Commodore
March 28, 2022

Guadeloupe’s Isle des Saintes

The nurse sent us a message to say she was running 45 minutes late, so we did not have the early start we had wanted. We were heading to the the string of islands just south of Guadeloupe called Isle des Saintes, they belong to Guadeloupe. The main area to stay only allows mooring balls, which judging how busy it has been, we were anxious to get in early enough to get one . We went to our meeting place at the Information Centre and began to wonder if this was going to work, when suddenly the nurse appeared. Very efficiently she had everything with her, we used the table in the information office and she was soon giving our nostrils a horrible scrape out, she insisted in doing it at a weird angle that felt awful, but at least it was done, she was happy to email us our results within 24 hours. We managed to pick up our enormous amount of chain on the anchor with a bit of effort, but much better than anticipated. The wind had swung us around and around, so we were slightly nervous how the chain had coped, but all worked out well in the end.

Leaving Guadeloupe mainland

Approaching the Isles des Saintes

We arrived around lunch having motored the whole way as we were virtually going into the wind most of the 20 miles. The sea was very choppy in places. We were so glad to spot a few available mooring balls as the place looked very busy with loads of boats. Thankfully we mastered a perfect execution of picking up the mooring ball, as there are no boatmen here to help, and you have a close audience with all the other yachties about. We headed into town to have a wonder around, we thought the place was enchanting, we had been told it was quite touristy so our expectations were low. It did seem a bit odd in that it appeared 80% of the people were French, it is obviously an easy holiday destination for them. A lot of the tourists were day trippers from the mainland, and returned by ferry at 5pm. There are no big hotels or resorts, just lots of quaint old houses, mainly tiny and look like they were old fishing cottages. We had a great walk around town, It was incredibly hot, but the main street managed to keep relatively cool, with lots of big trees. Everywhere the chickens run feral, so many had little chicks, they seemed to be everywhere we went. On the far end of town we found the ruins of an old fort, we walked up to the top and found a magnificent view point and a whole lot of goats! We watched the sun go down from there which was stunning and then headed back into town for supper. Rowan had found a good review of a restaurant, we just managed to get a table. I have to say besides Nobu, it was most probably the best food we have had this trip. We finished the meal with an amazing mango soufflé that was deliciously light.