The last couple of days have been part social and part exploring. We had drinks and dinner with a lovely crew of Canadians who we had previously met in the Saintes. They move their boat back and forwards between Nova Scotia and the Caribbean, so we were learning more about sailing options on the US east coast. Note to self: sailing in Maine & Nova Scotia looks really interesting – must do that one summer.

Yesterday we hired a car and went exploring. As always it is too easy to stick around the boat and marina so we have learnt to push ourselves away from time to time. We did a tour of Grande Terre, which is the easterly butterfly wing. That was about as much as we could manage in a day, but we did see some lovely beaches, traditional villages and fields and fields of sugar cane.

One thing that features very strongly here is the history of slavery. There are many monuments erected on the subject, and there is a trail of places to go and visit all over the island. We visited a couple of monuments particularly recognising the abolition of slavery, first in 1794 and then properly in 1848. We also went to a wee town called Petit-Canal, where there are the remains of the slave market, the memorial staircase leading to the esplanade where the slaves were sold right off the boat, and also an eternal flame erected to the ‘unknown slave’. All quite emotive.

The east side of the island has some fine beaches, several with good surf coming in from the Atlantic and people riding the waves. We decided that if we wanted some winter sun then a few weeks in Guadeloupe would be a great option. The eastern wing of Guadeloupe (which is flatter and lower) seems to be a lot sunnier and drier than the west wing (which has the big mountains), so the moisture-laden Atlantic air gets pushed up on the west side and the heavy rain falls there.

We lunched in Sainte Francois where there were several sunken or wrecked boats in the approach which we were informed either related to smuggling or hurricane damage (or both).

Today we will leave the marina and start our tour of the west side of Guadeloupe by boat.


Today's picture - local grocery shop - love it.