A Tale of Two Chemists: Boat jobs, hiking and octopus

Boat jobs, hiking and octopus

Wednesday 13^th and Thursday 14^thMarch 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