Deshaies, Guadeloupe  - 20th February

Our plans were to leave Guadeloupe today, but the continuing Force 6 which has been blowing for the past 24 hours has kept us safely sheltered in the bay.  The weather forecast has mainly been warning of the 3-4m swell on the Atlantic east coast of the island and the channels which run in between the islands.  Hopefully these swells and the wind will moderate during this evening and we shall be able to sail to Monserrat tomorrow. 

We have spent the last two days exploring.  On Monday, our hike took us along the road out of town where we then took a very wide but muddy track down to a huge beach which curved around the bay.  As we walked along we came head on with a platoon of young Marines who were marching 5 deep chanting a march, as they filled the width of the track we stood aside to let them pass.  We had intended to swim, but the beach was so steep with a large swell running that we decided against it.  We were pleased to discover that there was a walk or more precisely, a scramble from the beach over the hill back to the bay where Whisper is moored.  In hind sight I realise why it was not mentioned in our guide book.  It was a tough climb but the track was marked by blue and yellow markers which zig zagged back and forth across the hill.  We noticed red markers which went straight up and down which we were wise enough to ignore.  As we were nearing the summit we heard voices and once again had to stand to one side as the Marines both  boys and girls, some carrying large 5 gallon jerry cans and some steel tubes, slithered and slipped down the red marker track at a great pace.  Those who were a little apprehensive were helped by their colleagues and most managed a smile and a cheery 'bon jour', the Lieutenant taking up the rear jokingly asked if we would like to join them!   Our flushed perspiring faces were surely enough for him to see that there was no way that we were going down again!  Once over the ridge we began to descend steeply, my thoughts were with the youngsters who had obviously come up this way carrying their cans, one of them had been carrying two when he passed us by, not leaving him a free hand to grabbed onto any roots etc. should he have a need. 

A neighbour moored alongside us invited us for a drink on board his pretty yacht.  He introduced himself as Attila the Hun.  He is Hungarian and has 36 years sailing experience and takes charters on his yacht.  He told us that when he bought his yacht in Lymington, he had never sailed before.  He had spent his earlier years as an 'armchair skipper' reading and reading about sailing.  Having bought his yacht he then set off for the Caribbean in February, crossing Biscay in March with three crew, one of whom was no use at all as he turned out to be an alcoholic.  Attila was very amusing and interesting, he certainly enjoys life and kept pointing at Noel and saying to me "this guy knows everything how do you put up with him?".   I won't document my reply!

Yesterday,  we set off on a two hour walk up the small river to the waterfall at its head.  We entered the river from the bay in the dinghy, moored her alongside the small jetty and began our walk along a two track concrete path.  This path heading into the countryside reminded us of the many tank tracks of the border patrols in the Czech Republic, these tracks now form part of a most wonderful cycling network in the country, some of which we have enjoyed with our Czech friends.   Before long our reminiscing was interrupted as our gentle path ended and we began boulder hopping along the river bed.  This was great fun and took a lot of concentration and balance.  It was hard to enjoy our surroundings unless we paused to rest and took the opportunity to look about us, this we did frequently as the gorge we found ourselves in gradually grew in height towering over us.  Long aerial roots dropped down from the trees above us and various species of ferns hung down their wide fronds.  As we progressed up the river the boulders grew larger and pretty pools appeared with small fish swimming in them.  The large boulders were often too high to clamber up so we had to either find our way around them or else find a short track through the undergrowth along the river side.  After two hours of this work out we were rewarded - the cave appeared ahead of us, as we scrambled closer, it opened up to reveal the cascade of water gushing down a chute behind large rocks in the pool, it was quite beautiful.  We descended down the river for about 30 minutes until we came to a road, which took us back to the town of Deshaies.  We both would have preferred to clamber back down the river but decided that physically we were both tired and a gentle walk down hill was possibly  less of a 'health & safety' risk!  We were astounded as we walked down just how much height we had gained above sea level during our clamber up the river bed. 

I thought that we would sleep well after our exertions but the force of the wind overnight meant a sleepless night, so apart from a quick visit to the town for some bread and to complete our immigration clearance in the hope that the weather will improve as promised overnight, we have spent a restful day on board watching 50 or more yachts in the bay, gyrating out of sequence on the end of their anchor chains in gusts of 30 knots through out the day.  So much for tropical balmy weather sailing!

Photographs:Deshaies, Guadeloupe  - 20th February

Our plans were to leave Guadeloupe today, but the continuing Force 6 which has been blowing for the past 24 hours has kept us safely sheltered in the bay.  The weather forecast has mainly been warning of the 3-4m swell on the Atlantic east coast of the island and the channels which run in between the islands.  Hopefully these swells and the wind will moderate during this evening and we shall be able to sail to Monserrat tomorrow. 

We have spent the last two days exploring.  On Monday, our hike took us along the road out of town where we then took a very wide but muddy track down to a huge beach which curved around the bay.  As we walked along we came head on with a platoon of young Marines who were marching 5 deep chanting a march, as they filled the width of the track we stood aside to let them pass.  We had intended to swim, but the beach was so steep with a large swell running that we decided against it.  We were pleased to discover that there was a walk or more precisely, a scramble from the beach over the hill back to the bay where Whisper is moored.  In hind sight I realise why it was not mentioned in our guide book.  It was a tough climb but the track was marked by blue and yellow markers which zig zagged back and forth across the hill.  We noticed red markers which went straight up and down which we were wise enough to ignore.  As we were nearing the summit we heard voices and once again had to stand to one side as the Marines both  boys and girls, some carrying large 5 gallon jerry cans and some steel tubes, slithered and slipped down the red marker track at a great pace.  Those who were a little apprehensive were helped by their colleagues and most managed a smile and a cheery 'bon jour', the Lieutenant taking up the rear jokingly asked if we would like to join them!   Our flushed perspiring faces were surely enough for him to see that there was no way that we were going down again!  Once over the ridge we began to descend steeply, my thoughts were with the youngsters who had obviously come up this way carrying their cans, one of them had been carrying two when he passed us by, not leaving him a free hand to grabbed onto any roots etc. should he have a need. 

A neighbour moored alongside us invited us for a drink on board his pretty yacht.  He introduced himself as Attila the Hun.  He is Hungarian and has 36 years sailing experience and takes charters on his yacht.  He told us that when he bought his yacht in Lymington, he had never sailed before.  He had spent his earlier years as an 'armchair skipper' reading and reading about sailing.  Having bought his yacht he then set off for the Caribbean in February, crossing Biscay in March with three crew, one of whom was no use at all as he turned out to be an alcoholic.  Attila was very amusing and interesting, he certainly enjoys life and kept pointing at Noel and saying to me "this guy knows everything how do you put up with him?".   I won't document my reply!

Yesterday,  we set off on a two hour walk up the small river to the waterfall at its head.  We entered the river from the bay in the dinghy, moored her alongside the small jetty and began our walk along a two track concrete path.  This path heading into the countryside reminded us of the many tank tracks of the border patrols in the Czech Republic, these tracks now form part of a most wonderful cycling network in the country, some of which we have enjoyed with our Czech friends.   Before long our reminiscing was interrupted as our gentle path ended and we began boulder hopping along the river bed.  This was great fun and took a lot of concentration and balance.  It was hard to enjoy our surroundings unless we paused to rest and took the opportunity to look about us, this we did frequently as the gorge we found ourselves in gradually grew in height towering over us.  Long aerial roots dropped down from the trees above us and various species of ferns hung down their wide fronds.  As we progressed up the river the boulders grew larger and pretty pools appeared with small fish swimming in them.  The large boulders were often too high to clamber up so we had to either find our way around them or else find a short track through the undergrowth along the river side.  After two hours of this work out we were rewarded - the cave appeared ahead of us, as we scrambled closer, it opened up to reveal the cascade of water gushing down a chute behind large rocks in the pool, it was quite beautiful.  We descended down the river for about 30 minutes until we came to a road, which took us back to the town of Deshaies.  We both would have preferred to clamber back down the river but decided that physically we were both tired and a gentle walk down hill was possibly  less of a 'health & safety' risk!  We were astounded as we walked down just how much height we had gained above sea level during our clamber up the river bed. 

I thought that we would sleep well after our exertions but the force of the wind overnight meant a sleepless night, so apart from a quick visit to the town for some bread and to complete our immigration clearance in the hope that the weather will improve as promised overnight, we have spent a restful day on board watching 50 or more yachts in the bay, gyrating out of sequence on the end of their anchor chains in gusts of 30 knots through out the day.  So much for tropical balmy weather sailing!

Photographs: "Landcrab"

                     "Bolder Hopping"

                     "Water Chute"