The Iles des Saintes, Guadelope
- svliahona0
- Dec 29, 2024
- 2 min read
The Îles des Saintes, or Les Saintes, are dependency islands of Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean. The main island, Terre-de-Haut, is known for Pain de Sucre Beach’s coral-rich waters and palm-lined Les Saintes Bay. Overlooking the bay is 19th-century Fort Napoléon, with a museum and cactus garden.
We left Portsmouth, Dominica with our friends nearby for a 9-hour sail north. It was our best sail yet! Tim worked hard to trim the sails in order to capture the best wind angles. Finally, we reached Les Saints. Jim helped us get a mooring ball while in his dinghy.
Since Jim had his dinghy in the water, he became the bus driver for this portion of the trip. We went into the cutest little town ever! Check in was easy and inexpensive, as most French islands are. Most streets in the downtown area are closed to car traffic - only scooters and golf carts are allowed. We were so tired from our long sail that after check-in we just went back to our boats. I made salads for our dinner. Tim went right to bed without eating. He was sooo tired.
The next day was fantastic! Jim and Diana picked us up in their dinghy and we went to town to rent a golf cart. We spent the day exploring Fort Napoléon and 4 beaches. we swam and found lots of shells and beach glass. We ate lunch at a fancy place on the water. I'm sure that I got someone else's order rather than my own Oh well. It was still delicious. I love French food. In the late afternoon we returned the cart, went home, ate dinner and crashed early.
The next day we got up early and sailed to Deshaies, Guadalupe, for a quick overnight stop. We had already checked out in Des Saintes, the weather was good, so we were able to sail directly to Antigua the following day.
On to bigger and better things,
Miriam
Comments