On April 28, 2025, we left Puerto Rico at 6:00 a.m. for a 75 mile (11 hour) cruise to St. Croix. This was the first leg of a three day passage, which would total 325 miles. We had no intention of checking into St. Croix, as we wanted to take advantage of a 72 hour weather window that would allow us to make significant headway south. Our purpose for stopping at St. Croix was simply to have a protected place to anchor so we could get a good nights sleep before the big push, the next day. We arrived in St. Croix at 5:00 p.m., flying our yellow quarantine flag (Qflag), which communicates that we are not checked into the country, and therefore we can’t leave the boat!
After a great night’s sleep, we weighed anchor at 6:00 a.m. on the 29th for a 240 mile (33 hour) crossing to Guadeloupe. If conditions were poor, we had a back up plan to divert to St. Kitts. Luckily, conditions were pretty good, and a few hours in we both agreed to push to Guadeloupe. I had spent our last day at anchor cooking and prepping for the trip, and the fridge was full of single serving pre-made meals so no cooking was required.
The green dot show where we left Puerto Rico. The yellow dot is out overnight at St. Croix, and the red was the destination of Guadeloupe.
We were treated to a beautiful sunrise as we prepared to leave St. Croix. It was clear to see that the atmosphere had a lot of energy brewing…red sky in the morning, sailor take warning!
We spent a good part of the cruise avoiding storm cells. They were clear to see during the day, but we still used radar to track the direction of movement, to better plan our route.
I really changed course when I saw this spout coming down from the cloud! Thankfully, that cell seemed to be stalled in one place, and never moved closer to us.
It was so nice to drop the anchor in Bouillante, after 33 hours underway. Also, the French islands have a very easy online check in process (the easiest we have experienced yet) so we were cleared to enter before arrival. This was a small town, but introduced us to the marvel that is the French baguette!
What do you see on the right side of this picture, about a third of the way up the hill?
It’s a cemetery. I’m not sure if this design comes from French influence, hurricane planning, or most likely a mixture of both.
This is the most people we have seen in the water at one time. The sight seemed strange, at first, because there isn’t even a beach here. Thank goodness for Google translate, because I quickly learned what the sign says, “Access Prohibited Hot Water”. Ohhh, this is the outlet for the sea water used to cool the geothermal power plant, and these people are soaking in hot salt water.
This is the power plant.
Bouillante is currently the only geothermal power plant in the Caribbean, and the first of its kind to produce electricity at an industrial scale in France (Guadeloupe-energie.gp)
And if you are interested, this is how it works…I guess there are some benefits to living with a volcano.
Guadeloupe has an active volcano called La Grande Soufrière. It's located on the island of Basse-Terre and is the highest point in the Lesser Antilles, rising to 4,813 feet (1,467 meters). La Grande Soufrière is a Pelean type volcano, meaning it exhibits dynamic volcanic activity, geothermal phenomena, and gas emissions. The last known eruption occurred in 1977. (At least that’s what Google says🙂)
We spent a few days relaxing in Bouillante, recovering from our long passage, and when it was time to move on we took the advice of a friend and headed for Les Saintes (thanks Lynn😘)
On May 3, we start the engine and prepare to weigh the anchor, bound for Terre de Haut. Before we are able to step out of the pilot house a low oil pressure engine alarm goes off for the starboard engine. Keith quickly shuts the engines down. Thankfully, we hadn’t even started to lift the anchor.
In the engine room, this is what he finds. The top picture is hard to see, but we keep white oil pads under the engine so that if something starts to drip it can be spotted right away, but wait…I don’t see any white, only black. The oil pads, in the pan under the engine, are saturated with gallons of oil😳 Thankfully, the stainless steel pan, under the engine, did its job and captured all of the oil…not one drop went into the bilge👏👏👏
The bottom picture shows the cause. Keith had actually changed the oil in both engines the day before. The hose normally returns oil from a filter to the oil pan. During the process of changing the oil, Keith uses this hose to drain oil from the filter and oil pan. We believe all of the movement must have ruptured a weak spot in the hose. This was definitely strange, because immediately after the oil change Keith started the engine to check for leaks, and nothing!
Thank goodness we have a top notch mechanic onboard who comes prepared with a variety of spare parts, and plenty of extra oil👍 Since the clean up was the biggest part of this job we decided to postpone our move to the next day.
The cruise around the coast of Guadeloupe was beautiful, and Les Saintes were easy to see, only 10 miles off the southern tip.
We have been seeing much more sargassum recently, but it looks like golden throw rugs (maybe a shoutout for 1970s decor…I think our carpet was that color🤣)
Terre de Haut did not disappoint! This island was awesome! There are a lot of day trippers who come by ferry in the morning, and usually leave by late afternoon, but it never felt crowded.
This was the perfect island to explore by bicycle. We took our e-bikes ashore, and spent the entire day enjoying this wonderful place.
Fort Napoleon sits high atop a mountain (it might be a hill, but it felt like a mountain!). Even with electric assist motors, on our bikes, it was a butt kicking pedal to get there!
The views were phenomenal.
Antillean Crested Hummingbird
This beach is on the windward side of the island, and has collected a lot of sargassum. It is no longer that beautiful gold color!
This island is made for scooters and bikes. On the main roads in town, you can only find parking for scooters and bikes. There are a few cars on the island, but they can’t park here!
Such a lovely town
There were several snorkel moorings around Cabrit island, and we tried them all.
There were some very healthy examples of coral, but generally speaking most coral showed damage and stress.
This is the land of trumpetfish! We saw, at least, 40…of all sizes!
My all-time favorite…squid! There was a squad of 40-50 squid when I first spotted them, and again, after some patient following they let me join them♥️
And this happened…this guy flashed yellow twice! I would like to believe he was saying, “Hello friend, I am so happy you are swimming with us today”. In reality, he was probably saying, “Why are you stalking me you weirdo…you’re making me really angry!”
Great post. Love all the details.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad you enjoyed the post
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