Guadeloupe is a made up of several islands. The main two are quite large. We did not get to see as much as we would have liked of these beautiful island this time, but we covered as much ground as we could.
This blog will be divided into the Good, the Bad (to be interpreted as “disappointment”) and the Glory (or glorious).
The Glory
Shelley and Don arrived on the January 16th bearing lots of goodies. They are sailors and understand that finding certain items in the islands can be either quite expensive or nonexistent. Wow what load! We are going to be eating good!
Good
A weather window presented itself on January 17th to make the short crossing to Guadeloupe. Thus, we left beautiful Dominica and its magnificent sunsets behind.
The day was beautiful, and the sail was quite nice as were the views of the coastline of Guadeloupe.
We entered Pointe-a-Pitre around 1400. This is the largest city on the island. We had made a reservation at Bas Du Fort marina so that we could be get our small freezer repaired.
The marina folks were very friendly and assisted Ben in backing into the tight med-moor between two other boats. They tied up the bow to floating moorings and got us positioned so that we could exit the boat from the stern. Ben and Don went to shore and checked us into the French Island. The French Islands use a computer terminal as their clearance and departure site which are usually located in a bar, restaurant, or store. This station was located in the marina office so after paying $5 Euros we were in! Ben also got us checked into the marina with the understanding we could extend our stay if we chose. Now we just needed to connect with the refrigerator repairman.
Good
Afterwards we took a taxi to the mall to get a French Digicel sim card for my phone because they work better than the Grenadian ones. Using voice translation on the phone, the nice clerk and Ben got everything worked out! Yay!
Meanwhile Shelley and Don had gone to the excellent grocery store to purchase some things we could not find on Dominica. The store was the best we had seen in some time!
Bad
While the cab driver was quite friendly, she charged us an $50 Euros for the trip. We were quite surprised by this but had not been able to get an estimate before we left. So se la vie.
Good
We went to a restaurant in the marina for dinner, just to make things easy on ourselves. We had fish and chips and hamburgers. While the food was not French, it was scrumptious.
Glory
The repairman showed up a day early on Wed. instead of Thursday. He arrived bright and early and put in the new part allowing the compressor to work again! Having this extra freezer/refrig would greatly assist in cold item storage especially since the outdoor, main freezer was full to the brim with the yummies that Shelly and Don had brought us!
Bad
The freezer part had doubled in price over the last few days. So the fix was not as economical as we had hoped. Nevertheless, it was definitely needed!
Good
Since the refrigerator had gotten fixed a day early and the marina had indicated there would be no problem in extending our stay, we decided to find a rental car and do some exploring. Ben finally located a rental car agency that spoke a little English and we were set for tomorrow!
Bad
Later in the day, Ben stopped by the marina office to let them know we wanted to extend our stay until Friday. However, they indicated that that was no longer possible. They had received more reservations for the weekend than expected. The marina had other issues in that the wifi didn’t work on the boat even with our wifi ranger and they had daily intermittent power outages for hours at a time.
We canceled the rental car and made plans to leave for Les Saintes instead of exploring the mainland. This was quite a disappointment, but part of cruising life is being flexible. So we would come back another time to explore.
Glory
A sailor friend from Texas, John Moore, who has sailed extensively in the islands, speaks French and knows all the tricks of Guadeloupe stopped by for a visit. He shared with us his local knowledge including information regarding going to Les Saintes, a small group of islands off the southern coast of Guadeloupe.
Good
We left early on Thurs morning, Jan. 19 and made the crossing to Les Saintes. John had indicated that it could be quite difficult to find a mooring ball especially on the left side where it was less rollie. However, as luck would have it another boat was leaving just as we arrived. So we quickly snagged their ball.
The mooring balls in the French islands were somewhat difficult as they do not have a line to pull up to the boat. They only offer a small round metal ring on the top. So we grabbed it with our large carabiner from the stern and walked it to the front of the boat. Then the guys got in the dinghy and replaced the carabiner with our bridle. All good!
Terre de Haunt of Les Saintes was an extremely picturesque island. We couldn’t wait to explore.
Once the boat was secured, we jumped in the dinghy and headed for shore! The streets were full of cute little shops, restaurants, bars and, much to Ben’s delight, lots of ice cream shops!
Bad
John had told us the best way to see the small island was to rent a scooter, golf cart or car. We had tried to call rental establishments before making the crossing but could not find a proprietor that spoke English or answered the phone at all. Thus, we thought we would walk the streets and see if we could locate a rental for tomorrow. We found a place that would rent us two scooters. So worse case we thought this might be our best bet. We stopped at one more rental place that had golf carts or as some say, trolleys. They were booked up for at least another week! However, they told us if we arrived at 0800 in the morning, they would know if they had any overnight cancellations. So, while we left without conviction, we still were hopeful because a cart would be more comfortable especially if it rained. Fingers crossed.
Good
We stopped at Coconut’s Bar to have happy hours drinks and relaxed by the beach.
When we returned to the boat, we were greeted with a spectacular sunset while we cooked dinner.
So all good for our first day in Les Saintes. We hoped we could explore by cart tomorrow, but if not, scooters would do!
Glory
We scurried into town and arrived at Aqua Blue Rental right at 0800. We waited with bated breath hoping a cancellation had come in during the night. Yay!! We had a cart!
Using a picture of their wall map, Google maps (which does not always indicate one-way streets or parking) and a downloaded tour guide, we started our day of exploring the island of Terre de Haunt.
Link for Tourist information: Guadeloupe Tourism
We took off down the narrow streets towards Fort Napoleon as they only allow visitors into the fort from 0900-1200. The views going up the mountain to the fort were wonderful. We were so excited to arrive at the top because we knew the sights would be breathtaking, and they did not disappoint.
The fort itself was very interesting and the museum inside was extensive, but of course mostly in French. The grounds around the fort were immaculately kept. We took our time exploring as it was a beautiful morning, the breeze was refreshing, and the sights were wonderful!
Next, we drove across the island to the Hotel Bois Joli. John had said this was a good place to moor, enjoy their pool and snorkel. So we thought we would take a peek to check out the situation. At the time of our arrival all the mooring balls were occupied. As it was too early for lunch, we just had a drink, relaxed and listened to the water lap the shore.
We decided to try to locate the lunch spot that John had told us about near Marigot Bay where we could get some Caribbean lobster. Ben drove back across the island. Every time we crossed the island, we had to go through the cute little town and negotiate the small one-way streets. Therefore, Ben became quite familiar with the route.
We located the cute beachside restaurant, which appeared to be quite popular (Google said it was temporarily closed).
Shelley and Don opted for fish, but Ben and I decided to splurge on lobster. The waiter brought it out to show us before getting it ready.
It took a bit of time for our food to arrive, but the company and views were excellent, so we did not mind.
Finally, it was time to dig in!
After lunch we went to explore some of the beaches on the island. The first stop was a cute beach named Plage de Pompierre. We saw several iguanas on the beach.
There were cute houses all over the island, but I liked this one, particularly.
The next beach going north was Grand Anse beach which was situated right by the airport on the Atlantic side. It was a no go for swimming as it was rough and dangerous.
The final beach of the day was Anse Rodrigue. As we arrived, we heard a loud bellow and wondered, “What in the world?” but it was a man calling the goats off the hillside to be fed. The little goats came a runnin’!
The little beach looked very inviting, but it was time to return our cart. What a lovely day this had been!
We returned the cart to Aqua Blue, bought some lettuce from a small store, and appeased Ben’s desire for ice cream before dinghying back to the boat where Don grilled us some super good turkey burgers!
Bad
We had hoped to spend a couple of more days on Les Saintes exploring but our weather window to head north to Antiqua would be closing for over a week. So we made preparation to leave in the morning and head to Deshaies (pronounced Dey hay) where we could check out of Guadeloupe and stage our get away to Antiqua.
Good
We left at 0930 and had a very pleasant day sailing to Deshaies, avoiding all the fish traps along the way. We arrived around 1530 on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. The town was small and quaint, but friendly. The clearance terminal was in a very small souvenir shop named Pelicans. Ben completed the online information, paid the $5 Euros, and that was that!
We walked around the quaint little town!
We decided it was our last chance at French pastries and baguettes for a while, so we bought a few for the evening before heading back to the boat and getting ready for our crossing tomorrow.
I made instant pot sausage pasta for dinner which went perfect with the delicious baguette. See recipe in the blog: Instant Pot Penne Pasta with Italian Sausage in Tomato Cream Sauce.
It was fun exploring this new territory with Shelley and Don, but we all wished we’d had more time. Nevertheless, I know we will be back as we missed a lot this time around!
Thanks for traveling along with us! If you would like notification of future blogs, sign up on the form below and don’t forget to leave comments or questions in the comment boxes at the end of the blog. We love hearing from you!
