We were invited to an all you can eat, all you can drink party on the
beach shortly before leaving Dominica. Perhaps 80 or more yachties attended and
our hosts were the friendly PAYS boatmen. We had a great time eating grilled
fish, chicken and salad. The drink was rum punch or fruit juice. I was
alternating mine and Jeremy had no alcohol until after the meal. Then he lost
count. I don’t know how he steered the dinghy back to Sal Darago in the dark,
but he did. Once on board the motion of the boat was too much for him and the
contents of his stomach were returned to the sea over the next two hours.
Marie Galante
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| Sugar Cane Factory - disused. |
A few days later, we sailed into the wind to Marie Galante, a passage
of about 3 hours. Guadeloupe is an
archipelago and as the wind had moderated at last, we decided to sail upwind
first. Jeremy noticed a small tear in the genoa. As we entered the harbour at
Grand Bourg we heard shouts. Our friends from Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean,
last seen briefly in a supermarket in Grenada and before that in Namibia, were
anchored in the harbour. Maureen and Gil live aboard Phrene II and later we
caught up with each other’s news over homemade rum punch in their cockpit at
sunset. We were both “off” rum, but Maureen’s was delicious and we were glad to
have one glass each.
We both enjoyed the six days we spent in Marie Galante. As soon as we
were on anchor at St Louis, we took down the genoa, patched it, sewed it and
put it up again. Hiking the sentiers was lovely and varied. The island is quite
flat so there were few strenuous climbs and those were short. Mostly, the
landscape took us along beaches, through woodland, across fields of sugar cane
and past many old windmills. These were once used to power the sugar mills.
Iles de la Petite Terre
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| This is the other end of the pass. |
These two small islands are in a national marine park. They are flat
and very beautiful. Free moorings have been laid between the islands and this
amazing, azure blue anchorage is protected by a reef, which constantly breaks
with Atlantic waves. The only downside is the 8 foot deep entrance, which
sometimes has a big swell breaking across it. Once again, conditions were
moderate, but it was still scary entering, as three big waves caught us
sideways seemingly determined to deposit us on the beach alongside. It was calm
in the anchorage with a knot current running through it. The snorkelling was a
fast drift type holding on to the dinghy and I managed to sprain my foot
struggling to propel myself into the dinghy at the end.
 |
| The lighthouse complete with iguana |
We spent only one day and night here. Lots of tourists come on day
trips to the fabulous palm lined beach. The only walking allowed is up to the
lighthouse to see the views.
La Desirade
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| Difficult entrance to tiny harbour |
The weather was still moderate, so we sailed and motored to windward
for two and a half hours towards a large rectangular rock in the distance. There is only one place to anchor: inside the
harbour. With two big ferries in there, three local yachts on moorings and
numerous fishing boats there seemed to be no room for us. A man gestured for us
to tie up alongside and Jeremy demonstrated his boat handling skills reversing
Sal Darago in a confined area to the space alongside. We could only stay one
night as a ferry was due in the next morning. We went hiking straight away,
steeply uphill to a lovely little chapel and then further up to the mountain
plateau at 273 metres. The wide track along the top was easy walking and then
it was very steep down to sea level. A bus came from behind us and took us back
to the harbour. My toe started to hurt on my sore foot. A big blister had
formed.
St Francois
We knew the weather was set to break. No sooner had we made our way
safely through the reef outside the La Desirade harbour than gale force gusts
and heavy rain hit us. We already had a small genoa flying for the 3 hour
downwind run to St Francois on mainland Guadeloupe. We furled it even smaller
and took turns hand steering. The swell grew bigger and we grew wetter until we
were soaked to the skin and chilled by the wind. Surely, the sun would come out
soon. The approach to St Francois is through a well-marked passage between
reefs. Yachts were moored and anchored in two lagoons and we were lucky to find
a space. Soon we had more wet clothes on the dinghy ride into the marina, where
we had lunch and topped up our supplies in a supermarket.
Iles des Saintes
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| Table D'orientation |
We approached the Saintes, a collection of small islands that reminded
me of the Scilly Isles, after a pleasant 5 hour downwind run. There was no
space to anchor off the main town of Bourg des Saintes. Two miles of moorings,
almost all of them occupied by yachts, filled the whole seafront. We tried Ilet
a Cabrit about a mile away and found the same scene. We dropped the anchor for a very brief and
hurried lunch, as we soon began to swing towards the moored yachts. Jeremy was
increasingly frustrated and handed the wheel to me. I steered us to Pain de
Sucre about half a mile away, where we found yachts on anchor but very little
space. We picked a spot that became better when the yacht behind left next day.
From here we explored ashore, getting lost straight away trying to find the
track from the beach and ending up in somebody’s garden. We walked up their
drive like we owned the place and no-one challenged us. Being beggars for
punishment, we walked up to Le Chameau, 307m above us. Napoleon had built a
huge look-out tower on the highest point of the main island of Terre den Haut.
The views were fabulous.
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| Terre den Bas has some big shells |
Next day we motored across to the other inhabited island, much quieter
Terre den Bas. We anchored bow and stern, tempers flaring and domestic bliss
threatened as communication between Skipper and First Mate all but disappeared.
Harmony was soon restored and we went ashore for lunch followed by a 2 hour walk
along Trace Bleu and Trace Rouge, very well-marked trails of many boulders at
the beginning and end. The next day we tackled Trace Jaune, which took us
steeply up towards the mountains, passed between them and descended via a cliff
path right to the restaurant for lunch. There were never more than four yachts in the anchorage and
most only stayed one night.
 |
| Nearly finished a four hour hike |
Basse Terre
Confusingly, Basse Terre is situated in Basse Terre and is the capital
of Guadeloupe. We anchored off the Marina de Riviere Sens and started to search
Sal Darago for the source of the invasion of moths. It was our cereal packets.
We were not too worried at first, believing a few moths could have flown in,
but when maggots were found crawling on the table at breakfast time, we knew we
had to act. All cardboard was thrown out and all cereal packets confined in
lock and lock boxes. Two lockers were emptied and cleaned. Did that get rid of
them? No! The battle continues, but they are much depleted.
Later, Jeremy went for a snorkel and I decided I’d just swim round the
boat. He was stung by a jellyfish and came back to Sal Darago calling for
vinegar. Copious amounts were poured on his arm, but it did not work. Half an
hour later, Jeremy had to lie down and began shivering violently. Sweat poured
out of him and his limbs made involuntary movements. At first, I thought it was
a fever but he said he was cold. I took his temperature and it was only 35.1C
dropping to 34.6C, well below 37C. Next he had pains in his back and legs and
then sharp pains in his joints. When he began to lose feeling in his fingers,
he stopped objecting to my wish to call the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination
Centre on VHF 16. They put me in contact with an English speaking doctor. I’d
given Jeremy an antihistamine and paracetamol.
This was the right thing to do. As he had stopped shivering and feeling
was returning, I was to observe him and let him rest. I was relieved to see
Jeremy up and eating bread and honey about 4 hours after the jellyfish sting.
He rested the next day and today he seems to be absolutely fine. We are
obviously concerned that this does not happen again.
We are making our way up the west coast of Guadeloupe and have two more
ports to visit before sailing to Antigua. Au revoir pour maintenant.
