many others.... Lots of cruisers come to St Martin just for duty free prices and great service from the yachting industry here. 

Dancing on the Pink Iguana

The band is awesome

Not your ordinary bar

St Patrick's day at the Pink Iguana

Of course a Braii on the beach

Meeting up with lots of friends like Chris from Skabanga

A great dinghy raft up - bring your dog too

A fantastic time for all

Out of Africa go in to have the mast taken down for repair work.

In the slip for the mast removal

Preparation before lifting

Up and away

Laying the mast in a carrier, for transport

Something is missing?

 We hope everyone else is shipshape and warming up in spring.

Portsmouth, Dominica

We arrived in Portsmouth on January 26th and anchored on the edge of the mooring field to the south. Emily Morgan had contacted us via email and were arriving the following day. We all got together on Out of Africa for a braii and some good catch up time. As you can imagine Moosie and Pluto had lots to talk about of their sailing season so far!

Bones, Devin, John and Jo

Moosie & Pluto telling each other about their adventures

Anna and Pluto

Bones and Moosie sharing biscuits

Discussions on mast re-stepping

Our first walk was from the Doyle guide, it's called the farm walk, mostly because it's through some reasonably graded farmland. It was an easy walk with the added benefit of finishing on the last section of the Waitukubuli trail to the Cabrits national park where the small cruise ships dock. We even found a lovely sailing cruise ship, Silver Cloud, at dock that day.

Odd garden decorations?

The horse riding school

The frisky horse is called Taz

Devin & Jo on section 14

Silver Cloud

More tall ships in the bay

Our second walk is much more challenging and again from the Doyle guide but this time it's a rainforest walk including part of section 11 of the Waitukubuli trail. We head off from the bus station in Portsmouth for approximately a mile to the head of a small trail. We then follow this trail as it at first gently ascends the hillside through lush farmlands. After a while the gradient steepens and we are ascending quickly to the ridge. There is a plethora of different trees and fauna around us, much of which we don't recognize apart from the obvious palm trees heavily laden with coconuts that no one is picking due to the remote location. The track is reasonably marked as it is part of section 11 of the Waitukubuli trail, so we descend into a beautiful river bed which would be an excellent picnic spot but a bit early for us. 

The gentle start to the trail

The crossing at the Indian river 

A forest crab defending his territory

A view of Portsmouth from a gap in the forest

The river bed is a gorgeous setting

We then have to ascend again to the ridge, it is steep enough in places they have a rope to help you up the slopes, then we reach the ridge once more. After another hour we reach our picnic spot which is a lovely shelter built on the side of the path.

Using a rope to help on the ascent

More descent again

At last a stop for lunch

After lunch we start our descent from the ridge down some at times very steep trail and this greatly reduces our speed as it is so slippery. We make it down safely and arrive at a suspension bridge which marks the end of the section. It's quite exciting crossing the bridge as the wooden planks are wet and slippery and the whole bridge sways as you walk on it. We then ascend to the road for the remaining walk back to Portsmouth. We have a short stop at IGA for ice cream as our reward for our 4-5 hours strenuous efforts.

A slippery descent to the bridge

The suspension bridge

Liz and Jo starting across

Happy to be across

A walk along the river after the bridge

After all that walking we decide to hire a car and do a bit of exploring. We rent a car from Silver Linings at the edge of Portsmouth and can pick it up first thing at 8am and leave it in the car park when we are done. So off we go, our first impression was of all the downed bridges and road repairing on this side of the island cause by tropical storm Erica., in July 2015. The pictures of the bridges really summarizes the extent of the damage inflicted by a tropical storm on such a mountainous island. 

First downed bridge

Second downed bridge

One of the replacement bridges

Jo, Liz and Devin with our Toyota RAV hire car

Our first stop is Mero beach which is a lovely spot to swim and just relax on the sandy shore. You will notice the beach is not clean white sand but a slightly grey volcanic sand, it's typical of most of the beaches on Dominica.

Mero beach

Our next stop was Belfast Rum distillery, not that they had anything happening as it is just storage now. We did get a tour of sorts for free and were able to sample their rum and as result we even bought a bottle.

Belfast distillery

Our next stop was the Emerald Pools, as it was not a cruise ship day and the car park is almost empty we decide it's a great time to go see the falls. The paths are very well maintained and there are several picnic sites so the small park fee is well worth it. The walk down to the falls is stunningly beautiful and the falls themselves are enchanting. We didn't have swimwear but several folks were swimming in the pools when we arrived and it looked like a lot of fun.

Streams at the Emerald Pool

Jo on the path to the waterfall

First view of the falls

The falls into the Emerald Pool

Devin, Liz, John & Jo at the Emerald Pool

Over on the east coast, our next stop was the Escalier Tete Chien which is a lava rock formation which looks like steps of an escalator rising from the sea. The indigenous Carib Indians say it is tracks left by an enormous snake!

A wild east coast

The steps clearly seen here

It was rather windy, Liz & Devin

The next stop was the Kalinago Indian territory which also has a visitor center for tourists, but we were not tempted to take the expensive Indian dance festivities at over $100USD each. It is the 3,700 acre reserve and home of the only remaining tribe of Carib Indians in the Caribbean. We did stop at the shopping area they have to display their native crafts and we really liked the basket weaving which was most impressive. We also stopped for lunch here at a local cafe, settling for baked chicken with fries.

Kalinago Indian reserve

Beautiful weaving

Lunch on the reserve

Another interesting stop was the Red Rocks at Calibishie, these are natural rocks of compacted mud which feels slippery underfoot and have a reddish hue and quite beautiful in the right light. Sadly our cameras are not capturing the color well as the sun was to close to the lens and darkened the rocks. So trust us they were far more impressive in person.

Red Rocks

Next was Number One beach which is where a waterfall empties from the Hampstead River into the beach. The beach is rather wild on this coast and there was also a natural stone arch on the beach which we found.

Hampstead River

Number 1 beach arch

The wild East Coast

Well that concluded our north island tour and we drove around the top of the island on some pretty winding roads before descending into Portsmouth from the north. Certainly there was more to see but as always only so much to fit into a day.

Next was our walking tour of the Cabrits national park which surrounds the north of our anchorage. It has been wonderfully restored by the national parks and the welcome center and base fort are in excellent condition. So much so they were using the buildings for training seminars when we arrived. We buy our park entrance tickets and set off for the fort. 

Main building - used for conferences now

Upper Battlement

Dormitory building restored beautifully

A lovely couple, Jo & John

Gotta love big cannons

Then we are off to the first of two large hills that surround the fort and have their own battlements and trails to the gun emplacements. It's fairly easy walking with around 45 minutes to the top of each hill. This is a very nice day out and we enjoyed a nice picnic at the fort before walking the second hill. The views are much better at the second hill and afford great photos of the bay and back to the restored fort.

Good trails here

The first summit, Lovely

Lovely II

One of the original buildings with no repairs

A lovely iguana / gecko 

Views over the main fort

View to the anchorage at Portsmouth

Super Bowl Sunday was here so as is custom all the USA flagged boats look for a TV location showing the game. we of course are USA flagged and wouldn't miss it either. So we get together at the Purple turtle bar and restaurant with lots of boats to watch the surprise win from the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons in overtime, the first time ever that it made overtime in a Super Bowl. You have to feel for the patriot fan who left at half time thinking it was all over, she missed the best game ever!

Our next  hike is kindly provided by Ken and Lynn on Silverheels III as we are going to be 
guinea pigs for their written hikes on Dominica. We have a few other cruisers express interest so we are joined by crews from; Moon Rebel, Sweet Dreams, Uproar, Out of Africa and us. The first is to a hot spring that locals use for relaxation. We have what we thought were clear instructions, but evidently we get it very wrong as we spend over an hour in the wrong place. We ask lots of locals before eventually asking a taxi driver who knows exactly what we are talking about. So we are back on track and find he delightful spot for a good warm soak. We updated Ken and Lynn on some extra directions when we returned in exchange for the great discovery.

Searching in the wrong river

The Hot Spring Pool - discovered

The second hike from Silverheels III is to TanTan village and the Fond Valley Eco Trail, this is a lovely cave type waterfall, meaning the water cascaded though a deep crevice and it feels like being in a cave. There is a small fee to use the trail but as it is maintained and it is worth it. The falls are lovely and a few adventurous types climb up into the pool and have a swim. On the return we stop for a picnic and follow the last section of the Waitukubuli trail to Cabrits. 

Russ & Lisa on the trail in

Ed, Devin and Russ climb up to the fall and pool

Russ, Ed, Liz, Jo and Devin went in for a swim

Devin, Liz, Anne, Ed and John on the trail back

Russ, Devin, Nancy, Liz stopped for lunch

Our next hike was to the Indian River, we know there are lots of tourist types taking boat rides up the river to see it, they get to see the hut from the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean film, which we missed, but hey we walked it and much more! We find the twin to the quaint bar at the end of the riverboat tours and then continue on up the trail which most tourists don't get to do. The trail is a lovely setting that winds alongside the river for about an hour before coming out on a trail. Well we instantly recognize this as the section 11 trail start we did several days ago. We take the group up to a lovely spot on the trail to rest a bit before heading back. On the return a few adventurous types decide to swim the Indian River, the looks we got from the cruise ship types is well worth it!

A few river crossing were involved

Devin and Ed got in the Indian river for a swim

Russ got in too and floated all the way to the bar!

The cruise ship guests gave us strange looks?

Our next adventure is the PAYS barbecue, this is a weekly event held by the guides and mooring field boat boys to help fund the area security patrols. We heard it is great fun and with the Yachtie Appreciation week just starting we decide it's a good time to go. The rum flows like water at the event and unfortunately the food is a little delayed by the speakers for the event so all one can do is drink until they stop talking. Oh dear, Devin is going to suffer after this! The food was OK but considering the huge number turning out it was quite remarkable and there was plenty to eat.

Our last hike is to Chaudiere Pools with John, Jo, Lisa and us, Russ had hurt his foot so opted not to do another hike. We take a local bus to Upper Bense and the driver drops us at the head of the trail. We take about 40 minutes to walk down to the sign for the waterfall and a few minutes later we are at the river. Again folks are maintaining trails here and we meet the crew doing the work. We ford the river and walk up the shores to the beautiful waterfall and cascade pool. There is much talk in the guide about being able to slide down the waterfall so Devin just has to do it. After his second ride the others are to tempted and Liz, Lisa, Jo and John all make the slide. The books also talk of jumping in the pool from the edge of the river, it's a 30' deep pool and a similar drop. Devin has to do it! Again once the ice is broken Lisa and Jo have to do it too. It was again a fabulous spot for a picnic and we sit on the rocks above the fall with a beautifully tranquil setting to have lunch. 

The river upstream from the falls, a great spot for a picnic

The waterfall into the deep pool

We did a last shop at the Saturday market, the selection of local fruits and vegetables is very good and reasonable so we went every Saturday we were here. We would also walk around town and found some interesting buildings.

The Saturday market

What were they thinking?

Well it's safe to say Dominica really does have a huge amount of things to do for the adventurous and our month here has only really just scratched the surface. There are far more trails to do and many more waterfalls and pools to see. We will certainly have to come back.