.JPG)
It has been way too long since my last update.
We've had some wonderful adventures since our week
in the Saintes, including a spectacular botanical
garden in Guadeloupe, some excellent sight seeing in
the luxury yacht capital of the Caribbean, a
wonderful week of visiting with Gran and Gramps, an
exciting dolphin sighting, amazing beaches in
Barbuda (pictured above) and some great fishing.
.JPG)
Saying good bye to Les
Saintes and our new friends, we made our way north
to Pigeon Island, home of the Jacques Cousteau
Underwater Park, a natural preserve about half way
up the west coast of Guadeloupe. There are a
couple of overnight buoys laid for yachts and we
were lucky enough to grab one. Our neighbors
on the Catana left an hour before sundown and we had
the island to ourselves, at least until the day trip
boats started arriving around 10am the next morning.
The sun was mostly hidden behind the clouds but we
had some interesting snorkeling all the same.
The next day, we made our way just eight miles north
to Deshaies (Day-hay). Guadeloupe was still in
the throes of protests and strikes but this quiet
little beach town charmed us all the same.
.JPG)
Clearing out of the
country, getting our last fix of fresh baguette, and
eating another French meal ashore were all tasks
easily accomplished and much enjoyed. The
other agenda item for Deshaies was a visit to the
Botanical Garden. Perched on the hill south of
town, the steep walk was well worth the effort.
The meticulously landscaped gardens include a large
coy pond, an aviary with vibrantly colored and
friendly parakeets, a manmade waterfall and flamingo
pond, all surrounded by thousands of species of
plants.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Our timing was a little
unfortunate on our subsequent trip north from
Guadeloupe to Antigua. What should have been a
nice reach turned into a motor when the winds went
light and southerly, but we can't complain. We
still have three quarters of the fuel we filled up
with in Morocco in early November. Besides, we
had a date to meet my parents at the Grand Royal
Antiguan Hotel and nothing was going to keep us from
being there.
Believe it or not, this was the fifth time in three
and a half years that my parents have arranged a
vacation around a rendezvous with Zia. We
count it high among our blessings that they
have the means, the desire and the good health to be
able to endure the often grueling travel schedules
and numerous inconveniences required to track us
down on our adventures. This latest Antiguan
rendezvous was planned just a month ahead of time,
and perhaps our haste in the preparations was most
reflected in the quality of the hotel.
Definitely past its prime, it actually mattered very
little since we were able to anchor comfortably off
the hotel's beach and, once the northerly swell
dissipated on our second day, come and go between
the two relatively easily.
.JPG)
During our week
together, we mostly just hung out and enjoyed each
other's company. We shared some serious
moments
.JPG)
and some silly moments.
.JPG)
We enjoyed countless meals onboard, and two
excursions around Antigua on Zia. Despite a
strong tendency towards seasickness, my mom endured
all of this "boat time" with surprising ease.
The trip down to Falmouth, mega-yacht central, was
perhaps the most challenging. Any queasiness
she might have felt was quickly forgotten, however,
as we wandered among the multi-million dollar boats.
.JPG)
We found a fabulous wood
burning, brick oven pizzeria for dinner and a little
snack bar on the waterfront where the girls enjoyed
an "Obama smoothie." It consisted of chocolate
and vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream, to
symbolize his rise to the top, and a pineapple, to
represent his Hawaiian roots.
.JPG)
As is always the case,
our time with Gran and Gramps passed too quickly and
we were soon faced with saying good-bye.
Luckily, we have tentative plans to see each other
again over the summer, so that made our parting a
little easier.
.JPG)
With our next date
scheduled for St. Maarten just three days later, we
decided to squeeze in a trip to Barbuda.. A
quick overnight in Jolly Harbor allowed us to
replenish our groceries. We took off the next
morning, but not until after we watched a dolphin
enjoying a little breakfast swimming amongst the
anchored boats. It was our first dolphin
sighting in a long time, and quite entertaining.
He surfaced right next to a catamaran anchored a few
hundred yards off our starboard side. Often
times schools of fish hang out beneath the boats,
enjoying the shade or just the added protection from
predators provided by the proximity of a large
object. We spent the next half an hour
watching this lone dolphin chasing his breakfast
around the harbor, surfacing frequently and catching
a lot of fish.
.JPG)
Barbuda is a small
island with a population of only 1,500 people.
14 miles long and eight miles wide, steadily pounded
by the Atlantic Ocean to windward and gently
caressed by the Caribbean Sea on the leeward side,
there is not much else to find on the island besides
pristine beaches and plenty of raw, natural beauty.
On the south and west coasts, fine sand beaches with
a pinkish hue stretch uninterrupted for up to
seventeen miles. The sand, kneaded for
hundreds of thousands of years by the steady hands
of the sea, rests along the shore in such a powdery
consistency that your footsteps sink six inches
deep.
.JPG)
The one town, Codrington, lies on the other side
of a large salt water lagoon. We hired a guide
to take us into town to visit the three offices
required to obtain outward clearance from the nation
of Antigua and Barbuda, and then on a tour of the
Frigate Bird Sanctuary at the northern end of
Codrington Lagoon. The single story houses
that lined the streets of the village are built on
communal land. In fact, all of the land on the
island is owned communally. In this way, the
locals have been able to resist the forces of
development. Only small local hotels dot the
unspoiled coastline and not a single fast food chain
is to be found ashore. We anchored in Low Bay,
off the
Lighthouse Bay Resort. We met a couple of
the guests there who raved about the food and
accommodations. The staff was certainly very
friendly and the setting idyllic.
.JPG)
Our trip into the bird
sanctuary offered both a fun boat ride and an
interesting view of these unique sea birds.
Having the largest wingspan compared to body weight
of any other bird, frigates cannot actually land on
the ocean. They don't have webbed feet.
The live by stealing the catch of other ocean birds
or snatching dead fish off the surface of the ocean
or catching flying fish as they soar just above the
water's surface. Late in the mating season, we
were fortunate to catch a few unlucky males still
searching for mates. They inflate a bright red
pouch of skin covering their throats and beat on it
with their hard beaks in the hopes of attracting a
female.
.JPG)
By the end of the month, our guide Glass told us,
the males will all take off for the Western
Caribbean or the Pacific coast of Mexico or even as
far as the Galapagos in order to mate again, leaving
the females behind to tend to the eggs and the
newborns.
We too were driven by
unseen forces to take off the next morning.
The 75 mile trip was looking like a motor with light
winds directly astern. Our fishing success on
the ride up however, catching several mackerel and
barracuda as well as one small tuna, made us hopeful
for the passage to St. Maarten. With our lines
baited with new purple/pink and navy/pink lures, we
set sail northwestward.
Next Entry >>>>>>>>>>>
