Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

When we were in Deshaies we had plans to hire a car and hike the north of the island. We didn’t mention this at the time (at least I can’t remember doing so) but this plan was thwarted as all the hire cars were grounded as a result of the fuel station being closed. We put this down to a provincial thing.

This morning, from the boat, we noticed lines of cars queuing up for petrol/gas and not getting anywhere. As we went into the dock for our walk into town we noticed the fisherman three deep at the gas dock waiting for fuel. Turns out there’s some sort of strike going on which locals think may be resolved in the next day or so.

We managed our walk into town. A lot of the shops were shut due to the fuel strike but the main street was busy. Our key target, the tourism office, was also shut. In the same building was a dentist and we inquired there about the tourism office. They reckoned the tourism office was on strike too in sympathy. They thought the strike may be over in a day or two. The dentist also thought the carnival was definitely on so that was a bit of good news. We will need to keep checking this. Of course, the rental cars were out of action in Basse-Terre too. All we managed in town was to pick up a large supply fresh fruit for only 5 euros – including a large pineapple. Looking forward to that.

On the way back, with me lugging all the fruit, we explore Fort Delgare. This was the largest fort we’ve seen so far but not in the best repair. All very interesting. This time the perspective was from the French. We had a translation of the tourist information written by a local school which largely worked. I seem to recall a lot of mention of a fellow called Monsieur RichePanse – a name that invites a giggle from me at least. He is buried in the castle. He died of yellow fever shortly after another Frenchman blew himself to pieces.

We weren’t too enthralled with the idea of hanging around Basse-Terre for the local revolution to become unstuck. Helen suggested we bugger off to The Saintes so that we did. This is where the Guadaloupians go for their vacation. We haven’t been ashore yet but it looks real nice. The sail over was quite brisk, in contract to yesterday when we motor-sailed from Pigeon Island to Basse-Terre. We had to quickly put one reef in the main and kept the head sail at a reef and a half.

Our first intention was to anchor at Ilet a Cabrit as this was suggested by Gerry – one of our commentators. The anchorage looked a bit busy so we headed over to Anse a Cointre next to a rocky mound called Pain du Sucre. It’s beautiful here. We can see the main island of Guadeloupe to the north and if the clouds life from Souffrier we’ll get a good look. There’s a couple of little beaches here and we can probably walk to town from here. Lowering our dinghy use until we know we can get more gas will be a good thing. We have plenty of diesel aboard Dignity and we’re not using much. Pain du Sucre has a dive site which we can reach from where we are anchored. May do that tomorrow. Must do those chores though.

If have pictures but you’ll have to wait – we have no internet here.

I’ve been ashore and everything bar one pizza parlour is shut – including customs. However, this one posts a time they;re open which is revolutionary compared to the last two places. I’ll be at their door at 7am in the morning.

This afternoon we’re going to plan our treks. I see at least two full days of hiking around here, including Souffriere which is rated by one of our guidebooks as best in the Caribean. We’ll also take a full day out just to wander the local area and Basse-Terre. By the end of the week we should be heading for The Saintes.