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27 July 2018

19 July Ils du Salut


Our first morning in the islands was uplifting after the disappointment of Jacare. Palm trees swaying on the breeze, blue skies and birds on the wing. We were on holiday again.
dock at Il Royale
Le Ils du Salut (Isles of Salvation) are three small islands and part of French Guiana and since 1965 have been owned by Centre National D'Etudes Spatiale, or, the European Space Agency whose rocket launch site is just 9 miles away at Kourou. When a rocket is launched it passes directly over the islands. For the three days around a launch no boats are allowed to anchor here and the residents move to the mainland. Residents are the hotel staff, officers from the islands' police station and the camp chief on Ile St Joseph.
anchorage

day boats on moorings

Prior to being part of the Space Age, I read the islands have been a French territory since 1664, a site from which to colonise the interior of South America, but in 1854 Napoleon Bonaparte decided they were to be a prison for political prisoners, repeat offenders and anyone not wanted in mainland France. Convicts were last transported here in 1937.
The convict who is most closely associated with the islands never stepped foot on them. Henri Charriere, aka Papillon wrote a book which he claimed was an autobiography of his time on Ils du Salut. The real truth is he was incarcerated on another prison island near Cayenne and his book is a collection of stores he was told of life on these islands. Many people are very disappointed when they come here and discover the most well known resident wrote a book of fiction not one of fact. And the eponymous film wasn't shot here either. That location was either Hawaii or Brazil depending who tells you.
Before we sailed here we'd read the blogs of friends who've travelled came before us and trusting their accounts to be true we had been prepared for a rolly anchorage so we were happy to find all was calm during our visit.
When we arrived at 3am in the morning there was one boat, a catamaran called Magic Bullet with Australians Geoff and Kim on board, anchored close in to the day boat moorings (not available to visiting yachts). They left the morning after we arrived, hopefully not something we said, and we moved closer in to the bay. There was no difference in conditions to being further out, but we were 200m closer to the boat dock. It was still calm.
The boat dock is used by the catamarans which arrive at 9am each day from Kourou transporting eager guests. Some come for the day, others stay overnight at the hotel or camp for free. The dock and entry to the islands is free for visiting yacht.

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