Since I started to dive back in Bonaire I had a wish to purchase a digital underwater camera, but realized that I still need some more diving experience before starting to use a camera. But during my second dive here in Guadeloupe I regretted I did not have one. After some jokes on the boat about who would be the first to see a seahorse, we went down and directly underneath the boat we found a beautiful seahorse. It held itself onto a coral with the tail and just looked around. Not being disturbed by our presence and even when another diver put his camera less than a foot away to take a few more pictures the seahorse was remained in place. This was a beautiful dive and for the first time I passed the 60 minutes bottom time. Although my conversation with the French dive master and his crew was very limited they really took good care of me and it was a great experience. The dive master allowed Dorothy to go with us on the boat and despite the rain she had a good time. Following this experience she went snorkeling with me on of the great places here in Deshaies on the north/west side of Guadeloupe. We had a great time the water is so clear and the coral and fish are abundant. Deshaies has a bad reputation for the very heavy wind gusts that come down from the mountains and up till now we have only spent single night anchorages in the bay. In previous blogs I have mentioned the reason for this but for the sake of completeness I will mention it again.

Guadeloupe’s largest two islands, Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre look like a butterfly on the map. The two islands are separated by a narrow river or channel. Grande-Terre is on the east side and is relatively flat with nice rolling terrain. Basse-Terre is nicely sloping on the east side to very high mountains on the west side of the island. Guadeloupe acts like a wind scoop and the bay of Deshaies is a wind vent for the system and the wind can sometimes howl in an alarming way. Although we were very well anchored the wind howling at 45 kn and the boat making large swings due to the long anchor line because of the depth of the bay are not exactly factors for a good night’s sleep. However, the city has put in quite a few mooring balls and as it is customary on the French islands, these are free. In many of the other places you can pay up to $30.00 for one night. After many boats left one became available and now we have a beautiful place in front of the nice village.

But I still have to describe the good times we had in Antigua, Falmouth Harbour. We stayed over a month in Antigua not only because we love the island, but also we had no intention to sail away in the unusual heavy winds that blow in the North/East Caribbean during the month of February and the beginning of March. We sailed from Jolly Harbour on one of the few calm days to Falmouth Harbour and the first part going south along the west coast of the island was a great sail. As soon as we turned east to sail along the south coast that changed to a struggle into the wind and high waves. This first part was not too bad behind a long reef called “Cades Reef”, but the last part was brutal. I do not know if it happened on this trip but a couple of days later I found out that the gooseneck which connects the boom to the mast had a broken bracket. This is a very dangerous situation since the main sail can break loose from the mast. Although the gooseneck is over 6 years old the manufacturer Schaefer Marine promised to send me a free new gooseneck. In the meantime I made braces to prevent further damage if we had to leave the anchorage in case of an emergency. This was a very difficult operation since we had to disconnect the very heavy boom from the mast in open water. A week later I received the new gooseneck and after long deliberation I decided to wait for a calm day to install the new part. Again we had to disconnect the boom from the mast and this time we needed to make more room to drill large holes in the mast to be able to use large bolts to connect the gooseneck. It all worked out fine and we hope that with the new braces I put on the problem will not happen again.

We rented a car again to do some more touring of the island and visited a major tourist attraction in Antigua "Stingray City". After a short boat ride they take you just inside the reefs in shallow open water with many large Stingrays that you can pet and feed. We are not so keen on visiting tourist places but this was a great experience. While diving it is always fun to see a stingray swimming or being partly buried in the sand, but being so close and able to touch and feed them is really great. We regularly used the very cheap local buses that drive very frequently to St. John’s the capital city for shopping and sightseeing tours. And when we returned to the bus terminal in the afternoon to go back to Falmouth Harbour the bus drivers recognized us and invited us onboard with a big smile. So it was not easy to leave the island we fell in love with, but it was time to sail south.

So we sailed from Antigua to Deshaies in Guadeloupe. The first part of the trip was nice and relaxed, but then we passed a trof with a lot of squalls and changing winds and Captain Bert had to work hard with many sail changes, reefing and trimming. Shortly after we left Falmouth Harbour two other boats followed us, but although both boats were a lot larger than Island Girl we stayed ahead of them until we came into the squalls and as a conservative sailor I reefed the sails until I found we could comfortably continue the sail. So one of the following boats passed us by and the other came very close behind us. But after we came through the squall line and although the wind was a little stiffer and the waves a lot higher, I put up full sails again and we passed the first boat and the second boat disappeared on the horizon. Every time this surprises me since I am not a racer and Island Girl is an older heavy cruising boat, but she loves a stiff broad reach wind and we had that all the way to Deshaies.

Close to Deshaies is the most beautiful botanical garden in the Caribbean. We visited the park before, but every time we have the opportunity we do it again. Apart from thousands of species of plants, with everything from cactuses to orchids, big trees and shrubs they built a 50 ft. waterfall with rivers and ponds. Being high up you have a beautiful view and on a clear day you can see Montserrat on the horizon. The wind blows through to trees and together with the sound of the water streaming down the slopes it cannot be different than paradise. The walk-in aviary has bright colored parakeets who like to sit on you when you feed them sugar water.

A little more south on the east coast is an underwater park created by Jacques Cousteau. Again we visited this location before, but now that I have mastered diving I wanted to go again and do some diving while Dorothy did some snorkeling behind the dive boat. With the strong wind we had prior to our visit to Pigeon Island the water was not so clear like we had in Deshaies and the high amount of dive boats and all kind of other vessels from kayaks to motor boats did not help. We saw large amounts of all kind of fish and of course the underwater statue of Jacques Cousteau.

We rented a car for three days and drove not only over Basse-Terre but also Grande-Terre which has on the south side some very nice and large beaches and on the east side especially in the city of “Le Moule” a few great surfing spots with high Atlantic swells rolling in on the beach on that part of the coast without reefs. We visited some nice architectural buildings and locations in the capital city “Basse-Terre”. “Les Palais Ali Tur” was rebuilt after a 1928 hurricane by the colonial architect “Ali Tur” who enforced the use of reinforced concrete on the island. “The Church Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel” was built by the Jesuits responsible for the evangelization of black people. It was used during the French revolution as a prison. “Le Marche Central” is renovated in 2003 around the belfry made by the architect “Ali Tur”. This is one of the most beautiful local fruit and vegetable markets in the Caribbean.

What is so great about Guadeloupe? Frist of all it is a French island and due to that part of France with all the entitlements the people in France have. The roads are first class, every sea shore town has a nice boardwalk, public buildings like hospitals and schools are beautiful. The island has a lot of well-maintained museums and other interesting places. I can mention many other greats things about Guadeloupe, such as very nice and friendly people, but my morning visits to the “Boulangerie” to buy fresh warm croissants and French bread are always on top.

We will stay in Deshaies until after Easter and then move south to “The Saints” just south of Guadeloupe and we will describe this in our next blog posting.