Guadaloupe - action week

Back in Pointe a Pietre  we decided to explore the island, not just the sea around it. We rented a car with our friends Marion and Harald and drove around Basse terre, the geologically newer part of the island. There are some steep mountains with the real rain forest and a lot of rivers and waterfalls.

 

From the mountains we could see the bay of Pointe a Pietre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Although we planned to sail to Antigua, we couldn't sail through Riviere salee, since our friends' catamaran is to wide for the bridges. So we decided to do a dinghy ride through the river. Unfortunately the weather was not the best, but we had good fun anyway.

 

 We drove through the passages and channels in mangroves, where we couldn't sail through with the sailboat.

 

 Tha airport is right next to the river, we stayed and watched the planes land and take off for a while. It may not be as spectacular as in Sint Maarten, but the take off of this one created a lot of wind and waves on the river. Luckily we were not right behind him, otherwise we would be blown into the mangroves.

 

 

 These are the first two bridges on the south side.

 

 

 This is Heron in anchorage in Pointe a Pietre - aja, we are the small boat on the left. In the back is Costa Iluminosa - yes THE Costa ....

 

 Our friend took this photo from the terrace of the restaurant, where we had great lunch.

 

 

 After a couple of days we sailed off along west sind of the island towards Deshaies. There was a lot of wind and along the way we caught a tune (sorry no photo), that we ate with our friends.

Once in Deshaies, we made a hike up the river. The book says a five year old could do it so we thought that we could easily make it. Boy were we wrong. Ok, the weather was not on our side, rain made the rocks really slippery. And it took more than two hours to get to the road. Tomaz, Marion and Harald hiked another half of hour to the sring. And don't be fooled by smiles on our faces - it is just posing ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next day we recovered and on Friday, 20th of April, we sailed to Carlisle bay to Antigua. The passage was nice, not to much wind or waves. And Carlisle bay was pretty as ever. Next day we moved to Fallmouth harbor to be close to action - to Classic regatta week.

More Saintes

 We stayed in Saintes for another week, swimming, snorkeling and having good time with Marion and Harald.

 Almost every evening there was a pretty sunset, just perfect to a sundowner :-)

 I was happy to see several live conchs - so not all have been eaten...

 

A sea "tree"

 

The small flounder was not yet very good in camouflaging.

 

 

 A nice yellow sponge

 

 

 This is a Goldspotted eal

 

 

 

 

 I couldn't resist - another pretty Flying gurnard

 

 

 And this is mama flounder - she does it much better :-)

 

Another sponge

 

 

 And an anemone

We sailed to Pointe a Pietre again on Thursday, 12th of April. No fish this time. Full report in next post.

Pointe a Pitre

While we were still on Saintes we were boarded  by French customs, their main objection was that we didn't have the name of the boat written on our boat. So couple of days later we put the sticker with the name up - we had it with us all along, we just didn't find the time ...

 

 

 We made a walk around Pointe a Pitre - it must have been a grand city, but it's very much run down now.

 

there are a couple of nice houses, but between them are ruins.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This boat is anchored in front of the old city harbor, looks like it's been there for a long time. The tree is growing on it and pelicans "moved in" ...

 

 

 On Friday we sailed back to Saintes, our German friends were already waiting for us there. We had a good sailing, wind a bit stronger than on our way up, and our speed also - between 7 and 8 knots. Tomaz threw the lure in the water and at almost the same place we caught a fish again, a beautiful dorado this time.

We are anchored in the same place as the last time, behind Paine de sucre. Snorkeling is still great and we are having good time with Marion and Harald.

Iles des Saintes

If you ever wondered what happened with the rest of the Spanish mackerel (from three posts ago) - i made it to a very delicious curry and we ate it while already on Saines.

 

 We stayed in Saintes for another 10 days, it was warm, almost no rain, wind was rarely over 15 knots, and we had great snorkeling right from the boat. A true heaven to me ....

Here are some more of my underwater "trophies".

I was really lucky to "catch" this flying gurnard in shallow water - that's why the colors are so bright. He obviously felt threatened when i dove down to get closer and spread his wings to appear bigger.  With wings closed he looks rather dull ....

 

 

 

I found this anemone pretty - like she had a lipstick on - on the tips of her tentacles :-)

 

 This is a puffer fish - i like how his eyes look like mirror.

 

 

 And puffer fish #2

 

 

 And this is squid.

 

 

 Don't know exactly who these two are - but they're pretty

 

 

 

We met couple of new friends, all from Texas and we had some great evenings together. Then yesterday we sailed back to Pointe a Pitre, we had a great sail, 10 to 15 knots of wind, waves less than 1m, speed about 6 knots. And Tomaz caught a big tuna, i guess it's a Skipjack. He cleaned it and filleted it already while we were sailing.

 

Yesterday we ate it barely browned from all sides and raw in the inside, with sauce made of soy sauce, ginger and chillies, and with potato and spinach on the side.  Not to mention the French wine :-) Mmmmmm.....