Guadelope-Domenica-Antigua 2001

                                                       8. - 29. June 2001

                                 

I got off the Geco-Topaz in time, the only problem we had getting to Guadelope was the transfer between the airports in Paris.  >> We had rented the boat through Salty Seas and Stardust this year as last yearMap over the Caribbean. 
bullet Elins page from this trip.

The Crew getting the Norwegian flag up, filling up with drinkable and eatable stuff and heading for the first Island of Marie-Galante.  

The route:  

Gosier at Guadelope - Rough sea to Saint Louise at MarieGalante - Nice sailing to Portsmouth on Dominica - Little wind to Roseau - Robbed at Roseau and had to stay over at Portsmouth again - Les Saintes - Pigeon  and Deshaies at Guadelope - English harbour and St Johns at Antigua - English harbour again before going through the channel to Ponte à Pitre - Sainte Anne - Rented cars the last day on Guadelope.

 

          

Marie-Galante:

There were people ready to guide us around this island when we got on shore, after the morning swim outside the beautiful beach with the Shell oil-tanks. 

We were shown the Poisson distillery with the Père Labat label, the city Grand-Bourg, Capesterre with the beautiful beach (best beach I have ever been on) and the Château Murat where relatives of Josephine married to Napoleon have lived.

The red trees are beautiful.  I was told the name of them by the ones running the visitor centre at Murrat, but I have forgotten.

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  Dominica:

                                           Portmounth:

  There are loads of internet cafès in Dominica!  Both in Portsmouth and Roseau.

  We had no problems in Portsmouth, but the food is more expensive than in Guadelope. 

  We got "Uncle Sam" to guide us up the Indian river. 

  Earlier arriving the island we were met by loads of small boats offering guiding and fruit, but we were told to look for "Uncle Sam" and nobody bothered us then. 

  We though had  "Short Finger" being very keen on finding us a place to eat and were to buy the bread.  "Big Mama" was though a good place for local food. 

  Uncle Sam is trained in guiding and is very keen on keeping his country unspoiled.

   After the Indian River trip we were taken to the forest to see trees we have never seen before!  We also managed to see some parrots in the distance. 

  Then to cool down we went to a water fall and on the way up we had Mangos, Bananas, Grapefruit, checked out Coffee beans, Muscat nuts and saw a Colibri bird!  All in one short, but warm walk up to the waterfall!

A link: Dimitri Sokolenko

 

                       Roseau:

  In Roseau we finally got fresh water by the Coast guard pier north of the ferry pier.  We didn't get any contact until after 4PM so the workers got extra paid for working overtime

  This was a bit annoying since we had been calling the Port Master for over 1 hour. 

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  We then anchored at Anchorage Hotel with other sailors and had an excellent dinner at the hotel.  

  The next day we went to Roseau town which is a nice city except for "helpful" people wanting money.

  The people of Dominica seem to be really nice, but a group of Norwegians walking in town  attract the ones we don't want any contact with. 

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  We had the afternoon up at the Sulphur Spring and a good snorkel at the "Champagne" place. 

  Though the last morning some had been onboard around 4-5AM and taken money from us, this delayed our departure. 

  The Police were though very helpful and we could steam up to Portmouth area and  anchor outside the beach hotels and go for a nice meal at the German ladies` bar.

 

Les Saintes-Pigeon Island -Antigua :

My camera trigger got stuck in Dominica due to  salt.  These pictures are taken mostly by Elin, but also one by Tone at the bridge when we were going through the canal and waiting during the night for the bridge to open.

Bourg Des Saintes on Les Saintes was a really nice place, pity we were not there during high season when the restaurants were open. 

Luckily we could buy real French food again at the grocery stores. 

We hired motor bikes (there were still tourists coming from Guadelope every day) and went up to the Napoleon Fort. 

Up there we went through the history of the island which was very interesting and we saw a whole colony of Iguanas, huge ones as well! 

We found ourselves a beach of course and one fell asleep with the radio on.

Then we went North to Basse-Terre just for a look and then to Pigeon.  We were very disappointed with the food we got at a local restaurant there, but the diving and snorkelling we did the next day and the chicken we got at the beach restaurant was more than good enough. 

The anchoring was a bit too exciting though, the wind was turning the boat constantly during the night.

 

 We then went to Deshaies before sailing over to Antigua.  Deshaies have the cheapest food in the we came over during the trip, so we bought loads. Then we had an excellent dinner at the Blue Note.

Antigua is a very nice place, probably the best beaches and cosy towns like English harbour.  We stayed over at English harbour two nights all-together and at Jolly harbour one night. 

Jolly harbour was nice, but there was also an "all inclusive" hotel there which is not too fun for sailors.  But on the other side of the bay it was a yacht harbour with restaurants and shops and nice summerhouses. 

We also stayed one night at St- Johns.   We got there at sun set (see picture).   We went to a party at Fort Bay. It was very interesting.... The next day we stayed at Dickenson's bay that also is an "all inclusive place" with a beautiful beach.

 

Guadelope:

Back to Guadelope through the canal.  Had one real day of shopping which was in Point à Pitre.  There is no where else to shop anything (good in one way)!  We were though very happy  with the good food you get a lot of on the French Islands. 

The next day we sailed to St. Anna and stayed over night and had a good day on the beach.  The beach has good restaurants with Seafood and also the entire range of snacks you want during the day. There is also a golf course on the south coast of Guadelope on the Grande-Terre wing. 

We went a day hiring cars and met up at St. Francois for a real Lobster dinner.  Some of us had been beaching and shopping, some had been on Basse Terre wing and the last picture to the right is from Pointe des Chateaux, a beautiful and scary place at the same time.

 

 

 

During the trip we saw Turtles and Frigatebirds quite often.  The Turtles are slow and beautiful and so are the Frigatebirds with flying abilities you could dream of!

Turtles, Parrots, Iguanas,  Flyfish, Frigatebirds