GUSTAVIA

1600, March 24, 2015, Cocoa Point,  Barbuda: I talked with Chris Parker about the forcast for the next week. He predicted that a northern swell would reach us within a week and last several days. A northern swell would make the already rolling anchorage at Gustavia, our next stop, unbearable. We needed to leave for St. Barth the next morning to have the time to see all of the Island we wanted to before the swell arrived. 

We had just left Codrington and paid a taxi driver to bring us back to Cocoa Point on a very bumpy dirt road and Customs and Immigration was scheduled to close before I could get their. When I called the taxi driver he assured me that he could arrange Custom and Immigration to stay open longer which he subsequently did. I returned in time to watch our last sunset with Ed and Cheryl and prepare for the trip the next day. The passage to Gustavia on St. Barth was 5 hours in with a 5 ft. following wind and sea. Although our chart plotter had saved our "trail" in we waited until 0900 hours to have good visibility to make our way back through the reefs and coral heads. 

The most expensive real estate in the Caribbean is on St. Barthelemy, and the most magnificent town with the best example of Caribbean Architecture is Gustavia. Like Terre de Haut in Les Saintes St. Barth has poor soil and as a result there were never any plantations. A French colony firmly established a foot hold on the Island in 1659 when 100 French Protestants, who had fled Normandy and Brittany in France because of persecution by French Catholics, resettled on St. Barth. The natural port known today as Gustavia, has always been the Islands principal asset. 
Soon after the colony was established it was attracting pirates to have their ships restocked and repaired. In 1784 King Louis XVI of France gave St. Barth to his friend King Gustav III of Sweden. The Swedish had no other possession in the New World and St. Barth is the only Caribbean Island with a Swedish heritage. The Swedes took their responsibility for St. Barthelemy (named after Christopher Columbus' younger brother) seriously. They renamed the port in honor of their King, Port Gustavia, and turned it into a free port. They built roads and constructed three forts for defense. In 1878 France bought the Island back from the Swedish and it has remained under French control ever since. 

Everyone that we had talked with about taking our boat to Gustavia all had the same observation, "the anchorage is crowded and rolling".  We heard advise that if we anchored in this spot or in that spot we would get less roll. After looking at this spot and that spot I think "the anchorage is crowed and rolling". With only deeper water left it took us three tries to get a rolling spot where we would not swing into the shore or someone else. We had east wind and sea conditions. The problem was not the swell it was the constant pleasure, work boat, and ferry traffic from St. Martins only 6 nm away. We left our rolling boat to visit Gustavia. 

This most charismatic French Caribbean Town's charm is enhanced by by the beautiful super yachts that were stern tied to its quay wall. The price of this dockage assures that only the most expensive tie up here. The south end of the harbor was reserved for smaller day boats. Here it felt more like a high end fishing village. Where the boutiques in Le Bourg were fashionable, those in Gustavia  were at the cutting edge of style. Most of the restaurants viewed parts of the charismatic and charming Gustavia scene but in other ways were more like the cutting edge restaurants in Beverly Hills, which cater to the same international upscale audience. Although there were lots cars in Gustavia, many upscaled european cars, there were also the motor scooters we had seen in Le Bourg, here mostly driven by the young.  The atmosphere was alive, vibrant, international, fashionable, and expensive. It was not hard to understand why this was the place to be and to be seen.

                                          Crowded Anchorage Outside Gustavia

                                         Gustavia Harbor

                                          Super Yacht at Quay Wall

                                         Day Boats at South End of Harbor

                                         Sidewalk Restaurants

                                         High Fashion Boutiques

                                         A Mix of Motor Scooters and Cars

MAGNIFICENT FRIGATES

0920 hours, March 24, 2015, Cocoa Point, Barbuda: We picked Ed and Cheryl up at their boat and together we rolled our dingy up on the beach next to the Cocoa Point Lodge Gate House, and locked it off to a palm tree. The taxi the Gate Guard had scheduled for us the day before arrived within a few minutes.  

Barbuda's single town, Codrington, is located in about the center of the Island on Codrington Lagoon. The taxi driver took us to the town dock where we were able to hire a tour guide with boat to take us to the Frigate Bird Colony at the north end of Codrington Lagoon. 

The Magnificent Frigate Birds have the largest wing area to body mass ratio of any birds. With a wing span up to 7.5' they can almost continuously soar only rarely flapping their wings. These birds, which live as long as 44 years, primarily feed on fish but cannot swim. They fly head first toward its prey picking it out of the water with their bill, never touching the water with their wings or feet. Their second source of food is stealing from other birds which has earned them the  British name of Man of War. 

Barbuda is thought to be the largest Magnificent Frigate breeding colony with about 5,000 birds. To attract females the males,  which have shiny black plumage, inflate their scarlet gular throat pouch and vibrate their outstretched wings. The female choices the male and they form a kind of seasonal marriage. The males gather the sticks for the nest and the females builds the nest, in the case of the Barbuda colony, in mangroves. There is only one egg hatched and both take turn incubating it off 41 to 55 days. Both feed the chick for the first three months by gathering food and opening their mouths and allowing the chick to stick its head down their mouths and take the food from their throats. After the first three months the female only feed the chick for the next eight months. The mating season is just once a year. With the time it takes to hatch and raise a young chick the Frigates can only mate every other season. The females start breeding at 8 to 9 years and the males at 10 to 12 years. 

The females are territorial but the males travel great distances. There have been males tagged in Barbuda that have been sighted in the Magnificent Bird Colony in the Galapagos. In the case of hurricanes the Frigates protect themselves by flight above the storm. These Birds have been living and fishing in the Caribbean for some time. Columbus noted the Frigates in his early trips. 

These birds live up to their species name, Magnificent Frigate, in every way.

After visiting the Frigate Colony our guide, who was traveling with his young son, took us to a beach grill and bar which fronted both the Lagoon and the Caribbean, on the west side of the Island. This beach bar was part of the Lighthouse Bay Resort which sits near the north end of an eleven mile beach pink toned white power sand with turquoise colored water out several hundred yards. Our group were the only ones on the beach and the only lunch guest for that day. 

                                         Adult Female in Flight

                                          Adolescent Male and Female

                                         Puffed Male and Chick

                                          Baby Chick

                                         Singing in the Choir

                                         Adult Male and Female in Flight

                                          Ed, Cheryl, Beth and our Guides

                                         Pink Toned White Sand Beach

                                         Only Other Guest for Lunch

BARBUDA

1430 hours, March 23, 2015, Cocos Bay, Barbuda: as we approached the anchorage off Cocoa Point I called Ed Carter on the VHF to get his advise on the best route through the reef and coral heads. Ed and Cheryl, who had more draft than we do, had made it through the danger area  to the anchorage, a couple of hours earlier. It was mid afternoon and the sun was still high and behind us, ideal conditions to read the water.  Beth was forward with the headphones reporting on any reef or heads she saw. I was on the fly bridge and also had good visibility. With these ideal conditions for reading the water combined with Ed's advise, we made it through the danger area safely. 

That evening, with our stern facing the ocean to our west we watched the sun set with Ed and Cheryl from our aft deck. Not more than a half hour before the sun went down, we all watched a 150 ft. swan sloop come through the same danger zone that we had all passed through turning this way and that to dodge the coral heads and reefs we could see with, late morning sun for Ed and Cheryl, and mid afternoon sun for Beth and I. This was a reasonably new crewed boat with a value in the range of $10 million, and a deeper draft than either of our boats. Our first thought was they must have a series of waypoints to dodge through the mine field of coral heads and reefs which they could not see with the sun about to set. Apparently not, as halfway through they went aground. I went to the pilothouse to see what the name of the vessel was on my AIS. They had turned their AIS off, probably not wanting to leave a record that they had entered the anchorage off Cocoa Point at sunset. After about a half hour with almost all light gone they managed to pull off the reef. 

After arriving Jackie and I went for a long walk down the beautiful white power sand beach. At the south end of the beach is the very private Cocoa Point Lodge. North of the Lodge on Lodge property is a dirt air strip. Just north of the air strip is the gate guarded entrance to the Lodge. This guard post and gate are at the end of a 7 mile dirt road that leads to Codrington the only town on this 14 mile Long Island which is 30 miles north of Antigua. The guard, who may not have seen anyone else that day as there were few people in the Lodge and those that were there had arrived by plane landing on the resort's private air strip, was full of information. With Emancipation the slaves on Barbuda became Crown tenants giving them ownership of the land. To this day only Barbudians can own land on Barduda. This has resulted in little development on the Island and the other elements of the tourist industry are not found here. There are only three current resorts on the Island and they all cater to those who want privacy. One of the most famous Island visitors, who each of the Barbudians we meet liked to talk about, was Princess Diana. Reportedly Barbuda was her favorite spot and she visited the Island frequently. The Resort she use to stay at just north of the Cocoa Point Lodge, closed down shortly after her death. It was reported by the Guard, who was a Barbudian land owner, and others we meet that Robert De Niro along with an Australian developer had purchased the development, not the land, and plans were under way to reopen the Resort. 

The Guard also said he would arrange for a taxi to pick us up the next say at the gate, and take us to town the where we could charter a boat to see the Frigates. 

                                     

                                         Cocoa Point Beach

                                         Beach for Jackie

                                         Grounded Mega Yacht

                                       

                                     

                                       

                        

SUNSET IN DEEP BAY

0545 hours, March 22, 2015, Cabrit, Les Saintes: We left our anchorage at first light and headed north west to round Point du Vieux at the south western corner of Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. We watched the sun rise over Les Saintes and for our first time we saw Guadeloupe without overhanging clouds. The west side of Guadeloupe was flat, like glass in some places. We passed Deshaies at the north western end of Basse Terra, Guadeloupe at around 1100 hours. Deshaies in the normal port of entry for those headed south and the point to clear out for those heading north. As we had cleared in and out of Les Saintes and had not stopped on Guadeloupe in was not necessary for us to stop. 

Rounding the north west corner of Guadeloupe we headed on a northerly course to Jolly Harbour on Antigua. Outside the lee of Guadeloupe we were now in 3 to 4 foot east seas on our beam. Our plan was to restock at the grocery store in Jolly Harbour, catch up with Ed and Cheryl  who were still in Antigua, and head to St. Barths the next morning. We were on a schedule to get back to the American Virgin Islands to meet our daughter Kelley for Easter Weekend. During the passage we found out that Kelley would not be able to make it. 

After entering the beautiful turquoise water off of Jolly Harbour we anchored and headed by dingy to the grocery store. With groceries in hand we steered Catalina Sunshine north to Deep Bay where Ed and Cheryl were anchored. We arrived just after 1800 hours. We anchored behind the boats already in the Bay with our stern just in front of the wreck Andes  with one of its masts about 6" above the water. The Andes sank in 1905. Shortly after arriving we watched a cruise ship enter St. John's Harbor at the end of the rainbow. Later we had drinks with Ed and Cheryl on our stern deck while the sun set behind us. They shared their plans to leave for Barbuda the next day. With Kelley not able to make Easter Week end our schedule was open and we decided to join them. Barbuda and Antigua are part of the same Island Nation. Customs is difficult to check in and out of in Barbuda and as we had arrived at Jolly Harbour too late to check in, we decided to go back to Jolly Harbour to check in the next morning and meet Ed and Cheryl in Barbuda later in the day. 

                                         Sunrise over Les Saintes

                                         Southwest Guadeloupe

                                         Turquoise water at Jolly Harbour

                                         Cruise Ship and Rainbow

THE BATTLE OF THE SAINTS

0930 hours, March 18, 2015, Cabrit, Les Saintes: I tied a line to a tree on Cabrit Island and pushed the dingy into deeper water allowing our bungee cord anchor line to retract and position the dingy about 30 ft. off shore. Jackie and I proceeded up the steep trail to Fort Josephine about 600 ft. above.

The English Admiral Rodney defeated a French fleet in the Battle of The Saints in 1782. This ended  the French domination of the Caribbean.  As discussed in an earlier Blog on St. Kitts, the 30 days it took for an overwhelming French force of 8 to 1, to overtake Brimstone Hill Fortress defended by Scots bought Admiral Rodney the time he needed to defeat the French in the Battle of The Saintes. Admiral Nelson who defeated a combined French/Spanish fleet at the critical Battle of Trafalgar 23 years later, discussed in one of my Blogs on English Harbour, borrowed from Rodney's strategic approached to The Battle of The Saintes. Les Saintes were not in Brittish control long, the Treaty of Paris in 1815 gave Les Saintes back to the French. Having lost this significant Battle the French built Fort Josephine on Cabrit and Fort Napoleon on Terre de Haut to fortify Les Saintes. These forts were never used in battle. They were later used to house prisoners in WWII.

Les Saintes, St. Barthelemy, Martinque, St. Martin, Marie-Galante and Guadeloupe comprise the French West Indies. Guadeloupe is the center of government for the French West Indies which is under French control. The French culture in these Islands is very much alive. When it comes to dress the islands we visited all had the stylish boutiques. At night we saw women, and men but to a lesser extent, dressed in this stylish clothing. During the day on the beach and on boats men wore "bikini" type bathing suits regardless of their body shapes, and woman, more sensitive to their body shapes, wore bikinis where their body shapes would allow. And, yes a number of women both on the beach and on boats in the anchorages wore no tops. Frequently in anchorages both men and woman would undress on swim steps of their boats to shower. We could not help but watch one boat next to us in a crowded anchorage while a couple first rapped in only towels took the towels off one at a time and climbed into the same hammock in the middle of the day. This same couple swam nude a few feet from our boat to cool off after the hammock. 

 I frequently asked  long time cruising couples which islands they liked best. The first answer was usually that they were all different.  I would then press with more detailed questions and the final was always, the French Islands. 

Les Saintes was also more informal about customs and immigration which was handled in an internet cafe.

We had our last and best dinner in the Saints, watching the sunset from the restaurant at Hotel Bois Joli in Petite Anse.

                                         Ruins at Ft. Josephine

                                         Ruins at Ft. Josephine

                                         Dress Etiquette at Anchorage

                                         Customs and Immigrations

                                          Drinks at Sunset

                                         Dinner at Hotel Bois Joli
                 
         
         

LES SAINTS, THE CHARM CONTINUES

1030 hours, March 18, 2015, Le Bourg, Terre de Haut, Les Saints: Jackie and I arrived at the dingy dock to explore  Le Bourg and Terre de Haut.

The primary industry on the Island today is tourism. Although their is a small airport the short runway will only accommodate small propellor planes. Most tourist arrive by passenger ferry, mostly from Guadeloupe. Others visit the Island from cruise ships. Appropriately the town "square" is an extension of the ferry dock. The town square runs into a street with restaurants and boutiques in one direction, and on an incline, shops and boutiques in the other. As the streets in Le Bourg are narrow and it's the entrance to the Town for tourist, this street is for pedestrians only, and is closed to other traffic. 

At the top of the incline moving away from the square is a stone church sitting on the high side of the street built into the hill with steps rising from the street to door to the Nave. The Church sits at the highest elevation in commercial part of town. There are few cars on the Island. As Church sits across from the entrance to the pedestrian only street, the opposite side of the street was filled with parked scooters, the primary means of transportation on Terre de Haut. 

Unlike many of the boutiques we had visited on other islands these did not have the customary hats and t-shirts. Even though Le Bourg was town of modest means the clothing in these boutiques was high fashion and eloquent. Even the few t-shirts I did find had hand painted or artistic silk screen abstract scenes on them. 

As we reached the top of the hill behind the town we could look out over the red roofed town to the bay with moored boats beyond. As we descended the hill on the Atlantic side of the Island we were in a rural country side, clearly the source of most of the items on the menu the night before. Chickens were wandering everywhere as they had been on other Caribbean islands. Billy goats were almost as prevalent. Cows, lambs and ducks were grazing on the small hillside ranches as we walked down the road to the Island's main beach on the Atlantic side. 

Pointpierre is a beautiful almost enclosed cove with a large beach shaded by palm trees and large trimmed mangroves. No anchoring is allowed or moorings provided to protect the coral for snorkeling. By this time Jackie had given up trying to chase chickens and billy goats, who were also on the beach and mostly stood their ground. As we walked Jackie meet a friendly French dog her size who walked with us. 

On the way back to the dingy dock we saw children reading and playing in the Town's library. 

As we were eating dinner on our aft deck that evening, while watching the sun set, the sailing cruise ship, Star Clipper sailed past. With the still night we heard romantic music playing aboard as the ship sailed into the sunset. 

                                          Downtown Beach

                                          Narrow Streets

                                         Church at Town Center

                                         Overlooking Town

                                          Hillside Ranches

                                          Island Transportation

                                          Fashionable Boutiques

                                         Town Library

                                         Sailing into the Sunset

LES SAINTES

1430 hours, March 17, 2015, Le Bourg, Terre de Haut, Les Saintes: We had arrived in the  harbor area west of the Town of Le Bourg. The picturesque european charm of this this unique Place was irresistibly attracting as we searched for a place to anchor.  

All of the caribbean islands we had visited to date were similar to those in the Bahamas, in that their primary populations were descendants of slaves, which had been imported to provide agricultural labor.  The culture of these other Islands generally all runs together without a distinguishable flavor that significantly differentiates one from another.  

The Town of Le Bourg and the Island of Terre de Haut are French in most every respect. Les Saintes have been French since shortly after they were colonized. With agriculturally poor soil the French who settled on Terre de Haut relied on fishing for a living. The majority of the population on Terre de Haut today are Breton fisherman and Norman sailors or their descendants. Many have blue eyes. All speak French and few we found were bilingual.  Most of the tourist and boaters we saw were also French speaking.  

Le Bourg has no large resorts to compete with the architecture of the town. The town's architectural style of red metal roofs with white or pastel colored walls was Caribbean. Most other Caribbean towns only have a spattering of style. The architecture of almost all of Le Bourg's buildings are of this style creating a picturesque Caribbean village, with the charm of a Mediterranean seaside town. 

There is no marina or docks, except for passenger ferry docks and a dingy dock. There is a mooring field in the bay in front of the Le Bourg and on the south side Cabrit Island, or you can anchor behind the large 200 ft. high rock with vertical fissures known as Pain de Sucre, to the south west of town. In addition larger boats can anchor behind the mooring fields but the water is 70 ft. deep. All the moorings were taken and the anchorage behind Pain de Sucre was full. We anchored behind and to the west of the Cabrit island moorings. This was the calmest of the three possible locations. 

We had dinner in town near the dingy dock. The other patrons were mostly young couples that arrived on motor scooters. 

                                          LeBourg

                                          Caribbean Architecture

                                       

                             
                                          Mooring at LeBourg        

                                          Anchored behind Cabrit moorings

                                          Anchor field behind Pain de Sucre

                                         Dingy dock after sunset

RISTORANTE PAPARAZZI ON THE SLIPWAY

1830 hours, March 15, 2015, English Harbour, Antigua: We arrive by dingy at Risorante Paparazzi on the Slipway to watch the sunset over Nelson Dockyard and have dinner. The Slipway is a full service marina (with a few slips), shipyard with a railway to haul boats to 200 tons and a Chandlery. The restaurant is at the south end of their dock. The sunset was beautiful and Beth said her Veal Scaloppine, with homemade Gelato for desert, was the best meal on the trip to date. As we had eaten at some outstanding restaurants this was quite a complement. 

Buoy weather was predicting that the wind and seas would have subsided enough to give us a comfortable trip on March 17th around the leeward side of Guadeloupe to Les Saintes, our next port of call. This is about a 75 nm distance. I called Chris Parker and he agreed. As we needed fuel we arranged with the Slipway to fuel at the end of the day on the 16th, and stay on the dock overnight. This was an accommodation a number of other fuel docks had given us. 

We had our last lunch at the Boom Restaurant overlooking Catalina Sunshine in Tank Bay. The seafood salads were great and a small bird enjoyed the bread I don't eat. We then cleared out of customs and immigration, and left our fantastic anchorage for the Slipway. As this was Monday night and the Restaurant was closed, we had a quiet night preparing for an early departure. 

                                           Slipway and Restaurant

                                          Dinner at Slipway

                                          Lunch at Boom Restaurant

                                          Gunpowder swimming pool

                                                   Lunch Guest

LIMEYS OR PIRATES

0900, March 14, 2015, English Harbour, Antigua: Jackie and I toured the Dockyard that Beth and I had toured after dinner the night before. The Dockyard's buildings have been historically rehabilitated to accommodate restaurants, bars, boutiques, a package store, a bakery, a sail repair shop, a hair salon, offices for customs and immigration, and a museum. Replacing the sailors and soldiers which occupied this space during the 17th and 18th centuries were tourist to this Antigua Historical Park, boat owners and their crew, and restaurant patrons.

Walking out on Fort Berkely we could see how easy it was to defend this naturally protected harbor.  Almost the entire sea side of the sprint of land on which the fort is constructed, is fortified with thick stone walls with vertical embrasures to accommodate cannons from a height of about 60 ft. above the water. In times of siege a chain and wood boom was drawn across the entrance to the Harbor for further protection. Although many of the Caribbean islands changed hands from the 1600's through the 1900's, Antigua remained British and the impenetrability of English Harbour  was probably the reason.

Captain Horatio Nelson sailed into English Harbour aboard the the HMS Boreas to serve as Second Commander of the Northern Division of the Leeward Islands.  The year was 1784, and he was 26 years old. After attending grammar school at the age of 13 Horatio joined the Navy as an ordinary seaman. He commanded his first vessel at the age of 19, and by the time he arrived in Antigua he had sailed across the Atlantic ocean numerous times, been on assignment in the East Indies, escorted a convoy from Russia, sailed to Newfoundland, sailed within 10 degrees of the North Pole, sailed the American Coast several times, had assignments in Jamaica, Costa Rico, and led an assault of several ships against the French in the Turks Islands as one of his several command combat assignments.

During his time in Antigua Horatio's second in command was Prince William Henry, who latter ascended to the throne as King William IV. After marring Fanny Nesbit of Nevis in 1787 with is friend Prince Henry as best man, Horatio left Antigua for England, at age 29.

Horatio Nelson lived for 19 more years dying in 1805 in battle at Trafalgar where he lead 27 ships against a combined French and Spanish joint force of 33 ships, as Vice Admiral.  As a result of Admiral's Nelson strategic leadership the British won the battle putting to rest Napoleon's plans to invade England. This was the last of Admiral Nelson's many victories including ones he personally lead into hand to hand combat. During this time Nelson became a hero attracting large crowds where ever he traveled in England between his extensive assignments at sea. This man died at 48 with a unparalleled 35 year naval career, as a true hero. During this time he had lost both an arm and an eye in combat and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country at Trafalgar.  Although only in Antigua for a comparatively uneventful  3 years in English Harbour's over 400 year history, the Dockyard and the Inn are named in his honor.

After visiting the Museum in the Dockyard and reading about Horatio Nelson, it occurred to me that sailors, and trawling sailors like us, dress like pirates and pay homage to the likes of Edward Teach, but know little about Horatio Nelson and other naval heroes.

Edward Teach, or Blackbeard as he was known,  became a pirate on New Providence Island in the Bahamas at age 36 in 1716. There is no prior history of his earlier career, although it is believed he was a merchant seaman. He was killed in a battle at Ocracoke Island in the outer banks of North Carolina two years later, in 1718. A quirky fellow, which undoubtedly was the inspiration for the character Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, Teach who already looked scary, is said to have tied fuses under his hat to frighten his enemies. Most of his victories were capturing unarmed merchant vessels and steeling their cargo. He ran his ship Queen Ann's Revenge aground in Beaufort Inlet damaging it beyond repair. He was killed by sailors under command of an undistinguished lieutenant, after running his ship Adventure aground trying to escape through Ocracoke inlet, a passageway familiar to Teach.

Would it not be more fitting to be parroting and singing about 18th century Limey heroes like Horatio Nelson then pirates like Edward Teach?

                                          Restaurant at Old Barracks

                                           Dockyard Building

                                          Bakery

                                           Ft. Berkely

                                          Cannon at Ft. Berkely