Iles du Salut

The Salvation Islands were a great place to visit. They are made up of three islands: Ile Royale, Ile Saint Joseph and Ile du Diable ( Devil's Island). The islands were a penal colony in the late 1800s to 1945. It is amazing how terrible the conditions were for the inmates. The solitary confinement cells looked brutal. Today is is a historical site and you can walk around Ile Royale and Ile Saint Joseph. We spent 4 days anchored off the islands, walking around and enjoying swimming in the clean water. You can even camp or stay in a hotel on Ile Royale. There is quite a bit of wildlife on the islands. We saw monkeys, agouti (large, cute rodents), iguana, salamanders, leaf cutter ants and some resident macaws and peacocks.

We returned to Kourou on July 4th to check out from the country and we were fortunate to be able to watch an Ariane 5 launch from the boat. To see and hear the launcher go back was a rare experience.

We left Kourou for Tobago on the 7th, approximately a 630 nmi trip.

The cells on Ile Royale

The cells on Ile Royale

More cells

Not much space to live in

a local cute rodent called an agouti

resident macaws

a very cute little monkey

showing his colors

Ariane 5 launch

sunset first evening out from French Guiana

A few pictures

Now that I have a connection where I am able to upload a few picures...

 

 

The size of the logs and water hyacinth we had to avoid

Really big logs!

Our location in French Guiana

High tide at the local boat pier

Low tide, tough to get out at this time of day :)

Rick & Suza at the Guiana Space Center

Guiana Space Center

Yesterday we toured the Guiana Space Center which is the launch site for the European Space Agency. Here they launch the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega (new, small launcher still in the qualification process) launchers. There will be a launch on July 5 of an Ariane5 which we hope to see from the boat.

Outside of that we have been doing neccessary boat chores. Many fuel runs with jerry cans, tracking down propane, provisions, laundry, etc. It is amazing how much time these tasks can take.

Next we plan to go to the Salvation Islands. One of the islands is Devil's Island, the site of a former penal colony where notorious French criminals were sent in the late 1800s. This is where Papillon was interred.
We are hoping for clean water so we can spend some time swimming and relaxing.

Kourou, French Guiana

We have arrived in Kourou, French Guiana. It was smooth sailing until the last day when we had no wind. The current was pushing us at 5 knots though not quite in the right direction, so we motored the last 50 nmi. After motoring for over a month through the Amazon it was great to sail most of the way.

We now have access to grocery stores and French pasteries, it is amazing how exciting that can be when you have not seen either for a while.

Voyager's plans have changed and we will be in this area for a while and then head directly to Tobago. Once Voyager leaves Tobago for Trinidad, they will have completed their circumnavigation.