It seems the further south we go, the more relaxed the vibe. Maybe because the cruising season was winding down and everyone was heading south to their hurricane homes. Maybe its just always like this. As much as I enjoyed the beauty of the BVIs I think I have to say that this part of the Caribbean is by far my favourite. We are now at the very southern end of the St Vincent Grenadines. Further south lies the islands of Grenada and well beyond that Trinidad and Tobago, the latter not to be confused with...

​The wild, uninhabited islets and reefs of the fabled Tobago Cays are known among cruisers as some of the most spectacular in the Caribbean. Seasoned cruisers often list this idyllic anchorage as their most treasured, citing dreamy crowdless beaches, dazzling reefs and vivid aquamarine seas. OK dear reader, you probably realised those were not my words, however Tobago Cays is a really special place and is now on our list of Caribbean favourites.
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Located in the southern St Vincent Grenadine islands, the Tobago Cays are an archipelago comprised of five small uninhabited islands: Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradal, Petit Tobac and Jamesby. Together, these islands are the main attraction at the Tobago Cays Marine Park, a national park and wildlife reserve.

Much of the park consists of a massive 1,400-acre lagoon, surrounded by a horseshoe reef. Just imagine shallow, sand-bottomed, crystal clear lagoons teeming with green turtles and colourful fish, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by coral reefs and fringed with small, white-sand beaches (ok with a bit of sargassum).

​The rainy season is living up to its name and dark clouds gather most days. We had some light rain one day it was full of Saharan dust so ITIKI is filthy again. The only good news about that is it means the risk of hurricane is low as the weather off the coast of Africa is a little cooler. Rather than wait for some clean rain we spent some time cleaning the windows and getting some of the dust off the boat. It is a never ending task!
 
Went over to Petite Bateau in the dinghy and the motor cut out just as we reached the shallows – groan.... Fortunately it was only  the fuel line that had come loose at the engine so we could quickly fix it. We walked up over the top of the island through the bushes and down to the beach on the other side. This is where the beach BBQs are as well as the popular, and more protected anchorage, called The Cut that we passed on the way in. Walked back around the much shorter and flatter end of the island. Bamboozle II has arrived so we dropped by to say hello to them. Andy and Brenda from Whispering Winds drop by as well, they are friends with Mark and Myra who came aboard on St Martin, having bought their Helia sight unseen.

We have been told of a couple of great snorkelling spots but they are on the outside of the horseshoe reef. We tried to check it out one afternoon, you have to go through the “dinghy cut”, a small opening in the reef, but finding it is quite difficult. It is marked by small buoys but they are hard to see from low down. We finally spot them and make it through the cut, tying up to the outer most buoy, but it is really quite rough so we decide to come back another day. Instead we popped across to Jamesby Island and walked along one of the "crowdless beaches". Sadly it has quite a thick coating of Sargassum weed, that is not mentioned in the tourist brochures! I think they must just photoshop it out!

​Outside of the lagoon, on the eastern side, there is a small island called Petit Tabac. Its possible to get over there in the dinghy if it is calm enough, but one morning we decide to head over there in ITIKI (to empty tanks on the way and make water as well). Switched the instruments on nothing happened, everything was blank. No lights, no action! Went through a bit of trouble shooting but no luck at all. Seems they are not getting power, which may have been related to them cutting out intermittently. I called Garmin but they just sent the trouble shooting guide that didn’t really help. Keith took off around the anchorage to ask for assistance from fellow cruisers. Jeff from Jace comes over to take a look and spends 3 hours running the multi-meter over the boat with a fine tooth comb. Finally he found a voltage drop which turns out to be due to a chafed wire that has been pulled through a roughly hacked hole during installation. It has probably been there since the beginning and possibly been responsible to our continued electrical problems. Jeff cut and re-crimped the wire and we had power back to the instruments. Wow! Thank goodness for helpful (and persistent) cruisers! We invited Jeff and Lynn over for dinner to say thank you and had a lovely evening chatting.

In the morning we decide to head across to Mayreau after more drone flying and a bit of hull scrubbing. It’s such a short distance so we are motoring, avoiding a few reefs as we come into the bay. We anchor in Saline Bay and go ashore for a walk. There is not much here at all, a very quiet island with a small population, a school and a couple of small resorts. Great views from the top of the hill and we can see down to Salt Whistle Bay anchorage which looks pretty crowded. Not much in the way of supplies available here, can't even find bananas! There are quite a few goats wandering around - haven't seen it on the menu though so not sure what they do with them. Some local kids from the sailing school have been around the anchorage in their dinghy looking for donations of equipment, lines, fibreglass, resin etc. We promise to take a look at what we have and would suit them. A couple of dudes come around in wooden boats touting for business for restaurants. It’s so quiet here now it must be tough with tourist numbers dwindling. 

,After breakfast we head ashore to walk across to the windward side. There is some interesting signage along the way, installed by the beach bar on the other side. We feed the goats and untangle them from their tethers which are wrapped around trees and their own limbs. Not the brightest of creatures. The local power station here is a solar farm. On the southern end of the island is a large salt lagoon (without flamingos). We get great views across to Tobago Cays as we walk over the ridge to the windward side. When we get to the windward beach it is, well, windy. There is a fringing reef providing some protection but not really much of a swimming spot as there are lots of rocks and plenty of sargasso. The Beach Bar is not open yet. We walk along the beach and back and then head back to town. I decided to swim back to the boat. Later that evening we enjoyed sundowners on Mai Tai with Ollie, who is a keen ex professional fisherman and he gives us a few tips and lots of encouragement!

We spent 10 days at Chatham Bay, with a couple of trips out to empty tanks and provision. Some of the highlights include:

• Walking along the beach: A lovely, long and totally uncrowded beach with just a few shacks and one "resort" along the shoreline. The sand was quite steep though so we had to walk with a list! The shoreline was rocky in places and several herons and other seabirds were grazing in the shallows.

• Drinks at Sunset Cove beach bar: We had a couple of here sessions chatting with the locals as well as fellow cruisers. Here we met Alex, who regularly paddled around to the anchored boats on a plastic kayak with a broken paddle, looking for work and a chat. He was very well informed about the outcome of Australia's recent election and the movements of Penny Wong in the Pacific, with some stern warnings about the Chinese. It was a really laid back atmosphere at the beach bar but  rum punch needs a health warning! I think they were a bit heavy handed on the OP rum. After a couple of those we practically had to crawl down the beach into the dinghy  motor very slowly back to ITIKI. Needless to say it was a slow start the following day!

• The Lambi challenge: So at one of our "sessions" at the Sunset Cove Beach Bar, Keith got chatting to Philip (the manager) about Lambi (or Conch as we know it). Philip explained how to get the meat from the conch shell, that you have to beat it with a mallet and then boil it to make it tender. Sounds great! He offered to get some for us for a very reasonable price and Keith decided to order some - for me to cook! Philip will do the hard work for us, the beating and the boiling, for a small service fee… The next afternoon Philip arrived with the Conch meat in a large bowl. It is pretty weird looking stuff and doesn’t smell too great but but if you close your eyes and take a little bite, it is actually quite tender and tasty. I cut it up and managed to make a reasonable curry out of it, and that did us for the next night as well! There was about 1.2Kg of it all up so we put half in the freezer. It is kind of a cross between abalone and octopus.

• Walk up the "fort": Behind the beach bar we found a steep and rugged trail across a paddock which joined an unpaved road. We followed this around the ridgeline to a peak overlooking the bay. Here we find the remains of a fort - well actually it is just a cannon on a pile of rocks. There are a few goats wandering around here as well and a lovely view of the bay. The rain clouds are gathering so we need to head back down quickly. The heavens opened as we picked and slipped our way through the steep (and now very muddy) field behind the beach bar. We were absolutely soaked by the time we reached the beach, but the rain had stopped by then. Our Teva's were caked in thick gooey mud.​​
• ​Snorkelling along the rocky shore: All along the rocky northern shoreline and right up to the beach there is some pretty good snorkelling, by Caribbean standards. At least a few spots of colour with some bright red corals, and some unusual bowl shaped formations which are leathery to touch. There are a few colourful fish including some large schools of yellow fish. I swim into a seemingly endless school of small silvery fish pouring out from the shore like flowing water and scooting back and forward in the dappled light.
• Checking out the local birdlife: Along to the far west of the bay is a rocky outcrop that hosts lots of birds, judging by the white "snow" covering the favoured perching positions. Here we can see the brown "dive-bomber" pelicans, some masked boobies up higher and a few more herons. We take the dinghy around the point to get a closer look at them. We saw some fellow cruisers fishing from their dinghy around this area and they seemed to be quite successful, dropping by to boast and show us their catch. We tried the same but needless to say we were not so successful, so the score remains locked the same:  Fish 2 vs K&L 0

When we arrived in the Caribbean we landed first in Barbados and from there we headed north west to St Lucia and kept heading north from there. That meant we had missed out on the southernmost of the Lesser Antilles chain. As we spoke to other cruisers along our journey, we heard so much about the Grenadines and how wonderful it was to cruise, so we figured we would need to stay another “season” in the Caribbean to make sure we didn’t miss out. Getting through a hurricane season either means heading north to the USA or heading south to Grenada, so we chose to head south to haul out over summer. This proved to be a great great opportunity to explore the wonderful group of islands, that is St. Vincent and the Grenadines (or SVG for short).

​SVG is a southern Caribbean nation which is a very popular cruising destination and with hurricane season approaching, many cruisers are heading this way for the summer. SVG’s 369km2 territory consists of the large, main island of Saint Vincent and, south of that, the northern part of the (St Vincent) Grenadines, a chain of 32 smaller islands, some of which are uninhabited. Whilst most of SVG lies within the Hurricane Alley, the further south you go, the lower the risk.

We did the 90nm trip from Martinique to SVG in 2 stages, leaving our anchorage in St Anne, Martinique around 7:30am, waving farewell to Steve and Zhara who were boat-sitting on Cushla, and refuelling before we got away. We put up the main and genoa with 1 reef in both. The conditions were pretty much the same as we have had for other north-south crossings between islands, and never quite as forecast. Wave height is not so bad this time but it is right on the beam and we get the occasional belting with a rogue wave. Wind is in the low 20s but we have several rain squalls pass through and they bring more pressure with them. It’s a relatively short, 30nm hop across to our first stop in St Lucia. We head past the familiar Rodney Bay and the fuel tanks south of Castries, before dropping the sails and turning into the narrow entrance of Marigot Bay, where we met Keith’s niece Debs and her husband Martin in January. There are a few boats here already so we don’t have a great choice of where to anchor. It’s a narrow shelf between the cliffs and the channel and we have to try a couple of times before we are happy with the set. The boat is pretty dirty but there is not much point cleaning it. We do what is called “yellow flagging” here, meaning we don’t check-in or complete any formalities, we don’t go ashore, just stop for the night under quarantine conditions with the Q flag up.

We start at first light for the next leg which is 60nm, bypassing the main Island of St Vincent and slipping into Admiralty Bay on the island of Bequia (pronounced Bek-way). It’s full sails at first as the forecast is light and there is not much action whilst we are in the lee of St Lucia. We cop the full force of the Atlantic winds as we get out into the channel between islands, and reefs are quickly deployed in the main and genoa.  It is a relief when we get into the lee of St Vincent, which is fortunate as our first reef has pulled out and we had to hoist the full main. We get smacked again when we cross the open water to Bequia and have to carefully manage the strong gusts with a full main. We decided to do our check in at Bequia rather than St Vincent because the process is easier and we could do a Covid test on arrival, using our own kits, if we go through an agent. After making contact with Daffodil her guy came over to collect some paperwork and money. As we headed into the dock we got a line wrapped around the dinghy prop and Daffodil’s offsider towed us back to the boat and unwound the line -  then it was "take 2".

First step is our health clearance - we were taken to a shipping container at the back of the hospital to await the nurse. It’s unusual to be able to do a test on arrival, normally you have to turn up with a negative test result done within 24hrs (RAT) or 48-72hrs (PCR) which can make for a logistical challenge in terms of timing longer passages - not to mention the extra expense. We can BYO test kits too which is nice as we got them for nix (thanks Debs)! I asked our agent what happens if the test turns out to be positive, he looked at me quizzically and said he didn’t know because no one ever tested positive… Hmmm – fortunately we were not the first and the nurse handed us the completed our health clearance and we made a small “donation” the the hospital... Next stop is the Port Authority where Daffodil has pre-forwarded the paperwork. We handover multiple different sums of cash for cruising tax, customs fees and a bit more for immigration. I had to make a trip to the ATM between counters to restock the wallet! The process didn’t take too long though and we were soon back to ITIKI. It has been a fairly exhausting couple of days so we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening chilling out and do pretty much the same the following day.

Admiralty Bay in Bequia is a wide bay, open to the west on the southern end of the small island. We had anchored in the NW near the old fort, where Daffodil has her office. The town is quite pretty, clean and colourful and has a nice relaxed vibe. We go ashore mid-morning to watch the FA cup final at Papa’s bar - its Chelsea vs Liverpool and Keith is a Liverpool fan. I amuse myself on the internet and manage to polish off a blog post. At half time I hear the sound of singing and steel drums and race outside - there is a lively funeral passing by, a big parade of people with music and singing, a real celebration of someone’s life well lived. Meanwhile Liverpool win on penalty shoot-out, a good result and we celebrate with burgers for lunch. In the afternoon we take a stroll through the town and around the boardwalk. We walk past some colourful shops and houses and the boardwalk takes us around the edge of the bay to Princess Margaret Beach. I guess it must have be one of her favourites, and it’s a long white sandy beach with a few nice looking bars and a resort.

The following morning we walked up to the remains of Fort Hamilton. Its named after Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA, who recently had a musical made about him. It’s a sleepy Sunday and there is some country style religious music coming from one of the houses as well as the sounds of kids playing. We have a drink at Daffodil’s bar and head back to the boat. It’s quite gusty overnight but we have not moved, the anchor is well set but we decide to put out a bit more chain. Mid-morning we go ashore to the produce market, our first shop in SVG. There are a few different vendors in the market and but we have to be choosey about what we get from whom as the quality varies between vendors. I like to spread the love around anyway so I am happy to be able to buy a little something from each of the ladies. After the plentiful stocks in Martinique though it's relatively slim pickings down this way in terms of fresh produce. Everything comes from St Vincent and you just have to take what you can get. Fresh produce is relatively expensive so we shop to minimise wastage, just as the locals do. After lunch I go for a walk along the boardwalk again, to Princess Margaret Beach. It really is a beautiful white sandy beach and there are quite a few boats anchored over this side. From there I can go over another headland to Lower Bay, which is even more secluded. This is the southernmost side of Admiralty Bay and I am looking north across to Fort Hamilton and ITIKI.

Well the holding tanks are getting full and the water tanks are low so it must be time to move on. We head around the southern end of Bequia Island to an interesting looking, secluded anchorage at Friendship Bay. It sounded nice enough, even though there is a short stretch into the wind to get there. We take our time and pull out a headsail. Around the first point there are some caves in the cliffs with some houses built to blend into the rock, an experiment in eco tourism. They are quite hard to see (they really do blend in!) and we can’t really get any closer. We continue on through a narrow gap between the Bequia and a couple of small islets. It’s pretty hairy squeezing through as there is quite a swell punching through the middle. We cop a fair bit of wash coming over the boat as we are slamming into the wind and waves, and as we round another small islet coming into the anchorage even the helm station cops a wave right over the top. I managed to dodge it but Keith got the full treatment! The crockery drawer comes open as does the fridge drawer - it’s about a 2m swell and pretty uncomfortable, but short-lived. Unfortunately the anchorage turns out to be nothing special, the water is not clear and there are a lot of local boats on moorings. We manoeuvre around them to find a spot to drop the anchor and have lunch. It’s also very rolly and given that it’s not particularly nice we decide there is no reason to stay. There are a couple of potential anchorages on small islets nearby but with the swell that is running at the moment they are quickly rejected.

Instead we head south to the Mustique, the island of the “Rich and Famous”, which is only 7.5nm away. It’s a nasty angle to the swell at first, quite big and beam on and Ellie the autopilot is struggling so Keith hand steers for a while. It settles as we get away from the coast. We pick up a buoy in the north of the Britannia Bay with the help of the mooring manager. It is mandatory to use a buoy, unless they are all full and then you can anchor – either way the fee is the same. Strangely it is advertised as EC$220 for one night, with 2 more consecutive nights free – why not say EC$220 for 3 nights? There must be a story there. We are in the north of the anchorage and out from the beach a fair way so we are quite exposed to the wind and swell and we are swinging in all directions, maybe that is why there are 2 nights for “free” so you don’t give up and move on to the next island. We move ITIKI to a different buoy further in and south of the dock where it's much calmer, and later a couple of other boats do the same. As it is a private island, there is a limited area where us "blow ins" can walk around so we head up the hill to the village, where there is a post office, police station (not so busy…), a couple of bars as well as local housing. On the way back we drop in to Basil’s and have a cocktail. It’s a lovely spot overlooking the water and fast WiFi but at US$18 per drink, we just have the one!

One of the highlights of Mustique is a taxi tour of the small island – it only takes 1 hour and is the only way to get around. We visit the famous Cotton House which is the main resort, with access to a long white sand beach and numerous restaurants. We drive by Tommy Hilfiger’s mansion, then the Lacoste owners pad and we see Mick Jagger and Bryan Adams houses from a bit of a distance, as well as the house where Kate and William had their honeymoon. There are numerous privately owned and stunning mansions scattered around the hills and cliffs of Mustique, many of which are for rent on a weekly basis – starting price of around AU$100K, without staff… The island has some elements reminiscent of Hamilton Island with well-maintained roads and gardens. Staff accomm is provided to key personnel and all Mustiquans are provided with work and housing by the Mustique Company Limited, who manage the island. In the afternoon I go for a snorkel around near the boat which is similar to most places we have been, you would think they could afford better coral! Later we go ashore and walk all of the way down to the southern point of the bay. Here there is a small lagoon as well as a tiny, semi enclosed beach with a huge pile of empty lambi shells. I guess they have to go somewhere! On the way back it is feeding time and there are dozens of terrapins wandering around in the grass along the foreshroe.

The next day we walk up to the bakery for super expensive bread and also bought a postcard, they are so hard to find these days - by the time we get to the PO though it is closed! Found The View restaurant and bar and booked a table for tonight. Dropped by a few boats in the anchorage to invite them for drinks there later on. We were joined by Lucie and Jamie from Bamboozle II and 3 Austrians from a catamaran. Keith had a free consultation on his shoulder from one of the Austrians who happened to be a traumatologist! His assessment was that Keith probably didn’t need surgery. I guess we will see. Dinner was a lovely meal of Lambi curry and garlic shrimps but like everything on the island, quite pricey and not huge servings. Great talking to Jamie and Lucy from Bamboozle II who have been cruising for 18 years on-and-off, with 3 different boats.

Well our 3 nights are up so we left Mustique around 9am and headed south to Savan Island. It’s a tiny anchorage and seems not so well protected in today’s conditions, which thankfully have settled significantly since a we arrived. There is no one else there but the beach is not that pretty, just a couple of fishermen’s shacks. We decide to give it a miss and move on to Canouan Island, but on the way we put the fishing line out and we are surprised when we actually get our first ever bite! Assuming it would be a big lump of sargassum weed, we start reeling it in and panic sets in when we actually see a fish on the end of the line. Unfortunately it is a fairly underwhelming Barracuda, which after a bit of a struggle, we decide to drop back in the water. Hopefully he wont recognise us if we run into him again. where we anchor at Rameau Bay – it is really well protected and lovely water. We stop for lunch and some snorkelling and it is quite lovely. Unfortunately though it is one of those bays where we swirl around on the anchor and the chain wraps and unwraps around rocks. The anchor is not that well dug in to the hard sand bottom, so we decide not to stay the night. We head further south down to Charlestown Bay and anchor just north of the Ferry dock. It’s not quite as pretty and its very gusty but excellent holding and will be safe for the night.

The following morning it’s time for a shore run to get some provisions, as we are heading to the uninhabited islands of Tobago Cays, where there are no shops! There is too much of a surge to leave the dinghy at the dock so Keith drops me ashore. I go in search of cash but the only machine in town is empty! Apparently the workers raid it on Friday night before heading back to St Vincent for the weekend, and it is Saturday today. We manage to scrape together EC$100 and I can get some fresh produce from the limited selection available. We up anchor and head around to Glossy Bay on the southern end of the island. It’s a lovely long white beach outside the new and very empty, brand new super yacht marina, The Sandy Lane Yacht Club. Again Keith drops me ashore and go into the supermarket for a few more items and hoping to get some cash from the checkout or failing that the Marina. I strike a deal with an English lady who was clearly provisioning a charter boat and about to handover a wad of cash - I offer to pay for her stuff on my credit card and take her cash. She is 50c short so that ends up being her commission! Much cheaper than the ATMs which charge EC$8 a pop! Missions accomplished we can now head to our next exciting destination....

Well with mixed feelings today we drove ITIKI into the dock at Tyrell Bay Marina, here in Carriacou, Grenada, where she was swiftly but gently lifted out of the water. She had a nice bum clean, as she was a little furry down there, and is now resting on her keels. This season we have hurricane straps on each corner to ensure ITIKI stays put, even in the strongest winds. These straps, and our nerves, will have a little test on Tuesday night when a tropical LO passes to the south of Grenada, pushing strong winds over Carriacou where we are. Check out the video below to see how it all went.

Dominica, officially known as the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country situated between the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It has a land area of 750 km2 and population of around 72,000. The island gained independence as a republic in 1978.

Dominica was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century, and they were displaced by the Kalinago by the 15th century. Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493 and we also passed by Dominica on the 18th of February 2022, on our way north, skipping it to go directly from Martinique to Guadeloupe. This was mainly because the entry requirements were quite restrictive (Covid tests, quarantine etc), and Agents and government fees were on the high side. Fortunately on our way south we heard that restrictions had eased, Covid test was no longer required, agent’s fees had been lowered as well, so we decided to give it a go. We are certainly glad we did!

Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Island of the Caribbean" for its unique, natural environment. It is geo-thermally active and boasts the world's second-largest hot spring, called Boiling Lake. The island hosts lush mountainous rainforests and fast flowing waterfalls (there is no shortage of water here!) and is home to many rare plants, animals, and bird species. The rare Sisserou parrot is found only on Dominica, it is the island's national bird and features on the national flag, making it one of the only two sovereign nations whose official flag features the colour purple. Now there is something useful for your next round of Pub Trivia – which is the other country with purple on the flag??

We left Ilet Cabrits, (Les Saintes, Guadeloupe) around 9am with 1 reef in the main and a full genoa, having a great reaching sail southwards to Portsmouth, 21nm away, arriving around midday. Portsmouth is in the north of the island and although it’s not the capital, it is a large and nicely protected harbour and the small town is well set up to receive cruisers. We picked up a mooring buoy with the help of Andrew from PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yachting Services) which is a NFP cooperative that has been formed to provide assistance to passing yachts and cruisers, regulate tour guides and share the work around amongst the independent operators. We handed our papers and passports over to Andrew with the promise of an efficient clearance process (US$40 all inclusive). Had lunch and waited on board and Andrew came back to tell us that we were cleared to go ashore and walk around. We walked along the road up to Fort Shirley on Cabrits headland north of the anchorage (which used to be an island). The fort is beautifully restored and now used as a function centre. It will be hosting a big jazz festival next weekend! Got back to the PAYS office and our papers were not quite ready so we had a drink at SeaBird, the beach bar next door. Debby and Fraser (SY Everlonger) arrived and joined us and not long after that our papers were delivered to us in the bar. Great service. We are cleared in and out in one go, and can stay for 2 weeks. Plus Debby has booked us on a tour tomorrow.

We had a 7am start to meet the lovely Kish, our amazing tour guide for the day (and only female tour guide here). There are just 4 of us and a bus sized for 10 so it’s very comfortable. We head south and the roads are quite reasonable. Apparently the Chinese have put some money into Dominica, and we pass the Chinese Friendship Hospital (formerly the Princess Margaret Hospital…) Kish points out the some solar / wind powered street lights. The street lights have been looted of their batteries and solar panels so none of them work. Kish is a real lively character and she throws herself into all of the activities, sometimes literally! We stop first at Trafalgar Falls, which is a double waterfall in a lush, green valley. Just as we are leaving a couple of tour buses arrive from the cruise ship so it was worth getting here early. Next stop is a little café where we have some breakfast, which ends up being brunch, before heading on to Middleham Falls. It’s a 45 min walk each way and we have to cross a stream and scramble over some reasonably rough and rooty terrain, steep up and then down again and very muddy in places. The 60m high waterfall is spectacular though and we can scramble over some large boulders to get to the pool at the bottom of it. The water is pretty cool (no its refreshing says Kish!) and there is an incredible down draft from the fast flowing water like a roaring wind – amazing! We head to Titou Gorge which is quite a surprise. We have to don glamourous, tight fitting life jackets and hop into a pool – warning!! - the water is even more “refreshing” than at the waterfalls. We start swimming though a gap in the rocks and into the gorge. The walls of the narrow channel reach some 20m above us and the light filters through the forest at the top. We continue swimming along the winding canal with twists and turns for about 150m or so. As we get to the end it is just WOW as we see water gushing down a narrow “chimney” into a small pool at the end of our canal. With Kish’s help we scramble into the tiny pool. The force of the water is incredible and it is barely possible to stand under it. Getting out was a challenge as it means sliding off a rock and getting washed back into the stream by the fast running water, trying to hold onto the bottom half of my swimmers! Kish plunges off the edge with a half somersault, trying to film with her phone at the same time. This really was the highlight of the day and we were all blown away by the experience. Back in the pool there are a couple of pipes with some warmer water flowing out so we can thaw out a bit. Also from here is the start of the track to the famous Boiling Lake, 3 hours one way! Not for us today though. Apparently it’s only just re-opened after 3 weeks as it had run completely dry for some unknown reason.

We stop by the Botanic Gardens to see a few different native trees as well as the Jaco parrot and Sisserou parrots, which they are trying to breed. Next we head further south and all the way down past Roseau (the capital) to Scotts Head where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic. We will sail past this headland when we leave, but it is really interesting to reach it from land so we have seen both ends of this small island country.
 
Our final stop is just to the north for snorkelling at Champagne beach. This is so called because there is a spot where bubbles of air come out of the rocks below and rise like champagne in a glass, swirling in the currents like smoke as they rise to the surface. What a novel experience to swim through these bubbles - I guess this is the closest we will come to swimming in champagne! We stop at a roadside BBQ to have fried plantains for afternoon tea, a favourite local snack. Kind of a cross between a potato and a banana – Mmmm…Great carbohydrate fix!

It’s a long drive back to Portsmouth but it’s been a great day and Kish has been very entertaining and informative with her stories about Dominican life and how they fared during the Covid pandemic. It was a really challenging time for them with their regionally renowned university closing, and tourism, particularly from yachties and cruise ships, coming to a complete halt – No job-keeper or jobseeker here! People just have to fend for themselves. We have dinner ashore at Mandiba before heading back to the boat for an early night.

It seems that many yachts are now heading south and a few people that we have met elsewhere turn up in Dominica this week. We catch up with Janet and Paul George from WindWitcher, who arrived yesterday when we were on the tour. They also have a Helia and we first met them in our last Spanish anchorage before arriving in Gibraltar, keeping in touch since then. About the same time team Cushla (who we met in Mindelo & Barbados) arrive, sneaking past us and anchoring close to shore. In the evening there is a BBQ at PAYS, which is an institution apparently, and pretty much everyone in from the anchorage is there. They do a fantastic spread with chicken and fish and salad, as well as their infamous rhum punch… It was lovely to catch up with everyone’s stories and meet some new friends as well. It was a lovely evening and Dominica has been the most sociable place we have been for a long time.

Woke with a bit of a headache the next morning thanks to the PAYS rhum punch. The skipper from Samadhi (56’ Lagoon) dropped by on the RIB to say hi. They were on the mooring buoy near us, which we had though was set a bit too close. In the morning we noticed that they had moved to another buoy and wondered why. He told us that around midnight they woke as our boats had swung in opposite directions and our bow was touching their RIB! They tried to wake us, banging on our bow but due to our bedroom being in the stern (and also possible the 2nd or 3rd rhum punch…) we slept through the excitement. Ooops! Anyway we decided to go and anchor rather than staying on a buoy for another night, so we head out and dump the holding tanks before coming in a little closer to the fishermen’s wharf. One of the PAYS tour guides came by to say hello and mentioned that there was a sunken freighter near the spot we had chosen. Keith had a snorkel around and yes indeed there was a sunken freighter, although not exactly as marked. We decided we were a little bit too close to it, so went in and anchored closer to shore. It’s a weedy bottom but good holding. We made contact with Martin, one of the tour guides for the Indian River, who came highly recommended and he brings some beautiful Heliconias to ITIKI.

Paul and Janet (Windwitcher) came around for sundowners later in the day and we ended up chatting until about 9pm! They are heading south tomorrow and will haul out at Spice Island boatyard in Grenada (we are going to Carriacou, just to the north).

Early next morning we do the Indian River tour. It’s a magical time of day and we have it to ourselves with just the sound of the birds as Martin our guide rows and poles his wooden dinghy upstream. The river is so quiet, with only the sound of birds. There are herons on the water’s edge and a kingfisher follows us as we make our way along the waters edge. The river is shallow, the water is muddy and the most incredible gnarly tree roots line the water’s edge, making a ghostly scene. Apparently some scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed here. Martin is a trained botanist and very knowledgeable about the flora, fauna and ecology of Dominica. He catches a fairly large crab and gives us an anatomy lesson. The males have a large claw on the right and females on the left. We stop and walk ashore briefly at an old settlement where Martin shows us some more interesting plants and explains their medicinal uses before slowly drifting back down the river. He stops to pick some Noni fruit, apparently it has some pretty amazing medicinal properties and I should cook it up and drink the juice (whilst ignoring the disgusting smell…). We continue to chat over coffee after he drops us back to ITIKI.

​Well it had to happen I guess - our first brush with “the C word” (Covid!) since we have been back cruising. One of our fellow cruisers, who was at the BBQ the other night (and who shall remain nameless) drops by to tell us his wife has just tested positive for Covid. She only has mild symptoms, although feeling quite tired, and he is negative. I decided to test myself and I am negative. It’s not easy to shove that thing up your own nose - both nostrils!
 
On the strength of that we drop over to see Cindy and Adam from SV Bravo intending to go for a walk to Fort Shirley, but there is quite a swell in the bay and all of the dinghy docks are too surgy to leave the RIB so we give up and just have coffee and cake on ITIKI. They are leaving tomorrow for St Martin so need to go and sort out their paperwork. We finish the day with cocktails on the upper deck and we end up having an early night There is some loud music on the beach until 2am but we sleep through it.

​Its Sunday morning and the church bells sound around 7am. We have omelette for breakfast and I make some bread.  It’s so hot and humid and we feel we should go ashore and do something but it’s just overbearing - we just have no energy and now start wondering if we might have Covid… Keith puts the gennaker up and sorts lines as we are heading off to Martinique tomorrow but that is about all we can manage. I get a message from Kish to see if we want some of her famous Johnny cakes  as she has been baking, so I go ashore to get some. They are kind of a cross between a donut and … well I don’t know really. They have a kind of cheesey filling – great comfort food and very filling! I always like to try the local treats although some things are like Vegemite – you have to grow up with it to appreciate it.

Well Dominica has been fantastic and I am so pleased that we did drop by on the way south. We have met some very special, friendly and helpful people, caught up with "old" friends and made some new ones! We would really love to come back, do some more hiking and see more of the north of the island. For now though we will continue to head south. We set off early the next morning and motor sail initially as we are in the lee of the island. Cushla heads off under sail and seem to be heading out to sea. We get to the southern end of Dominica and can sail a better angle but the sea state is awful and its pretty uncomfortable. We end up with 2 reefs in the main as we are getting quite strong wind between the islands – it tends to compress and blast through these gaps. As we get to the top of Martinique the wind is dying and wrapping around the top of the island. We slow right down, shake out the reefs and get the main caught on one of the lazy jacks, end up a bit close to some fishing pots, get annoyed with ourselves and so we drop the main and motor into the anchorage of St Pierre, where we have been before. Cushla arrive safely as well but we are all feeling too knackered to go ashore or do anything so an early night is in order.

Left Anegada about 9ish for the 20nm journey back to Tortola island. Had a great reaching sail across to Marina Cay again averaging 8kts VMG despite a fair bit of a side-on swell. We furled the headsail and strapped the main to motor through the Camanoe Gap between Great Camanoe Island and Scrub Island, dropping the main just off Marina Cay before dropping the anchor. It’s a deepish anchorage here and we are south of the mooring field. It’s nice enough but turns out to be a bit of a thoroughfare for ferries and power boats going across to Trellis Bay on Beef Island, off the eastern end of Tortola. We decide not to stay the night and after lunch so we head across to Trellis Bay ourselves. Its right beside the end of the airport runway (a lot of people use it to pick up guests) and with all the mooring buoys and shallow depths there is limited space to anchor so we have to take a buoy. The bottom is weedy, rocky and corally, with a smattering of boat hooks (from charter boats no doubt) and doesn’t look fantastic holding anyway. We go ashore and have a walk along the beach as well as checking out the “market”. There is a small wreck in the middle of the bay so we swim over and take a look. Not much to see, a few fish hanging around. In the afternoon there are people camped on the beach and having races with remote controlled power boats. They sound like leaf blowers on steroids! Who knew there was something more annoying than jet skis. Every time you thought they were finished they started up again! Must be just changing batteries. Later in the day they cranked up the doof-doof music but thankfully that was short lived!

In the morning I took the RIB ashore solo(!) and went to the supermarket, launching and docking the dinghy by myself. No bananas! Must be the first time in history we have run out!! When I got back to the boat I realised I was missing the cheese so I had to go back again and repeat the exercise again. Very stressful but I managed! We motored the few miles across to Guana Island, a small island just to the north of Tortola. There are 2 anchorages here both with a few mooring buoys as well. Ashore in the north there is a nice looking white-sand beach as well as an resort and a few houses stretching up the hill. We anchor south of the northern set of buoys, not far from the beach, and have lunch.  After lunch Keith swims the anchor and the verdict is not good, the bottom is quite hard and rocky and the anchor is not set well enough for an overnight stay. We decide to put motors on and head across to the aptly named Little Bay that we can see less than a mile away, on the NE corner of Tortola. Here is a small, white sand beach with nothing much ashore and sand, glorious sand! The anchor digs in nicely and we decide to stay a couple of days as we have the place to ourselves.

The next morning we take the paddle boards ashore. There is a bit of a headwind and I am behind Keith (as usual). I watch him fiddling with his hat and see a reasonable sized wave coming towards him from behind. Nothing I could do but watch him do a little dance on the back of his paddle board and fall off! He was only in waist deep water, unscathed if not a little surprised by the experience, and did not lose his sunglasses or dunk his phone. There is not much ashore but the beach is lovely and we have it all to ourselves so we go for a swim. Although we can, and do, always go for a swim off the back of ITIKI, it is a nice experience to swim off a beach as well. Walking on sand into the water and floating gently about in the shallows, out of the current is lovely.

Left this beautiful spot mid-morning and just pulled out a headsail. Made our way slowly the 8nm across to Sandy Spit with 10-20kts up the duck. The anchorage is a tiny sand island inside a reef off Little Jost Van Dyk Island, and we anchor in quite close to it. Keith swims the anchor and we are all set for the night. A lot of boats come for a few hours, visit the tiny sand island, take their selfies and move on. After lunch I take a paddle board ashore and do the same, there are a couple of palm trees and a pile of Lambi shells but that’s it. We stay a couple of nights and spend some time chilling out, doing boat jobs and swimming and watching the comings and goings.

Keith was determined to be first on the tiny beach island the morning we left. He paddled ashore and wrote ITIKI on the beach for me to photograph from the boat, but it looked like iciki… Anyway you get the idea. We left just before 9am and swung around the end of Sandy Cay, another nearby but slightly larger sand island. We had intended to stop here but it is so similar to Sandy Spit and already packed so we don’t bother. We head across to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola Island, intending to just spend an hour there going to the supermarket, but we find a nice spot to anchor avoiding the mooring buoys and decide we like it. Just repositioned ourselves when we realised we had swung too close to another boat on a mooring buoy. Went ashore and the supermarket shelves were a bit sparse but she suggested coming back later as they were awaiting a delivery. We took what we had back to the boat and had a chat to an American couple on a Saona (QuiteTheCatch) who live on their boat 6 months of the year. In the afternoon we take the paddleboards ashore and watch the dive bombing pelicans. We stop at a beach bar for a cocktail and sit under an umbrella for a while, then head back to the supermarket and bingo! Delivery in, so we have bananas again! In the evening the music is fairly loud and goes on until about 11pm and then the parties continue on the charter boats. Well it is a popular place!

The next morning head north again to the southern shores of Jost Van Dyk Island, Amazingly there is no one anchored at Sandy Spit, they are all at Sandy Cay. We take a peek in to Garner Bay but there is really nothing there, a restaurant that looks closed and a barge on the western side, no beach. A few mooring buoys – meh! We continue on west to Grand Harbour and again its full of mooring buoys and lots of boats, there is maybe room to anchor right at the mouth of the bay but it is quite unappealing. Next stop is White Bay. This has 2 sides, the western side looks very busy with buoys and charter boats and plenty of restaurants and beach bars line the shore. We choose the eastern side and reluctantly pick up another buoy, as there is no space to anchor. We have to reverse onto it as it has no pendant, but no fancy trick techniques this time. Then we realise we are right next to QuiteTheCatch again. We take the paddle boards ashore on the western side and go for a walk up the hill a little to get a view. Lots of private villas here and a on the beach is Ivan’s stress free bar (great name!). Later we paddled over to the western shore and went for a walk along the beach, there are a lot more boats, people and beach bars over this side. Ran into Cathy and Steve from QTC who were drinking cocktails and smoking cigars in the water. Quite the party atmosphere!

Well White Bay was a nice enough bay, particularly our spot in the south, and we considered looking for a sand patch between the mooring buoys to stay for another night, but instead we decided to move on. QTC left earlier than us and put some sails up. We motored, intending to put a headsail out but it was on the nose and the batteries were a bit low so we ended up motoring all the way. From our anchorage we headed around the western end of Tortola, past Soper’s Hole – it’s a very popular, deep and well protected bay but quite tight, full of mooring buoys and plenty of boats. We keep going south realising later we probably passed through US waters as we skirted along the top of St John (USVI). Crossed paths with Quite The Catch again who are still sailing - hope they don’t think we are stalking them. Arrived at Privateer Bay, on Norman Island, just before lunch and we were delighted to find that it wasn’t full of mooring buoys or charter boats. There are some day use buoys on the eastern side near some caves, about 8 overnight buoys along the shore in the south of the bay,  but they left a fantastic sandy patch to the west which had our name on it. Three other boats here already but we find a nice gap and the anchor is well set. Our mood lifts when we find somewhere special and uncrowded like this. After lunch I go for a snorkel along the western shore. There are some interesting fish and the water is incredibly clear. Later we take the dinghy across to the caves and have a snorkel around there. The coral is not fantastic but there are some more colourful fish, including quite large parrot fish. There is not much life in the caves themselves though, as they are a fairly dark.

From our anchorage, I swim and Keith takes the paddle board over to the western point again and we go for a snorkel. There are a few large bombies off the point but again, not very spectacular. A few larger fish. Keith does some more cleaning under the hull and spies a large barracuda and a sting ray. In the afternoon we take the dinghy across to Bight Bay, the next one around from our anchorage, and check it out. There are a lot of mooring buoys and charter boats as well as a resort in the corner. We then head over to The Indians, 4 conical shaped rocks near Pelican Island with a large reef surrounding them. There are quite a few day moorings over here and a line for the dinghy which we tie to. The snorkelling here is the best we have seen so far, quite extensive, good variety of coral and lots of fish. I swim with a school of small, flat blue fish for a while before being distracted by a larger, fish with flouro markings.

It’s time to move on again so we leave our lovely spot mid-morning and motored around to White Bay, tucked into the SE corner of Peter Island, 4nm away. It’s a lovely looking white sand beach and there are 3 monos here when we arrive, but they soon leave. We anchor well in the weedy sand but find that the boat is turning 360s. Swam ashore and walked along the beach where there is a big sign saying that the island is closed to visitors and we must stay on the beach. That is not too difficult given the high cliffs and dense scrub inland of the beach. After lunch we are not feeling too comfortable with all of the twisting and turning. The anchor has reset but the movement means we won’t get a good night’s sleep. It’s getting late by the time we decide to leave so we need to move quickly. In the next bay there are 2 cats anchored close to shore so we stick our noses in but find the bottom looks too rocky for our liking. There are a couple of mooring buoys but they are a long way out and too exposed to the strong prevailing wind. We head around the top of the island past Little Bay, Grand Harbour and finally into Deadman’s Bay on Peter Island, a further 10nm from our lunch anchorage. There is one other cat here (Flu Flu that we have seen in various places before). We anchor outside them and we are very happy with the set. It’s quite windy here but a strong breeze from consistent direction is a good thing as it holds us steady on the anchor. We are here just in time for sundowners and enjoy a beautiful sunset.

It was quite gusty overnight, a fair bit of swell coming into the bay and it’s too bouncy go ashore so we get away mid-morning. First “stop” is to take a look at Salt Island which has some mooring buoys to access a wreck dive, but it’s quite exposed and bouncy through the passage so we decide to continue on. We come into the bay at Cooper Island which is full of charter boats on mooring buoys and anchoring is prohibited, so we pick up a buoy intending to just stay for lunch. Some Canadians from a charter boat come around the anchorage in a RIB trying to get rid of their beer and some spirits before they leave to go back home. Surprisingly they do not have any other takers so we score a free case of Corona Light, a full bottle of Cointreau and one of Triple Sec, very generous and a worthwhile stop indeed, especially as we didn’t pay for the mooring buoy... We head away after lunch towards Virgin Gorda and our favourite anchorage near the baths. Sadly the conditions are very much different to before -  there is a big swell coming in here so it is nowhere near as nice. We have to give it a miss and head to the more protected anchorage at Spanish Town, where we spent our first night in the BVIs. It’s still quite gusty but we are able to anchor in the exact same spot we did before. We have done a full circle of the BVIs, visiting all of the main islands, anchoring at or sailing by many of the smaller ones and so many beautiful bays.

​Sadly it is now time to leave the BVIs and start heading south, so we go ashore in the morning to complete the check-out formalities and swing past the supermarket for a few last minute items for our upcoming crossing. As we don’t need a Covid test for our next destination we don’t need to go to Road Town and we can leave the BVIs the next morning. We head over to Prickly Pear Island 6nm away, so we can start our journey a little further to windward before heading south. We motor all the way and this time we choose to enter Gorda Sound through the narrow and shallow gap between Virgin Gorda and Mosquito island, as we had seen other cats exit this way when we were here before. At one point we had 15cm under the keel and very interesting look on Keith’s face! We anchored in the same spot off Prickly Pear island, rested up and prepared for tomorrow’s big passage.

​Hughey’s first law of sailing karma
If you cast your mind back to high school physics you might recall Newton’s 3rd law of motion (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). A similar law applies to sailing and it goes something like this: For every glorious downhill run there is an equal and opposite ie “god-awful” upwind beat that is deposited into your sailing karma bank. Sooner or later, you have to make a withdrawal. We have been reaching and running with the trade winds since our Atlantic crossing and apart from a short slog from Les Saintes to Gwada, we have managed to avoid sailing to windward for a very long time. As everyone knows, gentleman and cats don’t go to windward. In terms of pointing, the best we can manage is around 45 degrees to the wind before you add our 10 degrees of leeway, but that is only half the story as our shallow keels mean the wind and current can more easily push us sideways, sending us off course and forcing us to tack back and basically zig zag our way to our destination. Our journey north to the BVIs had also been taking us gradually more westward so getting back to the French Antilles in the prevailing easterly trade winds was always going to be challenging.
 
Ahead of us lies a 220+nm journey from the BVIs to Deshaies, Guadeloupe with a COG of 130o. We were expecting 16kts gusting 21kts Easterly (80-95o) with a swell 1.7-2m (at 60o). It might not sound ideal, but there is no point waiting for better - that’s about as good as it gets as the trade winds are pretty relentless at this time of year and don’t tend to change direction all that much. Needless to say, there would be windward sailing and lots of tacking involved! We were mentally prepared for it, if not looking forward to it.

We left at 7:30am, motoring around Saba Rock Resort, through the well-marked gap in the reef and out in the open waters. We started with 1 reef in the Main & Genoa, close hauled at 45s. Our progress was slow, as we expected, and we had lumpy seas. Conditions are very similar to the Atlantic crossing except we are going to windward! Our leeway means we are gradually falling further and further south of our course. Late on our first night we tack onto starboard and our VMGs go into the minus. We are just west of Saba, but on checking the radar it looks like we have tacked into an approaching squall, so we quickly tack back again. We continue on starboard tack through the night, passing Statia on our left. In the wee hours of the morning we tack onto starboard and head in towards into Kitts & Nevis. We would have liked to stop here, however their entry requirements were prohibitive and unwelcoming so we satisfy ourselves with a motor-sail along the south coast of this green and misty island. The wind shadow is a welcome relief although short-lived and as we come back into open water we tack back onto port and switch the motors off. We continue this way through the day and into the early hours of the next morning, falling further and further south of our course to Deshaies. We can barely make out Montserrat in the darkness we are so far from it. As I come on watch at 3am we decide to pull the pin on windward sailing and put the engines on so we can reach our final destination in reasonable time. We do the “two Volvo reach” for the final few hours which saves us from heading further south and having to do 15 tacks to get back. We can make a bee line to Deshaies, on the NW side of Gwada and arrive in time for breakfast! As much as I hate burning fossil fuels, for the sake of our sanity it was the right decision and lovely to arrive and drop anchor in a familiar location after a challenging passage.

​We spent just on 3 weeks exploring the BVIs and this was as far north as we went this season. The self-governing British territory consists of 4 larger islands (Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, and Jost Van Dyk) and 32 smaller islands and islets, 20 of which are uninhabited, and with a total area of about 150sq km.
 
The BVIs are physically very close to the USVIs (which due to the high level of entry bureaucracy we decided to skip). There are also a couple of Spanish Virgin islands but they are a bit out of the way, making the sailing angle of a return journey even worse than the one we had. The islands do not seem all that British, although English is the official language, the $USD is the official currency. The inhabitants of the islands, are mostly descendants of slaves imported in the 17th and 18th centuries to work the sugar plantations.
 
The BVIs are hugely popular with charter boats and here we saw the highest concentration of them so far, and mostly catamarans, very few monos. Most popular anchorages have mooring buoys put in place by the local authorities, yacht clubs or National Parks and the price is set at US$30 per night! Some bays are completely full of them, making anchoring very challenging if not impossible. We generally avoided those spots if we could. That said, without the buoys I can imagine it would be sheer chaos in the popular bays, with so many “inexperienced” charter boats vying for space. It was nice to be able to do short hops from island to island, bay to bay, without having to change countries! We didn’t do a lot of exploring ashore or inland on the islands. The islands are quite steep so walking anywhere, other than along the beaches, involves a serious trek. Private, gated mansions and thick forest also limit access to the interior and in some of the townships the impact of Cyclone Irma, that came through in 2017, is still quite evident.

​Getting there
We are away just after 4am for the 84nm journey from Marigot Bay in St Martin (FR) to Spanish Town on the island of Virgin Gorda, BVIs. We hoist the main with 1 reef as we are expecting the usual 20+kts but downwind for a change. Its lovely to have the wind behind us and the following sea is not too rough, although there are some cross swells. We pull out the full genoa and change to a goosewing configuration. As the breeze starts to lighten we shake out the reef and switch to the gennaker, goosewinged. We are getting along quite nicely when BANG! we snap the gennaker halyard and the sail comes crashing down and heads under the boat. Keith was able to get it out of the water but it is covered in antifoul – not a good look. We once again put it up on the kite halyard but the gennaker halyard is well and truly buried inside the mast.
 
Surprisingly we don’t see many other yachts along the way, and the rest of the journey is pleasant and uneventful. We come through the passage between Fallen Jerusalem Island and the southern end Virgin Gorda, avoiding “The Blinders” – some nasty rocks which are awash but well charted and clearly visible in daylight. We sail past the iconic “Baths” and drop the sails before motoring into St Thomas Bay, Spanish town. We drop anchor inside the mooring buoys and are informed by another yacht that we can’t check in here. I thought that might be the case, although we were still able to select it on the SailClear form. They don’t have the facilities here to do the Covid checks so we have to go to Road Town, on the island of Tortola. It’s already after 4pm and it’s a couple of hours away so we decide to go early tomorrow morning as we still have time on our Covid test clock. We treat ourselves to welcome cocktails and have an early night.

​Another early start the next morning to motor the 22nm into Road Town, on Tortola island. We anchor off the ferry wharf and take the RIB to check in. The “dinghy dock” (ie the shore end of the ferry wharf) is a bit dodgy, solid concrete, very surgy and a long way up! A security guard rushes over and when we ask for check-in he ushers us around the back of the building toward the health officials. We pass the health check and then go into immigration and customs. US$40 all up, including the pass for the national park. We head to an ATM but don’t bother hanging around Road Town. There are quite a few vacant lots around town and we realise later that the buildings here had been razed by Irma and not rebuilt. We head back across to Virgin Gorda and anchor at Valley Trunk Bay, which is just north of The Baths. Some fellow cruisers mention a cable on the bottom and when we swim the anchor can see that it’s just beside our anchor. Also the anchor is not that well set on hard ground. Just as we are resetting it another cat is leaving who was closer in to the beach so we motor up to take their spot. A skippered charter boat charges towards the same spot at a rate of knots, giving us the glare and expecting us to back off. She clearly has never skippered on Sydney Harbour for NYE and Keith stares her down so we win out and anchor closer to the beach. The water is so crystal clear we can see the anchor from the foredeck! We are still quite tired and decide to stay for a few days as it is really lovely and calm. Keith goes up the mast and tries to find and retrieve the gennaker halyard but it is firmly stuck and he ends up cutting it off. I go for a bit of a snorkel but there is not much sea life and the coral is all dead.

​In the morning we dinghy over to visit the “iconic” Baths, a short distance to the south. It’s not permitted to anchor here and dinghy’s are not allowed on the beach either but some mooring buoys are provided for daytime use only. We tie the dinghy to one of these, swim ashore with our masks and snorkels and we are the first on the beach. A couple of cats have already picked up buoys but they seem more intent on fishing off the back of the boat than enjoying the location.
 
The area itself is a small beach surrounded at either end by huge boulders of various shapes. How they got here is a bit of a mystery, but it’s quite amazing how they are stacked here as if they were tossed down from above. Waves crash in between them and the sand is beautiful and white. There is a cave formed by boulders at one end of the beach that you go into and see daylight up above. There is also a small beach bar as well, but it’s not open yet and the crowds are starting to arrive so we head back to ITIKI.

​In the afternoon I take a SUP to the beach by our anchorage and walk along it. There are also some boulders here that are quite spectacular and again the sand is beautiful and clean. The water colour is incredible as well. Plus there are no other people here! Sadly, we can’t put the drone up as it’s a no-fly zone, due to the proximity of the airport.
 
We can see the mooring buoys at The Baths from our anchorage and by 8:45am the next morning there are no buoys! Completely full of charter cats! We must have got lucky yesterday, maybe it was “changeover day” for the rentals. We decide to put the SUPs in the water and go for another look between there and our anchorage. We follow the water’s edge and stop for a swim at the beach south of ours. There is no-one around at all and the water is again beautiful and clear. We can take the SUPs into The Baths as well and despite the number of boats anchored, few have made it to the beach yet so it is not too bad. We get our picture taken and head back to the boat. In the afternoon the boat that told us about the underwater cable is leaving but their anchor is stuck between two rocks. Keith heads over in the dinghy to help try and dislodge it. They have managed to attach a trip line to it and eventually it shifts and they are off.

Several quite large catamarans have turned up at our anchorage, obviously attracted by ITIKI. Keith makes another attempt to retrieve the halyard and this time, incredibly, finds the other end of it! It’s difficult to pull through though and he manages to get about a meter out. To be continued. We up anchor and head over to take a look at Dog Islands just to the north of us. We could see one beach from our anchorage that looked ok, and there has been one powerboat anchored there the whole time. As we get closer we see it’s not much of a beach and no anchorage, and in fact the powerboat is on the shore! We head around the Western side of Great Dog Island and see there are some mooring buoys here, it’s quite wild but not what we are looking for so we go between George Dog Island and Great Dog Island and head for Savannah Bay, which is also on Virgin Gorda Island and 7nm from last night’s anchorage. Here we need to enter in the bay at the southern end where there is a gap in the reef, and anchor in sand between the reef and the shore. We anchor in what looks like sand but turns out to be hard so we move a little closer in to get a better set in nice sand. There is a beautiful long, white beach ashore and we watch as the 7 crew from a large motor yacht bring umbrellas, beach chairs, dining table, BBQ etc ashore for the 3 “guests” to enjoy.

We go ashore in the dinghy and have a bit of an adventure as there is quite a bit of surf hitting the shore, despite the protection of the reef. We were getting close to shore checking whether it was safe to go in and I looked back to see a largish wave about to break on us! Too late! We copped it side on then the prop we hit a rock as we tried to manoeuvre away and the engine stopped. Another wave then took us broadside and fortunately pushed us nose in towards the shore. We surfed in and jumped out to pull the dinghy up the beach. Not quite as we had planned, but hopefully the powerboat people didn’t notice. We walked nonchalantly along the beach and back past them and they did seem to be smirking a bit. We noticed that they have written their boat name in the sand, so we did the same. Leaving the beach in the dinghy was an even bigger challenge. Our first attempt, the dinghy got swamped while I was in it. Keith wasn’t in yet and got knocked over, losing his good Oakley sunglasses. I managed to jump out and pull the dinghy onto the beach. We were lucky not to capsize! Keith searched in vain for his glasses. The second attempt at launching was more successful, although still a bit hair raising! The dinghy is full of sand and a fair bit of water and we are both soaked so we go back to ITIKI to catch our breath. Fortunately there were no phones in pockets etc… Keith takes a paddle board in to look for his glasses on the off chance they have washed ashore, like Martin’s flip-flop in The Canaries. Meanwhile I clean the sand out of the dinghy. No luck with the sunglasses unfortunately.

​It was a rolly and noisy night with waves slapping the hull and knocking us this way and that, so we decide leave early. We head out taking a tour around Seal Dog Island before heading into Prickly Pear anchorage 7nm away in Gorda Sound. We can see Necker Island as we pass through the entrance to the Sound. This is Richard Branson’s private island home which can be rented out in its entirety (48 guests max) or at certain times of the year, by individual cabins. Lord only knows what the price tag is! If you have to ask you can’t afford it! Anyway there are quite a few boats in close at to the shore at Prickly Pear Island when we arrive so we anchor a bit further out/north. Anchor sets well in sand and the water is lovely, lots of turtles here and we immediately like the place. We dinghy over to Leverick Bay Marina on the opposite side of the Sound, to take a look around. It is a small marina with a bar/restaurant. There is a small market here so we get a couple of things and head back to the boat.
 
We spend the afternoon turtle spotting from the boat, even seeing a ray jumping out of the water – amazingly we were both looking at the right time. Keith dropped some food scraps off the back of the boat a few small fish turned up for a meal, as well as a rather sinister looking Remora. In the afternoon we dinghied around to the Bitter End Yacht Club and to have a drink. It’s a very laid back place with a small marina and busy little bar, as well as a few villas and a restaurant. There is a mini-market here as well with a rather gourmet and pricey selection.

​The next morning we dinghy over to Leverick Bay to get some fuel for the RIB, then to the next bay around to find a skip for the garbage, thus saving the US$2.50 fee that Leverick Bay wanted (oh it’s a matter of principle!). The wind has really gotten up and its quite bouncy going across the bay so I got a bit damp in the front seat. We dropped into The Bitter End gourmet market and on the way back to ITIKI go ashore at Prickly Pear island to have a wander around. The beach bar here looks well maintained but doesn’t seem to have been open for a while. We walk along the beach and wander back to a small lagoon. Keith decides to bail out a dinghy that has been sitting at the dock for a while, slowly deflating and filling with water.
 
Left at 7am the next morning and had a great reach across to  Anegada, 17nm north. The island is only 35 square metres with the highest point being 10m! Had 18-20kts, gusting 22s and it’s a little bit rough as the passage is quite exposed. Making 8kts VMG we arrived in good time and picked up a mooring buoy - the bay is quite shallow and there is limited anchoring area. It’s reasonably protected but still a bit of swell coming in. Ashore we rented a scooter to explore this small island, heading west first to Cow Wreck Bay. It’s a lovely beach with a bar and some accommodation but not many people around. We have a bit of a walk along the beach and then head back to the Bay.

We have booked The Wonky Dog restaurant for lobster dinner tonight so we have lunch on ITIKI and to pick up rain jackets as it looks a little threatening. Next we head east and find the flamingo lookout beside a large and mostly dried out lagoon. Of course there are no flamingos! I find out later they head out to feed in the morning and don’t come back until the evening. I guess that is what we have been doing wrong all the time, we have been visiting the flamingo haunts during the day. Nevertheless we have a great view across the huge pond which takes up a big chunk of the western end of the island. We head further along the road past the botanical gardens, which is a traffic island with a few trees in it. Also the Iguana Sanctuary looks like it has been closed for a while. I hope those Iguanas all got rehabilitated ok! We reach The Settlement, which is the main town of the island, but it is more of a collection of shacks and a few goats than an actual town. Next it is up to the north of the island were there some lovely beaches, including Jack Bay and Flash of Beauty Beach - I go for a swim at Loblolly Bay. Heading back we stop at Fisherman’s wharf, which is a smelly mangrove swamp with a few dead boats. We stop at a lookout for the conch shell mounds and it is possible to see a couple of them through the binoculars. The largest one is on the south east tip of the island, it must be huge. They are protected relics of the Amerindians and can only be visited with a guide.
 
We head to the restaurant around 6:30, Keith has ordered Lobster Thermidor and I got Jamaican Jerk lobster. They were huge beasts and we are totally stuffed afterwards and we have definitely “done” Anegada!

It seems that as we head north we keep coming back to France. The French have maintained a strong presence in the Caribbean and their islands, The French Antilles, remain French territory, using the Euro and speaking French as an official language. They are financially supported by mainland France and European produce is readily available and reasonably priced (well except for St Barths where nothing is reasonably priced…), which means it is great place to provision. From Antigua we make the long hop east to St Barthelemy or St Barths as it is known, and from there it’s a short step across to St Martin/Sint Maarten (or SXM as it is known amongst cruisers – more on that later).

​Got away from our Anchorage at Dickensen Bay (Antigua) just before 7am for the 73nm crossing, starting with 1 reef in the main and full genoa. Windspeed was up and down for the first half of the trip in terms of speed and angle. We had high teens initially but down as low as 10s, with angles shifting from 100 to 130! We had stowed the gennaker thinking it was always going to be too strong to use it but now of course we need it so we dig it out of the starboard hull again. Just as I am tightening the halyard, bang, down it comes narrowly avoiding Keith’s head. Fortunately it was not unfurled as it is a major problem to get this big sail back on board if it goes in the water. Seems that the shackle had opened up and is still at the top of the mast so fortunately we have not lost the halyard. Re-hoisted it on the kite halyard, which is a bit stretchier so it’s hard to get good luff tension, but it works. Once we had passed under a line of cumulonimbus the breeze settled into a steady 18kts AWS and came back into the 80s AWA. We were on the edge of the range for the gennaker and as we got closer to the island and the “compression zone” (where wind speeds get a little higher) we swapped to the genoa and could climb a little bit too. The anchorage of Gustavia is incredibly crowded with a lot of boats on mooring buoys and other boats anchored in between them. The wind is funnelling down the narrow bay as well, making manoeuvring tricky, particularly as we came in side on into the middle of the anchorage. We thread our way through the boats and head to the leeward end and find a spot almost at the back of the anchorage. There are some quite spectacular rocky islands behind us. It’s a very windy and rolly anchorage, we are moving around like being underway and its quite noisy. We see Ella of Stockholm on the AIS, we knew they were crossing from Barbuda today and had been watching them on the chart plotter. We radio them and direct them to a spot behind us. They settled in and invited us for a quick drink before a spectacular sunset. We will do check in formalities tomorrow. Quite a few squalls go through overnight and we are rocking and rolling. Also it seems to smell of diesel fumes and avgas here. Lovely spot – NOT! Oh and we have to pay for the privilege of anchoring here!

We go into town around 9am the next morning and check-in is quick and easy, as we had already done the “paperwork” online. Looks like they are setting up for a regatta –St Barts Bucket of course! Quite a few big boats in town and some seriously expensive looking kit in the harbour. We wander around and see the sights of Gustavia, which are limited to a couple of forts, or monuments where forts used to be, a Swedish clocktower and old Swedish prison. The island used to belong to the Swedes and there is a Swedish embassy here too. We organise a car for tomorrow and spend the afternoon on the boat. The wind and movement is doing our heads in and we have another awful night’s sleep.

Head into town just after 9 and end up checking out of St Barths before picking up the car. We drive first to Anse Colombier, or the hill overlooking it, to check out tonight’s anchorage. There are quite a few boats here but still a few free moorings. We go down to Baie des Flamands on the northern coast, which is quite wild and empty with just a small beach. We pass the famous roundabout at the top of the airport runway, where the planes come in quite low and practically shave the top of your head. Wow! It looks like a difficult approach. The planes have to take a nose dive once they get over the crest to get down to the runway to land. We hop from bay to bay, but it’s a bit frustrating as there is little parking and cheek to jowl private property lines the shore here. The town of St Jean is at the other end of the runway, literally, with planes shaving your head as they take off. We tried to park at Lorient but kept missing the turn for the parking so drove over to the eastern side of the island and around the north east corner. The windward side of the island is of course pretty windy and the surf is rough, but there are a couple of sheltered bays, protected by reefs as well as a couple of saltwater lagoons, one of which smells pretty sulphurous. We make it around the headland before coming back and finding a park at Lorient. The graveyard here is quite colourful, full of freshly painted white headstones and crosses, decorated with plenty of plastic flowers and Lambi (conch) shells. The highlight though is the entertainer Johnny Holliday’s grave. Not sure of the significance of him being here but clearly this pilgrimage is in the French guide book, as a steady stream of tourists drop by. We find a little bakery for a quick bite and decide to take the car back early as we have seen the whole of this tiny island. As we are dropping the car at the airport we get to see a plane landing and another taking off on the steep runway.

From Gustavia it’s a whole 2nm to Anse Colombier, on the NW end corner of the island. Apparently the bay used to be owned by the Rockefellers, and there is quite a big house at the top of the southern headland. This is the only other “anchorage” on the tiny island. We pick up a mooring ball, these are provided free of charge, which seems odd after having paid to anchor in Gustavia! Keith decides this is a good moment to try out a new technique of picking up a mooring buoy. Normally the buoys have a big steel ring that you put your mooring lines through and they can’t be lifted to reach them from the front of the boat, so we normally bring the stern of ITIKI alongside them and I put a line through from the back transom, walking the buoy forward as Keith reverses, lead the lines under the seagull striker and cleat both ends off at the front on the starboard side. Then we have to get the second, port side mooring line on somehow. This newly imagined technique involves taking two leader lines through the ring at the same time. These are joined to the mooring lines which are already attached at front of the boat. The leader lines are necessary because the mooring lines are not long enough to reach from the front to the back of the boat. What could possibly go wrong?! Well only everything. The lines are joined by knots, which of course get stuck on the loop of the mooring buoy. Then I get very confused about which line is which, which one I need to pull etc as they are both the same colour and there is literally rope going everywhere. In the end the whole technique wasn’t really necessary because the rope mooring line running through the buoy could be lifted easily and we could have picked it up from the front of the boat with a boat hook. Oh well, we did actually manage to test the technique in the end, but it could have been seriously ugly! There is no 3G connection though and I was supposed to have a call with Australia so Keith runs me ashore to see if I can get a signal if I walk up the hill and stand on one leg. At least I can send a message to cancel the call. We have already seen heaps of turtles in the bay here which is nice. The buoys mean that the sea grass, their staple diet, is protected from damage by anchors.

It’s gusty and bouncy overnight and we spin in all directions. Not a great night’s sleep so we are keen to move on. Even though we have checked out of St Barts yesterday and have already hand one extra sneaky night here, we decide to push our luck and have another. We head over to the tiny island of Ile Fourchue, a mere 3nm west of last night’s anchorage, arriving around 10am. By 11am most boats are gone but new ones start arriving. There are 10 mooring buoys and this time we just pick it up from the front of the boat – easy peasy. The buoys are put in by National Parks to protect the sea grass, and again are free of charge, which seems fair if you are obliged to use them. It is really lovely here and we immediately relax and enjoy watching the turtles. Ile Forchue is part of St Barths’ territory - it’s an uninhabited island, privately owned which is part of the marine sanctuary. We take the paddle boards ashore and walk up to the saddle between the two peaks of the island. We can see back to St Barths to the east and further west across to St Martin, as well as a few other small barren and rocky islands in between. It’s very dry, stony and barren place with plenty of cacti and some nesting frigate birds. It’s still pretty windy but not quite so gusty and jerky as we have had. At least the wind is holding us in a consistent direction and we finally have a decent night’s sleep.

​You say Saint Martin and I say Sint Maarten – let’s just call the whole thing SXM
We would have been happy to stay at Ile Forchue another day, but we have checked out of St Barths and there is not much else to do so we set off after 11 for the 22nm step across to Marigot Bay in St Martin (FR).

This island of SXM is divided into French and Dutch territory, with an open land border. They have their own flags, different official languages and different currencies. Arriving in a private vessel by sea both have entirely different procedures. The Dutch part of the island is in the South and therefore would have been a closer arrival point for us, but my eyes start to glaze over reading the entry requirements in terms of paperwork, bureaucracy, fees, advance notification, Covid testing and isolation etc. Pretty crazy when you can just drive across (in your car or dinghy) without any restrictions! French side check-in is free of charge and self-service at the computer in the chandlery. Guess where we are going?!

From Ile Forchue we have a really lovely downwind sail with the full main and Genoa and the wind and waves are coming from behind us. We arrive around 2:30pm and anchor in Marigot Bay, just north of the entrance to the lagoon, which lies between the French and Dutch sides. It is a good sandy bottom excellent good holding, a large anchorage which is very popular. There are extensive yacht services here, with numerous marinas and boatyards, chandleries and workshops etc so of course it is a popular place and the anchorage is very busy. It is also a great place to provision before heading to the Bahamas or BVIs. We head over to the Ile Marine Chandlery to check in and even though they don’t charge for the check in, it would be rare that any boatie would come out of a chandlery empty handed. A very smart business move putting that computer in as First Mate does the check in whilst Skipper goes browsing… Lo and behold! Keith finds the Whale Gulper sump pump that we need for our shower and at a very reasonable price. After that we took the dinghy into the lagoon and did a bit of reconnaissance on town and the supermarkets.

It was very gusty and bouncy in the night and we were not sleeping so well. Looked at the track on the anchor alarm in the middle of the night and decided to get up and let some more chain out to dampen our movement and secure us better in the conditions. We possibly didn’t have as much chain out as we thought as Keith had serviced the windlass in Ile Fourchue and we hadn’t recalibrated the chain counter.

Went ashore in the morning with a mission to do a supermarket run and find the “gas man” as we need to fill our gas bottle. Not really exactly sure what kind of gas we are going to get, but apparently there will be some butane in it. We ended up having lunch ashore at ArhAwak. Lovely mussels and Keith had goat curry. Oh and we had dessert too! Very naughty. When we got back there was a note on the swim ladder. I thought it was going to be from the guy behind us complaining that we were anchored too close. Turned out it was from a Canadian couple who have bought a Helia, sight unseen and lying in Columbia, who wanted to have a look around ours. We invited them over tomorrow afternoon.

The next morning we drop off the gas bottle to get filled. It’s been such a drama the past couple of times, due to changing EU regulations that I am nervous when someone says “Yep, no problem!” We left it with the guy intending to pick it up on Monday and went for a walk up to Fort Louis. There is not much of it left, just a few walls and rusty cannons. Great views though and we can see Ella in the marina (Matts and Helena are back in Sweden for a couple of weeks). Decided to go back to the gas man and exchange our bottle instead of waiting for a refill. Tested it out when we got back and it seemed to work fine. Mark and Myra come to visit around 5ish and we showed them around ITIKI. They are a lovely couple who already have a Lagoon and decided it was time to upgrade. They have paid top dollar for the Helia but it has a lot of extras, including a full freezer by all accounts. They plan to have it moved to Panama and cruise north to central America.

We do a supermarket run in the morning and then in the afternoon we took a RIB tour around the lagoon. There are plenty of hurricane wrecks on the French side, but the Dutch seem to have removed them from their side. It’s quite shallow inside the lagoon and although it is possible to anchor inside at various points, it puts you at the mercy of the opening times of the varying bridges at the entrances and across the middle. We went all the way though the causeway into Dutch-land and then out through the lifting bridge into Simpson Bay on the southern (Dutch) side. It’s a long bay with nice enough beaches and plenty of resorts line the shore. Not much in the way of charm but would have been a nice enough anchorage. As we were coming back into the lagoon in it was time for the lifting bridge to open so we went through after the last yacht. Everyone at the yacht club comes out on the balcony to watch. Great entertainment! Wayne and Barbie (SY Hope that we met in Ragusa, Sicily in 2018) came over for drinks in the evening. We have stayed in touch and as very experienced cruisers they have been very helpful with tips and advice. Team Hope have been in SXM since mid-November as they had issues with their bow thruster coming north from the ABCs and then got diesel bug which took out their engine! They have been up on the slips a couple of times, but touch wood, will soon be on their way again. Lovely to see them.

​Tour de SXM “en voiture”

We pick up a car at 9am and head off on a tour of the island. We go south first and cross the open border into Sint Maarten. It’s a bit ironic that there are no checks considering the rigmarole you need to go through to check in if you arrive by boat. Anyway our first stop was at Maho Beach, right next to the airport. Planes come in quite low over the beach and when big jets take off, people stand by the fence and get blown over. It’s quite a tourist attraction. Not much action when we get there although one small plane did arrive and fly low overhead. At the airport we can see the dozens of private jets lined up. Check out this classic YouTube video below!

From there we headed north to take a look at Friars' Bay. It’s a small bay with a couple of beach bars and some watersports and the water looks lovely. A small but popular anchorage. We then took the winding and narrow road up to Pic Paradis, at 424m the highest point on the island. From here we had great views down to the east coast. There are some anchorages here, but protection is limited on the windward side, and it feels like it’s been blowing “dogs off chains” since forever. We descend down to Grand Case, stopping for a coffee and pastries along the way. It’s a nice wide bay with a long sandy beach. Quite a few holiday resorts and beach bars but with a really laid back feel. We walk along the beach for a bit and then along the “shopping strip” and decide to come and anchor here in ITIKI for a couple of days for a change of scenery. We also checked out Anse Marcel, a much smaller bay further north, but there is nothing here and it smells of rotting seaweed. Across to Cul de Sac, the lagoon was also a bit smelly too so we moved on. Stopped at a view point overlooking Oyster Pond at the same time as several busloads of cruise ship passengers, but they are slow moving creatures so we managed to get to the lookout and get our photos before too many of them spoiled the view. We crossed back into Dutch land again and the main town on this side, Philipsburg, where 3 cruise ships are currently anchored. It’s hot, noisy and very touristy, and we end up at a Peruvian restaurant to have burgers for lunch (managed to resist the Pisco Sours). The beach here is quite nice, long, white sand but lots of beach bars and loud music. Back from the beach the streets are lined with shops selling duty free and luxury goods. Our final stop (of course) is to the super large Carrefour supermarket. Its huge and at first seems really expensive, until we realise prices are in NAFs or North Antilles Florins (WTF!?) and not USD, which is the other currency used on this side of the fence! Not sure why they don’t just use Euros, I guess they want to differentiate themselves from the French! Grog was relatively cheap though and we end up with lots. Even found tahini, Branston pickle and Vegemite! We drop off the car and load up the dinghy with our booty!

The next morning, after a final shore run, we head north in ITIKI for the 2nm journey to Grand Case, which looked like a nice spot when we were here by car. We only just remembered to empty the holding tanks along the way! We anchor in the NE corner but it turns out to be a poor choice. Holding is good but we spin around 360. The anchor keeps resetting but it’s pretty annoying bobbing around, so we move the next day closer to the centre of the bay. It’s still gusty but at least we were not doing donuts anymore. There is an airport here as well and the small planes come in quite low over the anchorage. We take the RIB ashore and have a long walk along the beach. It’s always lovely to sink your toes into sand.

​We have another restless night with rain squalls and strong gusts coming through the anchorage. Around 5:45am there is a loud bang and we realise the anchor bridle has gone, and the weight of the boat is being held on the windlass – not good for it! We have had numerous issues with the clip and shackle breaking and coming off but this time we head up front to see that the port line has completely snapped off close to the central knot. Wow! There was a tiny bit of chafe in the casing but that is major. We jury rig a line through the knot to our foredeck cleats to take the pressure off the windlass. We will need to head back to Marigot and get some materials to make a new bridle. I try to book a marina but it is too complicated, and we eventually anchor close to the lagoon entrance again, with our temporary bridle solution. We go ashore and do our Covid test for entering BVIs as we will be leaving shortly, then it’s over to our favourite chandlery to check-out of SXM and gather bridle materials. We have decided to put snubbers on the bridle and they have to be ordered in and picked up later today, along with a new clip. Keith does an amazing job putting it all together based on someone else’s design we found online. We are still at anchor in 20+kts with a temporary anchor bridle, so once everything is assembled, I steer the boat up onto the anchor to take the pressure off the temporary bridle, ensuring it does pull back onto the windlass. Finally Keith ties on the new bridle at the front of the boat and I attach it to the anchor chain. Now we have 2 bridles on the anchor chain and we end up in a bit of a tangle removing the temporary one, but finally we free the lines and we are on the new bridle alone. It’s quite a different experience. The laid line has more give in it than the old bridle and the snubbers dampen the snatch that normally occurs in the gusts. The lines don’t creak and strain like the plaited line. We don’t seem to swing from side to side as sharply as the snubbers dampen the movement. Very happy with the result and we sleep well, which was long overdue! We are off to the BVIs tomorrow and it will be an early start!

The island of Antigua was discovered by Columbus in 1493, but never settled by the Spanish as it has no natural source of water. It was only in French hands for 1 year in the 1660s and for the rest of the time has been decidedly British. The British used it as a base for 3 centuries making it the stronghold for their squadrons on the Leeward islands. With the ships of Admiral Rodney and the great Horatio Nelson the British could control the whole of the Antilles from English Harbour. The island, especially English and Falmouth Harbours maintain a very British feel.
 
We set out from Deshaies in Guadelope at 8:30am for the 43nm journey north. Ella of Stockholm was up earlier than us and we spot them on AIS a bit later. We have full sails initially but then the wind builds as we pass the end of the island and get into open water. The significant swell is beam on and slapping us about a bit. The wind is easterly as forecast (70o TWD) but as usual is somewhat higher in speed than expected -  high teens & low 20s. We put in a single reef and we are also able to foot off a bit. We seem to manage to work our way between two rain squalls, one passes behind us, the other in front, arriving in English Harbour at 13h45. On our starboard side as we enter the bay are the Pillars of Hercules, a rock formation which looks like a badly made set of false teeth.

Ella has already anchored in Freeman's Bay and we stalk the crowded anchorage, snagging a spot as another catamaran leaves. Now comes the process of checking in which is notoriously bureaucratic here (a British legacy). We called the Harbourmaster on VHF 12 and listen to other boats doing the same as we all wait for a call back. This came about an hour later and triggers an almost comical race as everyone in the anchorage quickly jumps into their dinghies and head ashore to Nelson's Dockyard. Keith ran into Mitch Booth (who runs the race yacht Comanche) and then I had to drag him away to go and to fill in some forms. There was only cursory interest in our Covid tests and none in our vaccine status - just self-reported the latter. The skippers have to do the formalities whilst us gals hang around chatting. It took them while with visits back and forth to several counters before money was exchanged for a number of obscure reasons and we were allowed to stay. The marina and port complex here is really quite charming, a couple of red phone booths of course and the old stone buildings, including the old Arsenal, have been renovated and the grounds are immaculate. There are several restaurants and shops here as well as a small maritime museum. The whole area is know as Nelsons Dockyard and after checking in we stop for a drink at The Pillars’ bar before heading back to the boat to lower the Q flag and put the anchor light on!

English harbour in the south and Falmouth harbour to the north west are separated by a narrow spit so it’s easy to walk across between the two and we did so mid-morning to check out the marinas and stores. Here we find the famous Antigua Yacht Club which runs the annual Antigua Race Week. Found Comanche on the dock but Triple Lindy (who is managed by an Australian couple) was too far around the bay to walk around it. Back in the anchorage the wind has dropped out and we find ourselves swinging side to side a fair bit and circling around on our anchor, so we decide to reset in a little closer so we can put more chain out and give ourselves more room. Got it sorted and held through a rain squall, but decided to skip the regular Shirley Heights BBQ rather than get drenched heading up the hill. Keith spent the afternoon cursing over the shower sump which died in Deshaies, and he finally managed to swap it for the one in the port side.
 
The next morning we took an early morning walk ashore, up to the Fort Berkeley on the western side of the harbour. Walked around the ruins and up over the headland know as Middle Ground and down into Falmouth Harbour. The anchorage is much larger and there are some places near Pigeon Beach that look good if and when we return. Ran into Brad and Tori Kellet on the way back to English Harbour. They have been spending a fair bit of time here running the race yacht Triple Lindy and doing some racing as well.

​Took the SUPs for a spin after lunch but looks like Keith’s has a slow leak so he had to turn back. Walked along the beach and ran in to Matts and Helena from Ella, who had just walked up to Shirley Heights. They invited us over for a drink aboard Ella later on, and we paddled over later which was lovely.

After breakfast we took the RIB ashore and walked up to Shirley Heights, to the east of our anchorage. There is a restaurant at the top, some ruins and spectacular views over English and Falmouth Harbours. They have a BBQ on Thursday and Sunday nights, but we missed last one due to the rain squalls. There are some more ruins up here from the days of English occupation.

After the walk we left to head a few miles north with just the headsail out. The breeze was behind us and up to 17kts. Put the fishing line out but yet again, no fish were willing to sacrifice themselves for our eating pleasure. Anchored at Carlisle Bay, it’s a wide bay with a resort ashore and nice enough but lacking in ambience. We stopped for morning tea and decided to move on. 

We continue on to Jolly Harbour anchorage which is only 12nm from English Harbour. The anchorage stretches along the northern headland leading into the large main harbour & marina complex. We cruised along from west to east and ended up anchoring in the NE corner of the of the anchorage, not far from the harbour entrance. It’s very shallow but good holding. Went ashore after lunch and did some provisioning. The harbour is quite large with some canals branching off on either side and these are lined with housing complexes, with as their own docks of course, as well as marine workshops. The main marina at the head of the bay. It’s well maintained and with nice grounds and a few cafes etc. The anchorage is blissfully calm overnight.

After breakfast Helena from Ella of Stockholm came over to do a load of washing. I made a lemon cake so they both came back for morning tea a little later. Went ashore again and checked out the chandlery to see if they have a Whale Gulper pump for the shower (no) and get a couple more things in the supermarket. Decided to up anchor and head around to Hermitage Bay , which is just around the corner. It’s a small indentation in the headland roughly on the other side of Jolly harbour where we were anchored last night, a whole 3nm away! There is a white sand beach and an upmarket resort with bungalows nesting discreetly in the hill above the beach. Cheryl and Richie (Serenity Now, who we met in Gibraltar) are anchored here and they drop over as we are eating lunch so beers are opened. Got some great tips for fishing and seeing Antigua. While they were aboard, Double Shot II, our dock mates from La Rochelle, who are from Brisbane, randomly turned up and dropped anchor behind us. Haven’t seen them since Lipari in Italy. They are heading to Barbuda tomorrow. The kids had harvested a heap of Lambi (or conch shells) and Mel will cook them for dinner.

Our tour of Antigua continued after a side trip to Barbuda, which you can read more about below. As we arrived back at the NE corner of Antigua, we checked out a couple of anchorages on Long Island and Jumby Bay, but they are just in front of private beach resorts and you can’t even go ashore. Water-skiers and Hobie cats around too so no thanks. Went over to Maiden Island just opposite and dropped anchor for lunch and to take stock, but then decided to stay. There is one power boat on a mooring and another cat in the next bay. Nothing ashore on the island, and we are under the flight path. But we are out of the wind and the gusts and it is nice to have a “rest” from that. Keith sorted out the bridle clip situation and hopefully this solution will hold well. After dark a large, unlit RIB came and took a look at us, sitting behind the boat for a few minutes. Possibly Coastguard checking we had paid our cruising tax. It didn’t even have nav lights.

  

The next morning we took the RIB ashore to Maiden Island to go for a walk. Not much here except some old ruined buildings and piles of Lambi shells scattered about next to old BBQ fires. It’s still blowing some and the thought of heading down the windward coast to unprotected anchorages just doesn’t appeal, no matter how amazing they may be, so we decide to head back to the west coast for a couple more days before crossing to St Barts on the weekend. We came into Deep Bay just 12nm away. The bay is a lovely, with a long white beach and there is a luxury resort with over-water bungalows that have their own plunge pool. We take the SUPs ashore just as the wind picks up so it’s really hard work. There is just no let up! Walked up to see the fort at the northern end of the bay. Behind the beach there is a lagoon with a narrow opening to the sea.  We are just south of St John’s harbour which is the main industrial port on the island, we won’t be heading in there. We watched from the fort as a Coastguard RIB come in and do a cruise around the bay.

The following morning we have some strong squalls with heavy rain and gusts getting up into the high 20s. Not much fun. We don’t feel like doing much, but manage some boat cleaning. After lunch we decide to head back over to Hermitage to annoy Cheryl and Richie again and use the free internet from the resort. It’s a bit more protected here but still getting the strong gusts coming through. Invited Cheryl and Richie over for dinner and had a lovely evening. Great to be social for a change. Richie put us through our paces on an Aussie quiz he has put together. Very funny.

The weekend is approaching and we are getting ready to leave Antigua so we walked into Jolly Harbour to formally check-out of Antigua. Google took us through a private golf resort to reach the Port Authority offices... I think we did a reasonable job of looking like we belonged as we passed the various security guards. After doing the formalities, the usual to-ing and fro-ing between officials with the associated paper-fest, we walked into the town. The supermarket was closed due to an electrical error so we stopped for lunch and to wait for it to open. 1hr and 1 soaking rain squall later we finally got served! Bought a little bit of fruit and veg from one of the vendors opposite the still closed supermarket before heading back to the anchorage.
 
Friday morning we went ashore in the RIB to one of the smaller beaches to the south of us and walked up to the road and around Pearns Bay. Looks like a bit of development going on here. Plots for sale going up over the hills, reminiscent of Mount Whitsunday. We swing by Cheryl and Richie to say farewell and after lunch we head up to Dickenson Bay, 10nm north, which will be our departure point for the St Barts. It’s a long beach with numerous resorts including Sandals but we tuck in to the north west away from it all. It turns out to be the calmest night we have had in a long time, although with an early start tomorrow and an alarm set we don’t sleep as well as we should have. Next stop? Another French island – St Barthelemy, or St Barts as it is more commonly known. Coming soon….

The sand on the beach is blindingly white and water a beautiful turquoise. Quite a few rocks around but they are easy to see and we have already spotted plenty of turtles by the time we are settled into our anchorage. Went for a look around in the RIB, there is a private resort occupying the eastern end of the beach. Apparently this was Princess Diana’s favourite beach and has been (officially or unofficially) named Princess Diana Beach. The anchorage is well protected from the swell and good holding but it’s quite windy.

We spent a few days here exploring on the SUPs, walking along the beautiful, long beach. Past the end of Cocoa point is where the exclusive resort is. This is a popular spot for kite surfing, flat water and plenty of wind. There is another anchorage around this side of the island further east but looks much more exposed to the wind and swell, plus there are a lot of reefs and shoals. Walked back along the beach and chatted to French couple (Arthur and Ann-Sophie) from Pearly (a little orange trimaran that we admired in Jolly Harbour). Arthur was kite surfing and explained to Keith how it works. They came over for drinks later. A very adventurous young couple who have travelled up from Martinique in their tiny boat.

It’s been quite gusty in the anchorage, making going ashore on the SUPs, into the wind, pretty challenging. You paddle like crazy just to stay in the same spot! It’s very quick coming back to the boat but you have to have very good aim and steering to make sure you don’t go flying past it! We have booked in to have a lobster BBQ at the famous Shack A Kai on Princess Diana Beach. We checked in with Inoch to confirm our booking tonight and its lucky we did as he advised us to bring our own plates and cutlery as well as sides. We returned in the RIB just before 6pm and ​Inoch helped us bring it up the beach, quite a long way considering the small tides. We watched the sunset from the swings at the bar sipping rum cocktails. Keith reckons he saw the green flash, but it must have been very tiny! Or maybe I blinked! A couple of donkeys were frolicking around on the beach as well. Fantastic BBQ lobster and a nice white wine. Inoch is an interesting character. We talked about cricket, dreams and life in general. Left about 8 and got back to the boat in the dark without incident. Good to leave those blue lights on!

We are leaving our lovely anchorage to go and take a look at the Western side of the island. We had a rain squall follow us west along the coast, saw up to 33kts TWS, thankfully from behind. Just had the genoa out and we were making 8.5kts at one stage. We turned right and headed up the west coast to anchor just south of the gap in the narrow sandbar at ​Low Bay, which is the entrance to the lagoon. It’s about half way up the windward coast of this long, narrow island. Conditions are still very gusty and we are jerking around on the anchor bridle. Just like being back in Greece in the Meltemi! From the top of the boat we can see over the sandspit to the lagoon and across to the town. There is surf breaking across the entrance and it looks like it could be quite a spectacular ride to get in! We watched one couple head over there but turn around and come back again. After lunch we took the paddle boards ashore which was no mean feat in a 20kts headwind. Walked north along the sandspit to the gap, it looks fairly rough so we won’t be going in there today either. There is an abandoned beach bar here with piles of conch shells, wooden furniture and what looks like some brick structure that is almost sinking into the water. There is a frigate bird sanctuary inside the lagoon, but looks like we won’t be able to visit that either. The beach along here is supposed to be pink but you have to try really hard to see it without the rose coloured glasses.  

The next day conditions had settled a bit so we decided to try and go through into the lagoon. Checked out the ruined hotel on the northern side of the spit first, either a victim of a hurricane or coastal erosion as it is now sliding into the sea. We got pretty wet going back and forth across the entrance until we spotted the marker buoy (ie a couple of dark coloured 20L containers) and found the gap to go through the channel. It was a bumpy ride across the shallow lagoon and it is quite far to Codrington. There is not much in the town, and nothing to see so after a short walk around we came back to the boat for lunch. Quite a few boats have left today and many use this as a jumping off point to head to St Barts, although it is a hassle to check out from here. Meanwhile the surge in anchorage is doing our heads in. The swell hits the shore and then bounces back almost throwing you off your feet. We are getting a bit over this wind too, it is supposed to back off tomorrow so we will head south again.

We are keen to see the windward side of Antigua as there are apparently some lovely anchorages, protected by reefs. So we took off after breakfast with a forecast of 15-17kts to cover the 34nm back to the NE of the island. Got a nasty surprise when raising the anchor, the clip on the bridle (actually a stainless steel carabiner) had opened right up and fell off the shackle when I clipped it onto the boat! It does have a huge amount of pressure on it but really… That was so close to failing it was not funny, only the pressure on the chain was keeping it in place. We put one reef in the main and full genoa but we had mid 20s and gusting up to 30s (so much for the forecast) so we reefed the genoa and put a second reef in the main. Swell was 2-2.5m, short and on the beam. Copped quite a few waves over the deck. We are both feeling worn out by this heavy weather and BS forecasts. Its good to be back in Antigua in a sheltered anchorage.  

The Island of Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly, and the butterfly is the often used symbol of the island, gracing the much of “We love Gwada” street art around the island. Once we dragged ourselves away from the lovely Les Saintes islands we spent some time cruising the “West Wing” of the Guadeloupe butterfly. We revisited this lovely part of the world on our way south again and enjoyed touring inland as well.
 
We set out from Les Saintes about 9ish thinking we would head to Marie-Gallante, the round, and less visited island to the east of us, but the wind was stronger than forecast (when will we learn…) and we were banging into short chop so we changed our minds and headed to Pointe a Pitre, the main town of Guadeloupe. It’s in the centre of the two parts of this butterfly shaped island. We are still going to windward but on Starboard tack initially the swell is not so bad. On port tack we had negative 3kts VMG at one stage, but we kept pace with a couple of monos, one of which gave up and put the motors on. We end up doing several tacks to make course into to our destination but it’s a good exercise in sailing to windward and it took us about 5 hours, in total to make the 21nm passage. The anchorage is outside the marina in a very sheltered, enclosed bay although the surrounds are quite industrial with views of the cargo port and dockyards. We go ashore in the afternoon and walk into town but it is very seedy, dirty and nothing much open. There is a lot of very colourful street art though, a vain attempt to distract from the scruffiness.

The next morning we do the obligatory supermarket run - only cruisers truly understand the need to take advantage of a large supermarket to stock up on those items you just can’t get in small island village markets. As a bonus I managed to get a quite reasonable haircut while Keith loaded us up for the walk back – we really must get a “nanna trolley”! Rather than heading straight for the west coast we diverted to a small anchorage 3nm east. Islet Gosier is a tiny island with a reef either side and not much ashore, just a lighthouse, some abandoned buildings and a small bar. It is popular with day trippers and school excursions too! We took the dinghy in, walked the island and had a swim at the beach. A good call to come here and a lovely relaxing spot for a night.

We dragged ourselves away the next morning, expecting to be sailing to the southern tip of the west wing, but had to motor to the corner, where we can see a large white lighthouse. We had shifty breezes, increasing and decreasing as we made our way north along the west coast. Passing Riviere Sens we see how amazingly green this part of the island is. There is a large and active volcano here and we find out later that it attracts some 15m of rain per year! There is a large fort that we can see from the shore and the rather drab anchorage, where we stopped briefly on our return, which is overlooked by a quarry…

Our next anchorage is in the north of the bay near a town aptly named Bouillante, 33nm from Ilet Gosier. After lunch we took the RIB across to the very high dinghy dock and had to tie fore-and-aft in the corner of the T to avoid getting bounced under the dock by the swell - not to mention scrambling up to the dock from the dinghy. From here it was a short walk along the black sand beach to the “Hot River”, where steaming hot water enters the sea. Ashore there is a geothermal station which uses this water, as a natural thermal stream runs through the town and meets the surf at the beach. And it really is VERY HOT! Boiling in fact! Surges of hot water come out of the rivulet and mix with the sea water. The current is quite strong, pushing you back in to the cooler water. It was lovely and novel to have a hot bath in the surf, but it did leave a bit of a sulphury smell on the skin.

We were up and away fairly early the next morning and motored the 2nm north to Anse Malendure, opposite Pigeon Island, part of the Jacques Cousteau nature reserve. We heard snorkelling was great here so we took the RIB across and had a look underwater. We could not find the underwater Jacques Cousteau statue that is supposed to be here but the water was lovely and clear and saw quite a few fish. Nothing spectacular coral wise though and quite a strong current running as well, making it hard work. We stopped here again on our way south for a provisioning run as there are a couple of good supermarkets ashore. We took the opportunity to walk along the shore to the beach, which is a black sand one. Nowhere near as attractive as the beautiful white sand beaches in the north, but people are enjoying themselves in the beach bars that line the shore.

In the afternoon we continued on north to the town of Deshaies, motoring as there was not enough breeze intially and then it was on the nose with quite a chop wrapping around the top of the island. The bay is pretty crowded but we manage to find a spot. Boats are swinging all directions and a number of them get too close to each other and have to move. It all seems very amicable though. We end up with a big steel boat near us but put out plenty of fenders.

We woke the next morning to see the deck covered in tiny dead insects and took some time to clean them off. We took a walk up hill to the local Jardin Botanique. Great views over the anchorage and the garden was nice enough, but the highlight by far was the flock of rather orange looking flamingos!!! As we have never managed to see any in the wild, this was indeed a bonus. It’s our last day in Guadeloupe on our trip north so we treated ourselves to lunch at Chez Lelette down on the beach in Deshaies. Lovely food and a great atmosphere. It’s time to check out of Guadeloupe, and we do this at The Pelican, a small souvenir shop, where we ran in to Matts and Helena from Ella of Stockholm. They are also leaving tomorrow to Antiqua so they come over to ITIKI for drinks, happily brandishing their negative Covid test results! These are needed to check in to Antigua. I am in the shower and just as they arrive and Keith is taking their dinghy line the shower malfunctions – Great timing!

We returned to Deshaies two months later on our way south, arriving in the morning after a 2-day, 220nm windward sail from the BVIs. Thats a story for another blog... After 2 days of bouncing around on our windward crossing, the remote control on the windlass has packed it in so we had to work from the helm station. This means Keith has multi-task and steer the boat and lower the anchor chain at the same time. It was then time for a long overdue kip, but as there was very little breeze in the bay we ended up swinging in the opposite directions to a nearby boat, and got a little too close for comfort. Anchorage etiquette dictates that the more recent arrival (ITIKI in this case) has to move so Keith’s nap was short-lived. The water was clear enough to see the anchor chain which had cleverly wrapped itself around a rock while we had been turning in circles so with Keith again working the controls from the helm and me directing from the foredeck we had some interesting manoeuvring to do to get it free. We anchored further out but then the wind picked up considerably so we reset the anchor putting out some more scope. Spent the rest of the day chilling out and cleaning the boat, which of course was covered in salt from our crossing. Fortunately we had a few heavy rain showers over the next few days to give us a really good rinse. We also get some really strong gusts through the anchorage, up to 30kts at times! The anchor is holding well though and we are quite comfortable with our new bridle snubbers that went on in St Martin – that’s also a story for another time...

Deshaies (which is apparently pronounced “de-aye”) is famous as the location for filming the BBC series “Death in Paradise”. We have never seen an episode of this but we learn that it is about to start filing its 12th season and so it is clearly very popular. I quickly google it so that I can take some pictures of what would be familiar scenes to those that enjoy the show. The arrival of the film crew and actors in May brings welcome income and employment just as the tourist season is starting to wane.

We took a hike over to Gros Morne (=big hill) and down to Grand Anse (=big beach) to the north of us. It is supposed to be an easy walk but it’s quite steep and stoney and we are only in sandals. At least it is in shade but that means there is not much of a view along the way. The beach is indeed quite big, a long white stretch of sand in contrast to the black sand beaches in the southern part of the island. We stop for a drink at the rather derelict looking Chez Samy as we are too knackered to walk further. Fortunately we can walk back into Deshaies along the road, which is much shorter and flatter. We pop back to the boat to freshen up and then go in search of lunch ashore, which is a bit of an adventure. Places are full or run out of food! We find a place by the dinghy dock and narrowly avoid ordering black pudding (boudin) which is a local Creole delicacy. Opted for Accras (a kind of spicy donut) and a lovely grilled snapper with too many frites! An afternoon nap was in order and no dinner! The wind has backed off significantly, which is a relief after several days blowing dogs off chains. It’s a much different and more pleasant place now.

The next day we take 4 x 4 tour of the north of the “west wing” with Pelican Safaris, as we did not have a chance to see much of the inland on our initial visit. We head south and take the traversing road inland towards Pointe a Pitre. The road winds up hill and down dale, through very dense rainforest. This part of the island clearly gets plenty of rain. We stop at a river with a waterfall and a popular swimming hole but its quite crowded. Across the road there is another small rivulet with a swimming hole and waterfall which is harder to get to so a lot less crowded. The water here is not so warm but it's novel swim in fresh water and very refreshing. Next stop is a short rainforest walk, the jungle is quite thick and very diverse flora. 
​
​Scenes from our tour of the island:

There are no snakes on Guadeloupe as mongoose were introduced by settlers, who also shot all of the larger birds, including native parrots. Nice! We head back to the coast and Pointe Noire to stop to look for iguanas before a lunch stop at Hibiscus restaurant, Grand Anse. Lunch was lovely but 2.5hrs was way too long in the middle of a tour. Next we headed up into the hills to a sugar cane plantation and could see a fantastic view over the Grand Cul de Sac which is the middle of the top of the butterfly. Here there are extensive reefs making navigation pretty challenging, and mangroves line the shores. It used to be possible to go by yacht through the middle of the island from Point a Pitre to the Grand Cul de Sac but the bridge no longer opens. We take a very bumpy stone road which was built by slaves, through thick sugar cane which lines either side. We stop at the top to try some sugar cane and check out the view. There are a few wind turbines up here as well. From there we head down to the coast and through Saint Rose where there are dozens of tour operators to doing mangrove tours. We stop in at a rhum museum but it is now so late that it is closed so we check out some of the unusual plants around the garden. Our final stop is the north-western-most point of Guadeloupe - Pointe Allegre. It’s a pretty wild place and the orientation of the trees leaves you in no doubt of the direction of the prevailing wind! There is a also tree here which is really deadly. When it rains it drips acid onto you. Also the fruit is deadly to eat. These are marked with a red band, not sure why they don’t cut them down but I guess they are protected… From there it is back to Deshaies, its getting late and we just make it back to the boat before sunset.

And so our time with the Guadeloupe butterfly is coming to an end and we are winging our way south. Although it's not yet officially rainy season, the weather is becoming unsettled and we are starting to see rain squalls come through. Sometimes these are short-lived and are over by the time you have closed the hatches or brought the cushions in from the cocktail deck. They can be quite heavy though although we don’t complain about the boat getting a free freshwater wash. Unlike the rains in the Med they are not laden with Saharan dust. As we sail down the coast we experience an interesting phenomenon. Despite the trade winds blowing consistently from the east, we find ourselves heading south on starboard tack! Yes a westerly! With the trade winds wrapping around the top and the bottom of the island there must be some sort of back eddy. As we continue south towards Les Saintes the wind inevitably eventually comes onto the nose. As we pick up a mooring ball the heavens open, but we are in our happy place at Ilet Cabrits, Les Saintes and celebrate with a BBQ in the rain.

​Les Saintes is a small group of islands just to the south of the main island of Guadaloupe. It’s a lovely, peaceful and charming place that is easy to be in. We visited it twice for a few days each time, once on our way north and again on our way south. There are some places its nice to come back to, and this is one of them.

The first time we arrived at the end of a 65nm sail and a 6am departure from Martinique, bypassing Domenica. The moon was almost full and providing good light as the sun started to come up. We hoisted the main with one reef and one in the genoa as well. The wind and swell were on the beam of course as we are heading due north. We have 18-22kts with some stronger gusts and a few rain squalls. Once we get into the lee of Dominica we get some relief from the swell but eventually we get a wind shadow as well. We motor for a while and then sail a little more with the reefs shaken out, getting some pressure coming through one of the bays. That was short lived so the motors went back on again. Out of the lee of Dominica and the breeze returned, hitting the high teens again as we approach Les Saints. We check out Anse Fideling for our first night. It is on the less developed island of Basse Terre so it sounded like our sort of thing, but it is not particularly nice. The water doesn’t look really clean, its crowded with older boats that probably don’t have holding tanks and think they own the place - we are getting the death stare so we move on. We pick up a mooring ball at Anse Cointe, €14 per night, which is reasonable. The anchorages here are deep and the bottom is weedy so mooring balls help protect sea grass for fish and turtles to enjoy. It’s a really pretty spot with a couple of small beach resorts ashore and overlooked by a headland called Pain du Sucre (literally sweet bread).

nWe head ashore to check in the next morning. It’s a really pretty town but very touristy and as it’s a weekend, there are a lot of day trippers. Plenty of shops and bars too. We can use the internet for a while at the LSM office as part of the mooring ball fee. After lunch we go looking for “No Worries” some fellow Aussies who we heard were here and find them over at Ilet a Cabrits. We have a few mutual cruising friends - such a small world but there are always Aussies out there!
 
On Sunday we hired a 50cc scooter and toured around the island of Terre de Haut. It was a bit like riding around on a lawn mower, particularly interesting going up the steep hills. First stop was Fort Napoleon just after opening time. Great views from the top and a lovely garden area with many different cacti and some iguanas hiding in the bushes. We visited the various beaches around the island. Marigot Bay looked like it could have been good to anchor in but having seen it from above, it looks a bit nothing. Lots of weed. We stop at Plage de Pompier but again huge piles of weed (Sargasso) on the shore and along most of the beach. It has been a huge problem in this area and when it blooms, large volumes end up rotting on the beaches which is very bad for tourism. We watch a pair of pelicans doing synchronised diving for a while, before moving on.

Grand Anse is a long beach on the windward side of the island, which is too rough for swimming and again has lots of weed. We take a quick look at the tiny Anse Roderique, which looks a bit like Little Bay at South West Rocks. Each time we try to go to another bay we seem to have to drive back into town and get stuck in the one way street system trying to find the next turn off. We swing by Anse Figuier and then back into town again to drive down to the western end of the island, near to where we are anchored. We stop along the way for some scenic photos back to our anchorage, you can never have too many pictures of your boat! Anse Crawen on the southwest tip is the last beach we visit and probably the nicest, although the cloud has come over and we don’t feel like a swim. We visit to the colourful cemetery, where a number of graves are decorated with huge conch shells. It looks like rain so we decide to grab a baguette and head back to the boat for a late lunch. We have pretty much done the island so we return the bike early. We departed the next morning to Pointe a Pitre on Guadeloupe but returned to Les Saintes 2 months later on our way south.

​Our second visit we picked up a buoy at Ilet Cabrits (or Goat Island) having arrived from “Mainland” Guadeloupe which is just a short distance away. The skies are getting dark and menacing as we arrived and we had some heavy rain just after we picked up the mooring ball. There are a lot less boats here this time than when we were on our way north. Dinner is a BBQ on board and we put out lots of buckets out to catch the rainwater that drips off the back of the boat. We use that the next morning to have a big boat washing session, tackling the cockpit area with soapy rain water. We don’t just sit around drinking cocktails in exotic locations you know!
 
Mid-morning we went ashore to Ilet a Cabrits and walked up to Fort Josephine. It was abandoned in 1903 and now is just a collection of ruins, inhabited by goats. From the top we can see across to Terre de Haut and Fort Napoleon that we visited before. After lunch I go into town (on my own in the dinghy, out of sight of ITIKI!) and try to connect to the internet, however they have changed the password since our last visit and as its Sunday the office is closed! Anyway some good practice in the dinghy and I have booked a restaurant for tomorrow.
 
We go ashore mid-morning to spend some time at the internet café but it is frustratingly slow! We also check out as we are leaving tomorrow. Our anniversary lunch (its Anzac Day!) is at Au Bon Vivre and it was the best meal we have had in a long time. French with a Creole twist and a lovely bottle of Rose. Just perfect! And a lovely way to finish our time in Les Saintes & Guadeloupe, as we head to Dominica tomorrow.