Happy Hogmanay

Wishing you all a happy and healthy year in 2017!

Here in St. François marina on Guadeloupe, we might as well be in Brittany ... except for the deliciously warm, tourqoise sea and consistently warm air, typically 28-32 degrees C. To celebrate Hogmanay, we chose to go out for lunch, not just any lunch mind you. This one required a 10km cycle ride to reach the venue, which was a Creole restaurant positioned overlooking the ocean on the SE tip of Guadeloupe.

It was a stormy day but we managed to dodge the heavy showers. And the traditional 'planteur' to start got us in the right mood after our exertions.

Afterwards we needed to work off the excellent seafood lunch so explored the nearby beaches. Finding one to our liking, went swimming in the warm ocean before the cycle home. A good start to the new year!

It took us two days sailing to get here from Dominica: a half-day's comfortable reach from there to Îles des Saintes, known as 'The Saints', and a long,10-hour beat from The Saints up to here. For a 30 mile direct trip, we actually sailed 58 miles! It's no wonder there are very few cruising boats in here, and no others from the UK. However the pay-off will be the lovely broad reach we expect to have when we leave and sail up the east coast to Antigua.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We plan to be here in the marina for 2 weeks. It is well protected by reefs outside so we are enjoying the stability at night as opposed to the often rolly nights we have spent at anchor or on moorings recently. Tomorrow daughter Laurel, her husband William and grand-daughter Flora arrive to stay in a nearby apartment for a fortnight. After the year they have had, what with the high of Flora's birth almost a year ago and then the low of the trauma of Flora's kidney infection when on holiday in the US, we are hoping this will be the rest cure they need. To cap everything, Flora contracted chicken pox just before Christmas... let's hope there are no more surprises like that.