After waving goodbye to our friends one more time, we sailed north to the middle of Guadeloupe where its largest city lies, Pointe a Pitre.

Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly, with the west side of the island being mountainous (ironically called Basse Terre or low land) while the east side of the island being flat (and called Grande Terre). Through the middle of the two (at the core of the butterfly) is a river - or rather, a flow of water which separates the two. This body of water is very narrow but navigable and it is the fastest way to get to the north-end of the island. We are thinking about going through it when we go to Antigua because it will save us a full day of sailing as we won't have to go around the island. But there are challenges because the depth clearance is only 6.5 feet and our boat's keep is 6.3 feet.
Since we needed to get water and fully charge our boat's batteries we decided to stay at Marina Bas-du-Fort for a couple of days. The marina is near many restaurants and a friendly internet caf�(Le Pirate Caribeen) from where we are doing our emailing and Daniel is doing his schooling.

Guadeloupe is a very expensive island and so we are careful in our decisions to make purchases. Vegetables & fruits are very expensive and not very good looking except at the public market where our friends from Tevai took us to. We bought vegetables and spices - one of which is to make Chicken Colombo, a delicious dish. A picture of one of the ladies at the main market is found above.

To view pictures of Guadeloupe from Deshais, Basse Terre to Pointe a Pitre copy and paste the following link to a browser.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sailingourway/Guadeloupe?authkey=x4jVp_PcUUg