The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is the most southerly of the Leeward Islands. Shaped like a butterfly, it is split into two halves, the wings forming Basse-Terre in the west and Grande-Terre to the east. Its varied coastline provides curiosity for sailors and land explorers alike. In the south-east we cruised over sunlit seagrass meadows roamed by green turtles and stingrays, and out west we dived the deep blue waters and coral gardens of the Cousteau Reserve, serenaded by humpback whales. Squally winds kept us alert on passage and made for adventurous journeys between anchorages, on a leisurely partial circumnavigation that we measured in weeks, then months.
Essential boat repairs from our recent Atlantic crossing drew us to Guadeloupe; a broken bobstay chainplate meant we needed a chandlery and a boatyard with a lift, neither of which were available in Dominica, our first Caribbean landfall. Heading to Pointe-à-Pitre, the main port that lies deep in the southerly cleft of Guadeloupe, we learned there was a four-week waiting list for the lift.
We booked in and resigned ourselves to a few
