Guadeloupe and Pigeon Island
06 February 2011 | Guadeloupe and Pigeon Island
Henriette: Rainy and Windy
The unfortunate foul weather has kept us from exploring Guadeloupe. The Island is called Island of Pretty Waters ...and that's why we have decided to rather explore the pretty blue waters if we have a break in the weather!
That is exactly how Pigeon Island featured in our choice!...and it was conveniently on our way to Antigua!
Pigeon Island:
This is one of the most known Islands by the French due to the Jacques Cousteau (the Cousteau Marine Park) input - This is where Cousteau filmed part of the movie "Le Monde du Silence"....something everyone in France must have seen at some stage!? (I haven't yet...)
We picked up a mooring for about 2 hours and went snorkelling - in that time there must have been at least 10 glass bottom boats with bellies stuffed with sightseers ...that obviously cannot swim or don't like to get wet!
The water was again extremely clear and visibility probably 30 - 40 feet - just really great to snorkel in! The variety of fish was more and different to most other diving spots and certainly worth a long visit. Make sure you get into a wet-suit - hypothermia chased us out of the water the second time we went in - it's never nice to get into a wet wet-suit ...if you know what I mean!...although the water is a lovely warmish temperature...you tend to get very cold from just lying still watching little fish playing hide and seek amongst the coral!
This is a very popular site for dive instructors and we happened to find a group of about 8 divers underneath our boat when we return. Being in their bubbles was another fantastic (and I mean Fantasy-astic!!) The big mushroomed bubbles that comes up is as big as a Frisbee!...it so much fun chasing it to break it before it reaches the surface...just lying in the millions of small bubbles feel like a fairy massage on your skin! ...anyway...overall a great experience!
We anchored just across of Pigeon Island in a bay with no apparent name...it was a lovely spot - and will be remembered by the great food we had on Orchid that night with Rachel, Matthew and their boys!
The next morning we thought of leaving early (A third dive was on the map...but it was very overcast and looked like rain!) and see if we could go to another inlet and set foot on Guadeloupe.
The rain just never gave us a break and we ditched the idea and got stuck into a very windy (25-30knt) 5 hour trip with 3 meter swells to Antigua!! The squalls (wind gusts that you experience just before it starts raining) were enormous! We had a max reading of 35.4 knt winds at times and the waves was all over the deck! Those conditions did not ease off until we were inside the bay of English harbour...
We made the right decision to leave when we did, as the weather turned really nasty for days after that!
We still have not seen Orchid...I hope they were wise enough to wait the weather out...this can't be fun on a mono hull at all!!