Patronus arrives at Grand Bourg in Les Saintes
January 9-14
Grand Bourg, Terre d’en Haut
We left Guadeloupe and headed for Les Saintes. We had heard wonderful things about this small group of islands and we hoped that we now knew enough French to squeak by. We hit a squall on the way, but Chris caught a black fin tuna!
Porter assumes his underway position
croissants delivered right to the boat!
We got a mooring in the harbor of Terre d’en Haut, near the town of Grand Bourg. The mooring was very reasonable at 11 euros a night, and after paying, the mooring warden asked us for our breakfast order. Say what? He handed us a form, like you get for room service at a hotel. You could choose from croissants, pain au chocolat, or a baguette. Or five of each…. Yum! Breakfast is delivered by about 0745, right to your boat! Seriously, just this luxurious little treat made up for all of Guadeloupe.
The next morning, after schoolwork was finished, we hiked up Le Chameau, a long and steep hill that tops at an elevation of 1000’. There was a cool old fort at the top, so we climbed it for 360 degree views of the surrounding area. While the kids played in the fort, the adults walked out to a promontory and enjoyed the quiet stillness as the sun bedazzled the sea before us. It was incredibly beautiful. On the way back, we walked through town and poked our heads into the various little supermarkets.
Porter takes us to the dinghy dock
We found a recycling center!!!! We were so excited to see cans and plastics crushed up and ready to send to Trinidad. There is very little recycling as yet in the Caribbean.
hiking up Le Chameau
Wendy enjoys the view
Bryson and Maggie
Porter climbs to the top of the fort
The kids look out the holes in the stones made for artillery.
Bryson climbing in the doorway of the fort
a snake stops us in our tracks on the way down the mountain
the two littlest piggies
Reese and Olivia find natural chalk and write their names on Flamboyant tree pods
climbing the volcanic rocks
The girls rest on the way up.
Porter and Olivia in their own little world, walking down the streets in Les Saintes. They are becoming so independent!
Reese and Olivia in front of the animal jail.
We saw many goats grazing and enjoying the view on the mountain. We then realized that they are in “animal jail”. If your animal is found roaming around, it is taken to jail until you pay a fine!
Before we went to bed, I noticed that many of the boats had tightened up the lines on their moorings so much that the moorings were literally being pulled out of the water on their heavy chains. “What dopes,” I thought. So judgemental. After a sleepless night listening to the giant mooring ball smash into our hull, undoubtedly doing damage, I realized what the other boats were up to. Who’s the dope now?
Girls Gone Shopping
In the morning, Wendy and I came up with the fabulous idea of going “food shopping” while the men took the kids to Fort Napoleon. I was a little fort-ed out at this point. How many forts can a person possibly look at? After buying some food, we browsed in a few of the quaint shops mentioned in our guide book. Neither Wendy nor I enjoy shopping as a hobby, but it was nice to have time together and especially nice to try on some clothes that hadn’t been worn 200 times in the last 6 months. We bought some swim coverups and dresses and tried on lots of fun, colorful jewelry.
The pretty town of Grand Bourg
There were many different types of gingerbreading on the little cottages in town. I like the kissing birds.
the center of this colorful little village
The rest of our crew came back much too soon, but we were all hungry, so we had pizza and sandwiches at Blue Pizza and even found a little shop that made delicious milkshakes!
the view from the fort
Patronus in the harbor. Later, we moved behind Pain au Sucre, which is the little bump of a hill to the right.
Pain au Sucre, Terre d’en Haut
In the afternoon, we moved to a new anchorage next to Pain au Sucre, which means “Sugar Loaf”. Pain au Sucre is a tiny piton, which is a little round hill that is as cute as a button. As we pulled in to the harbor, we saw dolphins jumping in our bow wake. They were amazing and seemed to turn sideways to look at us as they jumped.
the mommy and her baby
As soon as our anchor hit the bottom, we were all in the water with our snorkels on. These wild dolphins stay in this harbor for a short time and love to have friends to swim with. If you swam along gently (unlike some of the cruisers, who splashed and screamed and chased and tried to touch the dolphins) you could watch the mommy and baby poke their heads around on the sea floor.
They spoke to each other down there, and if you listened carefully, you could hear them talk back and forth. After a while, the baby would head up for air and the mommy would follow closely behind, keeping her eye on things. Once at the top, they would jump in tandem and see if any swimmers were around. Many times, they would swim right up to me and swerve out of the way at the last second with a smile in their eyes. I spoke to them in my mind, telling them how beautiful they were. I told them that I love the way they swam. I thanked them for bring such a feeling of peace and joy into my heart.
our new forever friends
Swimming with dolphins brings you right into the present moment. There is no room in your mind for worrying about the future or lamenting about the past when you are mesmerized by their swimming, loving, and nuzzling. I stayed in the water till I was a prune and took every chance I could to swim with them for the next few days. I hope they know how much I loved being with them. Six and a half months into our trip, this was, hands down, my favorite moment. I am so glad that Chris, the kids, and our dear friends on Anything Goes also got to enjoy this amazing experience. I know that none of us will ever forget it.
We also checked out the beach here. Our guidebook said it was “exquisite”. We beg to differ, but we had a relaxing time reading and not doing boat projects for once.
Porter practices his freestyle swimming. He’s coming along!
the kids fooling around in the dinghy
Anse Fideling, Terre d’en Bas
After checking out of Les Saintes the next morning, we moved to Terre d’en Bas, a different island. We would stay there just for the night and leave the next morning. There isn’t a customs office in Terre d’en Bas, so, after checking out, we only had 24 hours to leave Les Saintes. Bryson had a big moment during this trip. He steered the boat from anchor-up to anchor-down in 7 knots from the NNE. The trip was 1.9 miles and it was a bit rainy. He was nervous, but he did a great job and was all smiles when we congratulated him. I reminded him that even I haven’t driven the boat from point to point!
The windmills in the distance.
We are glad we went to this small, sparsely inhabited island to check it out. I had admired it from the top of Le Chameau a few days before. There was a long, winding road with lots of rolling hills that went around the island from the harbor to a set of windmills. We don’t have bikes, so I had set my mind to running on that road instead. Once we had the anchors set, Chris, Craig, Wendy, and I headed in for our run. None of us had jogged in quite a while, but we all very much enjoyed the exercise and the views were breathtaking. We saw goats on the hillside, admired our boats from the top of the harbor, and reached the end of the windmills before turning back toward home. You might be wondering where all our kids were all that time. We left them on the boats, of course. It’s okay, we checked to make sure they were both still there when we got to the top of the hill…
Between all these exciting adventures, schoolwork must go on! Bryson works on vocabulary lessons here.
Porter, without a shirt as usual, works on his math.
Porter fishes off the side of the boat.
An afternoon swim off the boats with Wendy was refreshing, but we had to turn back from the beach because there were too many sea urchins on the sea floor to “land” ourselves without stepping on them. Wendy continues to be a great swim coach and stays right next to me to keep me swimming in a straight line. We saw a school of small black fish swimming towards the head of the harbor. There had to be millions of them. They were everywhere we looked and the school went on and on as far as you could see in every direction. I am still wondering what they were and what they were doing.
We were excited to see another Salty Dawg boat in the harbor. s/v Montana Sky was there and we all got together after dinner to swap stories.
The kids sit on the pottery ruins with Patronus in the background.
The next morning, the kids and I went to an ancient pottery site and marveled at the pottery that was still there after so many years. The buildings were in ruins, but there were signs to explain how the pottery was made. The kids enjoyed making little houses out of the pottery pieces they found on the ground. Back at the boat, Chris made water and prepared us for departure.
building little houses out of the pottery remains
At our next stop, I finally get a nickname, after 40 years: Waitikibuli….(can anyone guess what country gave me my name???)
