The Saintes, Guadeloupe, December 2015

12/17/2015 We had left Martinique, overnighted at Dominica and then left Dominica this morning at 0750 to head to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe. We had flukey winds along the northwestern side of Dominica and had to motor-sail until we got into the Dominica channel. In the channel we had 18 to 19 knots of wind and were sailing along at 6.8 to 7.2 knots with the jib and reefed main. We sailed into Les Saintes along the southern entrance and picked up a mooring ball at Terre d’en Haute. We’ve anchored here before but it is quite deep, there is usually a swell and a good bit of wind and the holding is not that great so we prefer to take a ball here. Mythago, Lequesteau, Tehani and several of the “kid” boats from Grenada were there or came soon after we did: Proud Mary, Ally Cat, Daystar, Day Dreamer, and Three Little Birds.

Sherry from Mythago celebrated her 60^th birthday on December 18th.We had lunch at La Saladerie for her birthday.

Harbor at Terre dé Haute from our walk to La Saladerie

Sherry's birthday lunch

This little guy was watching us eat. Think he wanted some of our salad.

Looking out at the harbor from the restaurant

Greg and I walked to Baie de Pompierre on the eastern side of the island and spent a nice afternoon exploring the beach and walked across the bay in a shallow area to climb the headland on a little island that almost encloses the bay. No boats are allowed to enter this little bay and it is a very nice, quiet place to spend the afternoon on the beach or along the cliff areas. 

Baie de Pompierre

 

The little island that encloses the southeastern edge of the bay. We walked to the top right hand edge.

Waves were crashing constantly on the rocks but the water in the bay is calm.

We waded across the bay to go up the hill. The rock formations and colorations at the base of the hill were pretty.

Looking down from the top of the hill at the cut between the little island and the main island of Terre dé Haute

The cut where the water comes into the bay

Waves crashing on the rocks below

The peak to which we climbed

 

Sea urchins in the water as we waded back across the bay in the shallows

Thankfully we had our sandals on and didn't step on any of these

These two roosters looked so regal in their yards

Never knew roosters could actually be pretty

We also walked with Caroline and Greig and Dave and Sherry to Grande Anse (Anse = beach) on the Eastern Shore. It is a really big beach with very rough surf and swimming is not advisable. There were some large, pretty homes along this area overlooking the Atlantic. We walked on around the southeastern corner to Anse Rodriguez where we spent a few hours on the beach and then walked back to town.

One of the sailing cruise ships that pulled into Les Saintes

Grande Anse beach

Very rough seas

View from our spot on the beach at Anse Rodriguez

Local home decorated for Christmas

Our Christmas tree

We rented a scooter one day and went to every beach on Terre dé Haute including Baie de Marigot and Pain de Sucre. We still liked Pompierre the best.

Spotted this goat on our way to Baie de Marigot

This iguana was at Pompierre

Our Christmas card from Figuier Beach

We took a dinghy ride over to Pain de Sucre beach with the crews from Mythago, Lequesteau and Tehani one day and had a picnic lunch and spent a leisurely afternoon on this very narrow beach with way too many other people. It made for some interesting people watching.

12/24/2015 We spent much time preparing food for communal Christmas dinner and then spent a nice evening on Lequesteau with our five boat crews together. Greg and I left the party and went to Christmas eve Mass at the little church here. Even though we arrived early, it was packed and we had to cram in at the back just to get inside. Some people had to stand outside for all of Mass. Of course, it was in French so we didn’t understand anything except the words, “Gloria” in the song. There was a procession of children up the aisle with the priest. All the kids were in white with white masks on. We couldn’t really figure out the significance of this but they all stayed around the altar for Mass. After a long, hot evening in church (there is no air conditioning), we walked back to the dinghy dock, passing a surprising number of people still out and restaurants open on Christmas eve evening.

12/25/2015 Christmas day we decided not to go to shore for potluck with many other cruisers because it was rainy and there really wasn’t a place to set things up. We had a great Christmas dinner on Tehani with our usual four boat crews and new friends we met from Skitter Skamp, Brian and Maggie from Vancouver. Everyone brought wonderful food and we had a feast.  

Christmas on Tehani

12/26/2015 Greg spent the day making Turkey and Sausage Gumbo with leftovers.  Even made a pot that was gluten free and it came out pretty darn good too.  We had the usual crowd over for dinner.  This boat is really too small for 8 people to eat dinner.  We managed to squeeze everyone into the cockpit and still have enough elbow room to eat.  We had hoped to have leftovers for the passage the next day but both pots were scraped clean. 

12/27/2015 We checked out of Guadeloupe on the 26^th for the next day, said goodbye to all of our friends who weren’t leaving yet and left Isle des Saintes at 0722 to head north. We needed to be in St. Thomas before January 9 to meet Connor and we wanted to spend some time in Antigua so we took our first opportunity to head north although the conditions weren’t ideal. Skitter Skamp also left the same day we did, also headed to Antigua. We made 7+ knots sailing from Les Saintes past Vieux Fort with a reefed main, staysail and jib. We dropped the staysail later and hit several squalls along the coast. We then had to motor the last 5 to 6 miles because we lost most of the wind. We hit another squall just as we entered Des Haies. It cleared as we got in the harbor and we managed to anchor in 25 feet of water near friends on Dea Latis. No moorings were available. Des Haies is known for the winds howling through the valleys and into the harbor and we certainly had some the night we spent there. We yellow flagged it as we had already checked out in Les Saintes so we wouldn’t have to put the dinghy in again. 

And then off to Antigua......