We had a pleasant sail down to Marie Galante even though it was to windward we made it on one tack, the fishing lure was useless again so no fish for supper. We anchored at St Louis which is a lovely anchorage with the crystal clear waters in settled weather. Marie Galante is off the usual tourist route so not many sailors come here, the island has remained unspoilt and shows what the Caribbean was possibly like 30 years ago, the village is small with a couple of shops and a bakery for the ever popular baguette, and a couple of car ad scooter hire places. We only stayed for 2 days not wanting to chance our luck to much as the anchorage here can be rather roly in any swell.

Our next stop was to be Basse Terre the capital of Guadeloupe just to the south end of the leeward side of the island. The trip across started off quite pleasant with the wind behind us and the sea quite flat, the further away from Marie Galante we got the bigger the waves so we ended up rolling across the gap between the Saint's and Guadeloupe to the anchorage in reasonably sheltered water not far from the marina. We have anchored here once before not one of the nicest spots but good for visiting the town.

The following morning we headed off to town for a few supplies and as we passed the Fort we decided to have another go at visiting it before it was closed for renovations. The fort was open and to our surprise there was no entrance fee we were given a map (all in French) of what there is to see.

Once the supplies had been bought we upped the anchored and motored up to Pigeon island anchorage for an overnight stop and a chance to snorkel at the marine park the following day, it is a good place to see plenty of brightly coloured fish and the corals even though it is very busy with tourist boats there is enough space for all to have a look. We then set off for one of our favourite anchorages which is at Deshaies.