Leaving Deshaies and working down the coast, our next destination was a quick pit-stop in the Pigeon Island anchorage near Bouillant. This was a mostly functional stop, with a much needed trip to the laundromat and grocery store! I was quickly caught out by sticking my precious coins into a machine before I’d read the instructions; fortunately with some guess work, hand signals from a local lady, and recognizing about one word in four, we ended up with a month’s worth of clothes now clean! Our trip to the CarreFour supermarche was largely successful: Food here is quite cheap, although I haven’t been able to find fresh milk for a while (we are using powdered), and the only cheese I’ve been able to find is either Brie or Emmenthal. There’s a funny little harbor with an entrance that it’s easy to miss; you tie your dinghy around whatever rocks you can, and scramble up to find yourself basically in the parking lot of the strip mall.

With chores done, we set off to explore Pigeon Island, which was a delight – it’s part of the Jacques Cousteau marine preserve. We had the best snorkeling we’ve had yet; as soon as we jumped off the dinghy we felt we were in an aquarium. There’s a statue of Cousteau half buried in the sand. I found it and dived down to take a look; however I had the controls on the GoPro muddled up and wasn’t able to prove I’d seen it!

We had a magnificent sunset, and enjoyed watching boats from the Caribbean 600 Ocean Race sailing by a couple of miles offshore. Sadly their breeze was dying and we saw lots of sail changes!