Guadeloupe

Tues-Wed, May 3-4 , 2011

We left Montserrat with low winds and had a great sail to Guadeloupe where we reached the northwest coast site of Deshaies as previously reported. We checked in at Le Pelican, a shop where one can check in to Guadeloupe. We also got wifi password to use on the boat. It worked for Charlie but not for me. We ate in town at La Kaz. Charlie had the fish so

up which came with rice and salad plus a huge fish in a broth. I had salad with all kinds of other appetizers includded. They had bird feeders with sugar in them for the banana quints birds.

We walked around a bit and went to their grocery store which was fairly small. I did not buy much because they

did not have much of what I wanted.

We ate at another restaurant called Hemmingways to which we arrived by dinghy. They did not start serving until 7:30 p.m. Their music started with Brubeck's "Take Five". the dinner was typically French.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

We went ashore to go to the dinghy dock and to the tourist center to get a ride to the botanical garden near

by. After arriving, we walked around a bit past the lovely lilly pond but we decided to eat at their outdoor restaurant before

exploring this lovely garden. Charlie had

linguine de mer and I had fricassee of lambi which I assumed was lamb but is is conch. I also had breadfruit which tastes like mashed potatoes, rice, a vegetable saute and mango. This botanical garden had a wandering serpentine path which wound back and forth with a small stream going down the hill. It was a very pleasant and we saw many beautiful flowers from many countries. The hibiscus and bougevilia were lush. I found the banana palm flower and fruit fascinating. They had colorful parachetes and parrots. After we returned to Deshaies, we checked into Le Pelican to see why I could not download pictures for the blog. I discovered that the text I had done the day before had not been so I had to type it all back in. I still did not have time to do the pictures. this was very frustrating. While I was working on the blog at lLe Pelican, Chaswas drinking beer with some Brits who had a boat near ours in the harbor. We went back to the boat and intended to leave early in the next morning to get to our next destination: Pointe de Pitre, Guadeloupe.

Friday May 6, 2011

We put the dinghy on the top of the boat and left Desaheis by 7a.m. heading for Pointe de Pitre which was almost 50 miles away. We sailed down the West coast of Guadeloupe. The wind was very light, under 8 knots so we had to use the engine until we were about half way down the coast. When we reached the southern tip of the island the wind picked up as we tacked back and forth around the south part of the western part of the island which is in the shape of a butterfly. The closer we got to our destination, the more cloudy, hazy and foggy it got. we got into the Marina Bas du Fort by 4:30-5p.m. They use the Mediterrian mooring using buoys at the stern in our case and two bow lines to the dock. We have to climb over the bow pulpit to get onto the dock. It rained all night and most of the next day. Charlie met some Brits on the dock who invited him to join them for drinks ashore.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

We walked around the Marina area checking out the chandlery which the guide said was good but we did not find anything on our list at this store. The other one was closed on Sat. We ate a nice lunch at the Route de Rhone restaurant for lunch. We discovered several other restaurants close by. Basically, we tried to stay out of the rain which came down most of the day and night.

Sunday. May 8, 2011

The weather was a bit better this morning. The rain had cleaned of the boat so we did not have to hose it down. We did get a necessary hose connector from the Marina office to allow us to obtain water for the boat. We filled the water tanks so now we have 150 gallons of water again. About 11a.m. the 110 power on the dock went out as we discovered talking to other American boats using it. The European boats use a different system which was still working. This huge marina has space for 1080 boats but if has no working wifi. They told us of two restaurants which had free wifi: Pirate Caribbean and Le Fregate. We had lunch at Pirate Caribbean...a huge lunch and used their wifi. I don't have many pictures of Pointe de Pitre yet to add. We will probably be here tomorrow to do laundry and maybe explore the main city or big mall Carrefours.