We
had been looking forward to the Saints for a while as we had heard
from our friend, Richard, and some of the other cruisers we'd met
that the Saints was the best part of Guadeloupe – gorgeous little
islands all within a couple miles of each other, very much like the
BVI. Since we had woken up so early in Basse Terre to rent a car,
unsuccessfully, we decided to sail on down to the Saints. The sail
over to the Saints was only about 8 miles south from Basse Terre, but
the conditions were really rough. The waves were large and choppy,
and we had some strong wind gusts which didn't seem to come from the
same direction each time. After a very rocky sail over, we picked up
a mooring ball outside of the main town on Terre D'en Haut, and went
into the town to walk around. The town was really neat – no cars
on the roads but tons of scooters which you can rent for the day.
And the main road is lined with restaurants, cafes, shops, scooter
rentals, and street vendors selling things like bulk spices. We
decided that we would come back to the town another day and rent a
scooter to explore the island and the beaches.
Spices for sale in Terre D'en Haut
The
Saints has 4 small islands, only 2 of which have development on them.
The two that have roads and buildings are Terre D'en Haut and Terre
D'en Bas. The other two islands are uninhibited, Ilet Cabrit and
Grand Ilet. After walking around the town in Terr D'en Haut, we
sailed across the channel to Ilet Cabrit where there appeared to be a
beautiful and calm anchorage. It is also one of the top snorkeling
and diving spots in The Saints. Picking up the mooring balls in this
country is difficult because they don't have the spliced line
attached to the ball as we are used to in Florida. They have a metal
loop attached to the end of the ball and you have to run your own
line through the loop. This also makes it harder to pick up. We
watched a few other boats pick up the moorings from the stern and
decided that we would try the same approach. So we backed the boat
to the mooring and grabbed the metal loop from the stern of the boat,
looped our lines through the metal loop, then dragged the lines and
mooring up to the bow and tied them off on our two bow cleats.
Needless to say, this was really hard to do, especially for one
person while Gene was steering the boat, but we finally got it after
a couple of attempts.
We
spent a couple of hours snorkleing around Ilet a Cabrit where there was
a beautiful reef and great visibility off the bay just in front of
our boat. Later we took the dingy to shore, and walked around the
island. There are some paved trails that lead up to the top of the
island where you have a great view of the surrounding islands. A
long time ago, a hotel was developed on the island, and many of the
ruins are still in place which have been taken over by goats that
live on the island. We headed back down the trail and met Enrique on
the way down who we think lives on the little island in his art shack
where he sells clay masks to tourists during the day (that's what we
understood based on the broken English he was speaking). We asked
him if we could build a fire in one of the fire rings on the beach,
and he agreed, and also said he would give us some fire wood!
Apparently one of the trees that is very abundant on the island is
not good to burn, so you have to be careful. We're not sure if it's
poisonous or endangered, but he showed us the tree and told us not to
burn it. After sunset, we took the dingy back to the beach for our
beach fire.
View of Terre D'en Haut from the top of Ilet a Cabrit
View of the anchorage from the top of the island
Enrique's home and pottery studio on Ilet a Cabrit
The
next day, we decided to troubleshoot the dingy engine because we had
recently realized that it wasn't circulating and shooting out water
as it is supposed to do to cool off the engine and prevent
over-heating. Gene took the dingy to the beach and worked on the
engine, and he discovered that there was some sand clogging the holes
where the water shoots out. So luckily it was a really easy fix for Gene!
Afterwards,
we got the kayak in the water (finally!). Gene decided to go for a
dive, and I took the kayak around the island. We spent the majority
of the day enjoying the waters surrounding Ilet Cabrit, snorkeling,
diving, and kayaking. We had perfect weather all day. Later in the
day, we took the dingy around to check out the surrounding islands,
and stopped for a sunset drink at the main town in Terre D'en Haut.
Kalalau at anchor off Ilet a Cabrit
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