Les Saintes - Close to paradise

This really is the Caribbean that you imagine, it is stunning.  Terre Haute is just of 5 squared km so tiny! The main village is very cute with one main street lined with small restaurants and some tourist shops but there are a local population so you do also have a church, a couple of schools, town hall and a few small supermarkets dotted around the island.

Our first afternoon at anchor was eventful as Amanda glimpsed a fin about 10m from the back of the boat, “what was that” she shouted for Mark to look, another glimpse and then third time lucky it was 2 dolphins, wow how nice.

Next morning the weather was a bit of a surprise with torrential rain storms lasting probably only 5 minutes just time to make sure all the hatches we closed before opening then all again.

Rain, rain go away!

They produced some amazing rainbows over the islands.

We thought one of the squalls was going to blow the windvane off, it almost looks like we are sailing in this video there is so much movement on the surface of the water.

Lucky for us by the rain cleared up and we went ashore to explore.  There are some pretty houses which are all lovingly maintained but I do always feel a little guilty taking photos of someones house J

Cute little yellow house

There are also some unusual visitors in their gardens to go with the goats and chickens.

Yes it is an Iguana

As always we had a few photos of Magnum sat in the bay enjoying her time without us.

Magnum is the furthest boat to the left

Look how tiny Magnum looks next to the square rigger cruiseship

We walked to Pompierre beach and arrived on a palm fringed beach, sheltered with a reef and with wild chickens and goats roaming around. 

Amanda in the palm trees

 Funny that after a week in the Caribbean we had not been in the sea so we had to have a dip but we were both disappointed by the fact that the sea was all stirred up by the waves crashing on the reef and not that inviting at all, hardly worth the walk L

Mark chilling

On our return to the boat we were excited to see Leopard anchored next to us, this is a British superyacht that we have seen blasting down the Solent and then was in Tenerife in November. She was racing to the Virgin Islands at the end of November (expected to take around 1 week, super fast!). Funny that she should turn up here at our first real anchorage in the Caribbean.

Leopard at anchor

Leopard costs £50,000 to charter for 1 week if you fancy a holiday!

The next day we had to have a swim we couldn't wait any longer! So we headed off to another beach and had success, the only problem was all the other tourists J but it was crystal blue water but the dip was quick as not long before it clouded over.

Pretty beach but a bit cloudy

Mark made some friends on our walk.

Sun back out and Amanda still has new Caribbean hair - even more spectacular after a swim!

Wow where did that hair come from and those smiles!

We had walked our way around most of the island in 2 days but one final visit was to Fort Napoleon, as the views over the bay were nice.

Magnum is the further boat to the left - looks tiny but you can enlarge the photo for a better view

Another day another fancy cruiseship

The cloud had almost cleared off the volcano on Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe's south coast

We didn’t actually visit the Fort as we were too hot and bothered so here is the extent of our photos but what was most exciting what the nimble little goat!

Yes he is walking down a wall!

Mark hot and bothered

One more pretty beach - Marigot, on our return to town although not the best for swimming with all the fishing boats.

A few more iguanas along the way.

We were so lucky to spend 5 days in Les Saintes such a pretty place, it is not spoiled by too many tourists as only gites and very small hotel but was a popular stop with the smaller cruiseships - the sail boats which are actually quite nice.

One of our favourites, looks quite serene and not too many people invading our pretty location