It’s amazing how a 6 hour sail can take you to not just a different country, but a different world! We sailed over to Guadeloupe in fairly bouncy conditions, hitting a few squalls along the way, and came into Deshaies (pronounced “Day-ay”) at the northern end of the island. We were delighted to see that the moorings there have been improved dramatically, and we were able to pick up one close to town. When we were here before the moorings were regarded as sketchy; however I dived on this one and found there was a hefty piece of chain attaching us to a cement block about 6 feet in diameter. Very reassuring! Interestingly, the block had a honey-comb structure around the outside and there were a lot of fish around it; I wondered whether they’ve been designed to provide habitat?

We wandered around the little town, picking up wonderful French bread and pain au chocolat, inexpensive wine and rillettes de Marlin (I’ve never seen this outside of Guadeloupe but can attest that it’s delicious!). Not much else had changed, but there is a little cluster of brand new boutique-style shops at the southern end of the town. The church tower peeps above the other buildings and it was nice to hear bells ringing the hour – I miss that from home! This town is where the British TV series Death in Paradise is filmed, and the set for the police station is just beside the church.

We hiked over to Grande Anse for a swim and to visit the little beach cafes there. We also had dinner out a couple of times, including at Le Madras, which is features in Death in Paradise as Chez Catherine. I was pleased that my French was good enough to be able to make a dinner reservation and buy the things I needed.

We moved a little way down the coast to Pigeon Island, which is a marine reserve founded by Jaques Cousteau. We went snorkeling there and saw lots of very pretty fish, as well as a bust of Cousteau which you can dive down to. While we were in the anchorage we dinghied into the tiny hole-in-the-wall harbour to go to a remarkably good Carrefour Supermarket, reminding us that we were most definitely in France!

We moved back to Deshaies to get our customs forms stamped, and then sailed back up to Antigua. It was fun to have been on a mini-cruise for a few days! Back in Falmouth we found that a large number of super-yachts had moved in (we estimate 50 between here and Nelson’s Dockyard). We think that they are mostly here preparing for their charters to arrive for Christmas. We walked along the docks and gawked at some of them. We are back in project mode for a few days, and looking forward to having Jamie join us next week for Christmas.