Marie Galante and The Saints
07 May 2013 | Dominica
Bert - Blue Sky Warm and Humid
After spending a week in the Marina Bas Du Fort in Pointe-a-Pitre is was time to move on to our next destination Marie Galante. Since I like to start a crossing to a new destination early in the morning which is impossible in a marina where you need assistance from the marina staff, we left late in the afternoon on 04/29/13 to take an anchorage in the river. The next morning during my equipment check I discovered that the macerator pump of our waste tank was not working. So I had the nasty task to pump out the waste tank manually, de-install the pump and open it to check what the problem was. The pump was clogged and the impeller was damaged. The good thing was that I could go to the marina with the dinghy and buy the needed parts. Before all was done it was too late to depart and the rain was coming down again with full force. The next morning (05/01/13) after a heavy rain shower the sky cleared and we left for Marie Galante. We had three large squalls on our way but we managed to sail around them and anchored in the main anchorage bay of Marie Galante, St. Louis.
Marie Galante is one of the islands of Guadeloupe and is again one of examples how well the French Islands are managed and maintained. This is especially the case if you compare the French Islands with the original British and Dutch Islands. Marie Galante is clean, has very well maintained roads, public service is excellent and the island has a great agricultural use, mainly sugar cane fields but also other types of use like vegetables and fruits. Where in the world will you find fully computer controlled public bathrooms, chemically cleaned and disinfected after each use: In Marie Galante (see pictures)? If you visit the towns early in the morning you see the cleaning crews out on the streets and before daily business starts the street are clean again. Everywhere you find garbage bins for public use.
The island is beautiful with different types of terrain. You find very steep hills with dense jungle type of vegetation, cliffs of the Atlantic coast line and nice rolling hills in between used for agricultural purposes. We rented a scooter and drove on the all roads except for the real steep ones and the dirt roads. We visited the beautiful bays and beaches on the west and south coast, the cliffs on the north coast and the very secluded beaches behind the reefs on the east coast. We visited the Distillery Bellevue not only for the free rum samples, but because it is one of the best restored wind mills and factory. It was nice to see a modern distillery in operation. The Habitation Murat on the south coast gives you a very good idea how great the sugar cane plantation owners were living. The ground, the mansion and the ruins of the mill, factory and slave houses are very well maintained and the view over the ocean and the hills are breath taking. We had lunch in one of the very nice local restaurants with Creole menus and all together it was a very nice visit.
On Saturday (05/04/13) we left early in the morning to The Saints (Iles des Saintes), a small island group that is part of Guadeloupe south of Basse-Terre. We planned to stay on these islands only 2 days and that was a mistake. Although they are small the islands have a lot to offer in beaches, a nice fort, nice restaurants, magnificent views and last but not least very nice people. The islands are just a short run (6 miles) from Basse-Terre and day tourism is the basis for the economy. At 9 AM the first ferries come in and the businesses are awaiting their customers. At 5 PM just before the last ferry departs it is very nice and crowded on the town square at the ferry dock. After the last ferry departs the town is nearly empty. As an ex-employee of the Public Works Department of the City of Miami Beach I am still interested how these departments are working in the places we are visiting. The Public Works Department of The Saints is the best. First class facilities and before the first ferry arrives the crews are on the streets to do repairs and clean the streets. One crew member was using a vacuum cleaner the size of a mini smart car to clean up debris from the front street that is a pedestrians only area. We normally leave early in the morning to our next destination, but the office that handles the customs computer for clearing in and out is closed over the weekend so we first had to go to town before we could leave on Monday morning (05/06/13). So we experienced the town with is small restaurants opening for breakfast slowly waking up. It was fun and even I who is very hyper about leaving early in the morning enjoyed myself. In this and previous blogs we described the endless of rain we had since we arrived in Guadeloupe 3 weeks ago. On the last day in Marie Galante the rain stopped and also the trade winds. It was a set of circumstances explained by Chris Parker that made the trade winds disappear. Surprise, surprise, our sail from Marie Galante to The Saints, normally a nice run with North/East to South/East wind needed the engine. And during our sail from The Saints to Dominica we had no wind at all! Due to this complete lack of wind it is hot, not a little hot but really hot. Of all the years I spent in the Caribbean I have never experienced days without wind, but now we have no wind that is cooling us off at night, but we are still sleeping well.
We are now in Portsmouth, Dominica enjoying the most beautiful view of the mountains covered with jungle vegetation and we will report on our visit to this island in our next blog.