We arrived back in Martinique at Le Marin after a wonderful broad reach averaging over 7 knots. We love to re-provision here, then as before re-anchor at St Anne which we love so much. We were here a few days just chillin and heard s/v Freedom, John and Roberta ( from St Pete) but sadly we couldn't catch them at their boat before we left the next day. We guess we will keep chasing them. We had arranged to catch up with s/v Out of Africa in Les Saints so we took off for St Pierre as a half way stop.
We love this little town and it is surely growing on us, we particularly love the Depaz distillery and of course their products. So we again took the 45 minutes walk to the out of town distillery for exercise and to get a sample and buy a box of their wonderful rhum.
 |
| Depaz gardens |
 |
| The rhum shop |
After St Pierre we sailed directly to Le Saints and had wonderful winds and a very fast passage with several hours around 9 knots and averaged nearly 7 knots including being in the wind shadow of Dominca for 3-4 hours.
John and Jo were waiting for us in Pain de Sucre and we anchored in a little remaining spot. The following morning as boats left we re-anchored to be a little safer in the wind shifts. We had several walks around the island with John and Jo the first to the summit of Terre d'en Haut behind us.
 |
| A pretty steep climb to the summit - needs a rest or two |
The next walk was around the north of Terre d'en Haut from the dingy dock at Bourg des Saintes. A great walk on a circular route returning to the dock.
 |
| A big iguana |
 |
| Nice views |
 |
| A great harbor view |
We also had a few BBQ's both at Pain de Sucre and Ilet Cabrit on the latter occasion Bruce from s/v Wild Matilda joined us.
 |
| On the summit of Ilet Cabrit |
 |
| Nice benches for the BBQ |
 |
| Local chickens cleaning the BBQ grate |
After these lovely islands we headed off to Point a Pitre on Guadeloupe. It's the islands capital and of course a bustling town with both a cruise ship port and commercial ports here. We anchored of the marina in the river before the main ports. We hired a car for 2 days with John and Jo to explore the islands two halves; Basse Terre (mountainous side) and Grande Terre (flat side). We had a walk around Pointe a Pitre to see the markets and shops.
 |
| The veg market |
 |
| The local crafts |
 |
| The fish market |
 |
| The drummer statue |
Next we walked up to the Fort Fleur de Epee a reasonable size fort with nice views of the sea. We saw a local school group there who were studying local history and they entertained us with a little dancing too. The highlight of the fort is the underground tunnels, pretty unusual even though they are limited in size.
 |
| Great views too |
 |
| A nice fort |
 |
| Local school kids |
 |
| Enjoying the show |
 |
| In the tunnel |
 |
| Its dark |
 |
| Back to the surface |
 |
| The tunnel |
We did a little more walking around Pointe a Pitre as well as a shopping trip by bus to the nearby mall while we waited for a car hire.
 |
| Our anchorage |
 |
| The slave museum |
 |
| Ahh! |
 |
| A nice day for a walk |
 |
| Some bright houses in town |
 |
| A local museum - closed unfortunately |
 |
| Great art work to brighten a ruined wall |
Our first day out on our car hire was the adventurous climb of Mt Soufriere via a very nice trail from above the town of Basse Terre. This is still an active volcano and pretty high at 1467m or 4,813' so it's a pretty steep climb. The top is almost always covered in clouds and of course booking ahead for the car we had to take a chance, so it was cloudy the day we went but the views going up and down were still pretty awesome.
 |
| On the trail |
 |
| Starting out |
 |
| Some glimpse of the view |
 |
| the pat |
 |
| A culvert |
 |
| Trail warriors |
 |
| A mountain shelter |
 |
| The summit |
After the mountain we drove down to Vieux Fort to see the small harbor and lighthouse.
 |
| A cute harbor |
 |
| The prominent lighthouse |
Returning to the village of Basse Terre we spent a few hours touring the enormous Fort Delgres there which also contains the volcano monitoring station display and told us about the eruption and monitoring of the volcano.
 |
| Huge grounds |
 |
| Nicely groomed |
 |
| Strange carnival character |
 |
| Another |
 |
| Can you tell the size of the fort? |
 |
| Nice internal buildings too |
 |
| Strange standing stones |
 |
| John and Jo demonstrate the size of the sculpture |
Our next day was the flat side of Grande Terre, with our first stop at Pointe des Chateaux. It's a lovely hike out to the viewpoint with the island Desirade and Petite Terre visible from the summit. We took a walk all around the peninsula for a few hours to enjoy the spectacular views.
 |
| Pointe des Chateaux |
 |
| The north beach |
 |
| The summit cross |
 |
| Great shoreline |
 |
| A rock bridge |
 |
| Another |
 |
| On the trail back |
Our next stop was Le Moule were we went to the Edgar Clerc museum. He was an archeologist researching the native Amerindians and the sites surrounding Le Moule. The museum is interesting and we were able to follow the exhibits because of the English translations they have here.
 |
| I get really excited about museums? |
 |
| Amerindian |
 |
| A lucky one - they often burn the bones and carry relatives in jewlery |
 |
| OK even happier to be done |
We stopped for lunch after buying Bagette's and cheese while shopping in Le Moule and had lunch on a local beach.
We then visited one of Guadeloupe's many distilleries near Le Moule called Distillerie Damoiseau. It has a wonderful example of an old windmill which we all just had to climb inside of. The distillery was actually not operating while we were there as it was still undergoing maintenance and construction, but as we saw later, the cane was being cut elsewhere so it was a shame not to see it working.
 |
| A nice windmill |
 |
| Damsels in distress? |
 |
| No just my sweet |
 |
| The distillery |
We visited a ruin of a cane plantation at Mahaudiere but it was mostly rubble by now, however they did have some huge modern wind generators on the hill. One of the Windmills ruins has been re-purposed into s small chapel at the side of the road.
 |
| Converted mill |
 |
| Modern wind generators |
We returned to the marina via the shopping mall near the airport for some needed retail therapy! Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your outlook, the heavens opened and soaked Liz, Jo and John returning to the boat. Devin avoided the soaking as he refueled the hire car.
Of course no week with John and Jo is complete without a BBQ on the beach.
 |
| Beach BBQ |
During our stay John had a birthday, not giving away numbers but he is older then Dev, we celebrated aboard Moosetracks.
 |
| The birthday boy |
 |
| A great night celebrating |
The next day we had a huge surprise when Liz's sister email mailed and told us a friend from the UK was coming to Guadeloupe on vacation in the next few days. Well blow us away! We quickly exchange emails and arrange a visit with them to see us on Moosetracks. Ken and Sue arrive and come aboard for tea, very English like of course and we get all caught up on each other's retirement plans and ambitions. It was a fantastic afternoon and a true delight.
 |
| Liz and Sue |
 |
| Farewell to Ken and Sue |
Well we decide that's enough of Pointe a Pitre and we move 4 miles to Ilet du Gosier. It's a very tranquil island with shallow reef all around so great to snorkel and get in the water for a bit. We have BBQ on the island on one of the many tables there and relax with John and Jo for the evening. We part company with John and Jo here as they have new boat parts in get in St Martin and we don't want to go that far this year. So we say our farewell until we meet again in Antigua for classics regatta.
 |
| Ilet du Gosier |
We hope everyone is having a wonderful spring.
