Terre-de-Haut, Isle de Saints

5^th to 11^th June 2019

We enjoyed this stop – we went on one of the buoys just off the town, a short dinghy ride from the dock. It was fairly quiet by Isle de Saints standards, which was still horrendously busy compared to our nice quiet anchorages recently. But nice enough – just not particularly comfortable for swimming.

There’s a playground a short walk from the dinghy dock. And a good one too, with a suitably challenging climbing frame. All three kids enjoyed it. Arthur and Theo were on the 6 to 12 year old section (EU funded, so with more-than-sufficient warning signs). They managed fine and had a lot of fun in the process.

The fort is about a 20-minute walk from the centre of town, uphill but comfortable enough. Given that Theo walked the whole way up, I find it hard to see why so many people rent a scooter for the trip (which they do). But anyway – walkable for a three-year-old. Cool fort too – very interesting buildings, excellent museum and stunning views. A good place to visit and chat about all sorts of “learning things”. We also ran into a few boat families – two couples plus children happened to be at the fort at the same time as us, so a game of tag ensued while parents chatted. Then when we got back into town and were sat down eating ice cream, we met another boat-couple and kids! Everyone is on the way to Grenada for hurricane season so I’m sure we’ll run into each other again soon enough.

Our outboard broke. Three times. We’re pretty sure it’s something to do with the needle valve that lets fuel into the carburettor, but despite a couple of fairly thorough cleans it is still not running properly and has a tendency to cut out at inopportune moments. Like the first time Charlotte takes all three boys out. Or right behind the ferry dock when three ferries are about to leave. On both of those occasions Charlotte plus 2 or 3 kids got a ride back – the first time in a fishing boat, the second in the dinghy being towed behind another cruiser’s dinghy. After the second Charlotte took the engine apart, cleaned everything, and put it back together again. Still not right. So, until we get it sorted out properly, we’ll just use the kayak!!

Not much blogging was done as I’ve been a bit busy with work. The kids say that I need to work more so we can buy some new extra-bouncy trampolines. Kind of them.