Leeward Islands

Going down the leeward islands

From the beautiful beaches of St Martin, to the glitz and glamour of St Barth’s, to the lesser travelled islands of St Kitts and Nevis and on to Guadeloupe.

It was an emotional time… saying goodbye to our Danish friends. We had been together from Luperon to St Barth. Many tears, beers, wine and other alcoholic beverages…until hopefully we meet again sometime in October.

We’re seen many boats from Luperon going down the chain of islands to Grenada for the hurricane season. It’s great to know so many and those ahead of us are able to provide great information from checking in at Customs and Immigration to details on the anchorages.

St Martin and Sint Martin were great. Nice to get into European culture.We did prefer the French part of the island, being more local whereas the Dutch side caterers more to the cruise ships and highend cruisers. Not really our cup of tea nor in our budget.

We had an opportunity to sample some fantastic ribs that were set up in the parking lot of the stadium.A very local eatery with very little tourists if any. The owner and the cook were real characters and they were entertaining as well as one of the highlights of our food experience. It’s a shame that travellers aren’t willing to tryout new experiences.

On to St Barth. Beautiful island, rainbow coloured houses, clean streets, flowers and nice beaches. The down side is that there is no soul to the island. It’s a place where the rich and famous go to see and been seen. The Main street is lines with Dolce & Cabbana, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and so on. Dressed in shorts and t shirt you’re guaranteed that no sales clerk will even look at you. No matter, can’t afford anything there anyway. The restaurants are very posh and expensive but the wine is cheap🍷Ah you got to love the French…they know what’s important 😂

It still was nice to visit and see how the other half lives 😳

We arrived in St Kitts and Nevis. Two separate islands close to each other with the same government. Not many cruisers here at this time, possibly because you still need a Covid test 24 hours before arriving.

It was a very rough sail over to the islands. The waves and swells were huge, the winds were heavy. Nine hours of bashing around. Things that we normally don’t really secure had been secured this time around but when we arrived, below was an absolute disaster area. The waves just crashed into the cockpit, hitting Mike several  times. He looked like a drowned rat when we arrived. Lol. Hope we don’t have too many more of those. 

The people of St Kitts (really St Kristopher) and Nevis are very friendly with a sort of Jamaican vibe. Over 40 000 people speak Creole even though the official language is English. One of the things that is very endearing of the people is that before asking anything they will say “good morning or good afternoon” then will proceed with the conversation. You enter a bus, you say “good afternoon “ and every single person in the bus will reply “ good afternoon “ it is considered rude to begin a conversation before this form of address. We’ve throughly enjoyed our time here.

On to the next Island, Guadeloupe . Night passage. Not very found of them but sometimes unavoidable. It took 15 hours of sailing, motor sailing then motoring. It was a very overcast night, so no moon, no stars, just total darkness. Almost 10 hours in blackness. 

We arrived in Deshaies at 7h00 to a very busy anchorage . Tried to set our anchor  twice with not luck. The boat just kept dragging. Finally, a sailboat left and a mooring ball became available. Hallelujah. Took several tries, but got it. The French mooring balls are quite different from what we’re use to.

Off to bed. Customs and Immigration is closed on Sunday. We’ll clear in tomorrow.😴

More on Guadeloupe in next blog.

Cheers 

Mike and Pierrette 

 

Town of St Martin

Our Hosts … BBQ ribs in the parking lot

Chicken on the grill…ribs already cooked

BBQ ribs in the parking lot 

Our anchorage in Saint Martin…very busy

Ile Forchue, St Barth’s 

Weirds low lying cactuses 

Thorny cactus…oddest shape 😳lol

Had to climb the mountains to get internet…Ile Forchue

Great beach…St Barthes

 

Beautiful building, St Barthes

Villa rentals with a fantastic view, St Barthes

Week long Regatta in St Barth’s 

Anchorage in Colombier, St Barth’s 

Land turtles everywhere St Barth’s

Love this little guy 

Wild goats St Barth’s

Brimstone Hill Fort, St Kitts

St Kitts

Nevis, second highest mountain in the region 

Turtle swimming next to our boat…biggest we’ve ever seen, Nevis

Wild donkeys, Nevis

Sunset Nevis

Deshaies Guadeloupe

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