Guadeloupe – Feb 2022

Guadeloupe, another gorgeous French overseas territory, composed of a number of islands, blending influences of French, African and Caribbean culture – think hibiscus flowers, croissants, long luscious beaches, free range goats, reggae, carnival, and cheese, lots and lots of cheese.

Here we spent a few magical days in the glorious Isles des Saints, a cluster of tiny islands to the South of mainland Guadeloupe. Highlights included climbing to the summit of Le Chameau with our friends on SV Barataria;  exploring the 19^th century Fort Napoleon with its mega views and enormous iguanas;  the gorgeous Notre Dame de l’Assomption church; and resumption of our dawn ‘run club’ with Kate and Alex on SV Nethermead.

An abundance of kid boats made for fun evenings, gathered at the seaside playground, where our international troupe of feral children shared scooters and skateboards whilst their parents’ shared beers and plotted future nautical adventures.

From Les Saints, we sailed North along the West coast stopping overnight to visit the hot springs in Bourg de Bouilliante (‘Bouilliante’ translates as ‘boiling’ and they really were). Next stop, was the incredible Cousteau reserve, a protected marine reserve surrounding Pigeon Island with its insanely diverse and abundant marine life. Here we had so much fun snorkelling and had incredible encounters with enormous, docile turtles. Some crazy local wind effects here lead to sleepless nights and on one evening, an unmanned boat breaking its mooring and dragging through the anchorage, narrowly missing Mowzer. Much drama ensued, but thankfully, along with some neighbouring boats, we were able to secure its anchor before it drifted into the rocks off Pigeon Island. Sadly no salvage reward was forthcoming!

Our final destination in Guadeloupe was the pretty town of Deshaies, the paradise in the Death in Paradise series. Another picturesque community, all colourful, beachside buildings surrounded by sheer cliffs, with pelicans fishing in the anchorage. Here we hung out with our friends on SV Walrus, SV Blake and SV Clifford before checking out, ready for our passage to Antigua.

On leaving Deshaies, we had a bit of drama when our engine overheated on motoring out of the anchorage. We were very grateful to David on SV Walrus who towed us back to the anchorage where we discovered that our hot water heat exchanger had failed, haemorrhaging coolant into the engine bilge. Two hours later, heat exchanger bypassed and coolant refilled, we were able to once again, up anchor and head for our next destination, English Harbour, Antigua, just over 40nm to the North.