Snakes!

Canon at Fort Shirley, Dominica

Having passed by the chance to see the Jaco (Red-necked) and Sisserou (Imperial) parrots, we went ashore to visit the Cabrit national park and Fort Shirley. This British garrison was abandoned in the 1850s and the forest has regenerated since then, complete with large teak trees (James was very self-controlled and left them all standing healthily). The fort is undergoing reconstruction, thanks to EU funding, and promises to be very impressive on completion. Best of all, and just as the guide book promised, we found two types of lizard, land hermit crabs, lots of half-eaten shells of large crimson land crabs, and snakes! The snakes here are small, shy and harmless. We found several, including a pair interlocked whilst mating. All of them were mainly black with small white markings and under two feet long, living among the leaf litter.

Land hermit crab, Dominica

James then cleared out, including a fee of a further $2EC (50p sterling) and we sailed for Guadeloupe. The wind had been quite strong for the last few days so we had a decent 3m swell and a brisk wind on the beam. We crossed quickly and comfortably and reached Les Saintes via the ‘tricky’ Passe des Dames. This involved sailing between an uninhabited island and a spikey rocky outcrop in a narrow 10m deep channel. We then rounded up towards the only village to clear in.

Working lunch (on passage)

The islands are tiny, little developed and beautiful. There are no high rise buildings and the only visitors come by yacht or on a day trip via ferry from Guadeloupe. Less welcoming was the proliferation of moorings and lack of suitable anchorage since the 2007 pilot guides we had. We tried to find a spot among the French boats and were chased off by an officious Gaul in a powerboat. We tried the area he sent us too but it was too deep. In frustration, we opted to move well away, anchor off, take a swim and clear in tomorrow rather than get flustered and rush tonight. We moved to an uninhabited island with a sheltered bay and were just tying a stern line to the shore when the same officious Gaul came and told us we couldn’t anchor there either. James then spotted the recently established ‘no anchor zone’ and also that we were only in it by 30ft. Rather than motor off another few miles to the other crowded anchorage, we decided to be belligerently British and shifted the requisite 30ft to be just outside the no anchor zone – so there.

Sea front at Les Saintes, Guadeloupe

They even sell rum punch from their verandas!

I took a snorkel and yet again, the most popular spots for yachts have the poorest reef. The sandy bottom had large quantities of coral rubble (mainly reindeer corals) then shelved to a rock reef at 3m. This was a pleasant sponge garden but with few corals, and those there were damaged. The more shallow areas were silted up. However, there were large numbers of juvenile reef fish and schools of tiny fry among the rocks, treating the boulders and silt as a mangrove nursery.