Guadleoupe
Bondi Tram
Peter Colquhoun and Sandra Colquhoun
Wed 9 Feb 2011 20:14
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After a brisk morning sail with 20 to 25 knots of wind on the nose
(again!) we made landfall on the north
west coast of Guadaloupe at the little village of Des Haies. The nice
thing about being back in the French
world was the delivery to the boat at 7 am of a fresh baked baguette and
croissants.
   We moved down to about the mid point of Guadeloupe to the little island
called Pigeon, which is contained
within the Jacques Cousteau marine park, where we enjoyed snorkeling with
lots of colourful fish and
turtles.
 The anchorage opposite Pigeon Island. Guadeloupe is lush and
beautiful with lots of rain at this time
of year. Guadeloupe is fairly densely populated with 500,000
people. As a Department of France, it is
popular with French holidaymakers and retirees.
 Anse de la Barque, another pretty little anchorage where we spent the
night.
 Point a Pitrie is the commercial capital of Guadeloupe and a bit ordinary,
with just a few echos of it's past
  From Guadeloupe itself we moved 10 miles south to the very pretty island of
Terre Haute in the Iles
des Saintes.
 The unusual "Boat" house is in fact a Doctors Surgery
    Our friends Phil and Karel arriving at the anchorage in their yacht
'Tehani-Li'. We had not seen them
since the Cape Verde islands, so we had a great catch up.
   We walked up the hill to Fort Napoleon, built in 1847, and were rewarded
with fine views over the island
and anchorage. In 1782, the Battle of the Saints took place in the 8
mile strait between the Isles des
Saintes and Guadaloupe between the French fleet on their way to invade
Jamaica and the British fleet
out to stop them.
   Iguanas were plentiful, sunning themselves in the surrounding
shrubbery.
 In the background you can just make out the island of Domenica, twenty
miles south.
  We were also fortunate to catch up with David and Sheryl of
'Samsara', last seen in the Canaries.
Both Tehani-Li and Samsara are heading north while we are going
south.
 Every Saturday night the locals have a street parade, marching round to
loud music.
 These girls are waiting to join in the parade.
 Many tourists come over from Guadaloupe for the day. Here they sit waiting
for the Ferry.
 We left Isles Des Saintes at dawn to head on south to Dominicia
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