And then, after approximately a month in the Caribbean it was time to say goodbye. Guadeloupe, our last island before departing, had been a great and windy stop. We were impressed right from the start with our first stop being what came to be our favorite stop in the Caribbean, Terre-de-Haut. It’s cute small colorful streets, many cafés and restaurants, and happy vibe had us all smiles. The lack of available golf carts during our stop might even have Max convinced that we need to return one day so that we can rent one and zoom around the island😉
From there we continued cruising along the coast, visiting both city life and beach life. After bumping in to our boat neighbors from back in Las Palmas we also added Pigeon Island to the list of destinations while visiting Guadeloupe. This turned out to be a great snorkeling spot and we dug out the gear to give snorkeling a go. None of us are very used to snorkeling but we gave it a try and were beating the waves while admiring the colorful fish playing around in the reefs. To be honest, they were probably equally entertained by the weird tourists trying to swim smoothly through the splashy waves while having the snorkels repeatedly filled with water.
Our last stop on Guadeloupe came to be the city of Deshaies, the most northern checkout point on the island and also a strong wish from Charlottes uncle who was a fan of the tv-show Murder in Paradise set in this city. We spent the last few days with sweaty hikes to stretch our legs before the upcoming passage and also making the boat passage ready again.
One of these tasks was one that we had put off a bit due to the constant windy and wavy anchorages while in Guadeloupe, giving the hull a good scrub. It was a battle with the waves pushing us away from the boat while we were trying to hold our breaths and scrub under the boat. We gave her a scrub for as long as we could manage but one thing was for sure, the growth is fast. At our upcoming destination we won’t even be able to jump in and give her a scrub because of the crocodile presence. Big question is if we can wait to the pacific islands or if we will need to haul out to paint in Panama.
Regardless, the boat was stocked, the checkout formalities were completed and documents sent to the upcoming port, we had looked up entry procedures for potential emergency ports and our weather window had arrived. It was time to set off for the crossing of the notorious Caribbean Sea.
