Guadeloupe

We left Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua, early on December 29th and sailed on a beam reach for 43 miles to Deshaies in Guadeloupe. On the way, we got a good view of Monserrat. Smoke and ash are still belching out of the volcano. After being alongside for almost three weeks in Antigua, it was great to get out sailing again.

We anchored in the sheltered bay off Deshaies and went ashore to explore. We found a great 'Spar' shop. After our stay in Antigua, it was fantastic to find a well stocked supermarket with reasonably priced goods. Even better, there were lots of french and creole restaurants all along the waterfront, advertising interesting menus at very good prices. 'Haecceia' was also anchored in the bay, so we had a sundowner with them before dinner. Ashore, we sampled the local creole cuisine. Christophine, we discovered is a tasty root vegetable and Chicken Colombo turned out to be be a very tasty curry. Back aboard, it was great to not have to worry about mosquitos. They can't fly far in strong winds, so we were safe out in the bay for the night!

Much as we would have been happy to stay here, we decided to head south to allow us to clear customs in Basse Terre before sailing to Les Saintes for New Year. We had planned to stop for lunch and a snorkel at Pigeon Island, the site of the Cousteau National Park. By the time we got there, the wind was gusting over 20 knots and all the buoys were taken so we carried on south. It was a very frustrating sail with the wind extremely variable, from 4 knots to 25 knots on a whim. Rain squalls raced down from the high mountain rainforest and you could see rainbows high up between the mountains.

We arrived at Riviere Sens Marina in the early evening, picked up a mooring buoy and tied up stern-to on the visitor's pontoon. The customs office near the marina was closed, so we went into the town of Basse Terre to the main office. We found the office shut and were eventually directed to an office a couple of streets away. We then tried to get some cash. All the cash machines were out of commision as they were being set up to distribute Euros and the banks couldn't change any traveller's cheques because of a power cut. The various bureau to change were only interested in notes not traveller's cheques. Thank goodness for VISA, we were not able to get any cash until Martinique!

We were not terribly impressed with our visit to Basse Terre, so we decided to sail on to Les Saintes, a group of little islands 12 miles south of Guadeloupe. It was a long windward sail beating into 25 knots of headwind. Rain squalls did their best to make us believe that we were back in Scotland. We eventually arrived to find a busy anchorage. On the opposite side a yacht was washed up upon the rocks, a good reminder to make sure your anchor is dug in. We anchored in deep water well out of the way of charter boats that were doing their best to dislodge as many neighbouring anchors as possible. Overlooking the bay, a house was cunningly disguised as a ship emerging from the rocks.We went ashore for dinner and returned to the boat to watch the Hogmanay fireworks from the cockpit. We welcomed in 2002 on 'Sulmar', sitting in a cool breeze, sipping our champagne and listening to the band in the town square (The volume was much more bearable from where we were anchored!)

We awoke the following morning to a fantasic day - What a start to 2002. We set up our hammock on the foredeck, Gillian spent the morning reading and watching the frigate birds overhead and Robin went for a snorkel around the boat. This is more like the Caribbean we sailed all this way for, crystal clear water and a nice breeze in a sheltered anchorage (An anchorage with a nice breeze is very welcome in this heat). Bill and Jane ('Hecla') arrived later that afternoon and they joined us for dinner. On January 2nd, we walked to Grande Anse and watched the Atlantic swell crashing on the beach. The following day, we spent sunbathing and snorkeling on the beautiful beach at the Baie de Pointpierre.

That night, we had more trouble from blundering chartered catamarans, coming into the anchorage in the dark and insiting that they could fit in a non-existant space. We were woken up in the middle of the night by one such idiot out of control and about to ram us. Robin used some quite eloquent French to make sure that he departed quickly. We have enjoyed Les Saintes immensely and will definitely revisit on our way back north (although we may choose a couple of the more quiet anchorages).