S/Y RAPTOR: French Guyana

S/Y Yelo up ahead

We departed Lencois, Brazil at 05:30 hours of 23rd November 2014 and crossed the equator from Southern to Northern hemisphere about 150 nautical miles from Lencois.

We were headed towards Degrad de Cannes in French Guyana when we met our friends on S/Y Yelo at the entrance of Mahury River on 27th November and decided to follow them to Ile de Salut instead.

We're so happy to meet Daniela & Rolf again. The last time we met was in South Africa about a year ago. We anchored next to S/Y Yelo on Ile Royale at 3.5m deep in soft mud. It was a rolly anchorage (N 05.16.345 W 52.35.406).

Ile Royale

3 Islands on Ile du Salut

These islands were part of a notorious penal colony from 1852 onwards for only the worst criminals of France. The main part of the penal colony was a labor camp stretched along the border with Dutch Guiana, which today is Suriname.

Île Royale was for the general population of the worst criminals of the penal colony to roam about in moderate freedom due to the difficulty of escape from the island. Today, the island is peaceful with monkeys, iguanas, peacocks roaming free..

Île Saint-Joseph was for the worst of those criminals to be punished in solitary confinement in silence and for extra punishment in darkness of the worst of the worst criminals of the penal colony.

Île du Diable (Devil's island) was for political prisoners, including Dreyfus in 1895-1899 after his conviction in metropolitan France for treason. No one is allowed on this island.

Raptor & Yelo

Île Royale

View of Île Saint-Joseph

Close up of one of the peacocks

One of the many Iguanas

Lots of monkeys swinging from branch to branch on our walk. Spotted these two watching us!

Colourful Macaws

Daniela & I

Devil's Island

Kourou

The town sits at the mouth of the Kourou River, which is 112 km long. Within the Kourou district lies the Guiana Space Centre and the European Space Agency's main spaceport.

We anchored in the river near the marina (N 05.08.852 W 52.38.689). It's a pretty small marina but we were able leave our dinghy safely and access fresh water taps at the docks.

A big thanks to dear our friends Daniela and Rolf for helping us organise tickets for the Ariane Rocket Launch. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Guiana Space Center

Replica of Ariane Rocket

Everyone's setting up their cameras and waiting for the launch

Kinda funny we were so happy chatting with each other we missed the count down - and suddenly saw it in mid air

Trail of smoke from the Ariane Rocket

Kourou

St Laurent du Maroni

The town was founded in 1858, a penal town whose inhabitants were nearly all guards and liberated prisoners. Formerly the arrival point for the prisoners before they were sorted into different camps/prisons. Those who were lucky enough to stay in Saint-Laurent were generally better treated than prisoners in other camps. Their work was simple, they were free to go wherever they wanted inside the prison, and were given better rations.

Today, St Laurent is just like any other town with old buildings in colonial style and penitentiary architecture. There is a wonderful fresh vegetable market every Wednesday and Saturday morning where you will see a colourful mix of diverse ethnicity such as the french ("metropolitains"), creoles, amerindians, hmongs, chinese, brazilians, surinamese living here.

We anchored in the Maroni River (N 05.30.380 W 54.02.041) for almost 2 months next to S/Y Yelo and we met new friends Philippe and Chunny. A couple about to embark on their overland journey in South America in their big Green Truck Motorhome. We also met David (an Italian Aussie) who was starting up a marina right where we were anchored.

There's not much to do/explore in St Laurent but its a great place to be for a boat! Being in the fresh water, our hulls were barnacle free! It did leave brown watermark stains just above our water line, but better that than barnacles, right?