We arrived in Little Bay, Montserrat at 1320 on Thursday, May 21st. In 1493 Christopher Columbus named the island Montserrat because of it’s similarity to the terrain around a monastery of that name near Barcelone, Spain. After we got anchored, John & I rowed our dinghy (good exercise) over to the boat that was traveling with us so we could use their 4hp motor on our dinghy so we didn’t have to winch our heavy 18hp engine (almost 100 lbs) down off our sailboat so that John & the other sailboat captain could go in and clear customs. We got a three day window from customs to do our touring and leave the island. Again customs was cheap – only $14 US. We called over the VHF for Joe Phillips (radio name Avalon) and booked a tour for the island the next day. He was in our guide book and we were told by other boaters he was very knowledgeable and one of the best. He was suppose to have before and after pictures of the Soufriere Hill Volcano that was a modern day Pompie and errupted in 1995 and buried the capital at that time of Plymouth which is on the south side of the island. Today this is suppose to be the only live volcano in the Caribbean, at least that is what all the literature says. There were three couples, all boaters, who went on the tour. We stopped first at the Montserrat Culture Centre that was opened May 12, 2007 which is a beautiful facility and houses a conference center, recording studio, business office, a bar with a fully equipped kitchen and an auditorium that can seat 500 people theatre style. The auditorium is equipped with state of the art lighting and surround sound equipment. The people are building a new capital in Little Bay which is on the north side of the island. All along our trip our guide, Joe, would stop and pick different fruits from the trees and give us all samples. One such tree was a cashew tree – the fruit around the nut you could eat and it tasted of strawberries. The outside nut you twisted off and rotate it and then opened the shell and the nut is ready to eat. On our tour we visited the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, near the exclusion area, which is a seismograph station that continuously monitors the volcano and keeps watch for any activity. The Soufriere Hills Volcano was impressive what we could see of it and the clouds obscured the top part of it. We were then taken to one of the lava flow areas that went all the way down the volcano and continued to the ocean. You could see houses buried in ash and we walked on a one time bridge covered over with ash. There were hugh bolders everywhere and lots of lava rock. If you ever get a chance to go and see it for yourself it is really worth the trip.
We left Montserrat Saturday, May 23 and headed for Deshaies, Guadeloupe (pronounced Day-Ay), near the north end of Guadeloupes west coast. The seas obeyed for once and we were off the wind a little so we put up both the jib and main sail and we were sailing along pretty good until we made our turn for Guadeloupe whereas we had to take the jib down because we were going directly into the wind and sailboats won’t sail. It’s been that way most of our trip and I think we’ve become a motorboat; (don’t let John the captain hear me say that). After arriving in Deshaies we walked around the town and tried to clear into customs but no one was there. Another boater said we could clear in at The Saintes when we got there. Deshaies is a quaint little picturesque fishing village. As we walked around town we saw a gas station that was open so we deceided to go back to boat and get our jerry jugs for diesel. We took the dinghy back to the beach and beached it and Carol stayed with the dinghy while John went one street over to fill the diesel jerry jugs. Well he was back in five minutes with a disgusted frown on his face and said the gas station was now closed and we couldn’t get any fuel but John said that was OK because we had enough for awhile.
We pulled anchor the next morning and headed for Pigeon, Guadeloupe. The ocean was like glass when we left and we put both sails up, the jib and the main. We were going pretty good and about an hour later the winds got flukly and we took the jib down. Pigeon Island was only a hour and a half sail and after we got anchored we donned our snorkle gear and headed over to the Jock Cousteau Underwater Park by dinghy. We went snorkeling and we saw lots of brightly colored fish, sea creatures and coral. I wasn’t to impressed because we have gotten spoiled by the Bahamian waters.
We didn’t do any site tours in Guadeloupe and thought we would take that all in on the way back. It was time to get moving south and safety.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
We finally left St Martin/Sint Maarten and arrived in St. Kitts, May 16, 2009. We spent the first two nights hanging on the hook at an anchorage called White House Bay. One morning John was looking through the binoculars at what he thought were dogs and they turned out to be wild monkeys on shore. - WOW!!!
We heard from another boater that the marina in St. Kitts, Port Zante, was charging .50 per foot for overnight dockage and decided that we could afford that so we went into our first marina since we had left Florida a year ago. Port Zante is gearing up for the cruise ship trade and right outside they have new little shops just like the ones we saw in St. Thomas and Sint Maarten. As we came into the marina we were met at the dock by the customs officer decked out splendily in his uniform, etc., etc. He told us where he would be when we got the boat tied up to clear into customs and immigration. The marina itself didn’t have much to offer. They had WiFi, electricity, water and a fuel dock that had no fuel. When we came in no one was on the dock to help us except the boater ahead of us on the wall where we were suppose to tie off. After tying off we went to the guard shack to find out where we signed in, etc. We had no papers to fill out and he just said how long are we staying. He said to check back with them when we got ready to leave. I don’t know how they can opperate like that but oh well it was their marina not mine. When we went to the Customs and Immigration office it was in a brand new building that had beautiful murals painted on the walls. So much talent in whoever painted them. It must be an island thing because we see them almost everywhere we go. Customs and Immigration was really cheap here – Customs $12 US and Immigration $3 US. Their currency here is Eastern Carribean or (EC) dollar as it is called and has a fixed bank rate of 2.67 to one US dollar.
St. Kitts was the first British colony in the West Indies and also one of the first French colonies. In 1626 they joined forces to massacre the Carib Indians at what is known as Bloody Point. Despite a brief interlude and another to fight the Spanish they fought each other for another 200 years and the Colonial “ownership” didn’t get fully settled until the Treaty of Versailles, which awarded St. Kitts and Nevis to the British.
Basseterre the capital hosts a green clock tower in the center of town and is known locally as the Circus (people like to say that it was named after Piccadilly Circus in London). When we walked around town John spotted a Kentucky Fried Chicken and made a bee-line for it. He can’t go by one unless he stops. After lunch we found the place where the buses were all parked and hopped on one that took us to the bottom where the road to Brimstone Hill Fortress started. This road winds around the mountains and is a two mile hike up and thank goodness we had a nice breeze most places. The Fort is suppose to be one of the largest in the Carribean. When we got to the shack to buy our tickets to get in, you could rent a recorder ($5 US) that wherever you were, you pushed a button and it would tell you the history of that place. At the top they had a little resturant where you could purchase food and drink. After touring the fort we walked two miles back down the mountain and so many cars went past us but nobody stopped to give us a lift. Oh well it sure was easier going down than up and think of all the calories we were burning. At the bottom we caught a bus back to town and checked out the ferry price and schedule to Nevis the sister island tomorrow. Not far from the ferry dock we spotted a hugh indoor fruit and vegetable market and the largest we have seen so far. So many choices and it was hard to decide what to buy. Most of the fruits and vegetables were from Dominica which we will visit in the near future.
The next morning early we caught the ferry to Nevis which the round trip cost us $40 US and took about 30 minutes. It sure is not the $1 ferries we used in Puerto Rico but what the heck it’s only money. When we got there we had lunch of some sort of fish patty which wasn’t too bad but just a little greasy. Knowledge we picked up from the other islands and the Cruising Guide Books, we hopped one of their cheap buses and went as far as we could go one way and came back to town and hopped another bus for the other direction. It is a cheap way to see the island. Next time we will take a tour if we can find some other boaters to share the cost. The whole island had beautiful flowers and lots of beautiful homes. We took the 1330 ferry back to St. Kitts and proceded to the Customs Office to check out to leave the following morning. After checking out at customs we went to the guard shack to see where we check out of the marina and he just asked us the length of the boat and how much to give him. Naturally John didn’t have the correct change and they didn’t have any, so John proceded back to the bank again.
We left the marina at first light the next morning (actually it was still dark out) and were helped again by the boater ahead of us with our dock lines. We were headed for Montserrat but made a detour to Pinney Beach, Nevis, becaise the boat we have been traveling with once again had engine problems. We picked up a buoy in the anchorage because you couldn’t anchor there and the best part was they were free. It made for a safe night sleep not having to worry if you were going to drag or not.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
The 30 knot winds still have not let up and the 7′+ seas are still to high to leave St Martin so we are just biding our time waiting for a weather window.
Life is good at least it would be if we had “others” to do our “boat work”. Our days are being filled with boat jobs; Carol “Digger” resewing the bimini-1 ? days, laundry-6 hr job and sometimes longer, writing articles and taking pictures for web site, cleaning the stainless on the outside of boat, putting teak oil on teak decks; John “Brain Surgeon” working on wind indicator and giving up and buying a new one, working on 4hp & 15hp engine and finally buying a new 18hp Tohatsu which planes in 15 seconds, making water - 60 gallons 2 ? hours; both of us working on cleaning grass and barnicles off the sides and bottom of boat and the list goes on and on. See we are not just siting and reading – sometime we do work. “Brain Surgeon” thinks all he does is work to keep the boat and other toys running.
Carnival 40 years came to Sint Maarten and we hopped a bus to Philipsburg to watch it. They had 20 kw generators on 40′ flat bed trailers and hugh speakers on the front and back with a band in the center and the sound was deafening and made your heart thump. The bands and participants came from the surrounding villages and various Carribean countries. They were all dressed up in beautiful colorful costumes and some of the females had on high heels and hard to imagine how they could walk five plus miles in the 3 ? hours parade.
We bought a long range WiFi antenea from one of the boater computer gurus we had met in Luperon. He was augmenting his finances building these anteneas and now we can get WiFi on the boat and have been able to Skype (telephone over the internet and costs .0112 per minute. You can talk anywhere in the world for this amount and it’s free if you Skype between another computer that has Skype.
The really neat thing, we are meeting lots of boaters from all over the world and quite a few from Canada and England. The comradarie is great.
Friday May 15th we pulled anchor to move the boat from the lagoon through the bridge and anchor in Marigot Bay to stage for our weather window coming up on Saturday. What do they say about “Never Leave On A Friday”; but we weren’t leaving only moving the boat. We were moving toward the bridge in the channel to await the opening of the bridge and went hard aground. Now mind you, this was the 1430 bridge opening and we had to make this one or wait for the 1730 bridge opening which was the last for the day. We tried everything we could think of and could not get ourselves off. Finally our saviour, a 50′ cat came by and gave us a tow off and just in time for the bridge opening. Our captain swears he was in the channel but it just got a little skinny - 4′6” and we neet at least 6′. Our boat specs say we only draw 5 ? ‘ but that was before we loaded all our toys aboard.
Our captains take on St Martin/Sint Maarten – French side expensive and the Dutch side reasonable.
We finally hawled anchor after 44 days in St Martin/Sint Maarten and left for St. Kitts.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
Sweet Caroline arrived at the Island of Montserrat on Thursday May 21st.
The crew is excited about exploring the island.
Sweet Caroline arrived in St Kitts on Saturday. Today marks one year since they left their home port in Florida. They waited several weeks for the weather to improve so they could make their way south. Hurricane Season is fast approaching and the further south the better.