HIKING GUADELOUPE WAS WET, MUDDY, AND STRENUOUS!

Ten full days of a rental car!!  Let’s get going!

Rain, rain and more rain.  So, is this why they call this the ‘Rain Forest’?

Sill smiling, but the worst is yet to come!

The last blog was just a few weeks ago, but Guadeloupe deserves one all by itself.  We have been three nights on moorings in the Saintes, having left Pointe-a-Pitre on January 17th.  We left at the same time as Steve and Maria aboard Aspen, but they went around the south-western corner of the island and headed north to Antigua.

We had arrived in Guadeloupe with bad weather on our tail; heavy winds and easterly waves threatened the whole Windwards and Leewards, with no weather windows in sight, due to a strong north storm.  However, we anchored in the clay-bottom of the harbour, to the south of the main channel, in 24 feet of water, and neither the high winds nor the high waves found us.  The winds had to come across a significant portion of the flat side of the island, then piled up because of the high mountains of the west half of the butterfly.  As well, the reefs at the harbour entrance cut down on the size of the waves that found us.  

We had two days to kill before Steve literally ran the 6 miles out to the airport to get the car, and they were spent touring the aquarium and the new slave museum, as well as a walking tour of Pointe-a-Pitre.  The fairly new slave museum is a massive structure, a work of art from the outside.  Inaugurated in 2015, the Memorial ACTe has high credentials.  Reverend Jesse Jackson called it “the best of this type of interpretive centre in the world”.  We spent two hours going through the exhibit, each with an electronic device which added information about each presentation, triggered by a radio transmission at each exhibit.  Even at night, from our anchorage, the building, with the unique architecture and night lighting, was centre-stage.  

With the car, we ran over every major road on the island, and stopped at all the major attractions: La Maison de Cacao, with both a history and description of the chocolate manufacturing and a tasting session; two historic forts with significant exhibits, and the Musee de Rhum, which had a dispenser of rums and rum products which you could visit and revisit numerous times as you went through the exhibits; and the Grande Anse beach, with great surf, view, and the best value in restaurants.

Louis Delgres statue at the Fort Louis Delgres, a Guadeloupe hero in the fight against slavery and for human rights.

Museum de Rhum

Nurse sharks at the Aquarium

The hikes were a different thing.  We did most of them, as with the attractions, in rain; often soaked to the skin.  Some were absolutely delightful, with walkways and stairs of concrete inlaid with flagstone, through lush tropical rainforest, and with the most majestic waterfalls in the Caribbean.  Others, terribly damaged by Hurricane Maria, were almost impassable due to the demolition of the trails by erosion: high exposed roots, pools of mud, washouts, and sluices where stairs used to be.  We got through some of these, but as the pictures tell, they were often neither fun nor safe.  Sadly, we could understand from the damaged infrastructure that they had been national treasures, constructed with good materials through high cost and effort.  

Many of the boardwalk type structures were still sitting up high, but the ground all around them had been washed out during Hurricane Maria, making it easier to walk beside the structures than get up and down from them.

Sometimes short legs are a disadvantage with these high steps.

Regardless, we attempted ten of these hikes, and finished near seven of them.  The views were outstanding!

At times, these roots were so exposed they were difficult to get over.  No photos of the really difficult ones since we had both hands, and eyes making big decisions on where to place the next foot.

Finally, a section of easy  hiking!!

Steve, our capable driver with Maria on and Dawn at a fort entrance.

We found good meals, but not without trouble; and had to learn where to go, when to go, and which establishments were appropriate.  Interestingly, there were many restaurant fronts, and signs, but it appears only 1/4 of these are actually functioning.  Cleaning out old signs would certainly benefit the tourists.  The bakeries came out on top, with excellent sandwiches and paninis, while we otherwise learned to only go to the touristy sites, never the rural or non-tourist venues.

We hope you enjoy the pictures.

TECHNICAL

As we had little time on the boat during our visit, we neither broke nor fixed anything!  

HELLO FROM GUADELOUPE

A drone shot of Cat Tales, pictured in the center, that Steve took, while in Ste Anne.  It makes us look bigger than we are!

We are sitting in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, on the south side of the channel.  Sometimes giant cruise ships drift by us, but mostly it is the large ferries that take mostly tourists to Marie Galante, Basse Terre, and Les Saintes.  We arrived Sunday, after three tough days of travel, with Steve and Marie, with the plan to rent a car and use it to find hikes, see the sites, and conquer the butterfly.  It was last year’s plan, but better late than never.

Cruise ships creeping along behind us arriving at daylight and leaving at dark.

A trip into the Aquarium was interesting to say the least.

Graffiti is all over Point a Pitre.  Makes for very interesting walks around town. 

The December 21st weblog found us in Ste Anne, at the south end of Martinique, enjoying a large crowd of old and new friends.  We carried out two hikes to Saline Bay for exercise and good food, had some Friday happy hours at La Dunette (a restaurant that has seating on a dock that sees the sunset) and made many trips into Marin for boat parts, groceries, and three different fabulous lunches at Le Sextant, a restaurant in the boatyard.  I cannot leave out the fabulous bokits that we regularly enjoyed at Le Snack Bou Bou, which is also the customs office.

Our ‘sailing family’ just newly checked out of Martinique and making plans for the next 3 days sail.  Notice that Fred ate too much for lunch and the bench was complaining!

Fred of Dakota Dream left his boat on the 23rd to go back to Dakota to his large family Christmas.  He left Steve and Maria to guard his boat and exercise whatever needed it.  The four of us actually had a happy hour on it for fun.

Christmas Eve was spent on Jumbie, a 45’ Leopard Cat owned and operated by Kathy and Tom.  The boat’s cockpit and salon is large, and well over 20 of us mixed around the great table of hours-d-oeuvres.  It was a mix of experienced cruisers, less experienced cruisers, and the guests of cruisers, making it full of interesting conversations.  This was quickly followed by an afternoon meal at Le Nouveau Touloulous on the beach.  Twenty-nine of us went often to the buffets and to the bar, enjoyed each other’s company at the long tables, before dismissing ourselves for a nice long, cool swim.  By then, we all needed a full night’s sleep.

New Year’s Eve found us having a party on Fred’s boat, with him arriving just after it all started.  Steve said: “Bring some rums for a tasting.”  “It will be fun”, he also said.  Well, we got into those evil sauces after most of us already had our “portion”, and we all “got a little ahead in our drinking”.  Nobody died.

Maria, Fred and Dawn at the New Year’s Party on Fred’s boat, Dakota Dream.  It was nice of Fred to arrive from the US a half hour into his own party.

Laurie, Fred and Steve

Our trip to the north started on the 3rd, Friday, and we had a lovely sail to St. Pierre, anchoring off of the pretty beach just to the south of the town, still in view of the lovely but deadly volcano.  Both Dakota Dream and Aspen were in accompaniment.   Dawn and I had our first big snorkel, swimming to the beach, walking to the end and swimming back out to a marked wreck.  We soon realized it was prettier at a reef just behind our boat, and retraced our steps.  It was also a lovely evening.  

The trip from St. Pierre across to Dominica started an hour before daylight, with us motoring until well past the north edge of the island.  We actually crossed the open expanse between the islands in the lightest breeze and flattest ocean we’ve ever encountered.  At least we did not have to motor all the way.  Sadly, 60% of the way from the southern tip to Prince Rupert Bay/Portsmouth was done under engine, and often in rain.  Aspen and Dakota Dream, both about an hour ahead of us, carried on to Les Saintes, while we bedded down for the night near the Pays Dock, and waited for morning.  Getting to Pointe-a-Pitre involved 7 more hours of sailing the next day, but very little motoring and truly little trouble.  Parts of the crossing were down-right fun.  When Cat Tales is rigged conservatively, and is still doing 7 knots in the right direction, I call it fun, even if I am being rained on or “a salted”.  Steve and Maria had been at anchor for an hour, while Fred was headed up the other side of the island, headed for Antigua.  He is putting the boat in floating storage while he joins some friends and his wife on a rental boat in Tahiti.

So, tomorrow, Steve runs the 10 kilometres to the airport, and picks up a car.  We’ll spend some time driving east on the flat part of the butterfly, and hopefully find a beach or two for swimming.

TECHNICAL

Fred had brought back a new 30 ampere solar regulator, as well as a clamp-on ampere meter.  I had some fun with those.  I installed a fourth solar panel, taking advantage of the extra capacity in the regulator, and my new batteries came to life.  I also had purchased a third proper deep cycle battery, so that went in place at the same time.  Part of my payment to Fred was one of the three start batteries that had been masquerading as deep cycle batteries.  That actually provided the room for the third new battery.

Something that was a real bummer, was a problem with an alternator.  Sorry to take your time, but I need to download.  My big Chinese alternator, that normally can give us 80 amperes, dropped down to 20 amperes as the batteries were being used up by the water maker.  I took it off, and replaced it with the spare 30 ampere Hitachi, after spending a hot hour cleaning every contact in the electrical circuit.  I looked for repair persons in and around Marin with no luck, and looked for the diode layer and internal regulator for it, and had no luck either.  After humming and hawing, and getting tired or hauling the 25 pound bugger around, I finally paid big money for a replacement, and hauled that big bruiser back to the boat.  I put it on, and it would not work, I traded it at the store, and the second would not work.  With that pointing at me and mine as the problem, I spent a weekend putting on, and taking off alternators in the hot engine room.  While I cooled down, I searched the internet for solutions.  Finally, I thought: “Let’s look at the one I took off, and ask myself some questions”.  There on the back of the old one, was a note written by the repairman in Grenada.  He had made a note to connect it differently.  Ha!  Hitachi alternators like mine are internally regulated, with the shell kept as the negative.  They have a big “E” where you connect the ground, and a “BAT” where you connect the positive.  The new bugger, a Chinese knock-off of a Hitachi, had the same, but I found out that it had an insulated case.  I was to use one of the other posts, that had some rubber washers on it.  The “E” on this bugger is just for decoration???  So I learned something; but why does this knowledge seem sometimes to come so hard?  I put on many miles with 25 pound alternators, and changed them out somewhere around NINE times, hot, sweating, dirty, and bent like a pretzel.

The old alternator, with a clue left by Al Bernadine, Grenada Alternator Repair.  The “E” is  the bottom screw.

I have noticed that I have water in the transmission oil of my starboard sail drive, so I am partially “sea-lubing”.  I’ll pick a day, exercise the oil, and suck as much as I can to replace it with more pure oil.  The repair of the seals will have to wait until April.