Iles des Saintes

"The Saints" are a small group of islands, part of Guadeloupe. The pace here is very easy and slow. The group of islands offer a bit of everything. We are anchored off the largest of the islands, Terre d'en Haut near the islands only town, Bourg des Saintes. The islands used to depend entirely on fishing - and there are still active small fishing boats that come and go each day. You can buy freshly caught fish from them when they return to their waterfront moorings. They certainly don't seem to care about the yachts anchored about in front of their mooring field - as they fly in-between the boats pushing good wakes.

The town is really idyllic - with tidy, colorful houses with shutters and beautiful "gingerbread" trim. A church chimes every hour and quarter hour. The streets are narrow and filled with tiny restaurants, t-shirt shops, a few small groceries and a few bakeries. Vendors (mostly older women) on the street sell homemade ice cream out of the old fashioned ice cream churn (Michael enjoyed a rich coconut one) and local "fruit tarts." Fishermen are also in parks cutting up fish with giant machetes and knives and selling it. The town shuts down between noon and 1500 each day - which is amazing as the business now is tourism. Ferries bring visitors in starting around 0900 - and they are pretty non-stop through about 1800. The ferries are fun to watch as they too negotiate between sailboats at anchor.

The islands also offer some good hikes, kayaking and snorkeling. We played mountain goat again - and yesterday (Friday) decided to tackle the highest peak in the island. It nearly killed us. At least we didn't do it in the heat of the day - we actually got an earlier than normal start. We should have been forewarned as the guide book describes this hike as "you have to be fit to make it to the island's most spectacular view up Le Chemeau, by the old Napoleonic lookout tower." I'm not certain we are quite up the guide's standard of "fit" quite yet. We did make it - but it was a very tough climb. It's along a road closed to traffic and is very steep with switchbacks. It is 1000 foot vertical climb (and that didn't sound like so much). Barbara is convinced, that on Friday, she was the oldest person who did the climb. We saw a few people along the way and they were all quite young and "fit". We were rewarded with remarkable views of the island group - like being in an airplane. The bummer was that the lookout tower top level was locked - so after all that -we were locked out of the most magnificent view.

On the way down, we ran into a group of mountain goats - real ones. A few of the billy goats got into a fight which was interesting to watch as they butted heads. We hit the first grocery as we made it down and bought the largest bottle of water, found some shade in a park, sat down and re-hydrated. We were exhausted with legs like jelly. Michael went to get some baguettes and croissants (we earned them!) and on his return he panicked as an ambulance was right near the park where he left Barbara sitting. He was sure something bad happened to Barbara - but was happy to see her still sitting on the bench. We made it back to the dinghy and the boat - and spent the rest of the day recovering.

The climb was made that much harder by the fact we entertained the night before and much adult beverage was consumed. Thanks to Joe and Kathy Mansir - we opened your gifted wine and enjoyed it immensely. Also, because one bottle wasn't enough, Tom and Hyla Griesdorn - we popped the cork on a lovely bottle from you. Thanks. The wine was shared - we had invited over the folks from "Serene" and "Rapscallion II." We had been on Mel and Joni's boat "Serene" the night before for sundowners. They are from Miami. On Thursday night on Astarte, we enjoyed sundowners and a potluck with the group. Dennis and Trudy from Rapscallion had some fishing luck and brought wahoo and we threw in some mahi we had thawed. It was a good feast with great conversation and a chance to meet new folks who are also heading south.

Thursday was a holiday on the island - Ascension - so almost everything was closed down even though the ferries were delivering lots of people. We did boat projects and cleaning.

Today (Saturday) we'll probably move to another anchorage near one of the other islands for a different view. We've enjoyed watching the ferries, the yachts coming and going, the anchor drills and the Hobie cat classes that go out every afternoon. The Hobies fly through the water and are colorful and fun to watch as they maneuver through boats and race each other.

Sunday (tomorrow) we'll sail back to the main island of Guadeloupe to Point a Pitre to get the hydraulic centerboard line fixed.