Two days in Marigot Bay

Two days in Marigot Bay

Sunday 29^th and Monday 30^th April 2024

Perhaps a more accurate title would be one day in Marigot Bay and one day around St. Lucia.  We’ll get to that later.

On Sunday we popped into the Customs office to discover that, after checking out, you have 24 hours to depart the country.  Our thinking was to check out here, sail to Soufriere, visit the botanical gardens in the daylight and depart at sunset for Bequia.  Later in the day we managed to book a car for a day.  The revised plan was to visit the botanical gardens by car and then leave from Marigot Bay, sailing overnight.  Once we had all our plans straightened out we went for a walk.  

The timing was slightly less than optimal as we were setting out at about noon.  After a short section along the shoreline, we began the climb to the ridge.  The route was quite steep with lots of fallen leaves covering the path.  After a while Mike looked at his phone and announced that we were less than half way to the ridge and the rest was even steeper than what had gone before.  We turned around, took a side path and came out at a resort where we remembered seeing lots of birds in 2018.  We sat on a bench and relaxed, watching the birds.  Our decent ended with lunch at the Doolittle’s restaurant.  While we were finishing up, we saw our friends Nigel and Susan Trent motor past on their sailboat Taiko.  

Today, we went out driving around St. Lucia with Nigel and Susan.  The first stop was the botanical gardens at the Diamond Falls.  We had visited these lovely tropical gardens a few times in 2018 and enjoyed them very much.  What was different about today was that no rain fell on us!  It almost seemed like a different place ... While many botanical gardens are quite manicured, these seem more natural.  There is a riot of plants including many orchids, cocoa trees, nutmeg trees and many types of heliconia (Mikes’ favorite).  Upon departing the gardens, we made our way to a restaurant for lunch where we enjoyed a Creole buffet.  

Next up was the Tet Paul nature trail.  Strangely enough, when you arrive at the start of this walk by car, it seems quite modest in length with lovely views.  This was another spot we had visited in 2018 with our friend Simon.  On that occasion we walked up from the town of Soufriere. Personally, I had been exhausted by the time I got to the start of the nature walk.  We completed a circuit around the south end of the island and returned to Marigot Bay with half an hour to spare before we needed to return the car.  A drink at the waterfront bar filled the interval nicely!  We watched the sunset from the bar and returned to Cotinga, after dropping our friends on Taiko.  It was a great day!

Gloria

Dusk inside the inner harbor of Marigot Bay

Abstract sunset in Marigot Bay (20 s exposure with variable focal length using 70-200 mm zoom lens)

Abstract - Chateau Mygo, a waterside restaurant, lit up at night as Cotinga swings on the mooring

Antillean Bullfinch (female) on the balcony at Doolittle's. (They jump when the shutter goes off, and if you use "rear curtain" flash then this is the type of result you can get)

The Pitons from the road to the north

Purple Throated Carib. ... another shot to add to the set

Purple Throated Carib. ... ditto

Nigel and Susan at Diamond Falls. We first met them on the Caribbean 1500 rally (Norfolk to Tortola) in 2017

Sunset from Chateau Mygo. This is as close to a "green flash" as I have seen ... although I didn't see any green!

Difficult Decisions

Difficult Decisions

Saturday 27th - Sunday 28th April 2024

We had a fabulous time cruising with Rod over the past two weeks, but now it is time for us to move on and start to make plans for next phase of our journey. We have about 6 weeks until we haul out in Grenada for hurricane season, and we hope to explore a number of islands on route. The immediate question is how long to spend in St Lucia and which places to visit. 

In 2018 we spent quite a lot of time here, and in the most part enjoyed it. I have been excited about the prospect of going back to Soufriere, however, Gloria found the town to be somewhat threatening and hasn’t been too thrilled about the idea. The area around Soufriere is part of a large marine park and has spectacular scenery, including the Gros and Petit Pitons, two pillars of vegetated rock that rise 2,500 ft straight out of the ocean. Soufriere also has an excellent botanical gardens and some good hiking. But Gloria is not wrong; this is a place of real poverty where men hang around the street corners drinking at all times of day, kids on paddle boards constantly try to sell you stuff or beg for money / candy / soda, and adults shake you down for money to look after your dinghy whilst it’s tied to the dock. I personally found it troubling but not so intimidating, although I do believe my swim shorts were stolen from our lifeline where they were pinned up to dry, resulting in some shocking exposee for the remainder of that trip!

In order to make a better decision on whether or not to return to Soufriere, I decided to get more information from the reviews embedded in the electronic Navionics charts that we (and many other boaters) subscribe to. I got a nasty shock. It seems like things in Soufriere have only deteriorated since we were last there. I read at least three reports from the past two years where boats have been the victims of armed robbery whilst on the National Park moorings off Soufriere. In one case, six men, armed with machetes, boarded a catamaran at 3 am and the crew were fortunate to escape with no physical injuries. It’s really unfortunate that things like this are allowed to happen. I would argue that Dominica is a much poorer country than St Lucia, but the people seem to be so friendly and welcoming. We recognize that we are wealthy compared to many people in the Caribbean, and hope that we do have some positive impact by spending our money locally. But no one wants to be constantly hassled or shaken down, let alone put their lives at risk, and unless the authorities stamp out these problems then boaters will simply pass by St Lucia. For us, I don’t think it makes sense to go and stay at Soufriere. We are considering making a day trip there by rental car or perhaps spending a day on a mooring there, before heading off on an overnight passage down to Bequia. We’ll let you know what we decide.

After Rod departed on Saturday we did get some boat jobs completed. We topped up our diesel tanks and refilled 5 x 5 gallon jerry cans at the fuel dock. We filled our water tanks and washed down the top-sides of the boat, and we re-provisioned at the local supermarket. (This was an instance where it was easiest to dinghy across the harbor, tie up to a small public dock and walk to the supermarket. We were met on the dock by the “dockmaster”, or to be more precise, a guy off the street, who insisted we pay him $10 EC to guard our dinghy … which was irritating but not worth arguing about.) 

Anyway, we did enjoy our stay at Rodney Bay and on Sunday morning left the harbor and motor-sailed south for an hour to Marigot Bay, which is not only beautiful, but must be the best hurricane hole on the island. We were able to get a mooring in the inner bay.

Mike

13 57.980 N, 61 01.449 W

Cotinga moored in Marigot Bay

Marigot Bay from the hills to the east. Cotinga is in the middle of the inner Bay (burgundy sail cover)

Looking eastwards from the ridge behind Marigot Bay

A "totem-pole" like sculpture

The bougainvillea around here is spectacular!

Piss on Admiral Rodney

Piss on Admiral Rodney

Thursday 25th - Friday 26th April 2024

   

Please pardon the French.   Americans and, I suspect, few Europeans are aware that a huge Naval battle was fought between French and English naval forces near here in the late 1800’s.   

This battle was off the coast of some islands that are part of Guadeloupe, called Les Isles de Saintes, hence the name of the battle.   

Its not clear to me, an American, who won the battle but suffice it to say that the English, under Lord Admiral Rodney think that they won it, thus leaving Admiral Rodney a really big deal in English eyes.  That explains why the bay we currently occupy is called Rodney Bay.  

We left Martinique waters yesterday and covered the 28 miles or so from there to Rodney Bay in a rollicking beam reach in 12-16 kts of true wind.  Our average speed was about 7 knots, not bad considering that we flew a reefed mainsail due to the seam in the sail that opened up earlier.  

Captain Mike had earlier contacted the Rodney Bay Marina and arranged to rent a slip for a few days.   There’s a sail maker there and he had agreed to look at the mainsail and repair it for us by Monday.   

After an uneventful docking maneuver, we removed the mainsail and took it over to the sail loft where the proprietor said he would complete repairs by the next day; good news as I would be able to help bend the mainsail back on.

Now, you are probably wondering about the odd title to this blog and I’ll get to that presently.   

Having a free (ish) day on Friday; we decided to go on one of Mike’s “hikes” to visit Fort Rodney, a national park.   

If you know Mike, there is only one direction to his “hikes” and that is up!   Fort Rodney and its associated lookout point is part of this park.  We all made it up to Fort Rodney, but naturally, we had to get to the top of the higher lookout point as well.  Despite a steady breeze from the west, it was very hot on the climb up to the lookout point,  I never knew that dirt and rocks could radiate so much heat.  

When Mike and I arrived atop this peak (Gloria wisely sat this one out) the views toward Martinique to the north were incredible.  But, it was hot and little breeze seemed to reach the summit.  I pity the poor sailors who had to man these parapets.    

After catching my breath, I decided I should mark my victory of summiting (hence the title of this blog) but I was too dehydrated to accomplish my goal!   Admiral Rodney can claim another victory!

Returning to Rodney Bay Marina we got the sail back from the sailmaker, who had inspected it and found it to be in good shape and surprised that the seam had opened up at all.  This was a relief to me as I had recommended the sailmaker who originally built the sail.

Beers later (too late to christen Lord Rodney) and showers, followed by an excellent last dinner at a local restaurant, brings my portion of this blog to a conclusion.  I fly home tomorrow morning, where I plan to NOT climb any hills, at least for a while!

Mike and Gloria have been most excellent hosts for the past two weeks and I am sure they will be happy for a break from a guest aboard.  It has been a wicked excellent break from New England weather and I have added to my life list of birds with their assistance.  Mike has been taking photos of the birds we’ve seen and I hope he will attach some of them to this blog entry.  

I’m sorry to leave Cotinga and her owners but I need to return home and take up some of my duties there.  

 

I leave you with a bit of advice from a sailor I met years ago on Tortola:  “Always pee when you don’t have to pump”!   Figure that one out, you non sailors.  

Rod

14 04.508 N, 60 56.952 W

We were escorted from Martinique to Saint Lucia by a group of ~ 6 brown boobies. They flew all around us, hovering over the windward side of the boat ... right into the sun, and coupled with bouncy conditions, made them very hard to photograph!

A juvenile (adolescent) brown boobie

A short video clip showing the passage from Martinique to Saint Lucia. This was shot over the top of the dodger and I used a fur-covered mic and "wind noise reduction" on my camera. I am a complete novice with video but at least it gives you some idea of the conditions.

Gloria and Rod on route to Fort Rodney

Rod at the fort with Rodney Bay behind

Gloria climbing the final staircase to the fort

Spectacular views from Fort Rodney, with Martinique barely visible (top left), Signal Peak in the center, and Rodney Bay to the right. (Panorama created from multiple vertical format wide angle shots)

Stunning flowers on a tree near the summit of Signal Peak

A Green Throated Carib ... photographed below Fort Rodney

A Grey Trembler searching for insects. These birds really do "tremble" and this was a life-bird for us.

Ship Floats Off!

Ship Floats Off!

Tuesday 23rd - Wednesday 24th April 2024

We left Saint Pierre on Tuesday morning and motor-sailed over to Anse Noir, a tiny bay about 5 miles south of Fort-de-France. I expected it to be a lazy, light wind sail, behind the lee of Martinique, but it turned out to be quite fierce with winds of up to 22 knots. We had a single reef in the main sail to ensure that we didn’t further damage the ripped seam. Snorkeling in Anse Noir was okay, but not brilliant. We saw a few interesting fish and some coral, but we suspect that extensive coastal fishing has had a profound detrimental effect on fish stocks. Once back aboard Cotinga we opted to pull up the anchor and head about 3 miles down the coast to Anse Chaudiere, which is a bigger anchorage, and offered the potential of a more relaxed night. 

The evening started off wonderfully with “Painkillers”, a Caribbean classic with rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, creme of coconut, all topped with dash of nutmeg. Dinner was a Chinese noodle soup dish, eaten outside in the cockpit … and very tasty! By boaters midnight (9am) we were all ready to hit the sack. I’d like to say we all slept soundly, but that would be a lie! For some reason the swell picked up in the early evening and around 11 pm I woke up with the boat rolling and the anchor snubber ( a line attaching the boat to the anchor chain) creaking and groaning. This presented a dilemma. If I put in my ear plugs then if we dragged, I wouldn’t hear the anchor alarm from our chart plotter. But if I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the motion and noise. In the end I decided to get up, check our situation and set up a separate anchor alarm using a new App on my iPhone, and sleep in the main cabin. Our track on the chart plotter looked like a ball of wool … all over the place … but no evidence we were actually dragging. I put in ear-plugs, reasoning that I was physically closer to the chart plotter and might hear it should the alarm go off, and failing that maybe I’d hear the untested iPhone anchor alarm. Needless to say it wasn’t the greatest night of sleep. In the morning we were having coffee when my phone started sounding a warning. The Anchor Alarm was going off with a reassuring loud tone. We weren’t actually dragging, we just had 80 feet of chain out and the 46 foot length of the boat, with an alarm radius of 30 meters, and had simply drifted out of the zone that I set. When I looked at my phone it had a striking message for us … “Ship Floats off!” (See photo below).

Today we took the Dainty Dog into the town dock at Les Anses D’ Arlet and then hiked over the hill to the adjacent beach town of Grande Anse. It was a very hot walk and when we saw a waitress at a beachfront restaurant carrying out large glasses of cold beer, all self control evaporated. We had a fabulous lunch of fried Marlin or Snapper with French fries and salad, complemented by some excellent “pression” (draft) beer. The walk back over the hill was equally hot, but somewhat hazy in my mind!

The dinghy is now up on the foredeck, ready for the passage tomorrow to Saint Lucia. Around 5 pm we had a cool down swim and a shower, then spent a couple of lazy hours sitting outside in the cockpit. It has been so humid the last several days that the sun disappears behind a wall of moisture and the sunsets have been a complete bust. Things are supposed to dry out a little over the weekend.

Mike

14 28.873 N, 61 04.826 W

The Anchor Alarm App on my iPhone ... it seems to work remarkably well

A fine lunch on the beach at Grande Anse

Fried whole snapper, chips and salad

The sun goes down off Anse Chaudiere

Blessings be upon the clouds

Blessings be upon the clouds

Sunday 21st - Monday 22nd April 2024

Leaving Portsmouth, Dominica, the skies were mostly clear and the winds were light.  This meant that conditions in the cockpit were quite toasty. Hence, the clouds that drifted past the sun were a true blessing for the crew.  The first twenty-five miles of the journey to Martinique was on the west side of Dominica.  The high mountains made for strange wind directions including both north and west.  Shortly after we rounded Scotts Head at the southwestern point of the island, Rod saw a strange shape in the main sail.  Immediately after, he heard the sound of mylar tape ripping apart.  He quickly released the traveler to reduce pressure on the main sail.  A section of seam had ripped out –about 3 or 4 feet long, below the level of the first reef.  Thankfully, Rod’s quick action prevented the entire seam from ripping.  We dropped the mainsail and secured it to the boom.   

We deployed the genoa and continued on with the engine running for a while. The wind seemed to be building, so we turned off the engine.  The swell was also building and having only one sail made for difficult steering.  Eventually, we decided to raise the main but only to the second reef point, keeping the damaged part of the sail well away from any forces.  I did find myself wondering how many times we had used the second reef but couldn’t recall any episodes (probably due to extreme fright!) The journey went fairly well.  Near the north end of Martinique things got a bit lively (possibly a squall).  We arrived at St. Pierre, picked up a mooring.  After a cold drink, we released the clew of the main and started to attempt a repair.  Sunset intervened and dinner followed.  We did stay up until boater’s midnight but it was a struggle.

Today we walked to the Martinique Zoo—a shortish walk from St. Pierre.  We enjoyed the beautiful grounds and abundant hummingbirds.  The aviary with parrots was a delight.  By the end we were all hot and tired.  An awning (fully equipped with chairs and tables) provided a shaded area for our lunch.  Thus revived, we walked back to St. Pierre, visited some of the ruins left by the volcanic explosion, did a little food shopping and returned to the boat. Unfortunately, when Mike jumped into the dinghy, our combination lock flew out of his pocket into the ocean. We headed back to Cotinga to put away our groceries (including frozen meat) but returned a short while later and I was able to dive to the sea floor and retrieve the lock. 

Rod and Mike have been up on deck sewing furiously on the mainsail.  Our hope is to stabilize the rip enough to allow us to use the sail reefed only once. This will give us bigger sail area and hopefully better handling.  Fingers crossed the stitching with be robust enough!

14 44.355 N, 61 10.689 W

Gloria

Purple Throated Carib. I spent maybe an hour photographing this bird and must have taken close to a hundred shots of it, with the vast majority being drab and uninteresting. It kept coming back to the same area and I was shooting upwards into the branches. It was only when it started going to a lower branch adjacent to the path that I was able to catch the vibrant colors. (This was not a captive bird)

Flamingo preening itself

An inquisitive and friendly sulfur crested cockatoo

The ever lovely Rainbow Lorikeet

Water lily

Rod working on repairing the parted seam in the sail. 

On the Loose in Dominica

On the Loose in Dominica

Friday 18th and Saturday 19th April 2024

When we arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica the harbor was rolly and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, we were able to square away immigration and  get a driving permit. So on Friday morning we were all set to go to shore and pick up our rental car. There are so many beautiful places that we wanted to show Rod, but only two days to explore the island. We decided to spend the first day down in the south-central part of the highlands, visiting Titou gorge, Freshwater and Boeri Lakes and Emerald Falls. These are all highly popular sites but we were lucky and found them almost deserted. 

There was less water flowing in Titou Gorge than when we visited previously, but it was still an amazing experience and Gloria enjoyed it more because she was a little less anxious about the conditions. Entering the crystal clear water at the mouth of the gorge was still a chilly experience, although one of party remembered to bring a shorty wet-suit (and I was happy I did!). After swimming upstream through the narrow chasm we were all able to enter the narrow chamber at the end, where a waterfall emerges through the roof. We were completely alone and it was incredible. I put my iPhone into waterproof bag (of dubious quality) and stuffed that on top of my head, under my cap, to keep it above water whilst swimming. I was able to take some pictures and the phone survived.

Next it was on to Boeri Lake. This was a new location for all of us. A 45 minute hike up and over a mountain ridge took us to the lake. It wasn’t too bad a walk, although I managed to slip on a completely flat rock, launching myself backwards off the trail and landing on my back. I was unhurt, but the plastic sun shield on my telephoto zoom got completely destroyed. The lake itself was beautiful and the setting quite atmospheric. 

In the interests of time, we skipped going to Trafalgar Falls (nearby) and headed over to Emerald Pool. The drive was a bit of a nightmare. Google sent us half way up a mountain road only to discover there was no way through. We ended up driving back to the coast and taking an alternative route. It was 4 pm by the time we got to Emerald Pool and the National Park staff had all left for the day. With the exception of one other man, we had the entire place to ourselves and it was magical.

The driving always takes longer than you think in Dominica and it was well after dark by the time we got back to the dinghy dock. We grabbed our stuff and headed back to Cotinga for a quick dinner and some much needed sleep. Thankfully the anchorage had settled down completely.

Today, Saturday, we took the rental car up to Syndicate Falls. We all enjoyed the leisurely walk up to the falls, which crosses the river four times and Gloria and I took the opportunity to swim. We ate lunch at the bar / restaurant run by the people who own the land. It’s an idyllic setting, the staff are super friendly and the food is good. We finished up by tasting a set of 4 or 5 flavored rums. According to the man serving us, children learn early in Dominica that everything tastes better with alcohol! After lunch we drove up to the Nature Reserve and walked around the trail, marveling at the enormous trees and hoping to see parrots. We did catch the briefest of glimpses of a red necked parrot, but not the Imperial parrot (Sisserou). 

We managed to get back a little earlier this evening and Gloria cooked us a wonderful dinner with Choate (a squad like vegetable) and chicken fajitas. I think everything is secure on the boat and tomorrow morning we plan to leave early for Martinique.

Mike

Rod and Gloria inside the entrance to the cave at the head of Titou Gorge (iPhone)

Rod and Gloria standing outside the exit-shute from the cave, just before swimming back down the chasm. (iPhone)

A rare "selfie" of yours truly inside the cave with waterfall (iPhone)

Boeri Lake up in the central highlands 

A wild orchid photographed on the path down from Boeri Lake (focus stacked image)

Emerald Pool in the late afternoon. The man on the right was the only other person we saw there.

Syndicate Falls from teh river below (wide angle panorama)

Syndicate Falls (a vertical panorama)

The road up to to the Syndicate Nature trail