Favourite Islands Part 2: Anguilla to Dominica

Still on a quest to see if we can figure out our favourite East Caribbean island - here's the second instalment.  Here's the first instalment if you missed it.

Anguilla
Just a scant 6 miles north of St. Martin, Anguilla is a low-lying limestone island that is quickly making a name for itself with high-end boutique resort and villa tourism.  There is one main anchorage on the north side, Road Bay, and a number of small fishing harbours scattered along the coast.  Getting to the shoals and islets that lie along the north shore is an expensive proposition (extra cruising permit required) and is really only enjoyable in calm weather.  We have been to Anguilla twice and both times have enjoyed the island more by car than for its water-based activities.  The history of Anguilla is quite interesting with their relationship with Britain and we enjoyed speaking to a passionate local historian and learning a bit more about this island.  The locals are friendly, understand tourism and there are many opportunities for great eating.
     Love:  Small and easily accessible by car
     Hate:  Not much to do if you don't have a car

Road Bay is the main anchorage

The little museum makes for an interesting diversion.

Fishermen bring in the catch at Scilly Bay.

Sint Maarten / St. Martin
Sint Maarten (the Dutch side) the mecca of all things boating related and it's island neighbour St. Martin, the first of the French islands.  The two halves are so different and yet exist so well side by side.  We come to Sint Maarten to do boat work, buy stuff for the boat and have stuff easily shipped from the States.  We then go and drop the hook on the other side and enjoy a much more relaxed stay with all the benefits of the French territory.  The lagoon is one of the most amazing features since by dinghy we can access so much on both sides.  We love playing on St. Martin with friends since there are many great bars and restaurants, pretty beaches and usually so many assembled cruisers that just hanging out on each others' boats is a great time.
     Love:  You can get anything you need for your boat here
     Hate:  This island is BUSY!!

A parade of boats entering Simpson Lagoon under the lift bridge on the Dutch side.

Mega yachts and big sailboats - all part of the scenery.

On of our favourite hangouts - Lagoonies.

On the French side, the fun little town of Marigot with the lagoon in the background.

Ladies of the tourism office dressed in traditional Creole costumes.

St. Bart's
We haven't spent a huge amount of time on St. Bart's but what we have felt here was that we could be in the French Riviera.  High end shops and boutiques, a charming little gallic town, well dressed residents and visitors - this place exudes luxury.  Anse Colombier at the north end of the island is the perfect stop-over spot with free mooring balls and beautiful clear waters.  We've heard that this is THE place to be on New Year's Eve.
     Love:  Perfect for a short visit
     Hate:  The anchorage at Gustavia (we stay in Colombier.)

The pretty little town of Gustavia is wrapped about the inner harbour.

This is probably the only real Louis Vuitton shop in the Caribbean.

St. Bart's is one of those islands with a crazy little airport - just look at this approach!

Antigua & Barbuda
Two islands ...

Barbuda is one of the most isolated, barren islands you will have the pleasure of visiting.  Miles and miles of white sand beaches, the scantest population, an interesting topography with an inner lagoon, relatively flat island, rising to low cave-studded cliffs overlooking the Atlantic.  Visit in the winter months and you will be amazed by the Frigate Bird nesting colony - it is a sight to see!  Plan on being there in calm conditions and with a well provisioned fridge so you can stay a few days.  This is the place to achieve your inner peace.
     Love:  Peace & serenity
     Hate:  Water-taxi ride or a long wet dinghy ride to get to Codrington

The beach on Barbuda - really, there is nothing here!

Except of course the Magnificent Frigate bird - you have to go see them.

Antigua is the complete opposite - this is a busy island and in the winter months hosts a number of top-notch regattas.  What is amazing about Antigua and sets it apart from most other islands is that with its extensive reef and island system, you can find anchorages on all sides of the island.  After the hustle and bustle (and regatta party time) in Falmouth and English Bays on the south side, heading around to Nonsuch Bay on the east side is much like turning the clock back to some untold time, or instantly finding yourself on vacation.
     Love:  Multitude of cruising opportunities
     Hate:  Don't let vendors confuse you with USD vs. ECD - that's a 270% ripoff!

No charge, just stand on the beach or the cliffs and watch these incredible speed machines race for the start-line.

The colours of the water fill the spectrum of blue.

Lots of resorts on Antigua - this is a high-end one on Long Island at Jumby Bay.

Catch some wind action on the east coast at the kite school on Green Island.

Back in Falmouth, the Classics are lining the docks.

    
Guadeloupe
The biggest of the French islands and the seat of the Antilles Administration offices.  It is not however the most 'French' of the islands - it is the most 'Creole'.  Here you get the most in-depth feel for the French Caribbean and the island-style cooking is delicious.  Guadeloupe is made up of two bridge-joined islands, each with a very unique character.  There are also a number of outer islands including Marie-Galante and Les Saintes.  There is so much to see and do on all these islands, many rum distilleries to visit, ruins - old forts - history galore.  Point a Pitre (the biggest but not the capital city) is a gritty working class place with great energy in the daytime, not sure I'd want to be out on the streets after dark.  One of our favourite hikes of all time is on the south-west end of the island - Souffriere Volcano.
     Love:  Diversity - so much choice
     Hate:  Difficult and sparse anchorages, language can be an issue if you have no French.

Pointe a Pitre on Guadeloupe is a totally cosmopolitain city.

But the outdoor market is still the place to get the best fruit and veggies.

Ah - what's not to love about French Creole cooking.

Welcoming you to Les Iles des Saintes - the doctor's house.

Learn your history of the pivotal Battle of the Saints at Fort Napoleon - this one didn't go so well for the French.

Wander the quaint streets of Grand Bourg des Saintes.

Dominica
Ah, the nature island.  Dominica is like finally getting to the cottage for that long anticipated summer wilderness vacation.  Everywhere you go on Dominica is like walking through a tropical nature conservancy or a garden.  Take your pick - literally.  Fruit drips off the trees, lemon-grass grows everywhere, the farmers will give you roots from their gardens.  The lush forests that cover most of this island, clinging to the steep slopes of nine volcanos make for the most excellent hiking along the Waitukabuli National Trail.  Some of the friendliest people you will meet live on Dominica and hiking along the roads involves a multitude of stops along the way just to lime with the locals.  It's irie mon!
     Love:  Getting in shape - hiking on Dominica / PAYS organization in Portsmouth
     Hate:  Breaking my personal rule here to write more than a short phrase because this is a complex topic.  When we first visited Dominica we saw poverty everywhere.  To our North American eyes, these people lived in poverty.  What we now see is a population that lives close to nature.  No-one is starving on this island.  There are some individuals who are poorly clothed and wander the streets but there is usually an underlying issue of physical or mental illness and we see this every place we visit, including back home in Canada.  What has created the greatest need on Dominica was Tropical Storm Erika that devastated the island in August 2015.  Villages and roads were wiped out and people lost everything they owned. So I guess what I 'hate' about Dominica is actually my own interpretation of what I see on the street and I really need to get over myself.

Dominica is rugged, green and wet.  Magnificent waterfalls carve their way through the landscape.

The Waitukubuli National Trail encircles the island in 14 segments.

Following the trail and getting close to nature.

From the largest tree...

To the shiest bird...

To the power of Mother Nature in the Valley of Desolation, you can see it all on Dominica.

And then finish it all off with some delicious hand-made chocolate.

So that's instalment two - stay tuned as we look at the inner Leeward Islands from Saba to Montserrat.

And Round Anguilla We Go

Customs and Immigration in Anguilla permits you to check out up to 24 hours prior to departure, so our first order of the day was a visit to the charming ladies in the office to complete our paperwork. This would avoid us having to launch the dinghy and make the trip in on Saturday morning before heading off to St. Martin.

Prior to actually leaving though we have the rest of an island to explore and the wheels with which to do it. Having been a little disappointed the day before by limited access to the beaches we set our final destination as Shoal Bay on the north east end of the island. On the way however, we headed up to The Valley where the St. Gregory RC church is quite an eyeful. I guess having outgrown the first church the parish decided they had at least a conversation piece going for them so they copied the facade for the new church.

We were diverted in The Valley at the round-about due to a road-race but this fortuitous redirection gave us a fabulous view of the north coast of Anguilla – the colours were absolutely stunning.

After taking this photo of Henry and the rental car, we were amused that it looks a little like we came to a skidding halt and wrapped the front end round the phone pole. Rest assured there were no 'additional' scratches, dents or dings added by the end of the day.

Carrying on along the north shore we came across a number of gorgeous little bays with the surf crashing on the coral shoreline and then once we'd had our fill of the rugged beauty we headed inland across the rolling landscape. We criss-crossed the island and now feel that we can recognize most junctions by the landscaping of the various round-abouts; and, they're proper English ones that rotate in a clock-wise direction! However, some roads were debatable on how public they really were...

We visited a very interesting little museum on the history of Anguilla all lovingly put together by a local scholar and author. The museum was established in his mother's house where he had grown up and he had some wonderful artifacts on display. On inside information from Ted and Louise we stopped at a Lolo in the middle of nowhere for some delicious wings and ribs. We took them to go and found a parking spot at Scilly Bay overlooking the local fishing fleet.

We wrapped up with a visit to Shoal Bay and a walk along the beach – finally a beach with a nice blend of tourism and nature, lots of open, accessible space, a few beach bars but not invasive and plenty of incredible beauty.

Back on Mowzer for the evening and we are preparing to head off to Marigot in the morning.

Anguilla Highs and Lows

The day dawned windy and overcast and that's pretty much what was dished up until later in the afternoon. Undaunted we decided to head out to the cays with a forecast of 15 knots and knowing that we'd been told if the winds were over 20 not to bother going. Well it turns out they were right – but not the forecast. We had a fabulous sail over and back but with winds in the 20-25 knot range and the waves crashing through the protective reef we decided not to risk a dinghy ride round to the beach. We took an exploratory ride around the anchorage and were soon soaked through so that was about all we saw of Prickly Pear. 

Commercial excursion on a bouncy ride between reef and beach on the other side of the Cay.

On the sail back to Road Bay, we peeked in at Sandy Cay since from the distance it like everyone's favourite Caribbean screen saver; you know the one, with a little sandy island and a lone one or two palm trees, surrounded by turquoise and azure waters. Unfortunately, while that is pretty much what Sandy Cay is, it has also had the addition of a beach shack serving as a bar and purveyor of loud music. The local service to run tourists from the resorts out to the cay involves high-speed motor launches who can navigate inside the reef and anchor stern-to on the beach, rather like the Puerto Ricans in the Spanish Islands. Needless to say, with the swell running and facing a soaking ride in the dinghy to arrive at something we weren't all that keen on, we took a miss and headed back to our anchorage in Road Bay. Lunch in a beach bar with a beautiful view of the anchorage was much preferred.

We came to the conclusion that Ted and Louise's decision to rent a car to see the island was definitely the way to go so we walked back up the hill to The Valley and not only found the same car rental agency but ended up renting the same car that they had given us a ride in yesterday. At a rate of $35 for 24 hours this is a much better deal than the cruising permit even if you can't get out to the cays. With the car we'll be able to see Shoal Bay which is a difficult navigation anyway.

For the remainder of the afternoon and now that we had wheels, we explored the west end of the island. Anguilla has a very gentle charm, neat and tended homes and guest houses with the occasional 'work in progress' that could be just started or have been sitting there unfinanced for five years. The first big difference we noticed from many of the other islands is the speed of driving since there are no major elevation changes, very few blind hills and no hairpin turns to climb to the top of the mountain. The next and most profound difference is a direct result of Anguilla's search for financial stability. As a result we don't begrudge them at all, but it means that Anguilla is not really a cruiser's destination other than Road Bay. We already discovered the commerciallity of the 'Cruising Permit' and with driving down to various beautiful beaches we found that most of them are ringed by very private and most likely very expensive guest villas and resorts. Other than Cove Bay, we had the definite impression that we (the riff-raff) were intruding on the space of the elite.

The two faces of Anguilla (rustic charm and foreign $$ development)

Back to Mowzer we went, and then over to Golden Dawn to share a sun-downer (or two) with Ted and Louise. We shared back and forth our tales and experiences on our boats and it was particularly interesting to hear of their time in the Med and also when they drove their camper van and golfed across Canada (one of our other dreams/plans). Thanks for the hospitality and hopefully we'll see more of you out here!

Haul-outs and Coincidences

Let's see, it seems like so much has happened in the few days but I will try to summarize and not make this post too long.

Monday night at Leinster Bay was completely calm and uneventful, and I when I say calm, it was rather like early morning up on the Ottawa River - we've never seen the conditions like this before down here.

Tuesday morning we checked in at Soper's Hole and then headed up to Nanny Cay to have Mowzer hauled out for a measurement to complete our Transport Canada registration.  All went according to plan and schedule, the yard was extremely efficient and the measurements were all taken over the lunch period so we were back in the water and on our way by 1:30.

During our haul-out we also had the bottom pressure washed so she is all clean and in 'go-fast' shape.  We did find a few blisters appeared immediately once Mowzer was out of the water and they quickly disappeared once she dried so this is a little concerning but we'll have to see what can be done.

The yard was super hot so it was great to get back out on the water and so we headed over to Cooper Island where we hooked up to a mooring for a bit of R&R and the preparation for making the big jump.  We had food and drinks for the night ready, we rigged up jack-lines to attach ourselves to the boat and made sure we had all our charts, navigation and time calculations completed.

We departed from Cooper Island at 5:30pm and after buzzing the backside of Ginger Island, headed east across the Anegada Passage towards Anguilla. The sun slowly set behind us and it wasn't long before darkness encapsulated us aboard the boat. On one hand the world really shrinks to just the space you can see – the boat, but on the other your focus is so external trying to assess the lights around you and with the most amazing star-show going on, you feel infinitely small. We had our first freighter cross in front of us fairly early on and after that it was a parade of cruise ships heading for St. Martin (all behind us). The sliver of a moon set around 9:30pm but even so we could still pick out the horizon as a different darkness between sea and sky. At no point were we ever without being able to see four or five other sailboats heading for Anguilla or St. Martin – you can tell by their lights whether they are under power or sail. Given the conditions which were extremely flat seas and winds of only 6 – 10 knots, I'm assuming most were motor sailing as were we.

Auto helm was doing his stuff while Henry kept a lookout behind?

By 5:30am and a number of 2-hour exchanged shifts, the sky was brightening and we made the decision to slow down just a bit to be able to enter the area north of Anguilla under daylight conditions. From our time here before we knew we would encounter many floats from the lobster posts in the passage and sure enough it was a game of dodge-em all the way up to Road Bay.

This is what we were hunting for so we wouldn't get a line wrapped on our prop:

This all felt like such an accomplishment to us and we're very happy to have our first overnight passage under our belts. Of course, the wind and seas were very kind to us but at least we now know what it is like to be out there in the darkness, that is really not that dark.

Wednesday in Road Bay: we checked in at customs and immigration and made plans for the next day to do some cruising in the Anguilla marine park. Back at the boat today we rested up and napped through a mid-day rain shower before heading out for a walk. As we wandered along we came across a couple of folks studying a map so of course we struck up a conversation. To make a long story short, they are also sailing a Mahe 36 and crossed over from the BVI last night as well. We trekked up the hill together into The Valley (funny topography on Anguilla what?) where they were looking to pick up a car rental. We wandered on for a bit and then heard the distant call of an old-fashioned ice cream truck. As we carried on Ted and Louise came by in their new-found car and gave us a lift over to Crocus Bay where we hoped to pick up the Heritage Trail to walk back to Road Bay. We found the Heritage Trail alright, but I think Anguilla is just a bit bigger than we really expected and after about 3 miles and an impromptu stop for more water, we were back at the anchorage. What a neat clean island, and as we have found so often people are so friendly if only you say “Good Afternoon”. The island is definitely making it's living off high-end tourism so we won't be staying too long, but will take this as an opportunity to enjoy it while we can.

Landfall in Anguilla

After a fabulous (and uneventful), and our first overnight passage we arrived in Anguilla this morning at 9am.  It took us 15 hours from the time we departed the BVIs with light winds and a flat, calm sea.  Given the weather conditions we decided to head to the northern-most island of our chosen destinations and we now have about a week and a half to play in the islands before we head back west.

We've checked in at Road Bay and are going to spend the day enjoying the beautiful anchorage (and maybe catching a nap or two) and given that we have been able to pick up this wifi signal on the boat, I will post more a bit later.  Just wanted to let you know we'd made it very happily.