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Sailing Log for the Caribbean Leeward Islands

Dinghy dock on the Deshaies waterfront in Guadeloupe
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We arrived in the Leeward Islands on 12/21/06 after crossing the Anegada Passage from Virgin Gorda to St. Maarten in the company of Mark and Adrianna of Little Hawk, a Bristol Channel Cutter and the smallest boat from our Caribbean 1500 fleet.  We ended up spending a month in the BVIs before moving on to explore some of the Leeward Islands, including St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Nevis, Guadeloupe, The Saintes and Dominica.  We visited Antigua on our way back north again--the departure point for our Atlantic crossing.

Logbook Entries

St. Maarten, 12/21/06 - 1/04/07

We cleared customs and caught up on rest after the tiring, 80+ mile overnight passage from Virgin Gorda. Not long after getting settled in, we noticed Destiny arriving in the harbor, and they were soon at anchor next to us and Little Hawk.  We enjoyed happy hour and dinner ashore with them before retiring early on the Winter Solstice.

Although beautiful with a long, white sandy beach and duty-free shopping district, we found the anchorage in Philipsburg to be rolly and uncomfortable from all of the water taxis ferrying passengers from the cruise ships (3-4 a day!) to the beach and the waterfront shopping district.  All three boats moved to the more protected waters of Simpson Bay Lagoon today.  We got a later start than the other two, and they cheered from the deck of the yacht club bar as we made our way through the last bridge opening of the day along with a half dozen megayachts.

With failing light and strong winds, we had a hard time getting our anchor to set in the muck and seagrass of the crowded anchorage.  We radioed the Simpson Bay Marina and tied up to their fuel dock for the night until moving to a slip the next day.  It was our first time using a Med mooring to tie-up at the dock, but thankfully, the marina provided a dockhand in an inflatable to help.  Med mooring involves dropping your anchor and then backing into the slip where you tie your stern to the dock.  No problem in light winds with an electric windlass for the anchor and a boat that backs well, but these are not features associated with our 21-year old, heavy displacement vessel.  David manned the anchor while Lisa was at the helm, and although it was a bit of a nail biter with a strong wind blowing, we managed to get tied up without any mishaps.

We ended up on the same dock with several other boats from the Caribbean 1500: Destiny, Song, Little Hawk and Hi Yo Silver (a Pacific Seacraft 40 and the overall winner of the rally).  We enjoyed the Christmas and New Year's holidays sharing happy hours and meals with them.  We also enjoyed having a French bakery which was just a short walk away.  In Lisa's opinion, they made the best croissants she had ever tasted.

Although we stayed on the Dutch side of the island, we made several excursions to the French side.  Our first was by dinghy to Marigot with Don and Donna of Destiny and Mark and Adrianna of Little Hawk.  We wandered along the narrow streets of the quaint town and treated ourselves to lunch at a French cafe on the bay waterfront.  Later in our visit, we rented a car for two days and drove all around the island.  We marvelled at the beauty and hustle-and-bustle of this rapidly developing island.

We also stocked up on provisions at the fancy Grand Marche supermarket.  The day before Christmas, Lisa found herself in a short check-out line behind another woman who was busily talking on a cell phone.  She waved Lisa out of the line saying, "You might want to find another line because I am provisioning a yacht."  Noticing that it was the shortest line in the store during the busy pre-holiday season, Lisa replied, "No problem, I am provisioning a yacht, too."  To this, the busy woman scowled, took another break from her cell phone to snap back, "That's fine but you're going to be waiting for three hours because I am in the middle of a $30,000.00 provisioning."  Lisa looked again at the woman's almost empty cart and noticed a dozen perfect baby-sized pineapples, six packages of extra-thin, organic string beans, a huge box of fancy chocolates, bundles of fresh herbs, and packages of perfect, imported berries.  She suddenly realized that this woman was provisioning not just a yacht, but a megayacht for the holidays, a fact reinforced by the small army of workers bringing specialty items to her in the check-out line while she barked orders on the cell phone.  The length of the line and the volume of groceries in the shopping cart were deceiving as to the scale of the mega-provisioning that was underway.  Lisa smiled and quietly took up a place at the end of the long line next to her.  Perhaps instead of an express lane, this store should designate a megayacht lane.

Just after the New Year holiday, we began to look for a weather window to sail southeast toward St. Kitts and Nevis.  The 'Christmas winds' had been blowing strong for days, but looked like they were going to abate somewhat on the 4th of January.  On the 3rd, we moved from the marina to an anchorage just outside the lagoon so that we could make an early departure.  In the last minute scramble to get everything done and make the last bridge opening of the day, David dropped his favorite (prescription) sunglasses in the water next to our slip (only he can tell the full story about how this happened).  In most locations, we would have had no other options, but Lisa had seen some amazing things since arriving in Simpson Bay (see provisioning story above).  She found the dockmaster, told her the situation, and within minutes a diver was on the way.  It took him less than 15 seconds to retrieve the glasses.   Already late to depart the dock for the bridge opening, the dockmaster then rounded up several dock hands and an inflatable to help us retrieve our anchor and leave the slip.  We made the bridge opening with minutes to spare.  We liked St. Maarten, but were happy to be underway again and to leave the land of megayachts.

St. Kitts and Nevis, 01/04/07 - 1/11/07

Sailing southeast 60 miles in 15-20 knots of ENE wind and three foot seas with beautiful views of volcanic peaks on St. Barths, Saba, Statia and the west side of St. Kitts inspired David's comment which was repeated several times during the day, "It doesn't get much better than this."  The wind was on the port beam, and with frequent gusts just over 20 knots, we sailed with a reef in the main and yankee.  Gyatso, we've learned, likes to be reefed early.  With the strong winds we have experienced down here, we find it easier to keep a reef in the main and then furl the head sails in and out according to the conditions.

On January 4th, we got a later start than expected.  The alarm went off at o-dark-thirty as planned, but having been at a dock for 10 days with no alarms, neither one of us knew what the strange sound was.  Lisa finally mumbled, "Turn that noisy thing off!"  We slept until about 7:30 a.m., and despite the late hour, decided to depart anyway.  After a quick bite to eat, hoisting Rinky (our dinghy), and stowing gear, we got underway at 8:45 a.m.  It took another half an hour to assess the wind conditions outside the anchorage and to get organized for sailing.  We charged along under reefed main and staysail, and then as the wind settled down a bit, we added the yankee.  Luckily, we made good time, arriving at the entrance of the boat harbor in Basseterre, St. Kitts just after sunset but with plenty of light to make a safe entrance to Port Zante Marina.

To our surprise, we bumped into Mark and Adrianna from Little Hawk the next morning.  They had sailed through the night from Philipsburg to meet up with family arriving on St. Kitts that afternoon.  We spent most of the morning clearing customs which took visits to no less than four offices, and then departed for the short passage to Nevis.  With the wind on our nose, we motored the whole way, but used this as an opportunity to stay close to shore and explore the coastline of these beautiful islands.

To our regret, Lisa did not discover the brand-new shower facility at the marina in St. Kitts until we were getting ready to depart.  She took a quick tour to inspect the facility for future reference and declared that it looked like one of the finest marina bath houses she had seen in her travels.  Much more like a four-star hotel bathroom that a marina facilty, it alone was worth another stop in St. Kitts.  She tried to console herself by claiming, "They probably don't have hot water like I do on the boat!"  She learned from other cruisers later that they do in fact have hot water and the shower facility is a good as it looked.

We anchored off Pinney Beach, just north of Charleston, from 5-10 January.  Over the period of our stay, maybe two dozen or so sailboats came and went.  Two megayachts loomed in the outer fringes of the anchorage, one with a helicopter and five tenders in its fleet.  Unlike St. Kitts with its cruise ship dock and busy downtown area, Nevis is small and low-key.  Occasionally small cruise ships visit the island, but they anchor out.

A big fan of Alexander Hamilton, David enjoyed visiting his birthplace and the small museum at the edge of town.  We treated ourselves to lunch at the Golden Rock Plantation's beach bar.  We both had delicious grilled fish with rice and peas (beans) and assorted local vegetables.  We rented a car one day and drove around the island which was pleasant with very little traffic.  David was impressed with the 18th and 19th Century stonework we found at the old plantations.  Today, agriculture appears to be on its way out as an industry.  We saw lots of abandoned sugar cane fields, some have been replanted with fruit trees and other crops.

Another day, we took the dinghy three miles to Oualie Beach where we planned to rent bikes for half a day, but decided to have lunch at the beach club restaurant instead.  The drink special was a tamarind rum punch, and Lisa liked it so much, she asked for the recipe.

The volcanic peaks were almost constantly blanketed with clouds.  At night, the chorus of frogs in the rain forest was especially loud after the numerous passing rain showers which keep us busy opening and closing ports.  The moonrise over the mountain on the first few evenings was magical as it tucked in and out of the clouds.

We were impressed by how friendly the people of Nevis were.  They have a strong sense of community and are very proud of their island.  The guidebook says that this is a country with a British tradition, but we met more people with ties to the U.S., and NYC in particular, than with the British Isles.

By the end of our stay, a northerly swell and lack of wind made the anchorage a bit rolly.  We were ready to move on to a more protected anchorage.

Guadeloupe, French West Indies, 01/11/07 - 02/05/07

Although we have kept a fairly loose itinerary while in the Caribbean, this longer-than-planned stay in one country prompted David to ask, "How was it that we spent 26 days in Guadeloupe?"  To this, Lisa replied, "According to the logbook, I can account for one week in Deshaies, two weeks in Point-a-Pitre and five days in Les Saintes on our way to Dominica."  David then clarified his question, "I understand where we were, but how did the time go by so fast?"  Lisa knew at that moment that we were really starting to settle in to island time.  Having just read an article in Cruising World about how one of the columnists spends his day while cruising, she thought it would be an interesting play on this idea to sum up how we spent 26 days of time in a French speaking country.  Her list never made it past the 'brainstorming" phase, but it included things like:

• visiting the boulangerie (bakery) in the morning for fresh croissants and baguettes
• sampling the local French and Creole cuisine
• touring the local rum distilleries
• buying daily fresh provisions from the well-stocked grocery stores and produce markets
• taking dock walks and enjoying Ti' (petite) punch for sundowners
• meeting and socializing with other cruisers from Europe and North America, including the US, Canada, UK, France, Switzerland and Austria.
• ordering and installing sun awnings on the boat
• dabbling with small brightwork projects
• replacing the starter switch on the engine
• receiving and processing a month's worth of our U.S. mail
• closing a deal to sell our previous boat, About Time, including a visit to a French notary to sign over the title
• struggling with email, phone and internet connections (the best connection turned out to be at  a bar called "Pirates of the Caribbean")
• having sun awnings made to shade the boat while at dock or anchor

Thursday, 01/11/07--We arrived in Guadeloupe today where we spent a week in Deshaies (pronounced de-hay), a picturesque little town on the northwest side of the island (see photo above).  Our passage from Nevis was quite exciting.  Once again, we did not get as early a start as we had planned even though we awoke at 5:15 a.m.  We waited a bit for some pre-dawn light so that we could avoid unmarked buoys and fish floats near the shore of Nevis.  We raised sails right away, but had to motor sail briefly until we cleared the lee of the island.  The winds built quickly to 15-20 knots, and we finally put a reef in the main when they reached a steady 18-20 with higher gusts after passing Montserrat.  

The excitement in our passage came after we decided to pass to leeward of this island with its active volcano.  Unbeknownst to us, the threat level had just been elevated from three to four on a scale of five due to a recent increase in activity.  After-the-fact, we looked up the Montserrat Observatory website (something we should have done before the passage but couldn't get a reliable internet connection), and they gave the following warning for the period of 5-12 January:

"Dome growth has continued during the period, focused on the north-western quadrant, of the dome...The most significant event occurred early on 8 January, with audible explosive activity, followed by the largest pyroclastic flow to date in Belham Valley...three pulses of explosive activity were audible as far north as Woodlands. The rising ash cloud was visible from all over Montserrat...Pyroclastic flows were observed...At 06:25 the ash cloud was reported to have reached 30,000 ft. Pyroclastic activity in Tyres Ghaut continued at high levels over the following 1.5 hours establishing an almost regular 5-7 minute cycle."

Photo of Montserrat volcano on 8 January 2007, three days before we passed to leeward of the island (Photo from the Montserrat Observatory website).

Luckily for us, after these events on the 8th, things settled down a bit by the time we made our passage on the 11th, but as we learned first-hand, there was elevated volcanic activity during this period:

"Subsequently pyroclastic activity has been very limited with just a few flows observed in Tyres Ghaut and even fewer in Gages Valley. Low-level gas and ash venting from a vent on the western side continued and was at times audible as a low roaring or rumbling sound. After dark incandescent rockfalls have been clearly visible on a sector of the dome...confirming active dome growth remains focused to the north west."

After reading these reports, we had a much better understanding about why ash was falling on our decks while anchored in Nevis and why we had been so foolish to pass to leeward of the volcano on the 11th of January.  Here's what we recorded in our ship's log:

"While deciding whether to pass to the east or west of Montserrat, we noticed two other boats in the distance passing on the west (leeward) side of the island.  Since we did not have any recent information from the volcano observatory on the island and the wind direction was more favorable for passing on the west, we decided to take the chance and pass downwind but to stay more than 3 NM offshore.  We were closely watching various flows on the flanks of the volcano releasing steam and an ominous cloud hanging over the peak when suddenly we noticed the volcano 'hiccup'.  We saw a puff of what looked like cumulous clouds rising rapidly from the peak with an orange-brown coloring in the middle of the clouds.  This was followed by an ash plume rising, part of which blew directly in our path as we sailed by.  We turned on the engine to simultaneously fight the northwesterly current and lack of wind.  As we felt ash particles falling on the boat and in our eyes, we did not want to linger in the area downwind of an active volcano.  We breathed a sigh of relief as we cleared the southwestern tip of the island and pointed toward Guadeloupe."

We tried but couldn't make it to Deshaies before sunset but were able to make our way into the anchorage just after dusk.  We liked the anchorage and the town so much, we stayed for a week.  Near us in the harbor was another Tayana 37, the first we had seen since arriving in the Caribbean.  We met Canadians Lois and Derrick of Aldebaron in town the day after we arrived.  We also met Mike and Margo of Red Admiral, one of the only other American boats we had seen in weeks.

Tuesday, 01/16/07--The wind was fluky today as we made our way down the west coast of Guadeloupe, and at times, it puffed lightly from a westerly direction.  However, when we tried to round the southwestern tip of Basseterre, the wind was blowing a steady 20-25 knots from the ENE -- exactly the direction we wanted to sail.  We decided to anchor for the night off the Marina Riviere des Sans.  We spent the afternoon watching a charter boat get rescued by a catamaran and swimmers training in the smooth waters off a small stretch of black sand beach.  We took the dinghy in to the marina which was filled with small local boats, but did not find anyone around.  Early the next morning we motor sailed to Pointe-a-Pitre, and thanks to the skill of the Marina Bas du Forte tenders, tied up with a med mooring to the visitor's dock at the huge marina complex along with many fancy French racing boats.

Tuesday, 01/30/07--The marina in Pointe-a-Pitre was conveniently located in a small community of businesses geared toward the yachting industry, including a diverse selection of nice restaurants, a good little grocery store, an excellent fruit and vegetable stand and several ship chandleries.  We spent our time doing many of the things listed above.  We met several other cruisers, mostly Europeans, during our stay, but at times we felt a bit isolated because of the language barrier (neither of us speaks French).  We managed just fine and really enjoyed being in France.  It was quite a treat to step onto the dock in the morning, take a short walk, and return to the boat with fresh baguettes, croissants or pain chocolate for breakfast.  Using our new French for Cruisers really helped us navigate in restaurants and with marine businesses.  Lisa worked with the local canvas shop to design a sun awning system that works great, but she was nervous when placing the order which was entirely in French.  She also took a walk-in appointment to get her haircut and ended up with one of the best haircuts she had ever had.  David ordered food and asked for the bill like an old pro.  We rented a car for a day, and he found the way to several rum distilleries without any problems!  Unlike some of the other independent islands of the Caribbean, the French islands have a visible police and security presence, creating a greater sense of security for visiting yachts.

Wednesday, 01/31/07--We departed around noon and sailed south to Bourg des Saintes and found ourselves in good company in the anchorage with two other boats from Annapolis that were also in the Caribbean 1500 rally: Braveheart and Catharpin Blue.  They were there to join others from the SOS sailing club.  We just enjoyed being at anchor again after two weeks at the dock.  The following day, we launched the dinghy and went ashore to climb the steep path to Fort Napolean with its magnificent views towards Guadeloupe, Marigot Bay and The Saintes themselves.  We returned to town for a Ti' punch (a small glass of rum with a piece of fruit in it) and lunch at a nice little French restaurant perched above the water.

Friday, 02/02/07--The weather conspired against us which was a good thing because we ended up spending two additional and very memorable days at anchor at Pain de Sucre in the Saintes, just a mile past Bourg des Saintes, followed by a perfect passage to Dominica.  Perhaps we were out of practice after spending two weeks at the fancy marina in Pointe-a-Pitre or there was some truth to the guidebooks cautionary words about anchoring in the Saintes.  Either way, we struggled to set our anchor the other day, and then once set, we struggled again to retrieve it today.  By the time it was on deck and another set of squalls was upon us, we decided to make our way to a small, protected anchorage just around the point.  We did poke our nose out into the passage to Dominica but found the wind gusty and the waves steep.  Lisa wondered aloud whether we needed to push on through such miserable conditions and then declared, "We might as well wait for a day or two for the weather to change because there is no reason to have anything but enjoyable day sails while we are here in the Caribbean!"

Dominica, 02/05/07 - 02/10/07

Friday, 02/09/07--We spent four days in Portsmouth exploring the northern half of Dominica, including a guided trip up the Indian River in a rowing skiff, an awesome snorkel trip in Douglas Bay, an island tour by taxi with a guide who explained all about the flora and fauna of the island and a visit to a local rum distillery.  From our guide, we learned a lot about locally cultivated products such as cocoa, bay leaf, bananas and nutmeg.  We ate out one night at the Purple Turtle restaurant, but did not venture ashore after dinner for the nightlife at Big Papa's, although the loud music kept us awake several times during our stay.  This morning, we topped up the water tank with a hose attached to a mooring in the anchorage and set sail for Roseau, the larger, capital city further south.  Three hours of ESE wind at 18 knots on the port beam -- another great day sail in the Caribbean!

Saturday, 02/10/07--"Roots" came out to greet us as we approached Roseau and helped us pick-up a mooring near the Anchorage Hotel -- too steep of a drop-off on the shoreline for safe anchoring here.  Among cruisers, there are two well-known local water taxi/guides that rent moorings here.  Both had been recommended to us by friends, so we decided to go with the first one who came along.  We stuck with our plan, even though the first guide to greet us was not one of the two we had in mind.  We explained as politely and firmly as possible who we were looking for and moved on.

In keeping with its reputation, the anchorage in Roseau was rolly from the easterly swell that wraps around the southern end of Dominica.  We had another sleepless night and awoke annoyed by the motion of the boat which was sideways to the swell.  We dropped the mooring line at 7:45 a.m. and after 12 hours of sailing, motor-sailing, and finally motoring into the anchorage, we arrived at Fort de France in Martinique, bypassing St. Pierre along the way because we did not want to spend another night in an exposed anchorage.  We put one reef in the main sail as we rounded Scott's Head on Dominica, and other than one big rain squall that passed in front of us, we sailed comfortably in 15-18 knots of wind which eventually dropped to 4 knots later in the day.  We passed six yachts sailing north and saw three others headed south, but no whales or dolphins yet.  Since it was the weekend, we hoisted the Q-flag and decided to "hang on the hook" for a few days in French Martinique.  Besides the frequent ferry wakes, we really liked this anchorage.  We were also excited to cross into the group of islands known as the Windwards.

© Copyright 2006-2010 s/v Gyatso.  This page was last updated on 04/27/10.
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