Guadeloupe

We left Antigua on Sunday morning at around 10. Wind was good and the sailing was nice. Visibility was again very good, we could see Antigua very clearly for a long time ...

... and Montserrat's volcano too.

We reached Deshaies in late afternoon. After we anchored I went into the water to check on our anchor, and as soon as I got in I saw a turtle. Unfortunately our chain was to near to corals so we moved Heron to the spot where we weren't making any damage.

 There was a beautiful sunset that evening.

I couldn't wait to go snorkeling. There were a lot of turtles in the bay and I knew snorkeling at the north side of the bay was great. The instant I got in the water there were two turtles circling around me. Pretty!

I saw a Sharptail Eel.

Considering it was cloudy I was pleased with quality of photos my new camera made.

On Tuesday we moved to Pigeon island anchorage. I went snorkeling right away. This boat was almost right beneath Heron in 13m of water. If you look closely, you will see two Lionfsh living in it (the feathery finns in the deepest part of the boat) and a lot of smaller fish around.

There weren't as many turtles there as the last time, Tomaz joked they have moved to Deshaies. But they were patient and allowed me to come close and make photos.

Reef at the northern shore of the bay was beautiful. This is Spanish Hogfish - with yellow makeup!

 Sea Plumes forest.

This is the only Cero I saw in last two weeks, we haven't been lucky with fishing lately.

Set of Giant Barrel Sponges.

This is a Maze Coral.

This is a Branching Fire Coral encrusting a Sea Fan. There are two Brittle Stars hidden in the branches, just where the coral forms it's branches at the top.

These are Sea Pearls (don't you just love some of these names?), hidden in a sponge. They belong to the family of green algae. They are one of the largest one cell organisms (up to 7cm diameter).

This is Elliptical Star Coral.

A Christmas Tree Worm on a Mustard Hill Coral.

A Flamingo Tongue up close.

These are Orange Cup Corals living on a sponge. They apparently came to the Caribbean on a ship's bottom from Eastern Pacific or Indo-Pacific, where the species is common, and then spread around with the currents since 1943, when it was first recorded from Puerto Rico and Curacao.

This is Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber.

Around Pigeon Island there were many turtles with Remoras on them - as they grazed on the bottom, the Sharksuckers were attached to the back, and when the turtle swam to the surface for air, they moved to the belly part of the shell. They just want a free ride, but turtles looked like they were annoyed by them and tried to shake them off from time to time.

After a bit rolly night we sailed to Les Saintes. Coastal sailing is always very hard, especially on the western side of Guadeloupe, wind often shifting from East to West, one moment gusting to 32 knots, then dying down completely the next. It is very tiresome, one has to work the sails all the time.

We had a great view of Guadeloupe's highest peak, Soufrierre. There was also some smoke on the top, proving it is still a working volcano. We never saw it so clearly before, neither the smoke coming from it.

We anchored at the Paine de sucree. Next day I went snorkeling again, ready to explore macro functions of my camera.

This is a Slate Pencil Urchin wedged in a crack in a rock. I like how some of his spines are bright red and some covered with algae.

Another pretty Christmas Tree Worm. It lives in the tube that is encased in living coral and catches it's food with it's crowns called radioles. The worm is shy and retracts the crowns into the tube when approached and closes the tube with an operculum that you can see on the left.

This is White Encrustung Zoanthid, it is related to anemones. It is much smaller and lives in colonies.

This photo is actually  a bad photo of Golden Crinoid (the feather star). It was supposed to be like two photos below. But just as I was going to delete if, I noticed why my camera didn't focus on the star - there were some tiny little shrimps in the way - the Mysid Shrimp.

The portrait of Treespot Damselfish - damselfish are very protective and brave, they would try to scare off even much bigger animal than themself - like myself. That's why it is possible to make good photos of them - because the fish comes to you. Once I was even bitten by one and another tried to bite my camera.

And another cute Christmas Tree Worm. How can such a beauty be a worm?

Detail of Mustard Hill Coral.

I found this crab between the branches of the Finger Coral, luckily it was moving or I would have overlooked it. It took me many dives to take this photo. See how the crab is hairy or camouflaged in algae, only his pincers are "clean". And his segmented white and black eyes. I still haven't been able to identify it, the closest thing in my book is Paved Clinging Crab.

Detail of Star Coral.

Baloonfish - with eyes that look like mirror.

Greater Soapfish

The detail of the Grooved Brain Coral - you can see small tentacles on the edges of the ridges.

I am having so much fun with my camera (Olympus TG-2) and my books (Paul Humann & Ned DeLoach trilogy Reef Fish, Reef Coral and Reef Creatures Identification), first taking photos while snorkeling and afterwards studying photos and trying to identify what I saw.

The dry season in Antigua

On Tuesday late afternoon, after snorkeling, we walked to English Harbour. On our way we saw Cattle Egret on the fence. It is called so because it usually spends it's days around grazing cattle and feeds on insects. It is much smaller than Great White Egret, that is often seen in Slovenija.

We couldn't resist a photo in front of our favorite restaurant, Trappas.

After strolling through English Harbour we had a snack in Galley Bar. Coconut shrimps were delicious, but on our way back we decided that we still have a room for dessert and stopped in Cape Horn. They serve true French desserts, and all were yummy.

Next day we dinghied to Freemans Bay to walk up to Shirley Heights. As I saw how great the water looked around Bishops Reef, I was almost sorry I didn't go snorkeling again.

We passed by the entrance to English Harbour....

... and tied the dinghy to the small dock at the Galleon Beach in Freemans Bay.

It looked pretty with all the anchored boats and smoking Montserrat as a backdrop.

The trail up to Shirley Height was nice, but it was pretty hot. It was almost noon already and maybe we should have started earlier. The vegetation looked dried out and brown, it is no wonder since it haven't rained here for weeks, if not months.

There are lots of Agava plants along the trail, here they call them Century plants, because they bloom only once in their whole long lifetime.

The views were great from many points of the trail ...

... but even better from the top.

I took a photo of this Antillean Crested Hummingbird, I think my new camera is doing it's job much better than my old one has.

After a Pina Colada at the "summit" we returned down the same way and then we dinghied across the anchorage to English Harbour. We had a nice Roti and smoothie there. There were Bananaquits (the small yellow, black and white birds) helping to "clean" the tables after every meal.

We saw this Ruddy Turnstone in Falmouth Harbour the same day as we went shopping.

In the evening we sailed to Carlisle Bay. There was only one more boat there and it felt peaceful and quiet after lively Falmouth. In the fading light of the evening we first saw an Osprey flying low over our boat, and the the real treat - an West Indian Whistling Duck, rare and endangered local duck. Both birds we saw only because we heard them first, they both have very distinctive cry. I learned how Osprey sound not so long ago in Nonsuch Bay, and how the ducks sound last May also in Nonsuch bay.

Next day we sailed to Five Island Bay. The visibility was unbelievably good, we could see Guadeloupe, that is over 40 miles (75 km) away, Montserrat with it's smoking volcano, Nevis and even St Kitts.

I guess the visibility was so good because of dry air, that is the result of such long dry weather. But dry weather brings along also it's bad sides, not just that plants get brown and dry and even die, there are fires starting on many places in Antigua. I know I'm gonna regret saying this, but I really wish for some heavy rain!

Five Island Bay looked pretty in afternoon sun, there were only two boats anchored on the north side. We also anchored there, south side is prettier but the swell, even small, is making the nights there uncomfortable.

We swam, read, and girls and captain went dinghy-sailing in the afternoon.

We stayed in Five Islands Bay until next afternoon, then we moved to Jolly Harbour. It was time to say goodbye and in the evening captain dinghied the girls to the shore to catch a cab to the airport.

We stayed in Jolly Harbour that night and the next. We did some shopping on Saturday and cleared out, and on Sunday morning we sailed to Guadeloupe.