11 – 21 May 2010
After an overnight passage with variable, but fairly light, winds with some motoring, we anchored in the bay off Bourg des Saintes, the main town in Les Saintes – a small group of islands which are part of Guadeloupe.
We intended staying here for just three or four days, but the weather turned against us and it was 10 days before we were able to depart. But if you have to get stuck somewhere this is a beautiful place for it – the small town is charming, the large well-protected bay is beautiful and the scenery is lovely.
We didn’t do any sightseeing around the island, but we went ashore every day for some basic shopping in the small mini-markets, and often just sat at a cafe with a coffee or ice cream and watched the world go by. It was mostly a very restful time.
We did need to get some petrol for our dinghy’s outboard motor and, after asking around, found that there is no petrol station in the town – the only available fuel is at a dock in another bay, accessible by a road over the hill and then a path. So we thought it a lovely day for a walk, took the can in a knapsack and set off as directed. We got to the next bay and found the beginning of the path. There were occasional marks on the route, but for a number of different paths but for a while we followed the right one. Then we arrived at a chainlink fence across our way; we couldn’t see the path at all so we guessed, found a path and followed it… almost to the top of the hill – great views, but the wrong path!! Backtracked to the fence and hailed the young men inside for directions; they very kindly sent a boy out to show us the way. The right path was mostly across rock and invisible if you didn’t know it, but we eventually arrived at the fuel dock – hot, tired and very thirsty. We filled our can, bought some water to drink, and made the return journey much faster.
A few days later we decided we needed to get some diesel for the boat’s engine – this time we motored round and anchored in the bay, and transported the fuel by dinghy to the boat, returning to the main anchorage the same afternoon.
We also needed to fill our water tank whilst here – the only place was from the yacht club. You pay in advance, tie up to their mooring buoy which has a hose attached and then radio the club to turn on and off the water. As it was a set price for as much as you could take we filled up the tank, every container on board and all the buckets – so we did the laundry that day.
Once the weather became favourable for an overnight passage to Martinique we went on our way, but look forward to returning again next season.
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