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Les Saintes are a group of French islands 10 miles south of Guadeloupe. The islands are very European and so Adam has been practicing his French and rewarding himself with baguettes and croissants. Some interesting facts about the Saintes: 1) although only 20 miles from the rainforest island of Dominica the Saintes are very dry. It feels like we’ve been transported back to the Canary Islands or to Greece. 2) There may be more goats than people. The goats wander freely around the island, blocking the roads and eating everything in their path. Everything that is but the grass that you carefully pick for them in order to lure a small one close enough to pet…but I digress. 3) There are more scooters than people. Tourist scooter rentals seem to be a big part of the island economy and French vacationers scoot around the island in packs, menacing goats and pedestrians. It also seems to be the mode of transportation for locals and many of the roads are little more than narrow concrete paths just wide enough for two scooters to pass each other. We rented one for a day and made a circumnavigation of the island on Pepe Le Pew our 50 cc racer that took us to top speeds of 51 km/h while going down some pretty steep hills. Unfortunately Pepe’s speed uphill was more like 14 km/h and the fumes were potent to say the least.
Anchoring in the Saintes is now being regulated. To our surprise mooring balls and prohibited areas, that do not appear in any guide books or charts, have cropped up. The anchorages that remain are a bit rolly and we had several rocky nights. Adam did swim with dolphins at Pain de Sucre so that was worth our night of nervousness as we watched boats pointing in all directions and nearly hitting each other as the wind and swell push everyone every which way. Adam also liked this anchorage because we were closest to shore and no one wanted to risk trying to anchor above us. He took to calling himself king of the anchorage and although he strutted around a bit in the cockpit, his royal highness still had to do the dishes. One of the old anchorages has been turned into a marine reserve and we had a great day of snorkeling through the reefs and giant coral heads. Adam tried very hard to sample some of the pizza in the Saintes but he was thwarted at every turn. Luckily he was able to have a real ice cream milkshake to lift his battered spirits.
Anchoring in the Saintes is now being regulated. To our surprise mooring balls and prohibited areas, that do not appear in any guide books or charts, have cropped up. The anchorages that remain are a bit rolly and we had several rocky nights. Adam did swim with dolphins at Pain de Sucre so that was worth our night of nervousness as we watched boats pointing in all directions and nearly hitting each other as the wind and swell push everyone every which way. Adam also liked this anchorage because we were closest to shore and no one wanted to risk trying to anchor above us. He took to calling himself king of the anchorage and although he strutted around a bit in the cockpit, his royal highness still had to do the dishes. One of the old anchorages has been turned into a marine reserve and we had a great day of snorkeling through the reefs and giant coral heads. Adam tried very hard to sample some of the pizza in the Saintes but he was thwarted at every turn. Luckily he was able to have a real ice cream milkshake to lift his battered spirits.