We began the week with our departure from Martinique. We decided to hop up the coast and anchor at St. Pierre to make the jump over to Dominica a little shorter. We dropped anchor at St. Pierre and made our way over to town to check out of the country. The checkout computer (that’s all it is in the French islands) was located in a restaurant so we decided to eat lunch while we were there. Much to our surprise, the menu was German food! German food in the islands was a first and when our pork and sauerkraut arrived, it was a feast. We also voted that the best meal we had on French Martinique was a German meal….that would make the French cringe! As we prepared for our night at anchor, we found out what the locals do for entertainment on a Friday night. Just before sunset, speedboat after speedboat began to arrive and they tied up together in the bay. The music began to play loudly and as more boats arrived, the party barge grew. Luckily, the French were an early crowd and dispersed shortly after sunset unlike the Dominicans that would have partied until morning!
The next morning, we headed out for our long day sail over to Dominica but Galt was jetting along so it was an easy ride. We dropped anchor for the night and left early the next morning to continue our journey over to Guadeloupe. We arrived in a group of islands called “The Saintes” which are a part of Guadeloupe. If you have never seen Guadeloupe on a map, I encourage you to look at it because the shape of the island is very unique. All the other Caribbean islands are either tall and round or flat and oblong. Guadeloupe is the shape of a perfect butterfly with one wing being volcanic and arid while the other wing is a rainforest. The main island in Les Saintes was Terre de Haut so we settled in the bay ready to begin our exploring. Our first surprise of the day was that our dinghy motor decided it had given us its’ last hint. It had been doling out hint after hint for several months that it was ready to retire. We kept running the poor little thing because dinghy motors are expensive and difficult to find in the islands for a price we are willing to pay. Finally, Houdinghy’s motor just stopped. Nothing Bill tried was going to convince that motor to start. So, break out the oars! Time for some exercise! Rowing into shore was not an easy task and I certainly figured out I need more upper body strength but Bill was a champ! Checking into Guadeloupe was quite easy so we set out on a search for food. We quickly discovered that finding food between 2pm and 7pm was not an easy task. The restaurants were open from 11am to 2pm and then they all closed down until 7pm. Several restaurants remained open in the afternoon but no food was served…only drinks. After grabbing a delicious lunch of gelato, we decided dinner would have to be on the boat because there was no way we were going to make it until 7pm for dinner. If there was one lesson we learned in The Saintes, it was the lesson of We are Americans. We eat dinner at 6pm and we do not eat for three hours. Trying to convince the French to bring you a check at the end of a meal takes an act of Congress! We spent our first full day in The Saintes with a lovely snorkel in the bay followed by an afternoon of relaxation on the boat. We were treated to an amazing sunset and another beautiful day was done. After our calm day, we were ready to explore the island. First thing in the morning, we made our way into town to rent a golf cart. Our choices of vehicles on the island were electric bikes, scooters or a golf cart. Since the electric bikes and scooters seemed to require a death wish, we voted for the golf cart. One thing that has puzzled us since arriving in the French islands is the fact that the vast majority of the islanders only speak French. On all of the poorer islands in the Caribbean, the locals speak at least two languages and many speak three languages. We always do our best to speak the local language and we did quite well in the Spanish speaking countries. Not so in French. We basically have hello, goodbye, please, thank you, yes and we don’t speak French. However, we spend most of the time correcting ourselves to French from Spanish. For example, our most common yes response is “Si…Oui” which causes the locals to laugh and repeat, “SiOui” while shaking their heads. Our second most common is the infamous “por favor….oh crap…s’il vous plait” which elicits another laugh and head shake. At least we try! This diversion brings us back to the golf cart rental. We walked up to rent the cart and as soon as the employee knew we spoke only English, he signaled for the other employee who spoke English to come assist us. The hilarious part is that the employee who spoke perfect English was from Mexico! He spoke Spanish, English and French which meant he really confused our brains that immediately went back to Spanish. We’ll just call our French island abilities Spench instead of Spanglish and move on! The best news of the day that our French and English speaking Mexican friend gave us was that all of the Stupid protocols, including mask wearing, were officially OVER! Ah, glorious, mask-free, PCR test free freedom! Each day, a new island joins the list of places that have done away with all the restrictions so we keep our fingers crossed that swabs up our noses and paying hundreds of dollars for a five minute test are now not so fond memories. After grabbing our golf cart, we made our way to the only tourist attraction on the island of Terra de Haut, Fort Napoleon. The fort was very well preserved and had a nice museum…even if it was only in French! After the museum, we did our usual Sally must see the cemetery tour followed by a snorkel at a beautiful bay. As we walked back up the path from the beach, we stopped in at a restaurant for lunch. The employee told us he had just seated his last table for lunch so we could not be seated. It was 1:00pm. Quite hungry, we drove to several more restaurants that were also no longer serving lunch until we came upon one that took pity on us and kept the kitchen opened for a few more minutes. We enjoyed a delicious fish dish with an amazing bay view. After lunch, we made our way “downtown” which was made up of a single street but it was pedestrian only so we did not have to be wary of the suicidal bikes and scooters. I left Bill at a watering hole while I went to peruse the local shops. We had decided earlier in the day to embrace the French way and stay out for dinner at 7pm. By 5pm, we were breaking out the cookies and by 6pm, Bill was very hangry. We walked the streets once again looking for sustenance and came upon a pizza place that opened at 6:30pm. Again, the owner took pity on us and started our pizza early so we would not starve. We have decided that the reason the French are so skinny is not because they are healthier than Americans. It is because they are starving to death! After another day of relaxation and prepping the boat for the sail to mainland Guadeloupe, we checked our weather reports and were ready to make the run. We have three weather reports that we check daily and all three reports predicted easterly winds and waves with a following current. I think that most people picture Galt as running like a cruise ship. Smoothly barreling through waves and churning along without issue. The reality is quite different. On this particular day, all three weather reports missed the mark by a longshot. As we made our way through the cut to Guadeloupe mainland, the wind, waves and current were all on our nose slinging Galt and his unfortunate passengers in all directions. Once this type of slaughtering begins, all we can do is hang on and try to figure out a way to possibly make the ride go a little more smoothly. We put up all the sails and then changed course direction which helped a bit but there is really not much to be done except to wait until the conditions change. Luckily, our beating only lasted a couple of hours but much like Gilligan, our three hour tour turned into a five and half hour slogging (see the picture below for how the salon looks after a good slogging). As we turned into the channel heading toward the marina, we figured our difficult day was complete. Not so. Just as we were turning to back Galt into the slip, the engine died. The engine dying as we enter a marina crowded with boats has been one of my biggest nightmares. The nightmare had now come true. Bill raced down into the engine room to work some engine magic while the dockhand who was in a dinghy managed to hold us off other boats while I put out fenders to soften the blow should we bump into another boat. Just as the dockhand and I were trying to ease Galt into the slip with only dinghy power to push Galt, Bill got the engine running and we then slid into the slip without any issues. Whew! A rough end to a rough day but all was well! We even managed to find a restaurant that was serving “snacks” at 5pm so we grabbed a quick burger and headed back to the boat to recuperate. Just to prove that they do not like to be predictable, the French surprised us once more. As we were relaxing and watching tv around 8pm, we heard a loud noise filling the night air. We looked at each other with puzzled and confused looks….”Is that BAGPIPES?” we asked at the same time. We ventured up on deck to find three Frenchies marching along the dock in full kilts playing the bagpipes as if it were the most normal thing in the world on a Friday night on the French island of Guadeloupe! We have now officially seen it all! My daughter later texted me, “Can you imagine the struggle of being a French child with a dream of playing the Scottish bagpipes?” On that note, we put a very strange day to bed. **More pics on Pictures tab
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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