In our last few days in Iles des Saintes we once again felt the call to explore. While John tackled a heap of paperwork and took advantage of full internet while on board, the kids and I hiked to the local beach one morning and then up to Fort Napoleon the next morning. The visit to the fort meant hiking straight up hill in the searing heat. Once in the fort we wandered the all French museum and visited the iguana congregation in the botanical gardens.

On Thursday, April 2 we were reunited with the crew of Solitaire who had sailed down from Antigua. We showed them the town (okay, that only takes 10 minutes) and enjoyed a tuna dinner on board Windancer. Tuna was courtesy of Solitaire's big catch the previous day. The next morning Barry and John tackled Solitaire's much needed engine maintenance while Alison and I visited the local boulangerie for croissant and café. Later we snorkeled at the mid point in the bay in the clearest of waters where we spied hundreds of sergeant majors and a turtle.

At noon Windancer crew sailed to the mainland of Guadeloupe to take advantage of French shopping hours. With one bite and the fish that got away, we anchored off the marina in Point de Pitre, the capital of Guadeloupe and were happy to wander through the many shops. If you can imagine a lopsided butterfly, then Point de Pitre is the butt of the butterfly in the Guadeloupe islands. Large and commercial, it isn't pretty, but offered us a much needed city for chandleries and provisioning.

We eventually plunked ourselves down at Pizza King and enjoyed the friendly cook and his delicious pizzas in the light of the lanterns (lit after a blackout which it seems is a regular occurrence).