16:18.4N 61:47.8W

 

Hi all! The last time you read about us, we were in Grande Anse d’Arlet, a bay in Martinique. Now, we’re in the Isles de Saintes, which are French waters too.

 

I really enjoyed our stay in Martinique; the food is good (croissants and baguettes!), the weather plus snorkelling were excellent and, despite the language difficulties, the people were friendly. It also gave Kerry and I a chance to practise French. Grande Anse was really nice and we met some children; 2 girls from a boat called Moxie, called Asia and Aranya and 1 boy, Kian and 1 girl, Ellen, from a boat called Selkie. We had lots of fun jumping off the front of Moxie, which is a catamaran and getting dragged through the 2 hulls by the current to the end of the boat! New Years Eve was spent in Grande Anse, where the locals celebrated with loud music and lights. However I didn’t stay up till midnight, I was much to tired out from a hard day of schooling and playing with Moxie and Selkie (mostly the latter!).

 

Then on the morning of the 2.01.14, we set off for Trois Isles, but decided not to stay there when we saw how unsheltered it was from the winds. Instead we anchored by the capital city of Martinique, Fort de France. There we met Moxie again and Floor, Holland friend from the Cape Verdes, on the boat Margaux. Fort de France was very crowded and filled with Paris fashion shops. But we only stayed there 2 days and on the 4th we left for St Pierre, a town famous for it’s volcanic eruption in 1902, where only a murderer in a locked cell survived! We did some snorkelling there, but it wasn’t very colourful and we didn’t see much fish. However, there were lots of starfish, sand dollars, eels and we saw 1 little ray!

 

Dominique was our next stop, an island that speaks English and is filled with boat boys! We anchored in Prince Rupert Bay, by the town Portsmouth. There we met Emily from Sudoeste, a friend of Moxie and Selkie and her friend Lizzie, who’s brother and parents own the sailing yacht Senta. Kerry and I had lots of fun snorkelling with them! One of Dominique’s biggest attractions is the Indian river. It is a swamp river that appeared in the film Pirates of the Caribbean 2, in the scene when Captain Jack Sparrow takes a trip upriver to visit Calyspo. It was really amazing travelling up it, as we saw 2 iguanas and the atmosphere was very mysterious!

The Indian river

 

On the 9th we decided to sail to Isles des Saintes, a set of islands that belong to the French island Guadeloupe. On the main island Terre D’en Haut, in the large bay of Bourg de Saintes, we picked up a mooring buoy, next to Senta and Sudoeste. Our trip into town revealed to us the land of scooters; I counted about 70 in just 1/2 an hour! Otherwise the town was very nice, filled with many souvenir shops and an ice cream parlour with flavours including nougat and litchi! Yummy! We also walked up to Napoleon's Fort, that held a museum about the history of the island. I quite enjoyed looking at all the model boats, that had amazing detail; small coils of rope, lanterns and triangles of cannonballs. I also found snorkelling with Emily and Lizzie very enjoyable, because our boats were moored right by the wreck of a fishing boat. Looking at the fish peeping out of boxes and spying bits of furniture through doors was great fun!

Lunch in La Fringale, at Isles des Saintes       View of the bay from Napoleon's fort

 

After a lovely time at Isles des Saintes, we sailed to Pigeon Island, which is also part of Guadeloupe. Pigeon Island is famous for it’s great snorkelling and scuba diving. We anchored by the main land and took our dinghy to Pigeon Islands, which wasn’t too far away and snorkelled there. There were loads of parrotfish and coral!

 

Some coral by Pigeon Island

 

Moxie and Sudeste arrived, so we all went for a 2 hour walk to a beach filled with hermit crabs. It’s boat kid tradition to either have a lizard or a hermit crab as a pet, so we all picked up our own hermit crabs. They had to be about 2 cm long or they wouldn’t survive. We found a few but I ended up with a hermit crab called Trudy and Kerry with one called Katy. But don’t worry animal rights campaigners, we set them free on the beach after we realized they didn’t like being cooped up. On our last night in Pigeon Island, 14th, we had a beach barbeque with Moxie and Sudeste! We all cooked our own meat, Moxie with sausages, Sudeste with chicken and we had steak. All us kids played dodgeball, collected way to much fire wood and had spinning contests! It was really fun!

 

Our next stop is Deshaies (pronounced Day-ay),which is is our last stop in Guadelope before sailing to Antigua.

 

So, au revoir, for now!

Robyn