28/03/2012

Yesterday we intended to get fuel at Basse Terre and stay in the marina for a night to hire a car and see the island. Nope, the hurricane damage from 4 years ago is only just being repaired so there was no room at the Inn. Mind you, it wasn’t a very attractive marina anyway with rather a strong pong, and the anchorage outside was pretty rolly too.

So I decided to push on round the corner to Pointe a Pitre, which is the largest town and has been a base for some of France’s best sailors, starting out with the Route du Rhum race. The marina is pretty good, but the dockmaster just pointed us to an impossibly small berth and buggered off. Not only that but you have to have bow lines to a buoy and moor stern to. That was fun with inexperienced crew, but with the willing help of new neighbours we pushed in between them.

Today we hired a car and toured Guadeloupe, it’s a nice island. Far more agriculture than most islands, and far fewer people sitting around doing nothing. The roads are good too, although much of that is funded by France (and us from EU habdouts).

We went up into the mountains to the rain forest, and took a brisk hours hike to a waterfall. Then carried on round the coast road, seeing how the islands vegetation goes from lush green to dryer and brown as you go from windward (rainy) to leeward sides.

The last stop was a chocolate “factory”, complete with sample cacao trees and tasting session. Yum yum.