15:52.3N 061:35.2W

9^th February to 16^th February

A short sail north from Dominica found us in Les Saintes, some beautiful islands just south of Guadeloupe.  Considering we had never heard of them before they turned out to be one of our most favourite places so far.  They are very very french!   They are less mountainous so drier which meants they never had plantations so the vegetation is very different, they also therefore never had slaves so culturally they are also very different.

The first night we anchored off Ilet Cabrit a beautiful anchorage with great snorkelling but with wind from all directions meaning we swung in all directions all night which was a bit hairy.

Stella at anchor off Ilet Cabrit.  We’re the middle boat in the line of 3.

We then moved to the nearby Bourg des Saintes which had a beautiful town with lots of lovely shops.  As everything is in Euros and we are used to ECD everything sounded a lot cheaper so we may have gone over budget a bit here!

The lovely bay

Posh french quality dinghy dock

The main street full of lovely little shops and restaurants

The main square

We did a great walk up one of the hills where we saw Star Clipper sailing off into the sunset

Up another hill we went to Fort Napoleon where we learnt all about the famous naval battle of The Saints where the English defeated the French.  There is a lot of history about this period on the islands as the islands swapped between French and British ownership several times.

An iguana

Our final anchorage off Pain a Sucre

After four lovely days in The Saints we went to mainland Guadeloupe where we had more rain and rainbows.

We did however do a brillant dive and snorkel in the Cousteau National Park where we saw massive colouful fish up to 2 feet long.  Apparently as they are protected here they grow much larger than elsewhere.

Then north to Deshaies where we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out only to find it was Valentines Day so nearly every reataurant was full (we had both forgotten all about Valentines day as we never know what day of the week it is).  We also tried to hire a car here to do a tour of the island but they were all booked so we did the river walk described in our book.  We clamboured along rocks and stepping stones for two hours before we finally came to the end.  It was a bit hairy as the water level is much higher than usual following all of the rain but we made it.

The river walk and the not so posh dinghy dock in Deshaies

We are now in Antigua moored up at Antigua Yacht Club helping with the RORC Caribbean 600 race wich is great fun.  Lots of very big posh boats and lots of parties.  More news soon.....