We left St. Kitts on 4/15 and had a lovely sail that day to Montserrat, the island with a currently very active volcano. In 1995, the Soufriere Hills Volcano first erupted. It destroyed the capital city, Plymouth. Much of the island today remains in an exclusion zone and on bad days boats going by get covered with ash. Fortunately, this day, we saw only clouds. However, the anchorage was the worst one yet. The boats were all thrashing about. After one catamaran started dragging anchor, Ralph thought we would need to do anchor watches the rest of the night. It was apparent that neither of us would get any sleep, so we raised anchor at 10:30 p.m. and did a slow overnight passage to Guadeloupe.
We arrived at Deshaies, a lovely fishing village, on a gentle bay. It looked to be a popular spot. There were 40 sailboats at anchor the first night we were there. Viola! We thought we had been transported to a Breton fishing village. It is very French. Each evening, a very good looking, very blonde young man from a bakery came out to take orders for baguettes and croissants for delivery the next morning. The stores have pates, wonderful cheese selections, duck breast, veal, etc., etc. French restaurants abound. The Euro was strong while we were here making it all quite expensive. And the people speak French. We did not hear any Creole spoken here!
There is a lovely river walk in the village and small remains of an old fort at one end of the bay. Right outside of town is the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies with a koi pond, waterfall, flamingos and a lovely trail through a large variety of beautiful plants from all over the world. I think I saw examples of every houseplant I have ever had.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for the fabulous tour and making us feel like we are right there with you! I love those hanging lobster claws - they almost look related to birds of paradise . . . do they open up or bloom? Just gorgeous!
Post a Comment