Guadeloupe

Wandering Dream
Steve Litson
Mon 9 Feb 2015 23:12

15:34:9N 061:35:1W

Iles Des Saintes, Guadeloupe
Friday 2nd February 2015

In Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica. 1900 We went for drinks aboard the Petit Rouge Amel. The skipper from Guadeloupe has completely refitted her. We looked a charts and poorly communicated our route. He shared his knowledge of the area, where was beautiful, good anchorage, no anchorage, expensive and good value. We tried to fix his English self steering gear, but it was beyond repair. Then To Punch time, he had some special syrup of guava that he had bought in Martinique. They also offered us coconut liquor, when Denis and I asked for Ti Punch, they laughed as they considered the coconut drink for ladies! We had a merry couple of hours, eating salami from the plastic packet and some sort of fish spread they had made. We had booked into the beach bar for dinner, so explained in our poor French where we had to go.  It is amazing that you can speak very little of a language and still have good time and enjoy each others company.

Plaqued by Scooters
We changed our plans and left the next morning for Isles Des Saintes. We were warned that Montserrat had no reliable anchorage, so decided that an overnight seventy mile sail to Nevis would be better.

Scooters and more scooters, Terre de Haut, Miles de Saintes.

You can rent a scooter here for €20 a day. All the locals seem to have them too. The beautiful village was a mass of scooters travelling along the narrow roads...one even had a trailer. We went to internet cafe to register with customs, so different to other non-French islands. The houses are a multitude of colours and the streets lined with tourist shops, bars, hotels and restaurants. All very pretty, but not typical or set up for locals.