From Ste-Anne, we spend an evening in Grande Anse d'Arlet before setting sail for the North of the island, St-Pierre ...at the feet of Mount Pelee. St-Pierre, a town with a lingering malaise and fascination with its vulcanoe which erupted in 1902, literally pulverizing its 30,000 inhabitants as well as all ships lying in its anchorage...its numerous ruins still evoke the catastrophy that destroyed this town. A peaceful landscape which hides the danger of Pelee's potential for antoher eruption...

Apres une courte escale a Grande Anse d'Arlet, nous mettions le cap sur St-Pierre, au nord de l'ile. St-Pierre et sa montagne Pelee...evoque encore et toujours la catastrophe de l'eruption volcanique de 1902 qui fit perir par axphysie ou carbonisation pres de 30,000 personnes ainsi que tous les bateaux qui mouillaient dans son port. Le merveilleux paysage est trompeur..car Pelee pourrait bien faire eruption ...encore une fois.

Uwe enjoys his cigarette basking in the warm sunset of St-Pierre anchorage...

From Ste-Anne, view of the Diamond Rock basking in the orange glow of the sunset!

Un superbe coucher de soleil avec vue du rocher du Diamant!

Our friend Uwe has come for a second visit on board La Buena Vida…we decided to give him a grand tour of Martinique, beginning of course with a srious shopping trip to local grocery stores such as Leaderprice, Champion, Ecomax to be sure not to be short on drinks and food when we get to our first apero…in Ste-Anne! From there we went to the beach, like the locals! We loved the Salines beaches, with its long beaches and turquoise waters!
Notre ami Uwe revient pour sa deuxième visite sur le voilier et ce, pour un grand tour de la Martinique! Nous commençons par faire du shopping ds les supermarchés locaux, pour être certains d’avoir des victuailles pour tous les aperos!!! Dimanche, nous faisons une grande promenade aux plages des Salines du mouillage de SteAnne…divin!

Welcome back, Canuck!!!! Herzlichen Glueckwuenschen! Fecilitations! Our friends Ruth and Peter of s/v Aquataurus gave Heiner a nice nautical welcome when we arrived in the anchorage of LeMarin, Martinique...followed by a nice Sparling wine drink, of course!

Nos amis Ruth and Peter de Aquataurus ont celebre l'arrivee du nouveau canadien par le convoi et par un belle soiree avec un mousseux, naturellement!

The trip up north was successful...it was still winter out there, with its still and icy beauty but no sailing weather... Les hotes de Heiner, nos amis Karen et Lindsay, habitent pres du lac qui a permis au capitaine de renouer avec la nature sereine et bleue de l'hiver qui enveloppe encore le lac Ontario!

Karen and Lindsay not only were wonderful hosts to Heiner, but they truly celebrated his new identity! En plus de leur accueil chaleureux , Karen et Lindsay ont celebre la nouvelle identite de Heiner!

La Buena Vida securely anchored in the muddy lagoon of Rodney Bay, the captain has left...yes, very pretty here but I still have to eat by myself...

Voila, il est parti. La Buena Vida est solidement ancree dans la boue du lagon de Rodney Bay, St-Lucia...joli, beaucoup d'oiseaux, mais il me faut quand meme manger toute seule...

Our preferred activity: looking for luggage, unearthing winter clothes - wow, how can one wear that thick jean cloth????? - and getting ready to fly!

Voila le grand desordre: il nous faut tout ouvrir pour aller chercher la valise, et les jeans et pullovers...on regarde ca avec etonnement car juste l'idee de "mettre" des vetements aussi epais donne chaud!!!

St-Lucia: always fascinating to catch a first glimpse of the next island. As we always arrive early morning, it is quite frequent to see lots of clouds and rain, perhaps a little squall...caribbean mornings are like that!

Whoever thinks we have no schedule...we do! We have the captain flying from StLucia to Toronto soo and so, we must sail from Domenica to StLucia in one straight shot...by passing Martinique...The conditions were variable , as always...While I was listening to Meteo France forecasting 10 to 15 knots for Martinique, we were making 6.5 knots with 3 reefs in the main and a storm jib........but then it was the passage between Domenica and Martinique. And yes, there was still a healthy swell (8-10 feet) with chop on top...whatever, one gets almost used to it or at least expects it. Smile.............(more difficult for Marleyne)

Comme dans la vraie vie, nous avons un horaire: mon capitaine se doit de prendre un vol de StLucia vers Toronto...et nous devons donc faire un autre 24 heures (on pensait qu'on en avait assez fait de ceux la...) entre Dominica et StLucia. Les conditions etaient tres variables, allant de 3 noeuds a 30..dependemment si on etaient entre les iles, ou pas. Quand on longe les iles, on a parfois pas de vent du tout ou les coups de vents sont plus forts..ils deboulent litteralement de la montagne. Pas facile..bon, on essaie - surtout moi Dame Patience - de prendre ca avec le sourire...

First glimpse of the Prince Rupert anchorage in Portsmouth Dominica: sailors of the world unite in this large and protected bay!

Apres le mouillage ds la baie de Prince Rupert, nous avions hate au samedi, jour de marche. Quelle atmosphere et quelle gentillesse des habitants! Nous avons tout deguste: de l'eau de la noix de coco jusqu'au chips de plantain, en passant par le fish & chips et les gentilles madames du marche! Tous les produits sont frais, il y a des mangues qui tombent du ciel, des crapauds geants qu'on appelle poulet des montagnes! Et le rhum local: Red Cap!

We were looking forward to Saturday, market day. Delightful to see the Dominicains so kind and joyous, welcoming us to their islands and selling their stuff: coconut water, fresh produce, fish & chips or plantain chips, you name it!

Coconut water! Mangoes, fish and rum...all good for the health! No wonder such a great number of Dominicans live over 100 years !
There is a sense of harmony waling through the streets of this little paradise...all natural 100%!

We left Les Saintes with a wonderful breeze, sunshine, and it was one of those ideal sails up to Dominica. Les Saintes with in the background the mountainous landscape of Basse-Terre Guadeloupe. We will be back!

Il nous fallait quitter les Iles des Saintes...et filer vers Dominica. Nous serons de retour! Ce fut une merveilleuse journee de voile avec 15 noeuds de vent, peu de vagues, et une merveilleuse vue de la Guadeloupe, enfin sous un ciel bleu!

D'un paradis a l'autre...notre premiere impression de cette ile luxuriante:Domenica, aussi decouverte par ce cher Cristophe Colomb...silhouette tres impressionnante!

Sad to leave Les Saintes but fascinated by the impressive profile of the next island, also discovered by C.Columbus: Dominica!

And it was as pretty as we had anticipated..with clear water for swimming, French as can be, creole as can be...Pictures speak more than 1000 words!

La prochaine etape du periple consistait a naviguer une region de mangove et de recifs et de passer du nord au sud de l'ile par la Riviere Salee et ses deux ponts. Il y avait des moustiques (moucherons noirs ou yien-yien en creole!) mais nous avions nos "armes" canadiennes pour nous defendre! Ce territoire est une reserve ecologique, bien balisee mais qui est dificile a naviguer cause des recifs epars et de la mauvaise visibilite (nuageux) qui nous empeche de "lire" les differentes couleurs d'eau afin de ne pas toucher le fond...

Our next step was to cross from the northern part of the island to the southern part by crossing a mangrove area, ecologically protected, with hundreds of snowy egrets flying over our heads.

The area is somewhat difficult to sail...with reefs a bit all over the place and it is difficult to read the water here (compared to the Bahamas) because the sky is very cloudy and the water murky.

There are 2 bridges on this Riviere salee...one opens at 4h30am and the next one at 5h00...this night in the mangroves was reminiscent of Canada..bugs!!! No see ems, actually. But we had our Raid can and our spirales and a Off-candle ..these cute little caribbean bugs did not dare anymore! The River had one spot of about 4feet 6 inches...oups! we have a 4'9" keel..we dragged some mud around but without major problems.

After the second bridge, it was still very dark and we decided to anchor in the river, awaiting sunset before going to the Pointe-a-Pitre anchorage. We could see its skyline (!), with a church spire adorned with green lights bulbs and a some white ones spiraling along the spire..a bit strange...but hey, some decorate their insurance buildings with lights, other their churches. Let's keep an open mind. On this picture, you see Pointe-a-Pitre by day ... with THE church.

We were aware that there had been a general strike on the island for 5 weeks now and when we say general, we mean general...no services and no fuel except for emergencies. no food delivery to stores, no animals slaughtered...general! This of course included garbage collection and so, our first incursion in town was a very negative one. Everything is closed down and it's not appealing at all...as for the marina, it was expensive and ..smelly also (sewers?). So, we decided to delay our land excursions to a latter time and we sailed away to paradise...of Iles de Saintes.

Voila le "skyline" de Pointe-a-Pitre ou nous avions pense mouiller afin de faire des excursions dans l'ile. Mais....il y avait deja une greve generale depuis 5 semaines et la ville etait "morte" et sale, avec des ordures partout...meme la marina de la place, pourtant tres chere, avait des odeurs d'egout tres fortes. Bon, alors on repassera...qu'on s'est dit et nous avons decide de mettre le cap vers le petit paradis des Iles de Saintes!

Antigua-Guadeloupe: it was a very nice sail...yes, we sailed at last! In about 7 hours, we reached the French island Guadeloupe! The visibility was not so great and it took a long time before we could see the contour of the Basse-Terre (the montainous part of the island) ...which seems to be basking in the clouds most of the time. We anchored near a small fishing village, Port Louis. We had a gorgeous sunset on the caribbean sea with Basse-Terre finally cleared of all clouds !

Nous voila arrives en Guadeloupe! La traversee de English Harbour, Antigua fut rapide et agreable. Nous avons fait notre permiere halte a Port Louis, un petit village de pecheurs..bien tranquille en ce dimanche soir. Premier coucher de soleil avec une vue de Basse-Terre, qui ne baigne plus dans les nuages...

A visit of Antigua's capital was fun, as St-John is a vibrant town, with lots of stores, multicolour caribbean style wooden houses...and plenty of activity related to elections that are upcoming (March 12)... We had a wonderful lunch overlooking one of the town streets and relaxed for a good while on the upstairs terrasse of the Hemngway's Cafe (http://www.antiguanice.com/hemingways/index.html).

After that was done, we tried to get some food shopping done (with confusing directions as to where the place was located!), but managed - eventually. We will have to go back for more since Guadeloupe is crippled be a strike and we have to stock up here. But this will be another story.

Karen & Lindsay, it was sooooo great to have you with us!!!! We miss you already!

As noted earlier, we did the climb to Falmouth Harbour (it was hot!) - and had a swim to cool off.

But in the late afternoon, we all went up again another mountain to go to Shirley Heights: A very steep climb!!!

On Sunday night , all gather at Shirley Heights for steel drum music and island's fare...cruisers and tourists, it is a a big crowd and we did not want to miss the experience - never mind, we had tired legs! And with the vibrant music, we got re-energized and enjoyed the exceptional view of the sea at sunset! The way down, we took the road, pitch dark, and it was a rather long walk back to the beach. But we made it, and can claim to have done a good deal of exercises to keep us fit!!! We certainly earned our other round of rum - did we not, Lindsay???

Next day was the offical begining for the RORC-race of 600 miles with up to 30 contenders.

The course was a complex one, zizaguing between St-Barth, St-Kitts and Nevis, Barbuda, Guadeloupe and back to Antigua....

Le 23 fevrier etait le debut de la course de 600 milles avec 30 participants et quelques classes de voilier...

One monohull sponsored by ICAP "Leopard" was the winner in its class...a very racy sailboat indeed resembling the shape of the animal!

Look at this performance!

There were different classes, with only one trimaran, Region Guadeloupe. It was the great winner, even though it started with 20 minutes delay...but with a speed of 22 knots!

Il n'y avait qu'un seul trimaran, Region Guadeloupe, une formidable machine qui fait 22 noeuds de vitesse!

La journee des randonnees...Hiking day!

First to Fort Berkeley, guarding the entrance of the English Harbour. D'abord au Fort Berkeley, situe a l'entree du English Harbour.

We continue our hike to Pigeon Beach, crossing desertic terrains, climbing rocks and meeting hords of goats...always with wonderful views of the Caribbean Sea, Falmouth Harbour and even the island of Monserrat and its volcanoe (too pale to have it on photo, however).

Puis nous avons continue notre randonnee a travers des paysages desertiques, rencontrant des chevres, escalandant des pointes de rocher mais toujours avec de merveilleux panoramas, de la mer des Caraibes, de Falmouth Harbour et meme de Monserrat...bien que la silhouette de l'ile fut trop pale pour la photographier.

Our friends arrived!!!! Karen and Lindsay!!!

Great to have them on the boat!

Soon after our friends arrived, we began exploring the Nelson Dockyard...beginning with lunch at the Admiral's Inn .., a wonderful setting for a tropical delight. Of course we drank the local brew, Wadadli Beer... and enjoing their company. What more can we wish for!!!???