Poisson d'Avril

Serendipity
David Caukill
Tue 1 Apr 2014 10:06

Tuesday April 1st ,  2014

Off Guadeloupe ,   16.00.7N 61 45.4W

Today's Blog by David (Time zone: BST – 5.0;  UTC – 4.0)

 

Pinch and a punch, it’s the first of the month….. and all that!

 

We left Dominica on Sunday, arriving in Les Saintes that evening.  This small group of islands are among the most charming we have seen - comparable in their own way with the Society Islands in the Pacific.  Idyllic is an overused word – but I would apply it here too.  The islands are also  very French – more Mediterranean than Caribbean – and picturesque – save for the fact I couldn’t get my camera to do them justice!  

 

I have visited there several times – each time we have found something new.  This time we learned that Les Saintes are home to Cher Philippe Lemoine, a self-professed psychic who claims to be able to control the weather and the seas, taking responsibility  for the local micro-climate in Les Saints. It is true that it has always been warm and sunny when  we have visited and the sea quite placid but I wonder whether that might be more because of the time of year than anything M Lemoine has done.  However, it did get rather squally this morning and we watched him at work - he certainly throws himself into it!:

 

 

Cher Philip Lemoine, chatting to passers-by in Les Saintes

 

 

We went diving in Les  Saintes yesterday. Pristine clear water, beautiful colourful coral but a dive ruined by the Dive Leader continuing to try to lead into a strong current where we made little progress (just got tired and wasted air!).  We did get to see a Lobster/langoustine though  - another first for me:

 

 

Spiny Norman, lurking  in the Saintes

 

An added bonus after this dive, we happened to see a dolphin playing around in the harbour areas; we all had snorkels and fins, and quickly got back into the water to watch:

 

 

Doris the Dolphin at play in Les Saintes

 

So that’s about it.  We left this morning and are now headed for Deshaies, on the NW corner of Guadeloupe where we will stop tonight before the passage to Antigua tomorrow!