Guadeloupe is a department of France and French is widely spoken while English is hardly heard. For the first time we felt the difficulty of communicating in a language of which we know very little. But between the little French we know and a few English words that people know as well as by "finger or hand" pointing we have been able to make ourselves understood. Since we could not clear our entrance to Guadeloupe in Deshaies, we decided to sail to the capital city of Bass Terre to do so and do some laundry. We anchored off the town's beach which was somewhat unprotected and managed to sleep through the rocking and rolling of the waves that came onshore throughout the night. We did not see much of the town save from the main streets and the beach which was filled with people swimming all around it. We decided to sail to Iles des Saintes the next day and spend a couple of days with our Danish friends before they continued their sail down.