Guadeloupe, Monserrat & St. Kitts

 On February 23 we left Dominica for Terre de Haut, Guadeloupe. We have previously visited these islands during our trip south, but wanted to return to one of our favorite spots that exudes the feeling of French streets and French bistros.

The geology is fascinating.

This is the only beach, we have visited, that has roped off lap lanes for swimming.

Enjoying the French Bistro experience.

Normally, purchasing fuel in a European country would not be something we would consider. However, this happened to be the day after the U.S. bombed Iran and we wanted to make sure we had enough fuel to get home…no matter what happened in the world.  This fuel cost $7.31 per gallon😳

After a relaxing few days in Guadeloupe, it was time to move on.  We were scheduled to meet our niece and nephew in St. Kitts on March 13, and the weather outlook was not great.  We were hoping to arrive there about a week before them so we could scout out the area since we had never been to St. Kitts.

On March 6, we decided to take a weather window that looked doable, but certainly not comfortable! The forecast was for 5-6 ft. waves, with conditions deteriorating after that day. We left at 4:00 a.m. for a 95 mile crossing to St. Kitts. Conditions were actually fairly nice for the first few hours, but that was only because we were still behind the ‘shadow’ of Guadeloupe.  About 4 hours in, conditions deteriorated quickly! 

Waves built to over 8 ft, with us definitely seeing some 10-12 ft waves hitting us on the starboard quarter and causing the boat to slide sideways down the face of the wave. Keith watched the Lev-O-Guage (inclinometer) and saw a 35° tilt on one of those drops. This caused a drastic change in our steering practices, watching for the large wave chains, and turning the bow into the waves. With this, our headway progress was down to about 3 mph. We quickly reevaluated our options and decided to ditch in Monserrat, which was thankfully halfway between Guadeloupe and St. Kitts.

We call this an interior redesign, by Mother Nature.

We were aware that Montserrat was home to one of the most active volcanoes in the Caribbean. However, we were surprised by the amount of smoke spewing from the top.

The chart clearly marks restriction zones where anchoring is not allowed, and as we passed through this area the smell of fire and brimstone was very strong.  Little did we know that our plan to seek refuge would end up being one of the most interesting and educational experiences of this adventure.

In 1995 the volcano showed signs of high activity, and much of the southern part of the island was evacuated.  The big eruption came in July 1997, which left 80% of the island uninhabitable. This eruption destroyed the capital town of Plymouth, and totally whipped out the airport.

All inhabitants were relocated to the northern tip of the island. This area was safe from pyroclastic flows because of an extinct volcano located in the middle. This peak provides a bearier to ensure future pyroclastic flows cannot reach the northern tip of the island. Between 1995-2000 nearly 65% of the island’s population relocated, mainly to England. Montserrat was/is still a British ‘colony’ (only because it was always to small to rebel) and England offered all residents the opportunity to relocate and start over as full English citizens.

While we are here we might as well take the tour😳…or maybe we shouldn’t!

The town of Plymouth was destroyed, but luckily only 15 people died from this event. All 15 were people who were frustrated with the evacuation, and snuck back to their property for one reason or another. Our tour guide lost his cousin who went back to pick vegetables from his garden.

The pyroclastic flow buried the town in sand, ash, and rocks two stories high. This picture shows this three story building before the eruption. Now we can only see the top floor.

This was the harbor front near the port.

This was the town square.

Even houses and businesses on the outskirts of town were destroyed by several feet of ash and debris.

The main church ‘The Mother Church’ with the only pipe organ on the island, was destroyed.

Montserrat was a very eye opening, and educational stop, but a weather window has opened up on March 12…LUCKILY allowing us to arrive in St. Kitts one day before the kids arrive.

Thankfully, the seas calmed and we made it to St. Kitts with no problems.

Allison and John arrived successfully, and it was time to explore and have a little fun!

This man is crushing sugar cane to extract the juice.

St. Kitts and Nevis (pronounced Neevis) is a two island nation. After exploring St. Kitts we were excited to hop to Nevis.

From our anchorage, this was the view of the extinct volcanic cone that makes up Nevis. Of course, our young and energetic guests, were looking for a challenge, and decided to climb the peak. Keith and I were happy to sit out on this one out, and watch from this viewpoint.

We did send them with our Garmin satellite tracker so we could monitor their progress (and know where to send help should the need arise)😉

Apparently, the climb was brutal, at times…and they both discussed quitting more than once.

However, they fought through 

And made it to the top. Nicely done! And Keith and I were oh so thankful that we didn’t attempt to climb that peak!

The very next day we rented a car to tour the rest of the island, and they were willing to take a short hike to a waterfall.

Probably good to get some blood pumping through those sore muscles.

There were several monkeys enjoying the fruit from a tamarind tree.

We visited several beaches, on the east side of the island, and all had sargassum seaweed.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at The Plantation.

On their last day, we all agreed that a relaxing beach day was in order.

This is the closest we have ever come to missing our guests arrival.  I’m sure most of you can understand the stress I was feeling when we couldn’t get to St. Kitts, as planned. I even checked on ferries or flights to transport them to Montserrat, in the event we were not able to make the crossing in time. Worst case scenario, I was prepared to book them a resort room, which still would have given them an awesome spring break. I’m so glad everything worked out, in the end, but reminder to cruisers…stay flexible and don’t let a schedule force you into a dangerous situation!

They flew out on March 22, and we are scheduled to meet my cousin and her husband in Virgin Gorda, BVI in two weeks…let’s get moving🤣

St Lucia and Dominica

 From St. Vincent we headed to St. Lucia.  Our planned itinerary called for us to spend, at least, a week in both St. Lucia and Dominica since we didn’t have a chance to visit these islands on our way down the chain, last spring. In between the two islands, we did spend a few days in Martinique, mainly for provisioning purposes, as we toured this island previously. However, we were very happy to fill our fridge with French cheeses while there👍 

As for our time in St. Lucia and Dominica, we were very impressed with the number of things to see and do.  These two islands were a lot of fun, and offered several activities that we found amazing!

As we traveled along the coast of St. Lucia, we cruised right past the Pitons, which are actually the magma plugs from a long extinct volcano. The actual volcano eroded away about 300,000 years ago😳

We anchored in Rodney Bay, and checked in immediately as we heard stories of some people getting large fines for delaying check in, due to weather. The process is very different for each island so we use several resources to make sure we are following the rules. If you are visiting these islands in your own boat, I strongly suggest you embrace the use of SailClear, NoForeignLand, and FaceBook cruiser groups for each island.

As soon as we got anchored, Gregory visited us in his floating fruit and veggie stand. I LOVE this part of the Caribbean experience!

I did purchase the most massive avocado I’ve ever seen.

It took some creative recipe and preservation methods to make sure none went to waste.

Our first St. Lucia adventure was a visit to Pigeon Island, and a short hike to the top of Fort Rodney, built in 1778.

The fort offered beautiful views.

On each island we rent a car for one day, and explore as much of the island as possible.

We started out heading south to get a different view of the Pitons.

I thoroughly enjoyed driving on this island! The roads are narrow and winding, but (for the most part) the roads were in very good condition compared to other Caribbean nations. Usually Keith likes to drive, and I don’t mind sitting back and being chauffeured, but on this island they required a medical release for all drivers over the age of 70😳…but not to worry…there was a clinic right next to the car rental office, for one to pop over for a quick physical.  Sounded like the biggest scam yet, so we said “no thanks” and changed the driver on the rental agreement.🤷‍♀️

Our primary destination, for the day, was the mud baths at Sulfur Springs.  The Soufrièr Volcano last erupted in the 1700’s, but is considered to be a dormant volcano.  However, there is still a lot of geothermal activity.

Boiling mud is very visible in the abandoned sulfur mine area. The site was mined from 1836-1840. This mud is a mixture of sulfur, iron, copper, iron oxide, alkaline lead, calcium oxide, and carbon.

This mud flows down the mountain, and is cooled by mixing with fresh spring water (also flowing down the mountain).

Manmade pools then capture the water to offer visitors a 103-113° mineral bath.

It is said that one feels 10 years younger after soaking in the baths. I’m not sure if that is true, but I will confirm that it takes, at least, three good showers to get the sulfur mud smell off your skin🤣

On our drive back, we stopped at a roadside food stand for lunch. This wonderful lady talked us both into trying the salt fish salad as one of our sides. Salt fish is a VERY popular ingredient in many Caribbean dishes, but to this point in time we have managed to pass.  This salad was made with cooked green banana so we were hoping the banana would balance the fishiness…no such luck!  A few stray cats enjoyed our portions of salt fish salad🤣. However, the rest of our meals were delicious!

Sadly, it was time to leave St. Lucia and a weather window allowed for an easy hop to Martinique.  We stayed in Martinique for a few days, and noticed a very busy waterfront, as they were setting up for Carnival. We considered staying in Martinique for Carnival, but in the end, decided to head to Dominica to experience Carnival there, since we felt the ability to understand the language would make the experience better. So…off to Dominica…

If you plan to visit Dominica on your own boat, be aware that anchoring on most of the west side is not a great option. The water is very deep right up to the shore.

Here we are on a mooring ball in 130 feet of water😳

This island offered so much to see and do that our adventure list was so long it was hard to know where to begin.  We arrived a few days before Carnival began so we decided to explore the coast by dinghy and do a little snorkeling.  Our first destination was a few miles south at Champagne Beach. This was an absolutely incredible snorkeling experience!

In addition to the usual fish species, this site provides a submersion into warm geothermal bubbles being released from vents on the sea floor.  The bubbles tickle your skin as they rush past to reach the surface.

When you dive down to get closer to the vents you can hear a boiling sound under the crust. A strange but exhilarating experience!

Luckily, our mooring was very close to the heart of Roseau, which made visiting the town exceptionally easy.

I am going to share a word of warning for anyone visiting on your own boat.  

All boaters normally watch out for each other, and jump in to help whenever needed, and so when we saw these boats in trouble we wanted to help. Due to the congestion caused by Carnival, there were several mooring balls with multiple boats rafted up together. These three had been slamming into each other for much of the morning, and eventually the bow line broke between the white and blue boats. This left them tied at the stern, and caused their engines to slam together with every passing wave. I started on the VHF radio attempting to locate an owner. I eventually spoke with ‘a local’ who told me he would be out in 5 minutes to check on the boats.

This happened to be the first day of Carnival, and Keith and I were getting ready to join the festivities.  As we were heading out, at least 30 minutes later, we noticed no one had ever addressed the issue. We decided it would be best if we attempted to remedy the problem.  It took a little work, but we were able to get the errant boat turned around, and I had to climb onto the boat to re-tie them together. After about 15 minutes of work we were satisfied that we had done the best we could to minimize additional damage, given that no additional lines or fenders were in sight.

We continued to town and enjoyed the Carnival festivities. The next morning Marcus (the man we were renting our mooring ball from) stopped by our boat to check on us. I attempted to tell him about the boat situation and he kept cutting me off. Finally, he said, “ don’t talk about those boats, don’t look at those boats, and don’t touch those boats, they are all drug boats that came from Martinique to sell drugs at Carnival and no one here cares how damaged they get or even if they sink. We don’t want those boats here!” 😳😳😳  Two days later the owners returned to their boats to leave the area. They did notice damage on the sides of the boats from them slamming into each other, but I don’t think they noticed the engine damage or the fact that the bow line was broken and retired. They yelled at each other for a few minutes over who was to blame, then they all untied and left.  I was sitting on the back deck reading, and never looked up from my book😬

Anyway…Carnival was pretty cool…

There were sooo many people, and thousands of very elaborate costumes.

Everything was pretty much shut down for the three main days of Carnival.  Once the festivities ended we were able to rent a car for our island tour, and this time our itinerary was packed!

Our first destination was Scott’s head, at the southernmost tip of the island. We decided to leave our car on the ‘solid ground’ part of the island, and walk across the peninsula and up the hill to the fort.

Me met a very friendly group taking a rest from their maintenance tasks.

The view did not disappoint.

Back on the road…

There is an elaborate network of wooden water pipes that carry water down the mountain.

Next stop, to see the twin Trafalgar Falls. Our normal M.O. would have us scurrying across the rocks to play in the pools at the base of those falls, but today we don’t have time. We have a reservation for an afternoon of repelling into river gorges, and need to keep moving. I will confess that repelling is outside of my comfort zone, but I was willing to be scared to death for the experience.

We stopped at a few overlook sites for spectacular views.

Unfortunately, we made it to the site of our reservation only to be told that the company had to cancel…ugh!  I was determined to swim in a gorge so we continued to the site of Titou Gorge. When we arrived we were told that we could swim up the gorge ourselves, but most people went with a guide. We declined the guide, and started upstream ourselves after renting the mandatory life jacket.

Our pictures did not capture the slender of this site, but I will say it is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had!

This is the entrance.

We swam against the current, in a river that flowed through a gorge with very high rock walls.

At the end was a waterfall that you had to climb a shelf of rocks to reach.

The pressure of the falls made it very challenging to stay in place long enough for a picture🤣

For some strange reason, Keith and I were totally alone in this gorge during our entire experience, which definitely contributed to the majestic experience. However, as we exited the gorge, lines of people were getting on black inner tubes so the guides could pull them through the gorge😳. At least 50 people entered the gorge as we were leaving…we were so lucky!  What an amazing day…we definitely got our money’s worth from that rental car.

Soon, we will be leaving Dominica to head for Guadeloupe. We leave our mooring in Roseau and head to Portsmouth, in the northern part of the island, to be in a better staging area when it is time to leave. We also have one last adventure planned before saying goodbye to Dominica.

We hire Elvis to take us on the Indian River tour. Normally, we love to explore this type of mangrove rivers in our own dinghy, but this river has special rules protecting it from engine damage.  The island has embraced this river as an essential part of there ‘ecotourism’ industry and requires visitors to be accompanied by a guide who must row clients through the system.

Again, several scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed in this river. The trees and wildlife were stunning! This is a ‘must see’ if you visit Dominica!

Goodbye Dominica…we will certainly miss you!