Marie Gallant

Who would have thought of an island called Marie Gallant, she apparently was one of Christopher Columbus' ships, but who was the ship named after, something to google I guess! The island is part of the country of Guadaloupe, which belongs to France. Unlike the Islands that used to belong to Britain none of the small French, Caribbean islands have become independent. We still have to fly the French flag in Martinique, Guadaloupe and I think St. Martin, they have the Euro as their currency and we have noticed that the docks in all the small town in the French islands are in much better shape as are
their roads. There are a lot of people here of European ancestry and their custom of topless sunbathing is continued on the beaches here. Seeing an overweight 50 something women bobbling
around in the surf is not appealing but I have to admire their willingness to flaunt the main stream media's idea that being thin is beautiful and any amount of body fat must be dieted, sucked or tucked away!!

We had a great trip over from Dominica, making it in one long tack and we weren't even slammed around too much by the waves.  It was only 25 miles, we can see our next destination, The Saints, more Guadaloupean Islands which are only 16 miles away.

We rented a car and did a tour of the island, we stopped at two ruins of former rum factories, stopped In at a current rum factory, stared at a few 200 year old windmills, checked out a beautiful beach, some great cliffs and an awesome geological formation.  

We arrived at the capital and anchored in the small harbour.  we thought we had picked a good spot but when the ferry came in, it came very very close to use when it was time to back out.

We then spent 3 days at one of the beautiful beach anchorages, the sand was great and our anchor really dug in so no worries about dragging.  

We sailed across to The Saintes another group of Guadaloupean islands.  It is very touristy here and there are lots of yachts, as opposed to about 8 in the anchorage at Marie Gallant.  We neede fresh food, our laundry done and access to the internet.   There is another old fort here to explore, apparently there are lots of hiking paths and we even know 3 boats that are here.   We will probably stay awhile.