Updated 7/30/07

Maps: Guadeloupe and Dominica
Pictures

Imagine the crystal-clear turquoise-blue waters of the Caribbean Sea with gentle seas and energizing winds. Imagine sailing on a 47' Sunsail Oceanus Beneteau from islands where they only speak French and eat pain au chocolat, to another island where you can swim under waterfalls, walk under the canopy of a tropical rain forest, and see boiling puddles of water. Such was our trip to the islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica. It was merveilleux. Everything went well and the weather was perfect. The winds were not too much and not too little (15-24), swells were not bad (4-6' most of the time), and waves were small. If it rained, it was only in the evening or morning, and only lasted a few minutes, enough to cause a close-the-windows fire drill. There were 3 couples and one brother on the boat, all experienced sailors. Previously, some or all of have skippered sailboats in the British Virgin Islands, the Greek Islands, Grenadines, and the coasts of California and Wisconsin. Of our 12 days there, we sailed about 6 days and toured islands about 6 days. The charter company, Sunsail, upgraded us from a 45' boat to a 47', so we had 4 cabins and 3 heads for 7 people, rather than 4 and 3. It was very nice, the boat and dinghy were in great condition, and we never had a problem.

Guadeloupe is a overseas Region of France and a part of the French West Indies. It consists of many islands. The 2 main islands, Grande Terre and Basse Terre, form a butterfly (papillon) shaped island. The island of Marie Galante and the archipeligo Isles des Saintes are nearby, forming an equilateral triangle with sides about 16 miles long.

On the first full day on the island, May 25, 2007, we rented a car and toured the main 2 islands of Guadeloupe. Fortunately, they drive on the right. The Bass-Terre island, on the west side, is volcanic, mountainous, and heavily forested. We had lunch at La Cafeiere Beausejour, a coffee farm, resort, and restaurant, with beautiful flora, fauna, and food, in the interior. The road to the farm was challenging, to put it mildly. Grande-Terre is flat incomparison, and has sugar cane fields and luxurious resorts.

The next day we boarded our sailboat, whose name is Audrey, checked her out, cleared customs (interesting experience), and headed south towards the Guadeloupe island of Marie Galante, 16 miles away. There were a few boats around, but not many. We did find one and of course, 2 boats = a race. Yes, we won, but they were fishing (so they said.) We sailed on to Anse Canot on the north side of Marie Galante and spent the night is a peaceful cove. There were no buoys, which was the norm, and we dropped anchor on a sandy bottom.

The next day we sailed a short distance down the coast to St Louis and picked up a buoy. Unfortunately, the buoy had no line and it could not be lifted up high enough for us to loop a line. So, one of us jumped in the water and helped tie up. On shore, even though just about everything was closed for the weekend and Whit Sunday, we found a tour bus operator who was giving his new girlfriend a tour of the island, and convinced him to give us a tour, too. The island is round like a French galette bread, and about 16 miles in diameter. We saw just about it all, so it seemed, including a sugar cane syrup and rum factory, and several of the famous windmills. This island has rolling hills and is covered with fields of sugar cane, used to make molasses and rum. The beach on the south side, called Capesterre, is a very picturesque white sand beach.

Only one of of us spoke French, and the ability to communicate with the locals came in handy many times.

Next, we sailed NW to the Guadeloupe archipelago of 8 islands called Isles des Saintes, about 18 miles away. Swells were from the east, winds from the E to SE, and waves the same. Winds were 15-25 again, rather consistent. We spent one night in the Saintes and got a preview of what we will return to see in a few days.

Then we sailed south to the island of Dominica. Weather was once again, excellent. However, as soon as we got in the lee of Dominica, the wind was turned off. So, we turned on the engine. Dominica is an independent country, but a part of the British Commonwealth, sort of like Canada. This is where some scenes of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed. The new TV reality show, "Pirate Master" was filmed there in April. It is a very natural island and looks like Hawaii probably did before all the tourists and businesses arrived. It is volcanic (like most other islands there), with rain forests, boiling lakes, waterfalls, beautiful coastlines, and mountains. Very scenic. A Tour guide paddled us up a river thru a swamp forest, and it looked just like the jungle ride in DisneyWorld, complete with iguanas, but no hippos or alligators. Another guide gave us 2 full days of touring the rest of the island. The highlight (did it twice) was swimming in a pool underneath a 200' (maybe) waterfall. Never did that in Hawaii. We visited the only remaining Indian reservation in the Caribbean, where the Cabrib Indians live. Everything was like a picture postcard, and we have tons of pictures to show for it. (one of our companions took 500 pictures in 8 hours! That's a picture every 90 seconds. I only took 1500 on this trip and filled up my new camera's 2G card.)

In Dominica, we anchored in the NW side of the island in a bay call Prince Rupert Bay. The town is called Portsmouth and Fort Shirley is nearby in the Cabrits park on the north point. Even tho swells had been from the east other days, they switched to the west for our evenings here. As a result, it was rock and roll for 2 nights. The floor boards creaked, internal halyards clanged, and generally, sleeping was a challenge for some. Just imagine being rocked to sleep in a cradle (with the noise.) Fortunately, the third night was better. There was a beatiful full moon, which was one reason why we chose this particular week.

The guides were extremely helpful with the checking in and out of customs and immigration, as we never would have found either without help. For customs, we motored over to the far side of the bay, docked at a big and high rusty rickety commercial dock, and walked down a dirt road to a warehouse type district, and around the corner, found customs. Once we got there, all was fine (as long as we had the boat papers and all our passports.) Immigration was "downtown" at the police station.

After 3 nights there, we sailed back north to the town called Bourg des Saintes, in the Isles des Saintes. The bay here is the 3rd most beautiful bay in the world (never found out where the other 2 are, but it was certainly beautiful, especially when viewed from Fort Napolean on the top of the hill.) The town was a typical Caribbean fishing village, not too big, with red roofs, a church, and a few shops. It was quite civilized compared with the other places (i.e. grocery stores and souvenir shops), but everything shuts down from noon to 3 pm. We needed to stay longer to get into the rhythm of their schedules. We rented bikes and went to a beach on the other side of the island (not far, but a motor scooter would have been wiser), and up to Fort Napolean. There, we found iguanas and goats. The museum (for those who got to see it) was excellent, with diarama displays of sea battles.

Ask us how our attempt to add water to our water tank went, and about the giant yellow octopus that grabbed its tentacles around our keel several times.

We snorkeled a few times. The best was in the beach next to Pain du Sucre. Perhaps we didn't find the right spot, but the quantity and colors of fish were no where near what we have seen in the BVIs and Hawaii. However, it was still great fun and like swimming in a fish tank. Water was warm, but some of us were glad we had swim shirts on.

Food was great. We had lots of fish (mostly dorade, which is dolphin, not Flipper) and shrimp or crawfish. Also had crepes, both ham & cheese and chocolate. We cooked dinner on the boat about 4 times (spaghetti, grilled chicken.) It was more difficult than we expected to find good grocery stores. We had Sunsail provision the water, juices, and some staples. The night before we departed, we spent 2-3 hours getting groceries such as meats, dairy foods, and produce at an excellent store on Grand-Terre.

We spent a night at Islet de Cabrit (Goat Island), which is an island in the Saintes. We hiked up to the top if the island and had beautiful panoramic views of the other islands and our boat at anchor. At the top of the island is Fort Josephine (much in disrepair), which has a great view of Fort Napolean.

The next day, we sailed back to the coast of "mainland" Guadeloupe, and anchored next to a small island called Ilet du Gosier, which has a lighthouse (very much in need of renovation.). Then it was a short 3 mile sail the next day, back to port, where we cleared customs again, and returned the boat. Then it was back to the airport and the journey home. June 5, 2007. It took us about 2 days to get there and back, with overnights in Miami both ways. Since there is only one flight a day from Puerto Rico to Guadeloupe, an overnight in either Miami or Puerto Rico was pretty much mandatory. We used frequent flyer miles, and Miami was the only choice. Next time, I'd like to spend a couple of days in Puerto Rico and see the Fort San Juan and other sites.

It was an extremely enjoyable trip and we're very thankful that everything went so well. We highly recommend it to anyone who wants a chartering experience that is a little but, but not too much, more challenging than in the British Virgin Islands. We were never out of sight of land, thanks to 4500' volcanoes.

C'etait un voyage merveilleux and tres amusant. A Bientot!