Napoleon (Les Iles des Saintes)

 

We’re anchored under the gaze of Napoleon and Josephine, who stare down at us from two of the hills that surround us here at ‘the saints’ (les iles des saintes - a small group of islands just South of Guadeloupe)

Napoleon and Josephine are the names of the two fortresses which used to guard the bay here.

Our plan for the morning is to take a look at the town, and give our legs a workout by heading up to Fort Napoleon to take in the views.

On the way over to shore the outboard splutters and dies a few times - I’m able to start it again each time, but it’s a little worrying and will need to be looked at later.. hope it gets us back to the boat as it’s a long way to row.

The town is quaint/posh/shanty with a decidedly French style, lots of wooden shutters and rusted corrugated iron roofs. It’s more tailored to tourists than the last few places we’ve visited, and the narrow main street has a mix of upmarket clothes shops, small bistros and bars, all quite tastefully decorated and dotted with the obligatory palm trees. We like it.

Heading from there we begin making our way up the initially gentle incline towards the fort - even at the lower levels the views across the bay are pretty spectacular. Leaning over a railing at one point, there’s a rustling below us which turned out to be three fairly large iguanas (80cm or so) prowling around looking for lunch.

The walk up the hill had us glowing by the time we got there, but the views all around as we walked the outer wall of the impressive castle were well worth the effort.

As we toured the castle, a small bird of prey - similar to a kestrel - caught a lizard on a dry branch just above us. Within seconds of making the catch another ‘kestrel’ flew over and with some angry wing flaps and a touch of squawking, snatched the lizard from the first bird and flew off - great to see.

There’s a dry moat around the castle - that a few goats mow/nibble the grass.

We stayed up there long enough to take it all in, drink our water, eat an orange then headed back down towards town - a significantly easier walk on the way back in the hot and humid conditions.

Back in town we picked up some fresh from the oven baguettes - so fresh in fact that they were initially too hot to handle.

By the tender dock is a bar that proudly advertises ‘free wifi’ - they know their audience.. we head in and are asked for our health certificates (passé sanitaire). We show our Greek certificates and the Antiguan booster card - the bemused barman hasn’t seen these before, and wavers on whether to let us in or not. I make the scouts honour salute and promise not to give anyone Covid, which seems to do the trick. After a pint for me and half for Chez, we’ve checked the weather and done the various online activities that needed taking care of.

Back to the boat - with the outboard engine once again dying on the way back. Thankfully we made it back to the boat without having to row.

The problem turned out to be dirt in the fuel filter, of which thankfully I had a couple of spares - so for once, an easy fix.

After a rolly night we decided to relocate to a mooring ball closer to town in a slightly more sheltered area.

Previous mooring ball pick ups have been tricky, but thankfully despite some strong wind we managed quite admirably (even though I say so myself!)

Next morning, after another fairly rolly night, we head for the ferry dock at 7am. The early ferries having departed, we tie up alongside the large quay and look to fill up the water tanks. There’s a hose, but sadly no tap. I track down the harbour master who asked if I have a ticket for water. I don’t. He turns out to be a nice guy, and let’s us fill up both our tanks (600lts) for which we later pay (€6) when his colleague arrives and is able to give us the all important ticket. Whilst there we meet some nice Polish sailors who are also stopping for water, and whose boat has recently crossed the Atlantic. We leave the quay and go back to our buoy, which had, by that stage, been taken by another boat in our absence. So we instead head to the other side of the bay and pick up an unattended buoy in hopefully a slightly less rolly position, but we’ll see. Later we go ashore for a weather check and to pick up the now daily baguette ration. The forecast wind over the next few days is not ideal for our next leg down to Dominica, so here we stay for now. As I seem to write often: there’s worse places to be stuck!