Bienvenue a Guadeloupe! We sailed over from Nevis, passing Redonda and Montserrat on the way, and came into Deshaies, at the north end of the island. This is a lovely little town with a very French feel to it, and we ended up staying there for several days.

The anchorage was very full and we ended up in 60 feet of water, so had about 250 feet of chain out. Things got interesting when other boats came in after dark, convinced there was room to anchor in spots were there most definitely was not – plenty of shouting ensued! Check-in was a little more casual than we’d been used to, taking place at a computer terminal at the back of Le Pelican T-shirt store.

I hiked up to les Jardins Botaniques, getting some nice views of the harbor on the way. They have some very over-fed carp, tame parrots and some lovely plantings.

The scenery here is spectacular, with huge mountains behind and lush rain forest. It does mean that it rains quite a bit, so we needed to keep rain jackets with us a lot of the time. We saw some wonderful sunsets, and enjoyed drinks with friends we caught up with from the Salty Dawg Rally.

Part of the fun of being in Deshaies is that the TV series Death in Paradise is filmed here. You can spot locations used in the series all around town and at the neighboring beach of Grand Anse.

This was a fun place to stop, a nice little town with a good vibe, and wonderful restaurants. We even caught a Carnival parade – Deshaies isn’t really big enough to have it’s own parade but that didn’t stop the local teenagers, who’d been practicing for days!