9th April - Riviere Sens, Guadaloupe
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Position 15:58.925N 060:42.98W
We left Portsmouth at 09.20 for the 30 mile journey to Riviere Sens, at the South end of Guadaloupe. We had chosen this as there is a marina, and after a few very rolly nights thought that the human batteries needed charging as much as those of the boat.
We had tried to contact the marina in advance, and they had confirmed that there was space, and that we should phone on arrival. When we arrived at 14.00, we phoned got a response that there was space, but no indication as to where to go. So we entered cautiously through the narrow entrance, and seeing a fuel dock to starboard went and tied up there (gently going aground in the process). We eventually found a marina staff member, who knew nothing about our arrival, but guided us into our berth (very tight – probably 4.5m to our 4.2m beam; with a crosswind it took 3 attempts to get in, we achieved without touching boats either side.
Plan had been to stay for 2 nights, but we decided to stay for 3 and make a very early start for the journey to Antigua; the alternative was to go to Deshaises in the north, and anchor for the night, but after our previous experience there, and a few rolly nights, we decided the longer trip was preferable. In the event we had to very disturbed nights; Friday is party night, live music in the marina bar until 04.00; Saturday some locals decided to set up their own music with amplifiers going full blast until 05.00. The marina itself is undergoing a major refurbishment under new owners; the new pontoons are terrific, but facilities are under construction and currently effectively non existant.
First day we walked in to Basse Terre, the Guadeloupe capital, thinking that being French there would be some nice street cafes. Wrong. Day 2 we went to the hypermarket “Casino”. We needed a taxi for this, and finding one was difficult – without help from the local Total garage we would not have found one – and the price was expensive (45 euros total for 2 10 minute journeys). But the supermarket was excellent – the best we have seen since the UK. Day 3 we walked to the nearby fort, which was huge (5 Hectares or about 20 acres) This fort had been the site of a rebellion against slavery which Napoleon supressed by sending troops from France; the leader and 300 of his followers blew themselves up rather than submit, and this was followed by a few years of extreme repression before slavery was finally abolished.