After exercising and recharging Spring Tradition’s batteries, we decided to head into Saint Louis to do some provisioning.  They moved the floating dinghy dock from last year and it is chaotic now.  Last year the dinghy dock was by itself, away from the main dock.  Now it is tied up below the main dock and there are steps leading to it.  That part is terrific.  The floating dock itself is damaged with many of the tiles smashed in.  The crazy part was that there were so many dinghies tied up to it that we couldn’t fit ours in.  We ended up three deep and had to crawl over other dinghies to get to the dock.  Luckily the water was fairly calm so we were able to do this without too much trouble.

It is about a half a mile walk to the grocery store.  It felt good to take a walk.  On the way back, we of course stopped at a local patisserie and purchased some gorgeous-looking desserts.  We tried two of them tonight and they were good.

Today we woke up tried to get our boat untangled from the mooring ball that we were tied to.  We put two different ropes on the ball to help ensure that we are well secured.  Unfortunately, in the current and wind, the ball got twisted around and the lines were tangled.  Usually we can pull them free but this time we couldn’t.  Steve ended up jumping into the water to untangle the lines.  By the time he had gotten back on the boat and changed out of his swimsuit, the lines had tangled again.  Luckily, a nice French sailor was snorkeling passed and helped us.  Finally we were off. 

It took us about four hours to sail from the Saintes to Marie Galante.  We both were at the helm looking for fish pots.  Fishing is a common livelihood of the locals in Guadeloupe.  We couldn’t believe it, but we found some fish pots in 650 feet of water.  Luckily Steve picked a good line to sail and we only had to alter course a few times.    It was a hot, hazy day for sailing.  While we didn’t encounter any squalls, we had to get about an hour and a half away from Marie Galante to be able to see it. 

The main anchorage, just off of the town called Saint Louis, is a wide-open bay.  There are probably 50 or so boats anchored throughout the bay.  While the water is nice and clear, there isn’t much to see below.  We stayed on the boat this afternoon and are looking forward to going into town tomorrow.  As we recall, they have a fairly good grocery store and I need to do some provisioning.

After a day on the boat, we decided to go into town to take a walk to a different part of Terre de Haute.  We walked past the airport and Grand Anse Beach.  This area was fairly rural and several houses had goats enclosed in fences. 

The houses here were nice and had private yards.  As we continued to walk, we came to Plage de Roderigue.  This was a nice little cove where some people were snorkeling. 

After our walk, we stopped in at a local boulangerie (bakery) and I finally was able to purchase a pain au chocolate, which is croissant-like bread with chocolate chunks inside.  It was delicious.  Of course, we also purchased a baguette, which was fresh and tasty. 

In the afternoon we jumped overboard and went snorkeling.  While the snorkeling wasn’t fantastic, it was fairly good.  We saw two large Caribbean lobsters.  I also saw two brown eels with spots on them, called Sharptail eels.  The first one was fairly small and seemed to be having a blast playing with some fish.  The second one I saw was a little larger and was swimming in my general direction, though not directly towards me.  That is when I decided it was time to return to the boat.  It was an enjoyable snorkel.

We decided to go for a hike today to see Morne Morel, Fort Caroline.  So, we took the dinghy to town and started walking.  It took us a moment to find the correct street to walk on, but we eventually found it.  The trail was quite steep at the beginning.  However, it leveled out a bit once we got to the top of the hill.  We traversed wooded trails, scrambled over rocks, and walked on dirt paths. 

The views from the top were beautiful and we were able to see several different bays. 

We took a different trail back down to town and ended up at Marigot Beach. 

We made it back to the boat before the rain.  (Actually, it rained while we were in the grocery store, but we avoided it.)  It was a good workout and we really enjoyed stretching our legs and seeing a different part of Les Saintes.

Today we left around 6:30a and motored the whole way.  There was only approximately 3 to 4 knots of wind in the lee of Guadeloupe, which wasn’t enough to fill our sails.  And, it can get sporty off the southern tip of the island, going from no wind to high wind where you need to reef your sails.  Both Steve and I were at the helm for most of the trip, as we had to watch for fish pots.  They are hard to see, especially when sailing into the sunlight.  We narrowly avoided one fish pot and easily navigated around many others.  We arrived at Ilet a Cabrit around 10:30a and were able to pick up a mooring ball.  The mooring balls are no longer being maintained, unfortunately, which means Steve had to carefully inspect ours to make sure that it would hold us.  We know this anchorage and the wind will spin us around the ball day and night.  There wasn’t a painter on the ball, which meant that we had to attach directly to the ball itself instead of a lead line.  We snagged it on the first try and were attached to our new home for the next couple of days.

The water here is a beautiful turquoise green color.  Last year there was good snorkeling so we are hoping the same is true this year.

Around 11a we dinghied into Terre de Haute, the main town/island in Les Saintes.  And, we cleared into Guadeloupe.  On the way back to our dinghy (it was in the opposite direction actually, but who is counting), we stopped at the main patisserie in town.  We picked up some dessert and a baguette.  The choices were limited since we arrived so late.  And, a cruise ship is anchored in between the islands.  Hopefully what we purchased will taste great. 

On Monday, 2/19/24, we woke up early and left as soon as it was light enough to see fish pot markers bobbing in between the swells.  The sail to Guadeloupe was quite pleasant and we were able to sail from the harbour amost all the way to Pigeon Island on the leeward side of Guadeloupe. 

Steve was at the helm for most of the trip.  Half way between Antigua and Guadeloupe, he called me up to the helm.  I had been napping and it was taking me a minute to get myself oriented.  Along the side of the boat, approximately 6 feet away, there was a long, brown/grey whale sunning itself.  Steve had to alter course to avoid hitting it.  The whale was looking up at us as if to say, “Hi guys.  It is a beautiful day.”  It was not bothered by us in the least.  Unfortunately I didn’t think quickly enough to grab a camera.  It was approximately 15-20 feet long and 4 or 5 feet wide.  I think it was a Sperm Whale. This is the first time that we’ve seen a whale up close like that.  It was really neat!

We arrived at our anchorage off of Pigeon island around 4:30p and hung up our Q flag.  We were going to leave at first light in the morning for Les Saintes, where we would officially check into Guadeloupe.

Every year at this time amazing athletes brave the Atlantic Ocean and row from the Canary Islands to English Harbour, Antigua. Two boats were docked at English Harbour and the rowers must have recently arrived.

We walked over to Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour, to clear out of Antigua.  Our plan was to head to Guadeloupe on Monday.  While we both walked over there, Antigua prefers that only the captain clear out.  So I walked around the dockyard while Steve completed paperwork with customs.

Superyachts tend to go into Falmouth Harbour. While Jolly Harbour Marina can technically accommodate them, that marina attracts more modest yachts.

A sailing race is planned for the end of the month and several of the boats had arrived in Falmouth Harbour to practice.  It was fun to see them all coming and going in and out of the harbour.

The water was quite clear in Falmouth Harbour off of Pigeon Beach and we were able to snorkel.  We were anchored in about six or seven feet of water, which is very shallow for us, as the bottom of our keel is 5’5”.  The bottom was mostly grass with occasional patches of sand.  The patches of sand is where we tried to position our anchor so that it would hold well.  We ended up anchoring twice because the first time we were too close to other boats.  The friends that we had met in Jolly Harbour were anchored two boats away from us.  While we didn’t spend much time with them, we did stop to chat on Sunday off of the back of their boat.