Leg: St. Lucia to St. Lucia 6th to 27th Feb 2014
This blog is not written by Sue. As Malcolm and Sue’s first time second mate in the Caribbean I volunteered to write down what we experienced during this time.
I am Reinhard Struefing and I know Malcolm back from the seventies when he worked and I studied in Kiel/Germany. In the eighties we both worked in Reading and shared our past time: windsurfing and sailing. Since then we always kept in touch , in the nineties together with Sue.
Working part time now, I gladly accepted Malcolm and Sue’s invitation to accompany them in Caribbean waters.
Arriving at St. Lucia in the evening after 10 hours flight from Hamburg via Frankfurt I experienced a very warm welcome by Malcolm and Sue. Next morning at day light I could marvel at 'Piano’s' new gelcoat, what an elegant yacht!
Since we wanted to do a lot of sailing we set off immediately. Despite a lot of clouds and some rain sailing was very impressive: warm weather, just T-Shirt and shorts, Atlantic swell, deep blue water, all this I hardly had experienced during my Baltic Sea cruises. We arrived in St. Anne on Martinique a nice, not too touristy place in the south of Martinique. On the 8th the dinghy first was used to check in at immigration, by the way, this job kept the skipper busy at all anchorages. Then we used the dinghy to visit the local supermarket to buy French food, Chilean wine and German beer and pay with Euros, global world. The afternoon I enjoyed swimming in turquoise waters so warm that it almost felt like silk, a daring comparison, but in this area one has to become enthusiastic.
The 9th saw us sailing to Fort de France, the capital of Martinique which protected by a big fortress developed to a city, though remarkably quiet on a Sunday afternoon and so we went to immigration on Monday. So we started our longest leg of this trip on Monday 10th aiming for St. Martin 250 miles away. Passing the Mount Pelé, the big volcano in the north of Martinique, we encountered a lot of dolphins busy with hunting their lunch. During evening and night we sailed along Dominica and later Guadeloupe, of course in a moon lit night, just to meet the stereotypes, and still with just T-Shirt and shorts.
Passing some more islands we arrived at the French part St. Martin on Wednesday 12th and dropped anchor at Marigot Bay. Here I first saw the super sailing yachts (in the Baltic you hardly find them) with masts so high that red lights mark these as air traffic obstacles, perhaps a status symbol of the very rich. Malcolm immediately went to work to find out why the generator’s cooling was not working. He identified the exhaust elbow but could not fix it because of lack of spare parts. So the engine had to charge the batteries. For tea Mike from S/Y Right Turn came over , one of the many friends Malcolm and Sue know from their former cruises. For dinner we went by dinghy into the lagoon, very stylish to park your dinghy next to the table.
The next two days we spent snorkeling, exploring the lagoon (with many more super yachts) and sailing to Grand Case Bay, very nice for its beach and the restaurants. On the 15th we started very early for the British Virgin Islands in order to arrive there still at daylight but after some hours we realized we would not make it in time. So we turned back again. By the way, our early start was more than compensated by a sunrise and a simultaneous moon set. After passing St. Martin we headed for Ile Fourchue near St. Barths. This uninhabited island is nice for snorkeling. All these different kinds of fish are fascinating, especially for someone like me who just knows cod and sole.
During the 16th we moved on some 3 miles to Columbiere beach at St. Barth, on a Sunday very busy with local yachts. Here we could observe a turtle unimpressed by human beings. Next day it was a short trip to the main anchorage of St. Barth. Needless to say, that we passed more super yachts. The former Swedish, now French island seems to me almost like the St. Tropez of the French West Indies.
Tuesday 18th we were sailing again: On our way back Malcom and Sue wanted to show me Antiqua. We had to beat one more time, sometimes in squally conditions. We arrived around midnight and anchored at Five Island bay waiting for day light to enter Jolly Harbour, a nice tourist settlement where one can park the boat next to the terrace. After the usual check in we took a bus into St. Johns, a lively “normal” Caribbean town and capital of Antigua. However, the highlight of
Antigua is Nelson’s Dockyard, a very pleasant place, to which we sailed on Thursday 20th. Walking around the restored buildings I almost felt like a contemporary of Nelson specially after having visited the museum. Although there are lots of super yachts around this place feels not so posh because these boats were in use by many sailors.
With not many remaining days we left Antiqua during the afternoon on Friday the 21st and had a nice overnight sail along Guadeloupe to Dominica where we arrived during the morning. At Portsmouth anchorage we were welcomed by Titus, one of the boat boys. He arranged for us an excursion on Sunday 23rd, quite an adventure as it turned out. Paul, our guide, was reluctant to guide us because to his opinion one should rest on Sundays. The minibus he drove had seen better days: The bumper had to be but back in position occasionally by a kick, the engine overheated in the middle of nowhere,
but some bottles of water revitalized it. Two boys, apparently on drugs stopped our bus asking for trouble but as Paul mentioned his black belt in martial arts they backed down immediately. Apart from this Dominica has all the ingredients of stereotype Caribbean Island: abundant, often unspoiled vegetation, big mountains, quite a number of beaches, waterfalls, rain forests. Paul is a flora expert. So we learned a lot about plants but why he often related to the nanu(?) plant remains unknown for Malcolm and me: it has a good impact on the prostrate.
After a nice barbecue organized by the boat boys we said good bye to Dominica, sailed south and arrived at St. Pierre, Martinique on the 24th. This place is a bit like a modern Pompeii. In 1902 St. Pierre was destroyed by an eruption of the volcano Mount Pele. 30000 people died , only 2 survivors, one of them a death sentenced prisoner. Unlike Pompeii this little town is rebuilt but some ruins still can be visited.
On the 25th we hoisted anchor for my last leg on this trip. After a pleasant reach we entered the marina of Rodney Bay during the afternoon. Suddenly game( or sail) over for me. For sun downer, Susan and Andrew (S/Y Andromeda) came to greet us, small world as they are members of the Burghfield Sailing Club. But before and on the next day maintenance had to be done: rinsing the boat with fresh water, taking the spray hood to the sailmakers, laundry, preparing the generator for the engineer and so on. In the afternoon the new guests arrived: Paul and Gill. So we tested “Piano” for hosting 5 people which worked very well.
Going to the airport on the other side of St. Lucia we wanted to have a closer look at St. Lucia. So Sue, Gill, Paul and I (Malcolm had to stay with the engineer) took a taxi along western route to have a look at the two pitons at Soufriere. The sulfur springs and botanical gardens can be found there as well and are worth visiting.
Then it was time to say good bye: I have to express my gratitude to Malcolm and Sue for enabling my best sailing holiday. I think we got on really well but I apologize for not being an expert cook, I did not meet their standards but I will work on it in case there is a second chance. And I apologize for my English: it has got a bit rusty over the years.
No comments:
Post a Comment