We sailed north along Guadalupe stopping briefly at the Jacque Cousteau marine reserve at Pigeon Island. It was quite rolly, but we snorkled in the rain. There were lots of trigger fish both black and blue. I started to bring my gopro on more of my snorking adventures. Slowly I am getting better at taking underwater videos, and pulling the best shots from the videos to share.

It was raining hard, and quite rolly, so we moved on after a few hours to the harbor of Deshaies. Lot of cruisers love this location, but for Blair and I, we didn't see the charm, so after a few days we sailed north to St. Kitts with a night stop over at Monterrat. 

At St. Kitts we were told that the provisioning was quite good. Again, I guess it is a mater of perspective. I found the French Islands had better produce and better prices. Not knowing what we would see down the road, we did pick up quite a few VERY expensive items. We stayed at a nice quiet anchorage call Christophe Harbor. It was developed for the Super Yachts, but has never taken off, so it was a nice place for me to snorkle and practice more of my underwater photography. I was able to get a photo of the garden eels, and started to learn more about the underwater life. I was able to get this shot of garden eels. They live in sand and sea grass areas of the Caribbean. 

After a few days we left for Saba. Saba is actually part of the Netherlands. It is a very tiny island, and you definately have to pick your weather window correctly as it can get quite rolly. We were lucky as the seas were quite calm when we arrive. Blair and I went snorking that afternoon, and it was the clearest water we'd seen so far. Lots of turtles and fish.  My experience so far, is that I am more likely to see the fish and turtles if I snorkel in the afternoon. 

The next morning we decide to take a "tour" of the island. This consists of getting the local taxi to drive you around the island. Since it's a tiny island there isn't much to see, but all the roads are VERY steep. I asked if having such steep roads meant that the local mechanic was busy working on breaks all the time. Our taxi driver " Smooch" said that they use maual transmission, so just downshift. No need to replace breaks very often.

The 2 villages are quite charming with white cottages and red roofs. There are quite a few hikes around the island,  so we took a hike to take in the views of the Windward Village. 

While we were at the top of the trail looking down, we heard a bunch of sirens. We thought this must be very unusual as the island has less than 1,000 people. When we got back to the village we asked Smooch what was going on. He had no idea, but said we could now go to the airport that has one of the steepest decents in the world. One the way, we stopped and noticed there was a truck that obviously has lost it's breaks and smashed into the church. 

I guess we found out what happens if you loose your breaks. We spent quite some time looking around to figure out where the truck had hit the rock wall then scraped along another rock wall smashing into the church. It was either that, or the driver was going over the side of the cliff on the other side of the road to end up on the airstrip. 

We hoped that the driver was OK, but never heard a helicopter leave the island, so guessed that the local hospital was able to take care of the driver. We went back to the anchorage, and found the boat to be really rolly. We were going to leave later that day, but decide to leave right away, as it was miserable in the anchorage. So off to St. Croix. 

Guadalupe, Pigeon Island, Montserrat, St. Kitts, & Saba Islands.