May 2009 - Caribbean Compass

— Continued from previous page
These things are so unpredictable that I don’t think
you can always avoid them by picking your destination.
I thought the Antigua police did an excellent job: they
caught a suspect, apparently still with a gun.
In the meantime, yachting in Antigua is thriving and
I was there for the start of the first-ever RORC
Caribbean 600, a 605-mile non-stop ocean race among
the neighboring islands. I used my Compass credentials
to get aboard the press boat and take some pictures.
It was a great sight as the wind was honking.
The huge trimaran Region Guadeloupe came steaming
by at about 20 knots. As she passed I realized she had
not yet raised the jib.
French Island Strikes
All I have been hearing about Guadeloupe is strikes
and strife, so I have my friend Paul, who is coming
from the States to join me for a few weeks, fly to
Antigua instead.
As a further matter of avoidance we sail first to the
Saintes, where we have a great few days. It is much the
same, except Yves Cohen’s daughter Rachel and her
husband Aou have opened a cute little crêperie/ice
cream parlor in the back of his shop Maogony.
I doubt many have visited the haul-out in Marigot in
the Saintes. Well, too late now: it is no more. The
municipal authority decided to tear the building down.
I walk over there anyway; it is a pretty hike. At the end
of the footpath (there is no road) are a couple of boatbuilders,
and the island’s only gas station. I guess that
came about when everyone went by sea and no one by
road. So now whenever someone needs gas for their
car or scooter, they have to send some cans with a
fisherman to fill.
Despite the strike, Point-à-Pitre on Guadeloupe
seems fairly normal except for the giant Cora supermarket
and a few rental agencies being closed down.
Some weeks before, the strikers went daffy and burned
down the giant chandlery Electro Nautic. Are the company’s
dozens of employees, now out of a job, among
those cheering this on? It is hard to imagine. The
burning was not just vandalism: a lot of outboard
motors were apparently removed first. It is hard to
control a riot, but some well-placed cameras transmitting
images to a secure location, could give the police
the necessary information to arrest those responsible
when things get back to normal.
Down in St. François, there is not much evidence of
a strike. I enjoy the fact that the St. François marina
has been rebuilt and looks better. The work area is not
yet finished but the hauling ramp is done, and all they
need is a trailer. While no provision was made for a
Marina Ma
Zar-Par Za
dinghy dock, there are several steps in unused parts
of the marina wall where you can lock your dinghy.
The anchorage as usual is a pleasure — miles of turquoise
water heading off into the distance, behind
which are many giant windmills. When two of these
overlap a bit, the blades execute a kind of strange pas
de deux in the air. In front, colourful kite- and windsurfers
scream across the bay.
It is a Sunday so many businesses are closed. But it
is the one day of the week that one of my favorite restaurants,
the Iguana Café, opens for lunch. It is about
a mile’s walk away, but well worth the effort. It is the
kind of place where you arrive at noon and leave several
hours later feeling much like the Goodyear blimp,
but the food has been so great, not only don’t you care
but the whole world seems wonderful. There is something
about the very best French restaurants that has
this effect on the mind. Maybe that is why the French
manage to eat fatty foods and avoid heart attacks.
It is always a pleasure to visit Iles de la Petite Terre
and their mother island, La Désirade. When we arrive
at Iles de la Petite Terre a
slight swell is running, enough
to create the occasional breaking
wave over the bar. We
press on regardless and get a
good soaking from one of the
waves while entering the
anchorage. But it is lovely and
calm as ever inside. As we tie
up to one of the park moorings,
two big eagle rays are
under the boat, inviting us to
go snorkeling. As usual, a cou-
Left: It’s always a pleasure to
spend a few days in the Saintes
Right: In Dominica, Ras Moses
cooks us a meal in his ‘Rastaurant’
ple of big day-charter cats have the big beach full of
people, and some enterprising crewmember has lined
up about 20 topless young women to sit on the water’s
edge for a photo.
A few years ago, visiting La Désirade was only possible
for really shallow-draft boats, owing to a coral bar
of about six feet in the entrance channel. This was
removed a few years back, and this is my first visit
since then. The depths are a good nine feet right to the
harbor wall. The depth inside the wall heading up into
the fuel dock is a good seven feet, but the anchoring
area, on the inside of the harbor entrance measures
more like six feet. However, everyone assures me that
the mud is so soft that yachts of six-and-a-half-foot
draft do visit frequently and manage to anchor, and
that they have no problem. We stop for a fine Creole
lunch of court bouillon and gratinée vegetables at
Mme Zamia’s Lagranlag, and then sail the seven miles
back to Iles de la Petite Terre for the night. Another
tough day at the office.
Sailing from Iles de la Petite Terre to Marie Galante,
we see a fishing boat in which a crewmember is waving
his oilskin conspicuously. I am not sure whether they
are warning us of their nets or need help. I alter course
to go close round the leeward side. It is help they want:
both engines are failing to start. Luckily it is reasonably
calm. In the excitement I drop the spinnaker
rather badly, dunking some of it over the bow, but we
manage to retrieve it. Under main and engine, in these
moderate seas, it still takes us a couple of passes to
get a line over. Once they are under tow we stop the
• High Quality Sheltered Moorings
• Slips to 120’ with depth 10’
• Shore power 30, 50 and 100 amps
• All slips with fingers
• Showers, Laundry, Restaurant, 24 hour security
engine and roll out the jib. To my surprise we still
make about five knots, plenty fast enough to be towing.
However, for the towee, used to bouncing over the
waves at 20 knots, it is slow and boring, and in about
an hour he had figured out his engine problem (from
his explanation I think he may have borrowed his relative’s
boat and not realized where the spare fuel was)
and got it started, so cast off to go fishing again.
Despite the strike, Grand Bourg seems a bit more
active than in previous years, with a lot of new shops.
What I had marked on the chart as the “dinghy dock”
has sprouted a new building which turns out be a fuel
station — unfortunately de-taxed and for local fishing
boats only. There is no shortage, however, of other
places to leave the dinghy. The only downside I could see
in town is that a greengrocer has morphed into a “magnetic
shop” where they sold “positive energy” and the
“secret of angels”, a sign of our softening brains maybe.
Dominica’s Delightful
Guadeloupe’s misfortune in terms of the strike
seems to have given Dominica a bit of a boost with a
good yachting season, even if it started late. Up to 75
boats have been seen in Portsmouth in a day, and up
to 60 in Roseau. So many boats came over from
Guadeloupe for fuel that five times in two months
Dominica ran out of fuel.
PAYS, the people who bring security to Portsmouth,
are doing a good job and the new president, Jeffrey
(Sea Bird), came up with an ingenious solution to help
keep the group solvent. On Sunday nights PAYS puts
on a big beach barbecue; it costs EC$50 and includes
rum punch. The cruisers love it. Besides getting blasted
by rum and good music, and eating your fill of fish
or chicken, it is a great way to get to meet other cruisers
in the bay.
Dominica is, as ever, spectacularly beautiful, and the
people really open and friendly, without (with one or two
exceptions) being at all grabby. I hike with Sea Cat and
Jason (two of the Roseau guides) from Perdu Temps, a
hidden valley that is home to several beautiful Rasta
farms, over the mountains to the east coast, where we
had lunch with Moses in his “Rastaurant”. It was especially
fun as none of us had done that hike before.
I am happy that so many sailors have got to experience
Dominica this year, and that most have loved it, some
staying long enough to do volunteer work for schools,
Friends of Calls and other charity organizations.
The Dominican Republic's
newest marina catering
to the needs of
cruising yachtsmen
18.25.50N 69.36.67W
• Immigration office in the marina for clearance
• Free WIFI and Free Internet
• Dinghy Dock
• 12 miles East of Santo Domingo and 7 miles
East of International Airport
Tel: 809 523 5858 Visit: marinazarpar.com Contact MARINA ZARPAR VHF Channel 5 email: info@marinazarpar.com
MAY 2009 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 23