16:18.45N 61:47.92W

Having passed though St. Pierre by road earlier, we were keen to moor there for a night or two and were not disappointed.  A very welcoming harbour master and well-kept town with a story to tell.  In 1902 the nearby Mount Pelee erupted, killing more people than any other eruption in the 20^th century.  The town has a museum, named after the jail’s inmate who was about the only survivor, and a fleet of ships which were sunk at anchor that day.  Once again, some excellent snorkelling was to be had on the reefs and wrecks around.

After checking out of Martinique there, we sailed north to Roseau in Dominica.  Nothing to recommend this port other than it was good a good place to get the outboard engine repaired.  The treats inland however were definitely worth the stop.  We had a tour of the rain forests, which get 300 inches of rain a year and deserved their name that day.  The waterfalls were spectacular but that meant the swim in the gorge wasn’t going to happen ☹.  Moving on north to Portsmouth (same name, better weather!), we took a rowing boat tour on the Indian River, home to one of the scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean and were treated to a very entertaining botanical walk given by Philipo, a half-Calingo man who explained how virtually every plant we passed could be used in cooking or for medicine.  At the end of the walk we caught Philipo drinking something called “Dynamite”.  Well, we had to buy some of that for the boat!

Just around the headland from Portsmouth is a very quiet bay with five mooring balls that are rarely used.  Finally, we were at an advantage with our lightweight dinghy and small outboard engine.  There’s no dinghy dock, which is probably the main reason people don’t stop there, but we can easily carry our dinghy up the beach.  Perfect!  Nobody else around except for Sturdeee and Galatea, great snorkelling and an easy trip to the bar for sundowners and to meet Bongo, the mooring man, and listen to his jokes.

With a spell of heavy weather coming, we opted to sail up to Isles des Saintes, an island just south of the main island of Guadeloupe.  The town there was very pretty and we were able to rent golf buggies with Ian & Dee, Andrew and Murielle, to tour the main island of Terre de Haut. 

The wind abated enough to sail on but we changed our destination to avoid a heavy weather upwind slog.  We anchored close to Pigeon Island where we were reunited with Rik and Caroline aboard “Moose”, another ARC+ yacht.  More snorkelling and a swim in the hot water which powers the local geothermal electricity generating station.  The water comes out to the beach there and you can choose your temperature by picking your spot on the beach.

Our last stop on Guadeloupe is Deshaies, also known as “Honore” in the BBC series “Death in Paradise”.  Catherine’s bar and the police station are here.  The town is definitely a bit shabbier than it appears on the television but it’s still a great place to eat and drink.

We’ve come to realise that even if our water maker were working to it’s full potential, it wouldn’t be enough for four people to enjoy this kind of lifestyle, so we’re going to invest in a new one and while we’re at it, replace the batteries with lithium too.  This will all mean more fresh water and less time running the engine just to recharge the batteries.  Fingers crossed we don’t get any serious teething problems with the new batteries as we won’t have long to get them fixed before heading home!

Giles