Vive la France and Wild Beauty ....

It couldn’t have been more of a contrast - the last 2 weeks we experienced the ‘tropical Eurozone’ of the two French overseas Departments of Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north and wedged in between the wonderful and still wild island of Dominica.

The crew this time were Cristine and Juergen from Germany and Dani, on the ‘last leg’ of his 3 months trip on PasoDoble.

Both Martinique and Guadeloupe don’t really cater to the yachting or cruising life, but focus more on the all-inclusive tourism coming from France … and perhaps elsewhere. What strikes most is the completely different atmosphere to the other Caribbean islands. Yes – the two French dependencies are still Caribbean, but clearly on the French ‘drip’.  With unemployment of more than 30% both islands recently rejected with overwhelming majority the offer by the French government to re-address their status of being equal to any province in France. If you see the standard of living in all the other ‘independent’ Caribbean islands you know why the people voted for ‘no change’.

Apart from the fact, that there are countless bakeries offering decent bread and croissants of course, to keep up with French standards the offer of other market produce was also more varied. Hence, shopping or provisioning was good and better value. So we stocked up on brie, camembert, olive oils, mustard, Bordeaux vines and you name it ……

The capitol Fort-de-France had a feel similar to any mid-size French town, the only difference was the percentage of the black population. The next destination however, St.Pierre in the north of the island is quite different. Still very French, it felt much more like the Caribbean again. A great little town with the islands biggest rum distillery at the foothills of the volcano Mt.Pelee.

The second day of our stopover there the weather was superb. The peak of Mt. Pelee was almost visible and together with the crew from the previous leg, Ann-Christine and Christian [on land holiday] we decided to attack the summit. A rather impressive 1342m high it took us 5 hours in total and while we were on the top clouds pulled in and created a mysterious atmosphere. The temperature dropped and we had to put on raincoats while eating our baguettes.

Next on the itinerary was Dominica. This island has the fascinating attraction of being the only one of the Caribbean islands Columbus would still recognize would he return today. And it definitely lived up to the expected beauty and untamed nature.

Lush green slopes are backed by high mountaintops. They say there are 365 waterfalls on the island, one for each day. From the capitol Roseau we organized a taxi tour and visited a few of them, some spectacular gorges and also some hot springs.

Next stop was Prince Rupert Bay at the northern end of the island, another place made famous by the Pirates of the Caribbean - good on you, Johnny D. They surely picked the best places for their back drops, the Indian River being one of them. We also wanted to explore the Carib territory on the rough eastern Atlantic coast, apparently the only place left in the whole Caribbean where you can still find the indigenous Carib Indians. We didn’t quite get there, but the trip on the local buses around the northern tip of Dominica to Pagua Bay was still worth it.

We left Dominica feeling it very much lived up to its reputation of being the wild frontier of the Caribbean. Next was a passage to the Iles des Saintes, a group of islands to the south of Guadeloupe. After a good sail in moderate winds and more opportune wind angle we were back in French territory. We celebrated Cristina’s birthday in style with croissants and pain de chocolate delivered to the boat in the morning. Never mind the rum punches ....

After beating into the wind for 5 hours we arrived inPointe a Pitre, the capitol of Guadeloupe. On first sight is a rough and ready place, but it also has character. Strolling through the streets you could find some interesting houses and people were gearing up for the annual carnival. Unfortunately we will miss out on these noisy and colourful celebrations.

Time had also come for Dani to say good bye. He has been a very valuable crew member since he joined us in Barcelona for the big trip across ‘the ditch’. He contributed so much to PasoDoble’s boat life and it’s hard to imagine he won’t be there any more … but he promised to be back.

The heart of the Windward Islands ……

The Caribbean islands sweep north in a huge arc from Venezuela to Florida. The south eastern part includes the islands between Grenada and Martinique and is called the Windward Islands by the British, because as we found out ourselves they had to beat to windward to get there from any of their other colonies. We have now entered SVG or St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which essentially form the small Antilles. The local tongue is called Patois and is a mixture of English and French, due to the fact that the islands were occupied by both the French and English during various times of their history.

Pilots landing the small planes on the short and windy airstrip on Union Island require special training and a license to do so. Our new crew Ann-Christine and Christian certainly appreciated these special skills when arriving with a small propeller plane from Martinique. Furthermore as crew, Eve stayed on for another 2 weeks and last but not least Dani rejoined us after 2 weeks of land holiday.

We left Union Island for the Tobago Cays, a collection of 4 small islands and one coral atoll. The sail was short but curvy, as we had to weave our way through the surrounding reefs. We didn’t quite know what to expect, but whatever we did expect – it was superseded by far. What a place ….

For the first 2 days we anchored in the channel between Petit Bateau and Petit Rameau. The whole area is a designated marine park with an established turtle nursery. The snorkeling was outstanding and we decided to dive the Mayreau gardens the following day – a drift dive of about half a mile with the current guiding us through the most colourful marine coral gardens. The following day we moved to the sandy coral atoll called Petit Tabac, which is sourrounded by the 'World's End Reef'. Besides that it was the most beautiful spot and we had it all to ourselves for most of the time we anchored there, one should perhaps mention, that on the 6^th of December 2011 a piece of Russian space debris landed on the island. Say no more  …

Heavy hearted we left the tranquility of Petit Tabac heading north into a very fresh breeze, another Windwards sailing experience. The 25 knots north-easterly wind was right on the nose and the choppy sea made us almost want to turn back again to our little paradise, but then we got distracted with a Barracuda on the trawling line and by the time we had this issue sorted we were around the next island and Bequia was in sight.

An island renowned for seafarers, Bequia has developed into a yacht cruisers’ destination. The restaurants, markets and general boat services are just a touch more adapted and that sets them apart from the other islands of SVG - for instance the baguette or banana bread delivery to the boat in the morning …..

The next day followed another windward sail across the channel to the main island of St.Vincent. We by-passed the capitol Kingstown in search of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Some of the scenes for the movie were set in Wallilabou Bay and after a tour of the bay and sets we finally anchored one bay further north called Cumberland Bay. The feeling there was a lot more rudimentary and it appears as if the decision of wanting or not wanting to invite tourism on St. Vincent hasn’t been made yet. No more white beaches and easy anchorages like in the other SVG islands. About a mile before we got to the bay we made our first experiences with the boat or line boys offering their services. Because of the nature of being a volcanic island the ground is falling off steeply and within 20m of the shore you have a depths of 40m, hence we had our first anchor stern-to experience. And for that you ‘need’ the line boy to take your long stern line to shore, select a suitable coconut palm and tie it around its trunk. ‘Give Thanks’ was our line boy for $10. He sported the most amazing matted yet spiky rasta hair-do I’ve seen to date.

Next morning we left for St. Lucia. The sailing conditions were the same as the days before; a north easterly wind of 25 knots, but the sailing angle was a little better as St. Lucia lies a little more to the west. The setting is much the same as in St. Vincent, a volcanic island with regular tropical rain showers several times a day, but St. Lucia has decided to embrace tourism. We arrived at the Pitons, 2 virtually identical rocks shooting out of the depth of the sea to 2600 ft and the nations most remarkable landmarks. We anchored stern-to at Harmony Beach in Soufriere Bay, a small cluster of a restaurant and 4 guest houses which appears to be destined to be swallowed up by a hotel development - another paradise lost.

Early the next morning we could watch the local fishermen applying their unique techniques of purse-seine fishing. After clearing in with customs and immigration we explored the town of Soufriere. The town itself appeared like being stuck in a time warp and was rather poor. This was in sharp contrast to the surrounding bays that were commercially developed and also had some [very] large private residencies. To see the gap and the obvious lack of wanting to integrated the two worlds was quite disturbing - the dark sides of tourism.

Our next stop on the way up the west coast was Marigot Bay. In the 80’s and 90’s this was a considered as the spot to hide out, but meanwhile development has not stopped there either. Although the bay itself is still something special, the surrounding hills with their gated communities distract from the beauty. We found a mooring directly outside JJ’s, a restaurant right in the mangrove forest and just like 20 years ago. You can’t really get any closer to your dinner table – just walk down the gangway and sit down. The next morning we found a hand woven basket filled with fruit on the gangway, a temptation to purchase we couldn’t refuse of course; including an artistic touch. We also found some of the fruit in our storage nets nibbled at by these gorgeous little red chested birds.

The last port of call on the north western coast of St. Lucia was Rodney Bay with its large marina complex in an artificially created lagoon. There we met John, a Rastafarian with a small wooden dinghy and lots of charm who talked us easily into buying some of the wares he made on the spot for us out of coconut palm leaves, including a new lampshade.

We temporarily said good-bye to the East Caribbean dollar and set sail for the Euro zone of the Caribbean. After a pleasant 6 hour sail in a [guess what …] north easterly wind, but only 15 – 20 kn this time we arrived in Fort-de-France, Martinique – or Madinina, as the locals call it - meaning island of flowers. It is the largest and most developed island of the Windwards. Martinique together with Guadeloupe further north are ‘Overseas French Departments', in short that means croissants, baguettes, vin rouge, camembert cheese and so on. Furthermore for the boys there are play grounds and McDonalds with internet…… Vive la France.