Jamie arrived in Antigua for Christmas and we immediately headed for Guadeloupe. We were thrilled that he decided to stay for an extra couple of days, so we were able to get a little further. He had to work some of the time, but at least he got to do it in beautiful places! We first went to Deshaies, where we had dinner at Madras Restaurant, and the next day hiked over to Grande Anse for swimming and lunch. Back in town, things were starting to get quieter for Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day we moved down to Pigeon Island for a Christmas snorkel. People say the snorkeling here isn’t as good as it used to be, but we saw plenty of fish. We weren’t brave enough to cook turkey in our marine oven (not sure it would fit, anyway) so we feasted on game hens instead.

The next morning we left at first light and moved down to Iles des Saintes. It was a stunning trip with the sun coming up over lush green mountains. The Saintes is one of our favorite anchorages and this was our first time there this season, so we weren’t sure how busy it would be. It turned out that at 10 am we were in plenty of time to get a good mooring – we’ll see if that holds true for the rest of the season as we plan to come back several times to show guests this lovely place. Jamie needed to catch up on some work so Jeremy and I took the dinghy over to Ilet de Cabrit where there is nice swimming and snorkeling. We checked out the path that leads up to Fort Josephine but we didn’t have shoes with us, so we’ll save that one for next time.

Views down the West Coast of Guadeloupe

Iles des Saintes anchorage from the water and from the road up to Fort Napoleon

We hiked up to Fort Napoleon, which was rather garishly decked out for Christmas. We decided that you really only do this hike for the views, since the fort itself is a bit disappointing. The fort was a base for the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782. They don’t actually recount much history of the struggle between France and Britain to control the Caribbean islands, probably because the French lost! We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Au Bon Vivre in the center of town, far superior to normal Caribbean fare. The rest of our time in The Saintes was spent exploring the pretty little town and swimming off the beach or the boat. We’re looking forward to coming back soon.

It was time to head back to Antigua to drop Jamie off, so we went back up to Deshaies and then up to Antigua the next day. It was spectacularly clear, and we could see the vents on the top of Mt Soufriere on Montserrat belching steam. We checked the Montserrat Volcano Observatory website to see if there was any more activity detected, but apparently this is normal – you just can’t usually see it because clear days are so rare. As we got close to Antigua we could see Guadeloupe, Antigua, Montserrat, Redonda, Nevis, St Kitts, St Eustacia and Saba at the same time. Pop quiz – how many different countries is that?

On Jamie’s last day we walked around Nelson’s Dockyard and out to the old fortifications on the point. It’s an impressive defense point! We said goodbye sadly but were glad to have had so much time together.

We stayed in Falmouth Harbour for a little more than a week, since we had boat jobs to do. We got a mooring very close to the superyacht dock, which made for some fun watching, especially when a 300 foot yacht turns around right in front of you! When we first got back there were almost no superyachts in Falmouth, but hundreds off St Barth. Over the week, more and more came back and now the docks look packed again.

There were still a few Salty Dawgs and other sailors around, and we joined some of them for Sushi Night at the Yacht Club, a hike up Monks Hill, and a trip to Shirley Heights which was absolutely packed! We had a quiet New Years but saw the fireworks from our boat.

PS – that was 5 countries: France (Guadeloupe); Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda; United Kingdom (Montserrat); St Kitts and Nevis; Netherlands Antilles (St Eustatia and Saba).