Shootin' the Breeze: Guadeloupe and The Saintes

THE VILLAGE OF DESHAIES

WE WALKED TO THIS LOVELY BEACH

CAUGHT IN THE RAIN ON OUR WALK

We spent longer than we thought in Deshaies, Guadeloupe, and loved every minute. Michaela and I did a long walk from the anchorage to the neighbouring bay, through forests to a beautiful beach, getting caught in the rain along the way. What I love about walking and hiking in these parts is that you choose a path, follow it, and have no idea what you'll find on the other side. We've come across the most interesting, hidden away, non touristy places along the way.

Sadly, it was time to move on......places to go, new things to see!

We headed up the coast to Pigeon Island, an island off Anse Malendure, one of the top 10 dive sites in the world. The dive site is part of The Cousteau National Park and there is an underwater statue of Jaques Cousteau off the island. Michaela, Tayne and Arnd did 2 scuba dives here and Stephen and I snorkeled. It was stunning, with crystal clear visibility and a huge variety of fish and coral. We anchored off the island for the day, amongst a few other dive boats, diving and SUPing around the boat, having lunch and a few beers. What a great day!

PIGEON ISLAND DIVING

Our next destination was The Saintes, another French island along the West Indies chain. We had a great sail with s/v Rocking B and s/v Zanshin. As we were dropping the sails at sunset to come into the anchorage, we caught a nice sized Cero.

Chaos ensued, far too much happening at once!! Sails down, lines in, motor slowing down, reverse then forward again, there was no ways we were going to lose this one, fish have been scarce on Katz!! After a good fight, Tayne got it on board and the poor thing was bludgeoned to death....or so we thought! It was lying quietly in the basin on the deck, waiting to be filleted for supper, when it got a new lease on life and made a final attempt to escape back into the deep blue and bolted out of that basin, flapping and gyrating all over the cockpit area, blood flying everywhere!! What a mess, we now had to swab the decks and get the boat anchored while there was still light, We had a good laugh and so enjoyed that fish for supper but I couldn't help but feel a little compassion it!

THE ELUSIVE CERO

The following morning we cleared in at Le Bourg, a pretty French fishing village nestled into the mountainside, with quaint shops and cobbled streets. We love the French islands, knowing we're going to get great baked goodies and this place didn't disappoint! We had the most delicious warm chocolate croissants and irresistible crusty baguettes, the French sure know how to do it.

OUR ANCHORAGE, PAIN DE SUCRE

The Saintes are made up of 8 islands. It is lush with high surrounding hills and white sandy beaches. We did a lot of walking here. Our family, Arnd and Ken walked to Fort Nepoleon, an old ruin built in 1844 and Michaela and I did a very strenuous steep climb to Le Chameau, the highest peak of all the islands.

VIEWS FROM OUR WALKING EXPEDITIONS

It took us 2 hours, up a steep road, with switchbacks all the way. The view from the top made the aching thighs all worth it. We also walked to an outdoor church on the hill behind our anchorage, which had a lovely feeling of tranquility and gave us a chance to take beautiful photo's of the area.