Boat jobs, hiking and octopus

Boat jobs, hiking and octopus

Wednesday 13^th and Thursday 14^th March 2024

Wednesday was mostly devoted to boat work.  Mike pumped both the bilge and the shower sump, checked the voltage of extra zinc vs. no extra zinc with the silver electrode and polished the stainless steel (a really big job). While he was hard at work, I cleaned the galley and both heads.  It’s not glamorous but the boat needs constant maintenance to keep it in good shape. Later in the afternoon, we went snorkeling along the west side of the bay at Ilet a Cabrit (where we are moored).  The best thing we spotted was an octopus that was swimming near the bottom.  After a while, it sat down on the sand and we could observe the color change as it tried to blend into the sand.  It’s the first time I’ve seen an octopus while snorkeling and I was pretty excited.

After sunset, we travelled by dinghy to the main town, picking up our friends Wendy and Darrell on the way.  Tragically, while attempting to lock the boat to the dock, the lock dropped into the water!  We faked locking the dinghy and proceeded to the restaurant for dinner.  We enjoyed a nice meal and strolled back to the dock.  Careful examination revealed that the lock was quite visible on the bottom.  We thought it should be possible to retrieve it with some snorkel gear.  It was a dark and fairly long ride back to Cotinga.

Our plan for Thursday was to walk up Le Chameau.  This mountain is the highest point on Terre d’en Haut (the big island of Les Saintes). At about 1,000 ft, the views from the top are reported to be excellent.  We set out at about 9:30 am.  Before we had done much more than walk through the town, we were thinking it was a hot day.  The route to the top is along a road that is no longer open to traffic.  That meant that the footing was less of a problem but the gradient was a bear.  Personally, my t-shirt was fairly damp by the time we topped out. The views were quite amazing.  Les Saintes is a small group of islands with many bays.  We have done a fair bit of walking around these islands and it was great to get the big view of all the places we have visited and the various mooring fields.  Fortunately, the tower on the top of the hill cast some shade, allowing me to recover enough to make the downward hike.

When we got back to the dinghy (after some food shopping and a stop for lunch), we could still see the lock on the bottom of the harbor.  Mike was very brave and dived down with his mask and snorkel and retrieved it! Neither one of us loves to be underwater, so he did very well.  Upon returning to the boat we both fell compelled to shower.  The remainder of the day was considerably less energetic! 

Gloria

15 52.361 N, 61 35.762 W

p.s Don’t forget that you can follow our position and see our track at our predict wind web page

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Cotinga/?mapMode=useAtlas&windSymbol=BlackArrow&weatherSource=ECMWF&trackDuration=0

Looking down on the main town Terre en Haut from partway up the Chameau

A couple resting and looking down towards the main town from the summit

A similar view, but you also see the Ilet a Cabrit more clearly in the middle / left. This is where we are moored currently and you can see it's a pretty long dinghy ride to town.

The view to the south with the fringing islands of Les Saintes in the foreground and Dominica in the background

The view to the west with the island of Terre en Bas in the center, the Pain de Sucre anchorage on the near right and the south west tip of Guadeloupe in the top right. We didn't realize at the time but a path continues down this side back to the beach

A cooperative lizard on route up the Chameau

Ditto - in portrait

The sun filters through the clouds Thursday evening - from our mooring off Ilet a Cabrit

A passing squall near sunset Wednesday evening

 panoramic view as the sun sets behind Terre en Bas

Revisiting Old Haunts

Revisiting Old Haunts

Monday 11th - Tuesday 12th March 2024

We had a blast at the beach barbecue organized by PAYS (Portsmouth Area Yacht Services) on Sunday evening. Lots of rum punch, grilled chicken and tuna, along with music and dancing. We stayed out well beyond “boaters midnight” and Monday morning came around all too soon. Nonetheless, we were up at 6 am and away by quarter to seven and had a pleasant 3 hour sail up to Les Saints, Guadeloupe. The winds were fairly light and we seemed to "crab" our way northwards with a 20 degree difference between our heading and course over the ground. We were a bit concerned our rate-compass might be broken but we subsequently checked PredictWind and you can expect a 1 knot or more of westerly current on that passage so I think that plus leeway from the wind accounts for the drift. The only other negative is that we failed (again) to catch any fish, despite trolling two lines for almost the entire journey. 

We have explored lots of new places during this trip, but it’s also nice to re-visit places that we have enjoyed previously, either on this trip or in 2018. We were happy to be able to pick up a mooring off Ilet a Cabrit, where we had stayed on our first visit here back in January. It seems less crowded here now. It is a beautiful place to stay and the dinghy ride to the main town seems less intimidating than it was before, perhaps because the winds are lighter. We completed the immigration process at Les Saintes Yachting Services, which simply involves filling in an online for and paying 5 Euros. We did a little food shopping and then headed back to Cotinga for a quiet evening … and Kung Pao Chicken.

This morning we took the dinghy into shore, tied up to a dilapidated dock, using a stern anchor to keep the Dainty Dog off the crumbling concrete, and hiked the trails over the top of the island. The weather was perfect and the views were gorgeous. We returned to Cotinga for lunch, did some laundry in a bucket out in the cockpit and then went snorkeling right off the boat. We had only been back on board 15 minutes when Darrel and Wendy came by to say hello, and we drank “painkillers” in the cockpit. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day!

Mike

Dusk in the Ilet a Cabrit anchorage. Note the tiny sliver of moon. We go round and round on our mooring, tying our mooring lines into a big knot.

Day trippers tie up their boat and go ashore for drinks and a picnic at Ilet a Cabrit

We tied up to a decrepit old dock and used a stern anchor to keep the dinghy off concrete

Looking north west from Pointe Bombard on Ilet a cabrit. The land in the top right of the picture is the south west corner of mainland Guadeloupe and the water in between is the passage we sailed under rough conditions back in January

A moth ... in profile

A similar moth .... as seen from above

A kestrel (one of a pair) that Gloria spotted whilst we were out walking. This image is heavily cropped and is a tribute to the quality of my camera and lens

Back-lit flower

Hermit crab

This is a shell I picked up in Martinique. This afternoon I found the time to photograph it inside the boat using focus shift / stacking techniques.

Syndicate Falls, finally

Syndicate Falls, finally

Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th March, 2024

Saturday was our last day with the hire car.  Our plan was to head up to Syndicate Falls and the Syndicate Nature trail.  We had been to the nature trail before, but on that occasion, never saw the turning for the falls and failed to get to the start. We were quite disappointed.  At about 9 am we set out in the dinghy.  Darrell decided to join us, while Wendy thought the trails might be too challenging.  Between the paper map, All Trails and MapMe we located the turning to the waterfall.  The dirt road eventually led to a parking lot and cafe.  The area around the cafe was beautiful with many flowers and shrubs.  Birds could be heard from every direction.

We set off down a wide track that led to the footpath, which crossed the stream four times, making me very glad to have water shoes and the hiking pole!  Suddenly, we could see the waterfall.  Scrambling over boulders, we arrived at the pool at the base.  For quite a while we were the only people there.  At some point, I thought that the light had changed.  In short order it started to rain.  Steadily the rain became heavier.  By the time we returned to the cafe, we were pretty much soaked to the skin.  We had an excellent lunch consisting of sautéed tuna, fries and salad, along with drinks made from fresh passionfruit, ginger and lime. There were also samples of flavored rum passed around that Mike enjoyed, and we watched the owner stuffing marijuana leaves into bottles of rum to make his under-the-counter beverage (ready after two days in the hot sun). Lunch revived us and we set off to the nature trail area.  

Walking through the rain forest continues to enchant me.  We reached the three overlooks and were rewarded with views of a pair of red-necked or “Jacko” parrots.  Another pair of birds flew into the same tree, looking quite different.  We excitedly thought these were the imperial parrot or “Sisserou”.  Sadly when Mike took a photo and zoomed in on the birds, we realized they were scaly-naped pigeons.  How easy it is to fool yourself....It was lucky that Mike got the photo when he did, because soon, it started to pour with rain all over again. By the time our day finished at about 4pm and we were pretty wet and very tired.  

Overnight heavy rain set in.  We were up in the dark closing windows.  Unfortunately, we’d left our backpacks out in the cockpit to “dry”.  The whole day was one round of downpour after another.  The dinghy, up on the davits, was flooded with water, requiring the plug to be pulled out with the use of the boat hook.  Most of the day was spent reading and napping.  The late afternoon dried out and the sun emerged.  We spent some time getting ready to depart tomorrow morning and we are off out to a beach barbecue tonight!

Gloria 

The view from the starting point of the Syndicate Falls trail

The beautiful African Tulip tree ... known locally as the "flamboyant tree" 

The river below Syndicate Falls near the first crossing point

Syndicate Falls

A panorama of Syndicate Falls

Two shots of Darrell swimming below Syndicate Falls ... the first with a much slower shutter speed (1s)

... the second with a faster shutter speed (1/50 s, both taken with the camera on a tripod)

Syndicate Falls from the river below, as the rain starts to fall

The tree ferns could be right out of Jurassic Park

Gloria searching for parrots from the Syndicate Nature Trail

A view from one of the overlooks on teh Syndicate Nature Trail

More Adventures in Dominica

More Adventures in Dominica

Wednesday 6th -  Friday 8th March 2024

On Monday evening, the night before we left Saint-Pierre, Wendy and Darrell stopped by in their dinghy to say hello and invite us over for a drink later that evening. We had to decline that invitation because we were busy getting ready for our passage the following morning up to Dominica. However, we arranged to meet up in Portsmouth in the days ahead.

Wendy and Darrel have been living aboard their beautiful 55 ft Tayana sailboat “Scirocco” for the past several years. Their travels were significantly influenced by Covid and as a consequence have spent much of the past three years down in Grenada and Trinidad. At one point during the pandemic, they left Fort Lauderdale, Fl to sail to the Caribbean, but were not even allowed to enter Bahamas waters and so sailed further eastwards towards Bermuda and then south directly to Grenada. With nowhere open to re-supply they had to make their supplies, including diesel, last for several weeks, so they kept sailing even when winds were really light. By the time they had cleared quarantine in Grenada they had spent more than 40 days without getting off their boat. Their plan now is to sail back up through the Windward and Leeward islands, visiting some of the places they missed on their way south, and then around June make their way over to Panama, through the canal and onwards …

We had a relatively laid back day on Wednesday, checking in (and out) at customs and immigration and walking around Portsmouth. Wendy and Darrell arrived later that afternoon. We had booked a rental car for three days starting on Thursday and so we got together and have spent the last two days touring around the beautiful island of Dominica. 

We started at Titou gorge, up in the southern highlands. This turned out to be an exceptional experience, unlike anything we have done previously. We rented lifejackets (obligatory) and then entered the river, which felt pretty chilly! Swimming upstream you enter a narrow, steep sided canyon that is reminiscent of desert slot canyons you might find in Utah or Arizona … but full of water! The water here was far to deep to touch bottom and the sides too smooth to climb, but after about a hundred yards we arrived at a constriction, where the water flowed really fast. However, it was possible to clamber onto a submerged shelf and walk through to an incredible waterfall that emerges through a hole in the roof of a cave. It was absolutely amazing, and the only drawback was I didn’t (couldn’t) have my camera with me. We could have (should have) rented a waterproof bag for a cell phone, but didn’t, and even if I could have kept my camera dry you would have needed a tripod and there was nowhere to set that down. So sadly, all we have is our memories.

Our next stop was Freshwater lake, way up in the mountains. The weather was perfect and the location so much more impressive than the name might lead you to believe. Gloria and I hiked the trail around the lake (guidebook - 1 hour, moderate) that took us 1.5 hours and we thought was quite challenging. It followed a series of peaks and ridges with astonishing views of the surrounding area. At several points there are rope handrails provided because the path, although stepped, was incredibly steep.

Our third and final stop for Thursday was Trafalgar falls, which Gloria and I had visited previously. On this occasion Darrell and I were able to clamber up the rocks to the base of the “Papa”waterfall. It was quite a scramble and I’m not sure would have been possible in the wet conditions we experienced on our first trip. Once again, the views were impressive.

Today we toured a number of locations that we visited a few weeks ago. It was a very wet morning up in the mountains and a different experience from our last trip. We went to Emerald Falls, Jacko Falls and Red Rocks out on the east coast. We managed to buy some Johnny Cakes with salt cod filling for lunch. They were delicious and I also had a bottle of fresh fruit drink of unknown origin! We also found time to stop by a chocolate “factory” and finished up the day with Ti Punch rum drinks aboard Scirocco. 

Mike

Darrell, Wendy and Gloria near Freshwater Lake

The vegetation was spectacular and different to what you see at lower elevations

The route around Freshwater Lake followed a series of ridges and small peaks. 

Looking eastwards towards the Atlantic Ocean. 

The path was good, but at times like a very steep staircase

At the base of "Papa", Trafalgar Falls

Ditto

Darrell in the pool below Emerald Falls

Looking south from Red Rock

There’s always something to learn!

There’s always something to learn!

Monday March 4 and Tuesday March 5^th, 2024

There are many incidents where one receives unwelcome news.  After a long day of sailing, being told that you are “on the hook for a blog” is particularly deflating.  I was feeling good about the nearly nine hours of sailing ….!

On Monday, we went to shore to check out and do some provisioning.  Our previous trip to Dominica left us with the impression that meat was hard to obtain.  So we thought it wise to stock up on frozen meat in the Super U in St. Pierre.  We were quite laden down with our purchases and so we returned to the boat to get the food stored either in the freezer/fridge or in the various cupboards.  In the afternoon, we went back to land for a stroll along the beach.  Mike clambered over some rocks to get a closer look at a wrecked sailboat that was washed onto the rocky shore.  I entertained myself watching a boat trying to pick up a mooring.

The moorings in the French islands are not similar to anything I’ve seen elsewhere.  There is the large mooring ball.  From the top an iron ring stands upright.  The boater needs to be able to grab the ring (usually a fair way below the level of the bow) and thread a line through the ring and secure the loose end back to the boat.  Ideally, one wishes to have two lines, one on either side of the bow.  As it turns out this maneuver is a lot easier to describe than to execute!  

Our solution is to tie a special snap hook to the loose end of the mooring line. The back side of the snap hook can be attached to the end of the boat hook.  Approaching the mooring, one needs to reach over the side with the snap hook/boat hook/line combo and attach the snap hook to the ring.  Quickly bringing in slack on the mooring line and securing it allows you to stay close enough to the ball to thread other ropes through the ring.  If you aren’t close enough you can launch the dinghy and sort the lines out from water level.  The people I was watching made many attempts and were finally successful with one boater lying flat on the bow and hanging over the side to thread the rope.  What could possibly go wrong with that approach!

Today, Tuesday, our alarm went off at six am.  Mike was already making coffee and sandwiches for lunch by the time I rolled out of the sack.  (Who knows when he got up?).  A quick bowl of muesli was our breakfast and we were underway shortly before seven am. We had about 45 minutes of motor-sailing before we emerged from the wind shadow on the north end of Martinique.  We had the full main up and unfurled the whole genoa.  In short order we were facing 20kts with some really large swells.  Recent trips had probably lulled us into a false sense of security, we had the dinghy on the davits!  Each time a swell would roll under the boat the ends of the dinghy tubes would hit the water.  However, we were so overpowered at that point, reefing the sails had to be top priority.  With partial genoa and one reef in the main, we were in much better control and it was possible for Mike to stand on the aft deck and lift the dinghy higher and retighten the lines.  There’s a lesson learned!  As we proceeded the wind eased somewhat and the sail was excellent. It took us about four hours to cross between the islands and once we reached the south end of Dominica, the wind and waves were honking.  We had 20 to 24 knots of wind for an extended period.  We were doing more than eight knots of boat speed.  Strangely enough, somewhat later the wind died altogether and filled in lightly from the west.  Go figure!  We sailed and motored behind Dominica and arrived at Portsmouth. Thankfully there was a mooring available and we quickly got our lines sorted. We covered 55 nm in a little under 9 hours, at an average speed of 6.5 knots. Mike saw speeds consistently between 7.8 and 8.5 knots over the ground for the half hour or so as we passed the southern tip of Dominica, but our Chart-plotter log said the maximum speed was 10.1 knots. We must have been surfing at that point!   Right about now, it’s getting to be time to swim.    

Gloria

One of the many houses of character along the waterfront at Saint-Pierre

An oar resting alongside the thwart of a boat ... abstract, partial B&W

A friendly guy sitting on the deck of one of the beach houses

"Mellow ... unreadable" ... a wrecked metal hulled sailboat (maybe 30-35ft) on the rocks to the south of Saint-Pierre

Two views - this one looking forwards, with Saint-Pierre in the background

... and this one look back down the decks to the rocks and sea. Although rusty, I suspect this boat only washed a shore a year or two ago. The engine, boat hardware and  electrics were all still visible and parts of the sails were all over the rocks

Back in Saint-Pierre

Back in Saint-Pierre

Thursday 29th February - Saturday 2nd March 2024

We had a good sail up from Anse Chaudiere to Saint-Pierre with winds of 10-14 knots on the beam. We were also fortunate to be able to pick up a mooring fairly close to the dock. Saint-Pierre makes an excellent point of departure for our next leg back up to Dominica, but it’s also a nice place to be and there were new things that we still wanted to do.

On Friday we walked up to the Center for Discovery of Earth Science and this turned out to be a fascinating museum. Firstly, the building itself is designed and built to withstand a severe earthquake, with the upper level floor supported on six pillars that have neoprene “para-seismic” or “laminated” bearings between them and the reinforced concrete floor, to reduce vibration. The building design also helps with hurricane resistance, where high winds causes lateral displacement. There was fabulous 20ft square aerial photographic mounted on the floor that you could walk around. We loved looking at the places we had visited and the detail was such that you could see individual yachts at anchor. It gave you great feel for the geography as whole. Perhaps the real highlight was a 50 minute documentary film about volcanic activity in the Caribbean and how our understanding of volcanism has evolved since the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelee. It outlined a more modern interpretation of how ~ 28,000 people came to be killed within minutes when the newly formed cone exploded laterally, releasing super-heated gases, rocks and dust. There had been significant volcanic activity leading up to the catastrophic eruption of May 8th, but nobody knew how to interpret what was happening. Many of the people gathered in Saint-Pierre had come in from the countryside because they thought any volcanic material would flow down valleys and they would be safe in town. It is now believed that the initial blast raised temperatures in the town to 200-250oC and bombarded it with rocks, small and large. A subsequent fire in the town, fueled by wooden roofing materials, window frames, furniture and rum supplies, raised temperatures to 1000oC and caused any remaining roofs to collapse. To my eye the photographs and the film generated by Thomas Edison’s team, look remarkably similar to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. There was in fact an even larger eruption in August, that destroyed the adjacent town of Morne Rouge, but the loss of life was less (1000 people) because of lower population. Towards the end of the end of the documentary they showed footage of the Montserrat eruption that has been going on now for almost 30 years and has turned half the island, including the capital city of Plymouth, into no-go zone. This particular eruption developed over a much slower time period allowing evacuation to take place, but any notion that this is a temporary situation appears to be misguided. The final segment of the documentary touched on “Kick’em Jenny”, an active subterranean volcano off Grenada. This is an an area with maritime exclusion zone (of variable size depending on current status). We were already aware of this, but will take extra care to avoid the area as a rapid gas evolution is possible that reduce the buoyancy of the boat and sinks it! At the current rate of growth this volcano will generate a new Caribbean island within our children’s generation. 

Today, Saturday, we set off on an entirely different adventure. We took the bus up to Morne Rouge and then switched to a second bus to take us to the start of the “Trail of the Jesuits”. We do not know the history behind this trail, but it runs through some beautiful and atmospheric rain forest. We had read it was a trail of two halves; the first part being mostly flat, and the second being steeply down hill to a river and suspension bridge. In fact it was quite muddy and very slippery so when we got to the steep descent, we didn’t go too far before turning back, and we never made it to the river. However, we did really enjoy the 4 hours we spent wandering through the rain forest, and taking the buses is always entertaining!

Mike

Mount Pelee looms above Saint-Pierre. Shot from the boat on one of the rare occasions the summit was free of cloud

The market next to the town dock

The fisherman's dock, slightly north of the main town.

A Lesser Antillean crested hummingbird feeds off Bougainvilla flowers growing up adjacent to the wall of a house

Les Traces des Jesuits ... a beautiful, but muddy, trail in the tropical rainforest.

An incredible wealth of plants and trees

Backlit leaves abstract ... (created by focus stacking a sequence of 30 individual shots)

Giant fern fiddlehead

A curious  lizard ... and a remarkably well behaved photographic model

Ditto