Guadeloupe - known by the Caribs as KARUKERA - Island of Pretty Waters.
We left Mosquito Cove, Jolly Harbour, at first light this morning and had a
good 10 hour sail south to (French) Guadeloupe - on the way we caught our
first fish on the trolling line, a wonderful TUNA, which we enjoyed for tea
on arrival (with enough left for 3 more meals).
Deshaies (pronounced Day-hay) is a picturesque fishing village near the
north end of the island's west coast, a well-protected bay surrounded by
hills and mountains...quite crowded on our arrival at 1630 but we picked our
way through the bigger yachts to anchor in 6m near to the shore. Would you
believe that a turtle poked its head up near Barada's bow just as we turned
the engine off?! Magic.
The diving on Cades Reef and the wreck of the Andes were fantastic
experiences tho the viz wasn't so good on the latter, and so far on every
dive we see a fish that we have never seen before: Blue Chromis 3", Gray
Angelfish 15", a Leatherjack 12", Gray Snappers (large approx 18") and Paul
saw his first Porkfish 12" a yellow grunt with 2 black vertical stripes on
his head.
However the squalls keep blowing in with near continuous high winds, so we
were unable to go north to Barbuda, a flat island, and felt that the other
islands to the NW would be having similar weather and anchoring might not be
secure enough for the diving we had planned to do.....so we decided that we
had better move south for the diving in Guadeloupe. So away with the
Eastern Caribbean $ and out with the Euros, or $Eu and the French
phrasebook! Plus fresh croissants for breakfast mmmm :+)
Here we plan to dive in this Bay under the cliffs and further down the west
coast at Cousteau Underwater Park around Pigeon Island as well as a bit of
sightseeing on land and visiting some of the beautiful waterfalls, 350'
Carbet Waterfalls are possibly the tallest in the Caribbean. If we find a
decent Internet Cafe we will post a few pics. Goodnight to you all and
sweet dreams.
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