We sail to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

February 16th, 2014

We had a GREAT sail.

High teen winds on an easy close-haul reach of 35-40 degrees to wind all the way.
Set the sails and put your feet up!

We knew we had plenty of time to reach our destination as we didn’t want to arrive in the dark.

We waved to the people of Dominica as we sailed right past (reluctantly) the leeward western coastline.

Hello Dominica!  Bye bye Dominica!

A few people can do a lot of damage by thoughtless actions. 

We decided NOT to visit Dominica even though we had heard that it is a beautiful country because of the ‘boat boys’ that plague visiting yachts. Dominica could do will a little tourism help too.

‘Boat boys’ paddle out to all the unsuspecting visiting yachts at anchor along the coastline and offer all sorts of services but in particular to ‘watch over your boat’.
A refusal, we are told, often offends.

I call this ‘protection money’.
There are ‘official’ watchers – but who needs the hassle.
We decided to visit another island     ..such a shame.

We arrived at Pointe-a-Pitre in daylight and negotiated the wiggly channel into the Marina Bas du Fort. We chose to stay in this marina for a few nights as we felt that we needed to tour these islands by car over a few days something we felt unable to do in Martinique.

Bas du Fort marina on the outskirts of Pointe-a-Pitre provided a central base for us to explore Guadeloupe.