Life On The Rode: On and On We Go

From the confines of the marina in Rodney Bay we headed north to the island of Martinique. We headed for the anchorage of Anse D'Arlet on the south end of the island. We had been there before and liked it. Nice quiet, nothing going on, clear, clean water and you can clear into the country. We spent most of our day tacking to avoid some serious storms. We got in lots of practice on tacking as there were many storms. We finally arrived, picked up the mooring ball from the stern of the boat (another first), lowered the dingy and Kirk headed into shore to clear into the country only to find out that the customs facility was closed!. So we just kept the Q flag up and spent the night.

Early the next morning we headed to St Pierre. Another beautiful anchorage with clear clean water. We visited the DePaz Distillery once again and enjoyed the views of the volcano mountain and town.

Up and away early the next morning past Dominica to Isle Des Saintes (The Saintes) at the southern end of Guadeloupe.

After much debate and weather studies, we were up and off again to Deshaise at the northern end of Guadeloupe.

One more time we were up and off again early in the morn to head towards Antigua. It was alot of travel but you need to go when the weather windows allow. These weather windows were not the greatest and if we were not heading St Thomas we probably would not have traveled and just hung out.

We have been entertained by the birds trying to catch the flying fish throughout most of the trip since we left St Lucia.

We have hanging out in Antigua getting a much needed rest while the weather settles.

On our walk down the mountain from the DePaz distillery in St Pierre Martinique we came upon these guys hanging Christmas decorations. My they were pretty far up. Maybe 4 stories just hanging off the edge of the roof. Notice the Santa already installed.

Looking down into the river that the road follows from the distillery. When we first left the distillery, we came upon a man talking to another man on the side of the road. He was carrying a bag and a cutlass. After a greeting, he reached into his bag and pulled out some kind of fruit peeled a section off and offered it to us. Kirk was not real fond of if, however I found it most interesting and he then peeled the rest of the fruit and offered it to me. I thought for sure we were going to have to pay him for his goods but no he smiled and kept on walking. It was a sweet and yet tart fruit with spines sticking out from the seed in the middle. I have no idea of what it was. Moral of the story.... If someone is carrying a cutlass and you do not speak their language offers you fruit, take it.

Mt. Pelee (Martinique) with cloud cover.

Now starts Antigua

Looking down over English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour

Cool Bench. Very skinny!!

This tavern was at the top of the mountain at Shirley Heights. Was cute and quaint.

This yellow finch flew in and sat for a while on the cash register.

Pics of the sail loft pillars. Kirk says they are famous. They are in the famous Nelson's Dockyard. Truthfully, this really did not so much for me. I guess from living in Annapolis area for all our lives we have become used the maritime history.

Google this is you want more info.

This view was really spectacular. Behind us is English Harbour. The long skinny building near the end of the peninsula is Eric Clapton's house. We had a brief narrative by Luscious ( a woman who came out of the gift shop) telling us all the sights from this vantage point. Was pretty interesting.