Deshaies
Deshaies is a sleepy little beach town on near the northern end of the left wing of Guadeloupe.
The island is shaped like a butterfly so location references tend to be around that, kind of like Michigan folks talking about where they’re from on the mitten.
The anchorage here was very calm which was so, so welcome after the thrashing we got in St Martin.
It was also by far the most beautiful spot we’ve dropped the hook, in my opinion.
Right from our spot, we were able to walk to a nearby hike over a mountain to a big beach, the largest we’ve seen since leaving Pensacola.
Obviously, there was a random cannon on the hike because for some reason there are always cannons.
The hike was kind of comical.
The sign at the bottom said “facile”, French for “easy”.
The trail was damned near straight up for about 700 feet of elevation on very rocky terrain.
We have decided that an ‘easy’ trail is one that does not require special equipment or a sherpa.
The trail was covered in hermit crabs which were all so different that they were a sight in themselves. Fira was worried they would get trampled so she started moving them off the trail. I tried to remind her that we saw literally zero other people on the hike but what would I know, I’m just some old dude.
The town had a boulangerie about 50 feet away from the dinghy dock with amazing breads and pastries. Obviously the kids and I didn’t get to try any but Fira and I had fun picking them out and bringing one back to Grete every day.
The anchorage also had a sunken sailboat and the healthiest coral reef we’ve seen so far.
It was quite amazing being able to go snorkeling right from the back of our boat and see all kinds of corals, turtles, and fishes. Then for rinsing off afterward, we could simply strip down and do it topside because, when in France… Sorry perverts, no nude pics here :)
Fira fell in love with snorkeling (she says “snorgeling”) here and I’m pretty sure it will play a bigger part in our lives going forward.
She spotted a rare (for this region anyway) snake eel.
It was about three feet long which is on the long end of their size range.
She’s got good eyes. Can you see it?
The calm anchorage always means the cats (certainly Tuna Baboona) hang out topside and watch the world.
Sometimes they are quite silly and crazy up there and sometimes they just chill out watching fish, turtles, birds, waves, whatever.
I left a bit of my dad’s ashes here and went on a run that tried to make my heart explode.
The hills around here are non-stop and there is no gentle slopes to run.
Grete, being the brains of the operation stayed on the boat and let me run alone.
She did miss out on the views though, so I think I won.
Road Trip
We also rented a car for a couple of days to go sightseeing further afield.
Day one we met up with our friends from Machete and hiked up to the top of the volcano, the tallest point in the Eastern Caribbean.
The hike was even harder than the other, but the signage here was more accurate and referred to it as a difficult hike.
Toward the top, everyone we walked past was telling us we might not want the kids running ahead because it was windy.
Holy cow was it windy!
It was literally knocking us over and the sound was deafening.
Really glad we reigned all the kids in for that part.
We were in the clouds most of the hike so the views were quite obstructed, but it was still beautiful and we got to see inside the belly of the beast.
The youngest from Machete was a trooper and managed most of the hike despite the fact that most of the rocky steps came up to her waist or higher.
She decided early on that she liked holding Grete’s hand so that was the setup for most of the hike.
It’s always cool seeing nature at work.
This section of the mountain was torn apart in an eruption 100s of years ago and now it’s lush and scenic.
We had all planned to eat lunch at the top but the wind was just too much.
There was a nice concrete bunker that seemed like a good option but since we’re in France, it smelled like about 50,000 cigarettes had been smoked inside that morning.
Day two, we drove to the eastern end of the island to see the Pointe des Châteaux.
Only a couple of miles of hiking for us out here but the views were amazing.
The only downside was that the beach is facing east which around here means it is covered in my worst enemy…Sargassum.
Iles des Saintes
After a week in Deshaies, we took a day sail south to the islands of the saints, Îles des Saintes. We had to stay in a mooring field since anchoring is only allowed further from shore and it is reportedly quite rolly far from shore. Well, I hate to know how rolly that was because even at the mooring, we were rolling so hard that it was challenging to move about the cabin and at night it seemed like we were being violently shaken awake every few seconds. We got one decent night of sleep and two horrible nights of sleep.
The town was pretty neat and had a great hiking trail that obviously we went to.
An old, small fort awaited us at the top, along with tons of goats, which had inside the nerdiest graffiti ever.
We grabbed a very fancy French dinner on our last night in town before heading south overnight to Martinique.
The food at le Coq d-Or was très délicieux and the waiter was able to guide us to a perfect gluten-free final night ashore.
Walking through town on the way to dinner I finally got a good picture of the church in town.
I love the outside of churches and we all love the hourly ringing of the bells in these French islands.
