Monday and we are off with our clean and sorted boat.  Plus, amazingly for cruising life we are bang on time. Of course the wind is bang on our nose, when has it ever not been.The Passage over to The Saintes is just a short hope but with more lobster pots to avoid than cracks in a crazy pavement, it makes it a wee bit trickier.  Guadaloupe is the 2nd larges fish consuming country per head per capitar, so this figures. but joy of joys we arrive in Iles des Saintes to find Bonnair, Tim and Steph, Colin Parents and our lovely crazy Swiss folk.

 

Within minutes of arrival colin has arranged for folk to come-aboard for drinks,  we are at a bit of a disadvantage given we have kids and a catamaran, and everyone else invited, and they are all OCC folk, have monohulls that are not child friendly boats,  ours is already trashed.

Tuesday is family day after school Colins folks come over for coffee followed by lunch.  We unpack our goodie bags,  my stash totalled silver cleaner, never wear silver whilst living on the water it's pointless as every silver piece looks like it's badly Oxydized, Pegs, and shower mats.  Colin however seems to have ordered up half an electrical store.  Its an amazing fact, but i am sure Colin has saved an enormous amount of money since getting me away from the uk and the uk makers,  Personally i am now worried about his fertive on-line shopping habbits................

 

Pm and we head to the land for an insight into Iles de Saint.  On my arrival in  Jolly Harbour i met a lovely lady, Eve,  who told me that THe Saints were really rather Sheek, so I had been holding out for them.  Gratefully we are still in France which means Great Bread, Cafe's Etc.  It's a lovely place, BUT,  it seems to have lost it's heart, due to the hundreds of day trippers how pile in at 9ish,  We left the town and headed to the Grave Yard,  Which we have to say was one ofthe best we've found to date. Pristeen white tiles  mosaliams with bright and beautiful array of well tended Plastic Flowers,  and if a white tiled moseleum was too costly then the grave is marked by a perfectly lined coverage of Conch Shells,  it was very special,  and now we are sounding really rather wiered but Cemetries are the most Island-centric identity we have found in each place.  Given the Monserate volcano has hit twice recently there has been alot of love, care and cleaning going on here.

 

 

Wednesday and we head up a steep hill to Fort Neopolean and the his fortress up on the hill looking over the bay. Often, Colin and I have found ourselves in the Philistain camp and rather interested in Museums etc. But this place is wonderful,  no need for interaction and turning/zappy kids interaction gimic here, it just manages to bring the battles of the past alive plus with the added advantage of live, wild giant iguanas.  I promise it was like seeing a dreamworks film it hit the mark on old, middle and young. 

  

  A great museum with little boats layed out in a display cabinet depicting the great battle of the Saintes between Admiral Rodney (British) and Admiral de Grasse (French) in 1782.

 

Wednesday PM

The long awaited Sam Dickinson Birthday Party.

 

Granny and Papa joined us here.  They lived aboard s/y Oriole (John and Chris Lytle RCC OCC) whilst in the Caribbean and spent days with us and the passage down to Dominica.  This scheme worked well, and we've heard from other live aboards with kids that having guests on land or another boat makes things much easier.

 

Thursday AM we motor round the corner to meet up with our Lovely/Crazy Swiss Friends, Dennis and Lynn taught  Zinnia to Dive from the Bows Today and Cosmo Finally Age 4 is able to jump from the bows, no mean feet for either, Colin and i have just managed to jump from the Bows once or Twice but Diving is a no no but we are not going to tell Z this.

 

Danny, who is a double for Alan O'connor, and scarily similar. He  has a dive kit on board and has spotted Lobster, but with no knowledge of how to deal with the beasts, Colin with knife and Wife can forfill the Brief.  So An afternoon of missed/escaped/ now clawless opportuinties, means war from the boys from Pacific Bliss and Dedication: plus we've asked these guys for supper and we ain't got anything else.  But sure is eggs is egg my Hunter Gatherer Husband comes Good.

 

A little bit of diving, and lobster for super.  Not that the two are related you understand.

  

 

 

So we were able to feed Danny and Sabina there first Lobster, A very lovely night had.  But we as a family can only every refer to Danny as ' You don't wanna mess with danny'  a phrase cosmo happily relayed to the man himself,  i think it went down ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By PM the swell and wind is really getting up and so the planned trip up the Indian river is reduced to the Price Clan, whilst the littles keep watch.

 

 

Sadly our time is a little pressed and we need to get down to Meet up with our next guests, but Dominica looks like a lovely lush place.  It's a shame we haven't more time to hang-out we think a least a week would be a good time to spend here.  The Government have even made it easy to check in and out unlike a lot of other Islands.