Intrepid Travels

We visited Pointe a Pitre to collect boxes of parts that had been shipped to the Marina. There was no need to go into the marina so we spent the first night in an anchorage just outside the Marina near the main shipping channel to the port. No sooner had we dropped anchor and were heading for shore on the dinghy than we noticed a massive dredging ship bearing down on Intrepid Elk. A pilot boat signalled to us and another yacht that we had to move out of the way. We raced back, lifted the anchor and moved about 40 m forward and clear of the floating monster.
During our short stay we were able to collect our parts, do some provisioning and stretch our legs. The second night was spent in the lovely anchorage beside Islet du Gosier, outside the harbour, where we were ready for an early start to the west coast of Guadeloupe the following day.
The passage around the South coast of Guadeloupe could be truly described as idyllic with fair winds and following seas, beautiful scenery and a clear sky. We reached high speeds with winds up to 35 kn. Intrepid Elk ate up the miles with ease. Soon we were at Pigeon Island, the site of the famous Cousteau National Park. It was blowing hard so we dropped anchor in the nearby bay and went ashore to walk along the pretty beach full of French people on Easter holidays. It was a colourful sight with souvenir shops, restaurants and bars and dive shops. We looked out for a Wi-Fi signal to download our emails. Unfortunately the Caribbean rule of thumb "great bread and great Wi-Fi cannot coexist" held true and we left disappointed. The following morning we went to the Cousteau Underwater Park by dinghy and had some of the best snorkelling so far. There was much beautiful coral and an abundance of multi-coloured fish that were somewhat over friendly with their nudging and nipping. We soon realised that these fish were used to being fed by snorkelling tourists.
After lunch we moved 10 miles north to the picturesque fishing village of Deshaies (pronounced Day-ay) near the north end of Guadeloupe's West Coast. Deshaies is famous for violent gusting winds in the bay where the wind often howsl down from the mountains in alarming manner. At this stage, all weak jokes about the name of this village had been banned under threat of divorce. "Let's go to Deshaies today eh?" "Let's spend Easter Sunday in Deshaies eh?" Et cetera. In fact we did spend Easter Sunday in Deshaies. We took an early morning hike up the river which soon became a series of pools and small waterfalls in a shady forest. It was a relief from the relentless Caribbean sun but we both sweated buckets in making our way uphill by rock hopping for several hours.