To St Lucia

The First Passage

e're ready for our first passage! Sequel has been unpacked, organized, reorganized, and taken out for some sails. It is time to get OUT of the hurricane belt. As soon as a window of opportunity arises, we're heading south. Our dingy was still in St. Thomas for repairs suffered in Hurricane Luis and we're still unable to contact the repair shop due to all the damage they suffered from Marilyn. We can't wait for more hurricane's to hit us, so we just decided to leave it behind. We've bought a new dingy and are prepared to leave.

We left Tortola on October 9th to move the boat to St. Lucia. We left in a squall and had a rough night. We had 35 knot winds and sloppy 9 foot seas. All but Keith and Jeff got seasick. Keith was off making sandwiches and enjoying the ride. Mike and Cheryl were the worst off. Mike was able to stay on deck and help with the sailing, but Cheryl took advantage of having 4 other crew and went to bed hoping the night would end soon. Squalls kept coming through the night and waves were crashing onto the boat. By midday we turned on the motor to make sure we’d arrive in St. Kitts before nightfall.

t. Kitts is finally in site, and by late afternoon we are anchored in the commercial harbor. It was a rocky anchorage, but it was near customs and it was the easiest thing to do. We cleared customs and all took showers then headed to town for drinks and dinner. We all needed to relax.

Town Square in St Kitts

Drinks overlooking their town square was just what the doctor ordered. The cool breeze and an even colder beer really hit the spot! Then it was on to a restaurant on the water front for dinner. It is nice to know our one long hop was over and from now on would only have day sails to get us to St. Lucia.

Keith flew home the next morning. He was going home for Kelly’s birthday and probably to stay. We’ll miss having him aboard. He and Allen had a great time in Tortola before I arrived and I’d hoped to have some time with him, but it was something he needed to do. We put him on a taxi then sat on the boat waiting to see his plane fly away.

tour of St Kitts was just what the doctor ordered.... We took a taxi ride around the island stopping in the main town, and the the fort (which is one of the best restored forts I’ve seen in the Caribbean). We also stopped at the batik factory which had just burned down and they’d lost all their patterns. Allen and I had been there before. It is a great little factory where you can watch them making the batik prints. It is interesting to watch. They’re in the process of rebuilding and re-creating their patterns. After a restful stop at the Golden Lemon for lunch, we went out to the beach to watch the local men repairing their fish nets. We wandered the beach for awhile, where Cheryl bought her mom a bird feeder made from coconut shells.

Nevis is a small island whose tip is almost always in the clouds

Nevis was our next stop. It was a short sail with calm seas. What a spectacular sight -- it looks like a volcano must coming out of the ocean. The top is usually covered in clouds so you rarely see the peak but we were lucky and say the entire island. It is impressive! We anchored off the town and went in to again clear customs. We wandered around the little town and started out to the museum but gave up because it was hot and we were tired and thirsty. We stopped in a little bakery for bread and sweets and cold drinks.

We moved the boat to the North side of the island and anchored off a beach that was reported to be having a new beach bar. We dingied to shore and found that it was not ready but the guy told us to dingy a little further North and we’d find a nice beach bar. He was right -- what a great place -- we got there at happy hour and they were serving appetizers, which we enjoyed along with some Rum Punches. The place was full of locals, who welcomed us to Nevis and included us in their group. One of the local people was the owner's daughter who talked about living on the island and her school. We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

ontserrat is the next stop. We were sorry to leave St. Kitts and Nevis so quickly -- they are such beautiful islands with lots of friendly people. Allen and I plan to return when we can spend more time. Our sail to Montserrat was again a nice sail on flat seas and good winds. We all took turns at the helm and spent the rest of the time relaxing. Mike tried fishing. Somewhere along the trip he got a barracuda which we let go, a dolphin which we couldn’t get on board and a tuna, which we were able to get and put aside for dinner. We sailed all day and pulled into an anchorage at the north end of Montserrat, which we all loved. It was a beautiful anchorage and we had it all to ourselves! There was a natural pyramid on the hillside that was covered in grass. We all wondered how it got there, was it man-made? We asked about it the next day and no one even know it existed. For tonight, we didn't give it another thought. We put the fresh tuna into some marinade and sat back to enjoy the sunset. A barbecue of steaks and the fresh tuna topped off a great day.

Morning came all too soon and we left for the main town of Montserrat so we could clear customs. There was no wind so we just motored. We anchored off the town and were the only boat in the anchorage. After all our time in the BVI in crowded anchorages, it was strange to be the only boat. Jeff and Mike took the dingy to town to clear customs. Everywhere we went we saw damage from the hurricanes. Most of the docks were damaged and it was hard to find a place to take our dingy. Fuel and water docks were also scarce. We found a beach bar that let us tie up but it wasn’t geared for dingys so we were taking our chances. As it turned out we should have found another spot because our dingy ended up punctured and we still don’t have a good patch on it (in February).

ur first roties were on today's lunch schedule. We'd stopped to cool off at a little cafe, and Mike saw roties on the menu. They're kind of like a burrito filled with curried meats and vegetables. We'd never had them, and Mike treated us all to our first ones. We need up spending most of the afternoon in the cafe. All the shops were closed in town, and it was REALLY hot. Sitting on the cool veranda seemed much better than walking down the street where we could see the heat rising off the roadways.

On our way to dinner we stopped and had a cocktail at the beach bar that let us tie up. The owners and people sitting at the bar were really friendly. We sat and talked with them for an hour or so before heading to a little Italian place that promised jazz singing later in the evening. The owners wife, Ziggy, was the jazz singer and it sounded like it would be an interesting evening. We had a nice dinner but ended up not staying for the jazz because we were loosing Mike. (He almost fell asleep at the table so we headed back to the boat).

punctured dingy awaited us when we headed back to the boat. We had to go to the boat two at a time because it would never have held all of us. We don’t seem to be having luck with dingys. Our first one is somewhere in St. Thomas and our new one has a big whole in it!! Time for a patch. Allen and Jeff set a patch the next morning and we left for Guadeloupe.

It is on to Guadeloupe today with another uneventful sail. We sailed all day and reached Guadeloupe late afternoon. We were out of water and hoped the water dock listed in the tour guide was not damaged by the hurricane so we could get water. We pulled into the marina and were able to fill the boat. The marina was really shallow. We draw 7 feet and the water dock is listed as 7.5 feet but we were gently pushing the bottom. Getting water was interesting. They gave you water by the half hour rather than by the gallon. We filled the tanks then washed down the boat until our half hour was up. We needed it after all our sailing. The boat gets crusted with salt after a sail.

The park in Guadeloupe

The marina was so tight depth wise we needed to back out of the marina. We let Jeff do it then anchored just outside the breakwater. It was a relaxing evening on the boat. We went to shore in the morning to clear customs, take a look around, and do some shopping. The town square is very well maintained and a nice place to sit.

Shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables at the local market -- in French!!

Guadeloupe is a French island with lots of things available for provisioning, but the prices are high so all we did was go to the fresh vegetable market and get fresh vegetables. The selection is really good, and even though my French isn't very good, I was able to get the produce I needed.

sle Des Saints was our next destination. Mike stayed at helm today almost all day. Isle Des Saints isn't far from Guadeloupe, but the wind was on the nose so we did a lot of tacking. We've never seen so many fish pots in one location. Fish pots are a real problem for cruisers. The local fisherman put small plastic bottles on a line to a trap below the surface. This plastic bottles are often no more than an empty bleach bottle or coke bottle and are often really hard to see. If we go directly over them, the line will get wrapped around our prop. The fisherman loose their line and pot, and we have a major problem removing the line. The way into Isle Des Saints is a real fish-pot obstacle course. It was bad enough we put someone on the bow to direct us through the maze.

The streets of Isle Des Saints

Isle Des Saints is one of my favorite places. It is a small group of French Islands with a small town of red-roofed buildings. It looks great from the anchorage and is a clean, fun place to visit. We’d stopped there before and rented mopeds to tour the island. It is a fun thing to do. This time we just wandered around town and stopped for “Sandwich Jambon avec mustard”. (Allen’s favorite from his stay in France years ago).

A quiet anchorage in Isle Des Saints

The next day was declared a day of rest. We got our morning croissants from a “boat boy” delivering croissants and newspapers. The papers were in French so we didn’t get any of those, but we definitely got some croissants! We moved the boat to a quiet anchorage on Isle Des Saints that has a nice small beach and good snorkeling, but we all ended up sleeping most of the day because it was raining. Jeff took the dingy to shore and checked out a little hotel near the beach.

On to Dominica the next morning ... we again needed water (it turns out the washing machine uses lots of water and I’d been using it to get everything cleaned). With the hurricane damage to the islands, finding places to get in for water was not the easiest thing to do. We found a small marina that had water available, but it was tricky getting in as the marina was small and the water clearance wasn't much more than our keel. We managed to get the water then headed south to Dominica. We left Isle Des Saints sailing wing-on-wing and had a comfortable and scenic departure from the islands. We sailed most of the day with calm seas and light winds, arriving in Dominica in the late afternoon. Again we saw signs of damage from the hurricanes. There were several boats washed up on shore and the docks were unusable. Dominica is such a poor country it will be a long time before things get fixed. We heard they may get some aid from the United States to get things repaired.

Dominica is a lush, mountainous island. They are pushing eco-tourism and have several tours to rain forests, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls that are reported to be spectacular. We’ve talked to people since that said the tours are sometimes pretty difficult. One couple said you need to be a mountain goat to get into some of them.

We moved to the South end of the island the next morning and spent the day checking out the city of Roseau and relaxing on the boat. We were tied stern to the trees on shore and had people swimming out to the boat asking us to take them with us. It is really sad that the island is so poor and people don’t have much chance of getting out of poverty. It is no wonder they want to leave. Hopefully their new push for tourism will open up more opportunities.

artinique is our last stop before St. Lucia. It is the end of the trip for Mike and Cheryl. We have to get back to the working world... The sail was another good one. We were at anchor in St. Pierre by late afternoon. St. Pierre is at the foot of Mount Pele We enjoyed a short stay in St. Pierre. Another beautiful anchorage with a great open air market and fresh French bread. Another place on our list of places to be visited again.

With Mike and Cheryl flying out the next day, we couldn't stay more than one day then on to Fort De France where they catch their flight home. Allen and Jeff are left to sail the boat to St. Lucia where Allen will hang out for the rest of the hurricane season.