French Islands
25 March 2015 | Guadeloupe, Saints, Martinique
Linda
After leaving Monserrat on March 24, we beat over to the French island of Guadeloupe where we anchored off the southwest corner near a marina. We have sailed over 58 miles that day, so it was late and we did not go ashore. The winds on the west side of this large island are variable from 40 knots easterly to 15 knots westerly. It had been a long and challenging day so we were happy for the next day when we only 12 miles to one of our favorite places, the small islands of Iles des Saintes.
This island group has town moorings for only 9 euros per night and is a charming small French village. Best of all we discovered good friends, Hugh and Linda on Wild Goose were on the mooring right in front of us! We hadn’t seen them since Gibraltar so we enjoyed catching up. They also had friends on a next mooring from South Carolina who were captains on a 75 foot Fleming yacht. We were all graciously invited aboard for cocktails that evening. We saw how “the top ½% lives” when we were greeted by cool air conditioned comfort in the main salon that looked like a luxury living room. The six of us enjoyed a nice dinner ashore while running between rain showers.
The next morning we stocked up on wine at our favorite French wine shop and visited the boulangerie for mandatory fresh baked croissants. We took off after lunch for the short but choppy 22 miles to Prince Rupert Bay in the north of Dominica for a calm night before hopping the next day to the capital town of Roseau at the south end. We took a local bus to town, topped up our Digicel phone, bought ice and enjoyed a green flash sunset at the happy hour bar where we anchored.
The next day was an early start at 5:30 am to cross the open channel to Martinique. Winds exceeded 25 nots and seas were over 8 feet, so we double reefed and zipped down to find a nice anchorage at the capital of Fort de France. This was a Saturday, March 28, so customs and immigration were closed. We were still technically in France (from checking in at Iles des Sainte) so we kept up the French courtesy flag. The town had a handy well built dinghy dock, a childrens’ playground and beach all at the anchorage under the Fort St. Louis. The loud Saturday night music ended early at 9 pm so we had a quiet peachful night after our long passage of 48 miles that day.