We continued sailing to Guadeloupe the following day, getting in the the late afternoon. We were lucky enough to spot a large pod of dolphins along the way, and everyone got to see this time. There must have been around 10-20 that we saw, such a fun moment for the girls and us too.
We managed to find a place to lay our anchor in this very busy sheltered bay. Heading to shore we finally found the boutique/souvenir shop that houses the check-in computer for customs. A very different set-up to other places we've been so far. Joel battled filling in the form online using a French keyboard for 15 minutes and we were done. Phew!
A quick walk along the main road of the town Deshaies (pronounced Day-hay), found it to be very cute; a little seaside tourist village but also very French. At 5.30pm we went in search for something for dinner and found that restaurants open at 7pm and that drinks were only available for the moment. Also 'Bonjour, sorry we only speak English' gets you a shrug of the shoulders from your waitress. Great, wishing I'd paid more attention in my Year 7 French lessons now. So feeling light headed (after at least having a drink) and hungry we went back to the boat to conjuer something up ourselves!
The next day was a catch up day. Washing galore kept being done, with two little pairs of hands pegging it up along the boat. We started to look more like a Chinese shanty boat than a brand-new yacht! At lunch I thought I'd be smart and nip into the shops to provision and perhaps take a peek at some boutiques alone while others slept. Much to my shock, all the shops were closed as I guess they do traditionally in Europe for a siesta until the late afternoon. Really. I have two empty hands and at least an hour to myself and this is what I get.....frustratingly I headed back to the boat empty handed, apart from the sweet cakes I managed to buy from the patisserie, the only place open.
We managed to find a place to lay our anchor in this very busy sheltered bay. Heading to shore we finally found the boutique/souvenir shop that houses the check-in computer for customs. A very different set-up to other places we've been so far. Joel battled filling in the form online using a French keyboard for 15 minutes and we were done. Phew!
A quick walk along the main road of the town Deshaies (pronounced Day-hay), found it to be very cute; a little seaside tourist village but also very French. At 5.30pm we went in search for something for dinner and found that restaurants open at 7pm and that drinks were only available for the moment. Also 'Bonjour, sorry we only speak English' gets you a shrug of the shoulders from your waitress. Great, wishing I'd paid more attention in my Year 7 French lessons now. So feeling light headed (after at least having a drink) and hungry we went back to the boat to conjuer something up ourselves!
The next day was a catch up day. Washing galore kept being done, with two little pairs of hands pegging it up along the boat. We started to look more like a Chinese shanty boat than a brand-new yacht! At lunch I thought I'd be smart and nip into the shops to provision and perhaps take a peek at some boutiques alone while others slept. Much to my shock, all the shops were closed as I guess they do traditionally in Europe for a siesta until the late afternoon. Really. I have two empty hands and at least an hour to myself and this is what I get.....frustratingly I headed back to the boat empty handed, apart from the sweet cakes I managed to buy from the patisserie, the only place open.
Abandoning ideas of getting more food, we headed to a beach in the dinghy for the afternoon. This was our first proper beach landing. Not easy when you have two little ones on-board but we did it. The girls enjoyed playing in the sand ( a little too much for my liking as it is still in Gracie's hair and embedded in swimmer bottoms!) and in a little inlet running into the beach. Isabelle took to floating a seed down the inlet, shrieking with joy, and then fear that it might keep going into the sea. They manage to have great fun with the simplest stuff sometimes. As the sun sank lower we needed to head back. We had the girls swim out to the dinghy this time, which we'd anchored just past the breaking waves. Gracie's shrieks of 'Look daddy, I'm swimming' were just precious. A great afternoon really.