Exploring Pearns Point

Exploring Pearns Point

Sunday December 10^th, 2023

After breakfast, we went by dinghy to a beach on the north side of Jolly Harbor in an area called “The Bay”.  Our initial thought was to walk from the beach to the top of Pearns Hill.  Looking at the two dimensional chart, this seemed quite possible.  Once we landed on the beach and secured the dinghy, we looked at the three dimensional reality of Pearns Hill.  Achieving the summit seemed highly unlikely.  We did take a walk out to Pearns Point where we were able to peak over into Five Island Bay.  The entire area behind the beach and up the steep hill seems to be owned by a development company.  There are some paved roads, an area where homes are being constructed and many signs for different “Lots”.  We assume that these are for sale to those wishing to build a home with a great view (and many engineering challenges!).

Following a different route on our way back we came upon an area of hillside covered in a bush with tubular yellow flowers.  Here we spotted numerous humming birds that seemed to be chasing one another.  We could identify two types, the Antillean crested hummingbird and the green-throated carib. Quite a few minutes went by while we watched and photographed these very lively birds. 

We trekked back to the beach and dragged the dinghy into the water.  It was back to the boat for lunch. In the afternoon we did some testing of our VHF radio.  Mike went in the dinghy with the handheld radio and called me.  It seems the radio on the big boat is loud and clear with either microphone, except when the engine is running!  At that point the mic in the cockpit is not clear.  Good to know but potentially hard to solve, some kind of electrical interference from the engine.  More mysterious electrical problems….

Gloria

Antillean Crested Hummingbird ... In this image I have de-saturated the color of the background leaves (because I found it distracting). 

Antillean Crested Hummingbird ... I sat on the hillside underneath the flowering shrubs, with hummingbirds buzzing all around. I cleared some small branches out of the way and waited for the birds to return to this perch, which they did with some regularity. However, they are so jumpy and their reaction times are phenomenal, so the sound of the shutter opening startles them and the flash catches their motion. 105 mm Nikon micro lens ... within 3 feet of the bird

Traveller palms, a favorite plant subject of mine. In this case you are looking at the inverted (negative) of the photograph, obviously not lifelike, but I like the abstract result.

The view west from Pearns Point

Wind and Rain

Wind and Rain

Friday 8th - Saturday 9th Dec 2023

On Friday morning we took the dinghy into Jolly Harbor (Inner harbor) and tied up at the government dock. We cleared in at Health, Customs, Immigration and Port Authority; separate departments, each occupying their own office and requiring their own paperwork, but all coordinated on the veranda of the building. It took about 90 minutes, and to be fair, all of the officials were friendly and welcoming. There were no problems getting cleared in until 9th January.

We were feeling sort of lazy, so we returned to Cotinga and had a relatively quiet afternoon hanging out on board. We did a small load of laundry, washing and rinsing in a 3 gallon bucket, and then strung it all up on lines in the cockpit. This was the only signal the weather gods needed and within half an hour the first of a series of squalls came roaring through with high winds and quite a lot of rain. Down came the laundry, then back up, then down again, as repeated rainstorms swept through the area until the following morning. We ended up rigging clothes lines inside the main cabin of the boat … it wasn’t pretty and cooking dinner with damp t-shirts and undies hanging round your ears is not an experience I’m in a hurry to repeat!

All night the boat creaked and groaned as the anchor snubber (a strong line attached to the anchor chain and to cleats on the bow) continuously tightened and eased, and squeaked across the bow roller. When we went into the cockpit in the morning, after 36 hours at anchor, we realized that our position had changed and we had started to drag. Normally we set an anchor alarm using a small handheld GPS unit, but this died and we are awaiting a replacement when Tasha arrives. We tend not to use the chart plotter at the nav station as this takes up a fair bit of electricity, and we have become so confident (complacent) in our anchoring technique that we didn’t have an alarm set up. It’s highly disconcerting that this happened; not only did we have 80 feet of chain out in 12 feet of water, but our Rocna anchor is great and once set, we have never dragged. Why did it happen after we had been solid for the past 36 hours? In any event we pulled up the anchor (a lot of sand and some grass) and moved in closer to shore and re-anchored with 100ft of chain in 10 ft of water, backing down strongly (2200 rpm). It was blowing hard with gusts up to 25 knots, but other than significant swinging we stayed exactly where we started. 

We spent an hour or two just checking everything was secure (and drying our laundry) before heading into the dinghy dock. Our arrival coincided with the return of a charter fishing boat that unloaded a small tuna, a medium barracuda and two large wahoo. I was jealous, it’s my ambition to catch a wahoo! The captain said it was “blowing a hurricane out there” and the client said it was “really rough”. It made us feel good about the timing of our passage from St Martin. We wandered along to the lovely Valley Church beach, had a swim and photographed some lizards. On our return we were relieved to find Cotinga where we left her!

Mike

17 04.547 N, 61 53.571 W

A late afternoon squall clears out as the sun returns (view west from our first anchor spot)

The lovely Valley Church Beach ... about a 1 mile walk from Jolly Harbor

A cooperative lizard at Valley Church Beach

This specimen clearly has some modeling experience!

Sunset Saturday evening after teh squally weather has cleared out ... from our second anchor spot

Passage to Antigua

Passage to Antigua

Thursday 7th Dec 2023

We really enjoyed our stay in St Martin but it was time to move on. We have family and friends coming to visit in Antigua and so we were looking for a decent weather window to make the passage. Antigua is south-east from St Martin and a little less than 100 nm away. The forecast was for a brief lull in the trade winds, caused by a frontal system pushing south. After this it looked like stronger winter trades, what we think are referred to as the Christmas winds, would become more established. 

After dinner on Wednesday we caught a few hours of sleep and then got up for a midnight departure. The dinghy was stored on the foredeck, we had some food / snacks prepared and we hoisted the main sail whilst still on the mooring. The conditions were calm and it was an easy departure. We can overlay the radar image with the chart on our plotter and we had pre-marked target waypoints as well as a couple of navigational hazards within Marigot Bay. It was actually super-easy to drop the mooring and head out to the north-east up the Anguilla channel. Once past the eastern point of St Martin we headed south east, passing to the north of St Barts and almost directly towards Antigua. 

The winds were really light (< 5kts) and the seas were relatively calm. We got to see a beautiful moonrise and the sunrise. We mostly motor-sailed, but the winds gradually increased during the day and backed to the north-east, and shortly after lunchtime we turned off the engine and were able to sail the final four hours into Jolly Harbor. It was a pleasant and uneventful passage. Highlights included seeing several masked boobies that are quite rare (a threatened species) and we did some fishing. We actually hooked three fish, the first and third got off the hook, but the second we hauled in to the stern of the boat. This was a large barracuda with scary looking teeth.  We didn’t want to keep it, so I grabbed some pliers to try and get the hook out without being bitten. As I attempted to do this, the fish wriggled and snapped the line and was gone, unfortunately with the hook still in his mouth. 

The most challenging aspect of the journey was avoiding the lobster pot floats. As we noted on a previous blog, we had snagged a float during our approach to St Martin and we were worried about getting tangled up. Much of the ocean between St Martin and Antigua is > 1000 ft deep, but there are many areas, like underwater plateaus, where the depths are around 200 feet, and we were stunned to see lobster floats along the whole journey. Some of these were 40 nm from land. It was hard to spot them looking into the sun, so in the end we decided to navigate around the shallow areas and stick to the deeper water. 

We arrived in Jolly Harbor just before sunset, dropped anchor and raised our quarantine flag. Tomorrow we will start the check-in process, which is likely to be long and tedious … in the finest traditions of British bureaucracy. 

We are really excited to be here! We think we nailed the timing on this passage and possibly caught the last decent weather window before Tasha and Mac arrive on the 17th Dec. The cruising between islands from here on is more north-south and should be easier going and less dependent on specific weather conditions.

17 04.500 N, 61 53.860 W

Mike

Pre-dawn to the east of St Barts

The suns rays appear over the horizon - always a welcome sight

The view from our cockpit at anchor in Jolly Harbor

We enjoyed a cold beverage whilst watching the sun go down behind us in Jolly Harbor

Two trips to the candy store

Two trips to the candy store

Monday Dec 4^th to Wednesday Dec 6^th, 2023

After our adventures on Anguilla, we were feeling somewhat tired on Monday morning.  One of our ambitions was to go to Grand Case, the gastronomic capital of the French side of the island.  However, two adventurous days in a row seemed a step too far.  Instead we went by dinghy through the cut into the lagoon behind Marigot.  After a fairly long dinghy ride to the Dutch side of the lagoon, we arrived at the dock of Budget Marine.  This is claimed to be the biggest marine store in the Caribbean.  It was very impressive! We managed to get the large zinc for our boat, a replacement dock line (for the one that our mooring attachment has nearly severed) and some anti-chafe tubing to protect lines in the future.  Considering the wide variety of “boaty” gear we showed decent restraint.  Budget Marine makes that large chain of US boat stores (West Marine) look like a clothing shop.

Our trip to the lagoon took us past a place selling diesel and gasoline.  After lunch Mike took the jerry cans back to the fuel dock via dinghy.  Topping up with diesel was part of our preparation for the next leg of the journey.  The weather forecast was suggesting a departure late on Wednesday, so we still have one whole day for an outing to Grand Case.

After the usual morning routine, we went to shore and walked up to the main road.  We managed to find the actual bus depot and found the correct bus.  Once we thought we had arrived in Grand Case we hopped off the bus.  A kindly couple pointed us in the right direction and we found our way onto the beach.  A local resident recommended Lolo’s for lunch.  We felt that 11 am was a bit early for lunch so we walked along the beach, and returned to Lolo’s shortly after noon.  The whole place was hopping.  A large group occupying two tables seemed to be soaking up all the attention of the wait-staff.  Meanwhile, we watched the action at the BBQ grill and serving area.  Three or four women were in command and ribs were being grilled, chopped and plated along with a large selection of sides.  When our food came, we thought we might have over done it by ordering ribs and chicken!  It was a massive plate of food!  It was fantastic! Mike actually managed to eat all of his food.  I made a valiant effort but couldn’t finish.  Fortunately, we went for a walk right after lunch otherwise we might have been napping on the beach for the rest of the day.  

Today, Wednesday, we walked to the port office and checked out.  Then we walked to the “Super U” for some provisions.  (Grocery stores on French islands are nearly another candy store for foodies).  Back to the boat for lunch was followed by more “selective” provisioning.  We have been making preparations to leave this evening—the dinghy is on the foredeck, the sail cover has been removed.  Hopefully all goes well. 

Gloria

Panorama of the beach at Grand Case

Gloria on the beach at Grand Case

An English lady from Torquay who kindly agreed to be the foreground subject in this photo, as well as giving us some good advice on where to walk.

Teenage kid diving off the pier

Marigot Bay from Fort Louis after sunset

Sunset from Fort Louis

The mooring field in Marigot Bay, with the walls of the Fort Louis Marina in the foreground. Cotinga is the third boat out from the sea wall near the left of the photo.

It looks cute ... BUT it's a cat ... go figure!

In Praise of the Governor of Anguilla

In Praise of the Governor of Anguilla 

Sunday 3rd Dec 2023

Julia Crouch was appointed Governor of Anguilla by King Charles III. She was sworn in just three months ago, so it’s a little early to say how well it’s going, and frankly, we are hardly in a position to judge. What we can can say with certainty is that Julia is an extremely kind and thoughtful woman.

If I said that our day-trip to Anguilla didn’t go as planned it would imply that there was some planning … there wasn’t. Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory and is just a few short miles from St Martin, with frequent ferry connections. The ferry terminal itself is only 30 yards away from the dinghy dock we have been using in Marigot Bay. On Sunday morning we decided it would be a good day to make a visit. We didn’t read any guide books, we didn’t even check out the ferry prices, we just took a photo of the ferry schedule pinned up on the terminal wall. We assumed that we could pay by credit card, and we envisaged the ferry landing in the main town and being able to wander round and plan our day once we got there. None of this turned out to be correct! The process of leaving St Martin (France) and boarding the ferry was simple enough and the ferry ride only took 20 minutes. However, you have to pay departure tax (US$5 out, US$8 back) and the fare in cash (US$30 each way, per person). The arrival process in Anguilla (Britain) was more formal, but again, pretty straightforward. Once, we left the arrivals hall we realized that the ferry terminal isn’t in a town at all. In fact there aren’t any major towns on the island, it’s really a dispersed set of smaller communities. We couldn’t afford to take a taxi (shortage of cash) and weren’t willing to pay for a hire car (we are too cheap) and so we set off walking across the island, with a specific destination of an ATM machine that we hoped would relieve our financial concerns. We walked for about 2 miles along fairly flat, quiet roads, but it was hot. Anguilla is a coral island and as such more similar to the Bahamas than the other volcanic islands of the Caribbean, like St Martin. Unfortunately, when we got to the ATM machine it was out of order and another 2 miles to either Road Bay, which we thought looked like it would be beautiful (but no ATMs), or the center of the island and the closest bank. At this point we weren’t sure what to do and were feeling really stupid about not planning our trip more carefully. We asked a local guy about getting a taxi to the bank, but that didn’t seem too promising, so I stuck my thumb out in the hope of flagging down a taxi or catching a ride. Within two minutes a car pulled up, which we noticed had “Governor” on the license plate. The lady inside, who was indeed Julia Crouch the Governor of Antigua, kindly offered to give us a ride. In fact, she drove us over to the bank in the center of the island and then back to beach at Road Bay.

We were simply amazed that the Governor took the time and trouble to help us out and it was a pleasure to meet her and hear a little about her new role. Prior to her recent appointment, Julia had worked in the embassy in Moscow, during some challenging times. Firstly, the Covid pandemic and then the start of the Ukraine war. In her current role as the Governor of Antigua she is responsible, amongst other things, for international relations, security and prisons. The local government is run by of the premier (who we believe is appointed by the Governor) and the elected officials.

After being dropped of in Road Bay we had lunch at Elvis’s bar, sitting in the shade on a pristine white coral sand beach. In the afternoon we wandered back around the salt pond behind the beach and saw a few interesting birds (yellowlegs, black necked stilt, snowy egret). Another local driver, a long time resident from the Netherlands, offered us a lift up the hill to the main road, and we wandered the remaining 2 miles back to the ferry terminal. Our day-trip to Anguilla turned out to be quite the adventure!

Julia, if you get to read this, many thanks for all your help!

Mike

The beautiful beach at Road Bay, Anguilla

A Lesser Yellowlegs in Road Bay Salt Pond

A passing squall on our ferry ride back across the Anguilla Passage to St Martin

A wildflower that I photographed using focus stacking techniques back on board Cotinga (It took a bit of editing to fix some overlay errors on the stamen)

Exploring Marigot

Exploring Marigot 

Thursday November 29, 2023

After breakfast and engine running (to cool the fridge), we headed to the dinghy dock to start exploring Marigot.  We soon stumbled across a patisserie.  In short order we were seating on their balcony enjoying the view of the bay and coffee and croissants!  Some might say it had to be done.  After second breakfast, we were a bit lethargic but set off up the hill to the ruins of Fort Louis.  What remains of the fort sits atop a hill overlooking the bay.  There are a few outer walls and fragments of gun emplacements.  The fort is a nice breezy location with a few bits of shade.  I took advantage of the shade while Mike spent time photographing iguanas.  These reptiles seemed quite relaxed with visitors.  Occasionally they would tear off in some direction, usually chasing one of their own kind.

Returning to sea level we found a restaurant called Creole Creations (I think). Mike ate creole shrimp with rice and beans, fried plantains, and salad.  Remembering the double dose of breakfast, I had a salad with chicken.  After lunch we elected to walk along to where we might be able to see into the lagoon.  A fairly warm walk took us to the swing bridge that crosses the canal into the lagoon.  We did stumble across a marine store, where we purchased a zinc for our propeller. Although St. Martin is a duty free island, we found the prices in the marine store quiet staggering. We continued walking along the main road.  At this point, we were obviously a long way from the up-market shops of downtown.  The area seemed quite run down.  Increasingly I felt that we probably appeared like gawking tourists, we decided to turn around and walk back.  

Gloria

The croissants and french pastries are amazing!

Best meal so far in St Martin ... creole shrimp with plantains, peas and rice, and salad

Colorful characters ...

... and colorful street art

Wall paintings

I love to see this message on the walls

This wall painting was in Philipsburg on the Dutch side, Sint Marteen

We took a local bus out to Philipsburg for $2 each (compared to $25 + for a taxi). We didn't like the town as much as Marigot, but walking out to Fort Amsterdam ave spectacular views back towards the town and offshore

This looks like an old America's Cup boat to me ... sailing off Fort Amsterdam

Adapting to a Quieter Life

Adapting to a Quieter Life

Thursday 30 Nov 2023

It is often said that cruising, even in the Caribbean, is not all cocktails at sunset, and we would certainly agree that this is true. There has been a lot of planning and boat work that has gone into this adventure, and as you have no doubt gathered, it can be quite arduous getting the boat south and east. In many ways this activity suits my personality; I love to be busy and have things to plan and work on. However, at some point it would be great if I could dial it back to a slower pace. It was wonderful having Jo, Pete and Simon staying with us for our first ten days in the Caribbean, but now Gloria and I have to get used to being on our own again.

Yesterday morning, after just a couple of hours of sleep, we started the process of checking in at St Martin. Whilst still having breakfast, we were visited by a small boat from the Port Authority and were given some useful information and instructions. We re-launched the “Dainty Dog” and motored over to the Port Authority building and worked our way through the various steps. They needed our passports, vessel documentation and insurance. We also decided to pay for a mooring for a week, closer to shore and with a secure easily accessible dinghy dock, all for 10 euro per night. I have to say, we were very impressed by the local officials; they were well organized, super friendly and charming. So far so good … 

We went back to Cotinga, tied off the dinghy, pulled up the anchor and headed in towards shore to pick up a mooring. We had been provided with a mooring map, giving individual depths, and selected an empty one that seemed ideal. However, we couldn’t lift any mooring lines from that ball and realized we needed to tie off our own lines to the ring at the top of the ball (well below the foredeck of Cotinga). We circled around and tried to find the mooring hook we carry for just such an exercise … not where it usually is, and after some frantic searching we found it in a different locker. Then, the clip that holds the mooring hook to the boat hook had broken off, so it required some extra effort to use it. At this point, Gloria and I switched our usual roles and she was driving and I was doing the hook up, which no doubt added to the stress. We had become a little disorientated and argued about which number ball we were trying to tie up to, and ended up on a different one than intended. We got all the lines securely fastened, but we were both frustrated and irritated with each other. It turns out the ball we are on has plenty of depth (10ft) and although classed in a lower category, is only 3 inches shallower than our intended mooring! Obviously, this really was no big deal, and other than having to circle around and taking a little longer to sort out our lines, it all went fine. We were just reacting badly and failing on Tasha’s instructions … “be kind to each other … especially when you are tired”.

After a lovely salad lunch we spent the afternoon doing some boat cleaning. Our sense of humor gradually returned, and after cooling off with a late afternoon shower, we ate a fine dinner of pork chops with pearl couscous, cooked with onion, squash, roasted cashews, raisins and cinnamon. It was really delicious. Good fixes most things!

Yesterday I felt tired and hyper, this morning I feel tired and lazy … I think that’s a step in the right direction!

Mike

We had a great day on shore the following day ... more on that later ... but here are a few shots of some iguanas and lizards that I took up at the fort overlooking Marigot Bay.

Iguanas are wonderful subjects ... they look amazing, they are willing to pose for long periods of time and seem relatively unafraid of humans

I spent quite a lot of time shooting these awesome reptiles ... there was a nice breeze and some shady spots, so Gloria was happy hanging out (she is very patient!)

In contrast to the iguanas, these little lizards are really hard to photograph. They are quite shy, but more importantly, they react so fast to the flash and shutter that most of the shots are blurred, or the lizard is actually missing! (On a technical note, I switched from rear-curtain flash to front-curtain flash, where the flash fires as soon as the shutter is open rather than just prior to closing. It helped some, but not a perfect solution)

A curious lizard pokes her head out from behind the rock