Guadeloupe, a department of France

We were invited to an all you can eat, all you can drink party on the beach shortly before leaving Dominica. Perhaps 80 or more yachties attended and our hosts were the friendly PAYS boatmen. We had a great time eating grilled fish, chicken and salad. The drink was rum punch or fruit juice. I was alternating mine and Jeremy had no alcohol until after the meal. Then he lost count. I don’t know how he steered the dinghy back to Sal Darago in the dark, but he did. Once on board the motion of the boat was too much for him and the contents of his stomach were returned to the sea over the next two hours.

Marie Galante

Sugar Cane Factory - disused.

A few days later, we sailed into the wind to Marie Galante, a passage of about 3 hours.  Guadeloupe is an archipelago and as the wind had moderated at last, we decided to sail upwind first. Jeremy noticed a small tear in the genoa. As we entered the harbour at Grand Bourg we heard shouts. Our friends from Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, last seen briefly in a supermarket in Grenada and before that in Namibia, were anchored in the harbour. Maureen and Gil live aboard Phrene II and later we caught up with each other’s news over homemade rum punch in their cockpit at sunset. We were both “off” rum, but Maureen’s was delicious and we were glad to have one glass each.

We both enjoyed the six days we spent in Marie Galante. As soon as we were on anchor at St Louis, we took down the genoa, patched it, sewed it and put it up again. Hiking the sentiers was lovely and varied. The island is quite flat so there were few strenuous climbs and those were short. Mostly, the landscape took us along beaches, through woodland, across fields of sugar cane and past many old windmills. These were once used to power the sugar mills.

Iles de la Petite Terre

This is the other end of the pass.

These two small islands are in a national marine park. They are flat and very beautiful. Free moorings have been laid between the islands and this amazing, azure blue anchorage is protected by a reef, which constantly breaks with Atlantic waves. The only downside is the 8 foot deep entrance, which sometimes has a big swell breaking across it. Once again, conditions were moderate, but it was still scary entering, as three big waves caught us sideways seemingly determined to deposit us on the beach alongside. It was calm in the anchorage with a knot current running through it. The snorkelling was a fast drift type holding on to the dinghy and I managed to sprain my foot struggling to propel myself into the dinghy at the end.

The lighthouse complete with iguana

We spent only one day and night here. Lots of tourists come on day trips to the fabulous palm lined beach. The only walking allowed is up to the lighthouse to see the views.

La Desirade

Difficult entrance to tiny harbour

The weather was still moderate, so we sailed and motored to windward for two and a half hours towards a large rectangular rock in the distance.  There is only one place to anchor: inside the harbour. With two big ferries in there, three local yachts on moorings and numerous fishing boats there seemed to be no room for us. A man gestured for us to tie up alongside and Jeremy demonstrated his boat handling skills reversing Sal Darago in a confined area to the space alongside. We could only stay one night as a ferry was due in the next morning. We went hiking straight away, steeply uphill to a lovely little chapel and then further up to the mountain plateau at 273 metres. The wide track along the top was easy walking and then it was very steep down to sea level. A bus came from behind us and took us back to the harbour. My toe started to hurt on my sore foot. A big blister had formed.

St Francois

We knew the weather was set to break. No sooner had we made our way safely through the reef outside the La Desirade harbour than gale force gusts and heavy rain hit us. We already had a small genoa flying for the 3 hour downwind run to St Francois on mainland Guadeloupe. We furled it even smaller and took turns hand steering. The swell grew bigger and we grew wetter until we were soaked to the skin and chilled by the wind. Surely, the sun would come out soon. The approach to St Francois is through a well-marked passage between reefs. Yachts were moored and anchored in two lagoons and we were lucky to find a space. Soon we had more wet clothes on the dinghy ride into the marina, where we had lunch and topped up our supplies in a supermarket.

Iles des Saintes

Table D'orientation

We approached the Saintes, a collection of small islands that reminded me of the Scilly Isles, after a pleasant 5 hour downwind run. There was no space to anchor off the main town of Bourg des Saintes. Two miles of moorings, almost all of them occupied by yachts, filled the whole seafront. We tried Ilet a Cabrit about a mile away and found the same scene.  We dropped the anchor for a very brief and hurried lunch, as we soon began to swing towards the moored yachts. Jeremy was increasingly frustrated and handed the wheel to me. I steered us to Pain de Sucre about half a mile away, where we found yachts on anchor but very little space. We picked a spot that became better when the yacht behind left next day. From here we explored ashore, getting lost straight away trying to find the track from the beach and ending up in somebody’s garden. We walked up their drive like we owned the place and no-one challenged us. Being beggars for punishment, we walked up to Le Chameau, 307m above us. Napoleon had built a huge look-out tower on the highest point of the main island of Terre den Haut. The views were fabulous.

Terre den Bas has some big shells

Next day we motored across to the other inhabited island, much quieter Terre den Bas. We anchored bow and stern, tempers flaring and domestic bliss threatened as communication between Skipper and First Mate all but disappeared. Harmony was soon restored and we went ashore for lunch followed by a 2 hour walk along Trace Bleu and Trace Rouge, very well-marked trails of many boulders at the beginning and end. The next day we tackled Trace Jaune, which took us steeply up towards the mountains, passed between them and descended via a cliff path right to the restaurant for lunch. There were never more than four yachts in the anchorage and most only stayed one night.

Nearly finished a four hour hike

Basse Terre

Confusingly, Basse Terre is situated in Basse Terre and is the capital of Guadeloupe. We anchored off the Marina de Riviere Sens and started to search Sal Darago for the source of the invasion of moths. It was our cereal packets. We were not too worried at first, believing a few moths could have flown in, but when maggots were found crawling on the table at breakfast time, we knew we had to act. All cardboard was thrown out and all cereal packets confined in lock and lock boxes. Two lockers were emptied and cleaned. Did that get rid of them? No! The battle continues, but they are much depleted.

Later, Jeremy went for a snorkel and I decided I’d just swim round the boat. He was stung by a jellyfish and came back to Sal Darago calling for vinegar. Copious amounts were poured on his arm, but it did not work. Half an hour later, Jeremy had to lie down and began shivering violently. Sweat poured out of him and his limbs made involuntary movements. At first, I thought it was a fever but he said he was cold. I took his temperature and it was only 35.1C dropping to 34.6C, well below 37C. Next he had pains in his back and legs and then sharp pains in his joints. When he began to lose feeling in his fingers, he stopped objecting to my wish to call the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre on VHF 16. They put me in contact with an English speaking doctor. I’d given Jeremy an antihistamine and paracetamol.  This was the right thing to do. As he had stopped shivering and feeling was returning, I was to observe him and let him rest. I was relieved to see Jeremy up and eating bread and honey about 4 hours after the jellyfish sting. He rested the next day and today he seems to be absolutely fine. We are obviously concerned that this does not happen again.

We are making our way up the west coast of Guadeloupe and have two more ports to visit before sailing to Antigua. Au revoir pour maintenant.