Monday, January 15, 2024

Lazy Days in Deshaies

Lazy Days in Deshaies

Sat 13th - Sun 14th January 2024


By the time Friday night arrived we felt like it had been a really busy week. Our plan had been to move on down the coast of Guadeloupe on Saturday, but instead we decided too stay an extra couple of nights and enjoy some down-time in Deshaies. 


In fact it was mid afternoon on Saturday by the time we finally got off the boat! We spent the morning hanging out, catching up on mail, reading our books and generally lounging around. We did manage to do a couple of boat jobs, including cleaning the outlet hose from our fridge which wasn’t draining properly. Our primary objective for our brief afternoon trip to shore was to book a table for dinner. With that accomplished we returned to a vegetative state aboard Cotinga. Deshaies seems to come to life in the evening, and the many restaurants and bars are packed. We had a fine meal at Le Madras … salad, hot goat cheese, grilled fish, sea bream with a passionfruit sauce, bananas flambé and creme brûlée. It was fun to be out. The dinghy ride back to Cotinga was only a couple of minutes, but It’s quite magical being out on the water in the dinghy at night. We carry a flashlight so others can see us, but it also highlights lots of fish swimming near the surface, that you don’t see during the day.


On Sunday morning we hiked over to the next bay to the north and found an absolutely gorgeous beach. It was about a mile long with the ocean swells breaking on golden orange sand, all against a backdrop of lush green trees and plants. Swimming was little intimidating at first as there seemed to be quite a rip current, but once you got used to being pulled backwards and forwards to and from the beach it seemed fine. It was pretty hot and we went into the sea a number of times. Once back aboard Cotinga we still felt overheated and so mid-afternoon we took another swim from the boat. We had just finished showering off when our friends from SV Logos swam over to Cotinga. We had met Tim and Irina at Christmas time and they had just arrived in Deshaies that afternoon, having sailed down from Antigua. One of the best aspects of this lifestyle is the people you meet and the friends you make along the way. In true cruiser fashion we headed over to their boat for drinks at sundown. Now we are back home on Cotinga, and in the blink of an eye the weekend was over.


Mike



Deshaies from our mooring in the bay. The main dinghy dock is towards the right of the picture


Sunset on Saturday just before we headed into shore


The main dinghy dock at Deshaies ... Cotinga is moored right in the middle of this picture


One of many eating / drinking spots in Deshaies ... I think this one specializes in take-away


The gorgeous beach at Grande Anse


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