Guadeloupe
Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Sun 14 Feb 2016 18:23
| We have got so behind on our blog as we have been so busy catching up with family, which has been great fun. Guadeloupe is a French Island in the shape of a butterfly. Our initial plan was to sail through the middle (body of the butterfly as you look at a map) but the bridge/ canal way is undergoing a year long repair and so this was not possible. Instead we anchored in a little town called Deshaise and hired a car. Not only did this cut down on sailing large distances around the island, it also meant we could go and pick up Douglas’ cousin Rhianna from the airport and do a large supermarket shop by car ( this was a real novelty!!) One rainy day we took the children to the Zoo. There were many different animals (including monkeys) to see and also walkways right up in the tree canopy which you could explore. Definitely worth a visit as the Children are still talking about the animals they saw. We left Deshaise after a few days with a new crew member, Rhianna. We had a lovely sunny, windy sail to English Harbour in Antigua where we spent 4 days. The highlights for us, apart from amazing beaches, included ‘Shirley Heights’ where there is a party overlooking the harbour, and a lovely walk from English Harbour to Falmouth Harbour along the rocks and scrubland. We also watched the start of the RORC 600 yacht race- quite a spectacle, we felt tiny in Arion!! We also made friends with the crew of one of the large motor boats and they kindly let us look around….. I was nervously following behind Arthur and Alice for fear of sticky finger prints over the VERY shiny chrome work….. Arthur was allowed to start the engines in the engine room which he was very excited about!! It was sad waving goodbye to Rhianna as we had a very fun 4 days with her, but that evening we set sail to Jolly harbour (about a 3 hour sail) where we met up with my parents, Bob and Immy.   |