Fresh bread and Pain au Chocolat

Deshaies, Guadaloupe. 18'18N 061'48W

We've always enjoyed our visits to France. Now imagine that relaxed gallic charm, good food, fairly efficient infrastructure and all the other good things about France, transported to the Caribbean, surrounded by palm trees and sparkling ocean and bathed in sunshine. Suddenly you can overlook all the other things about France, like crazy drivers, the inconsiderate use of another language and so on.

Deshaies is a beautiful little village in a sheltered bay, and is a popular spot for sailors, being one of the closest sheltered harbours to Antigua so there are lots of arrivals and departures, and a few of us staying a bit longer. We've got used to nipping ashore to the bakery at 6:30am for the morning crop of baguette and pain au chocolat. The little supermarket is well stocked and the local traders have good fresh bread. Returning to Antigua will be a little disappointing on the food front.

A couple of days ago we looked at the chart and the settled weather and went for a trip out. We motored down the coast for twenty minutes to a beach called Plage Leroux. It's not on the chart or in the pilot book, but in the age old traditions of Columbus, Cook et al, we used our exploratory skills - we spotted a postcard in the local shop showing a beautiful beach and realised it how close it was. Anchoring off, we had a beautiful few hours on the beach in the morning, whilst the family played and swam, I brought the tools ashore and did some much needed repairs to the dinghy. Hard to imagine a nicer workshop than that. The beach ended with a rocky outcrop, and we persuaded Issie to come swim over the rocks to see the coral and fish. Unsure at first, suddenly she was drifting around amazed, occasionally lifting her head to take a breath and then looking down again. One more little fear overcome, she's on her way to proper snorkelling.

We continued down the coast for an hour to a little bay near Pigeon Island, an underwater nature reserve. After staying there overnight, we all wanted to see the coral and other subsea delights, so Mum, Dad and Max went out on a glass bottomed boat, whilst Gesa, Issie and I put flippers and snorkels into the dinghy and zipped across to the island on our own. Although Issie still doesn't like the mask and snorkel, she loved the view, swimming over the reefs with their huge variety of corals, urchins and fish, some of which were swimming all around and below us, as were the divers, brought out in large numbers by the many dive shops on the shore. We don't do diving right now, the kids are a bit young and it's one more complication, but one day I'd love to learn.

Now we're back in Deshaies, off to a botanical garden on land this time and maybe some more snorkelling this afternoon. Tomorrow we head back to English Harbour, Antigua to spend Christmas and let Mum and Dad catch their plane on the 28th, then our life aboard as a family begins for real in the New Year.

Oh, and we will write a Christmas letter / photocard before the 25th, honest. It'll be an email one this year as real post is not really feasible from here. At home we would have been doing two and a half thousand christmas cards right now, but of course, out here, we're so busy we don't have time....

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