The islands of Guadeloupe… 06/04/2022
The sail north from Martinique went pretty much as planned: we set off at 14:00 last Thursday and arrived in Marie Galant at 06:40 on Friday morning. Averaging 5.5 knots over the 90 nautical mile distance was good going, and it was lovely to see the sun rise over the sea as we approached our destination. Getting around the bottom of Dominica was the only difficult part, but then it was plain sailing, albeit fairly rough conditions. I got very little sleep, less than 2 hours, but coming in early meant I could then get another 2 hours’ sleep before going ashore to check in.
We anchored on the west coast of Marie Galant in the Baie de St Louis. A huge bay, with plenty of room. Checking in is a very easy process in these French islands – there is no official customs and immigration as there is in other islands; instead, you supply all your details online (and get no acknowledgement), then go to a shop or restaurant that acts as the local customs base, re-inputting some of your details into a customs computer. In this case, the computer was down, so the young woman in the shop filled out the form manually and then took a photo of it on her iPad. Very simple. You do sometimes see a coastguard boat sailing around in the anchorage – I imagine that they input boat names to their database and check that you have formally complied with the rules. They certainly don’t come up and ask to see anything.
Marie Galant itself is fairly low lying, with gentle hills (at one point I passed a sign stating that the altitude was 33m, so that gives an idea). Some very attractive beaches, with few people. Walked a lot and swam on Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday morning sailed 20 miles west across to the Iles des Saints, a small group of islands about 6 miles off the southwest coast of Guadeloupe. The largest island is Terre d’en Haut and is about 3 miles or 5km long, but very narrow. So it’s small and easy to walk around, although the terrain is very steep. We are anchored just south of the only town, Bourg des Saints, in a small area where anchoring is permitted (closer to town it’s all mooring balls which cost €13 a day). Manuka is squeezed in very close, about 50 metres, to the base of the highest mountain on the island – Le Chameau, which is 1000 feet (just over 300m) high. I walked up to its summit late afternoon yesterday, and the view is simply superb. This is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve yet been in the Caribbean. Multiple bays and deep blue sea. Given that the boat is anchored almost on the edge of a reef, there are fish everywhere. All you need to do is plunge into the water and swim around the submerged rocks – dozens of types of fish and a lot of coral too.
The little town is very picturesque. As a result – no surprise – there are plenty of people around during the day. Small ferries bring day trippers from the mainland, but this isn’t a problem, because they all leave by 5pm. So the place is calm in the evening. There are numerous restaurants, some open in the evenings, and the standard of food is high. On Monday night ate at one of them, sitting outside a couple of metres from the water. I had the set 3 course menu, within which there was some choice: opted for local blood sausages to start, followed by grilled dorado and then ice cream. For €20 (less than £17) it was a bargain – high quality French food. And the service was excellent and friendly. There are benefits to civilisation and even tourism – and management of the island has clearly been good: it is not over-developed at all. The large majority of the land is scrubby forest, very rocky – on which the only inhabitants are goats.
This is such a lovely place that I expect to spend several days…