More by luck than planning we had an easy passage to Puerto Rico and then along the south coast to the Spanish Virgins. On Culebra we met this iguana at a restaurant.
By the time we reached the Virgins we felt the bulk of the trip was behind us and we slowed down in the US and British Virgins.
Here we often picked up
moorings in the National Parks rather than anchor.
From the Virgins we hopped across to Saint Martin then down the Leewards with a stop in Antigua and Guadeloupe. We loved Les Saintes - a small group of tiny islands just south of Gaudeloupe.
Daytrippers come from the main island to browse the boutiques in the little town known simply as Le Bourg,
to sample the French food,
to enjoy the beaches,
and to tour the Napoleonic fort.
While Gaudeloupe itself is mostly very wet, the Saintes are arid and the cactus garden at the fort is inhabited by iguanas.
All down the island chain we saw a variety of fishing boats. But most were small, high bowed wooden or fiberglass pirogues like this one working off Martinique in the Windwards.
We had been looking forward to our stop in the National Park at the Tobago Cays in the Grenadines. Hoped to see water as clear as the Virgins and colourful as the Exumas. That was not to be but the anchorage is still unusual - no island to block the wind you anchor in a big blue lagoon directly behind the reef - and it is windy!The last stop before our hurricane season stay in Trinidad was Grenada. Ravaged by Ivan a year earlier there was still plenty of evidence of the destruction. We took an island tour with cruisers from 3 other boats.
Some of the crops survive - cocoa, cashew for example but 90 % of the nutmeg trees were brought down by the storm - a huge blow to this small island.
Here rum is still made the old fashioned way using 200 year old equipment.
