Thursday 29 May 2014

Guadaloupe

Now everyone who knows John will know that at times he can display a touch of Francophobia....so it was with some trepidation that we sailed into Deshaises in Guadaloupe ! We had a good sail and it was good to get back on the water. We dropped anchor in the Bay and blew up our little dinghy that we use as a spare. We bought this in Rubicon,Lanzarote as it was very good value small enough to fit on our stern and it meant in the event of something 'happening' to the Portabote we would not be stranded afloat. It does seem weird to drive though compared to the Portabote and seems to have a mind of its own. We wandered ashore to find the customs computer which was at the back of shop called the Pelican. It was fairly easy and straight forward after all it should be as Guadaloupe is part of France. We then picked a bar to have a beer... It was here I noticed the first difference the lady who came to serve me ...there was no smile ... No 'how ya doing?' Just a loud tut as she told me if I was only drinking I would have to stay inside. Welcome to Guadaloupe! However I persevered and the waiter came along to serve John and I with our second drink, a very tasty Belgian beer ...Leffe. He had a big smile on his face a big difference! He was even smiling when he gave us a bill €29 for three not quite full pints. Ouch!

We were hoping for a quiet night at anchor ...this was not to be as it blew hard that night and the boat was rolling quite a bit so early the next morning we set sail for the Saintes. It was another excellent sail and we sailed in to Terrestrial de Haut in the Saintes and picked up a bouy without any trouble. We decided to stay for a couple of nights and went ashore in the dinghy and found a nice little bar that also sold Leffe beer and but did very good food as well. Finding the Customs computer was not quite as easy as the Chris Doyle guide was slightly out of date and the computer have now moved to the cybercafe up the stairs down the street from the Marie. We had hoped for a quiet night again but unfortunately the bouy we picked up had other ideas .....banging against the side of the boat waking us both up but John got out of bed to sort it out ... well done John!
So after two nights of limited sleep we were both a little jaded as we set sail for Dominica...not a long sail but long enough.

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