Guadeloupe – part un

Our longstanding French family friends were going to be on holiday in Guadeloupe in mid-February, and having looked at the charts we saw that it was possible for us to get up to Guadeloupe in time to see them. We had planned to explore further north along the coast of Martinique, but seeing a large weather front coming we decided to set off for Guadeloupe two days early – and we were very glad we did!

The wind was supposed to be southerly (i.e. coming from the south), therefore behind us and pushing us steadily north. Unfortunately the weather system started to come through about 12 hours earlier than expected and the wind turned northerly, meaning we were sailing into the wind. This gave us an uncomfortable journey, which with the swell made the sea state very rolly and slowed us down to 3 knots. Having left Martinique at 8 pm on Wednesday 7th February, we arrived in Guadeloupe at 3 pm on Thursday 8th February and anchored in a sheltered area to recover from our trip, just before the heavens opened.

We were there just in time, as the band of weather passed through the islands on the night of Thursday 8th February, with extremely strong winds causing carnage. Many boats dragged their anchors. One boat was blown onto the rocks at Les Saintes islands off the south of Guadeloupe, and many fellow sailors helped the owners to carry their belongings off the boat and safely to shore. Another boat, which we know from the ARC+ rally fleet, was dashed on the rocks in Dominica and was damaged beyond repair. It shows how quickly things can go wrong in these unpredictable conditions.

The following day brought calm, albeit very wet weather again, and we were able to venture ashore to explore Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe’s colourful capital city. We met up with our French friends Sophie, Gilles and Estelle during the week, both at their hotel and on our boat when we took them for a day sail along the south coast.

The middle of February is also carnival time in Guadeloupe, with processions each day leading up to Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) all over the country. At Pointe a Pitre on Dimanche Gras we saw the colourful costumes of the carnival parade with many carnival troupes dancing in time to drums, blowing conch shells and cracking whips to chase out bad spirits. On Ash Wednesday, an effigy of the carnival king Vaval is burned and black and white costumes are worn instead of colourful ones to mark the end of the carnival.

In Guadeloupe we also met up with our friends from Swedish ARC+ family boat Lady Ellen. Together we explored Pointe a Pitre, visiting the aquarium and a very interesting UNESCO museum dedicated to the memory and history of the slave trade, which aims to raise awareness and promote discussion about its repercussions.

Lady Ellen cooked us a delicious Swedish meal of meatballs with lingonberries and ‘brown sauce’, (a very rich Swedish take on gravy), onboard their catamaran. Another evening we had dinner ashore and were also joined by American/Canadian ARC+ family boat Cupid as the three boats were by chance in Guadeloupe at the same time.

On our last night in Guadeloupe we anchored in a bay close to our French friends’ hotel, and dinghied around the headland into the bay of their hotel James Bond style, tying up at the dock and stepping ashore for dinner. The chart shows that Valent was the only boat anchored in the huge bay that night. (There was a reason – it was not the most comfortable of nights).

To get to Guadeloupe in time to coincide with our French friends being there, we had had to sail straight past the island of Dominica. As we didn’t want to miss it out, our next plan was to sail back south to Dominica and spend a while exploring this beautiful natural island. After that we would come up the west coast of Guadeloupe, to continue our journey north – Guadeloupe part deux.