We are tied up in the bay of Terre-de-Haut, an island part of the Iles des Saintes group that is just south of, and part of, Guadeloupe, which is in turn an overseas department of France.

Our trip up from Martinique was about 15 hours, and was—mostly—uneventful. It varied from near calm in the lee of Martinique’s Mount Pele and the mountainous rainforests of Dominica, to howling winds of 30 knots in parts of the passages between the islands. We had some minor issues with the engine, that will hopefully be easily put to rights.

Our first impressions of this island agree with the advance reviews we got from friends who visited: It’s delightful. It’s very obviously a tourist destination, but one that is not crass or overly commercial. Most of the visitors are day-trippers from the main island of Guadeloupe and they come over on the many ferries that arrive all through the day.

Customs and immigration formalities here, like at all of the French islands are pretty… informal. A local business hosts a computer, you show up, pay €3, enter your information, and you’re done. We tried to pay for the mooring at the same time, but we were told, “A week free.” That’s certainly bettter than the €15 a day we were expecting!

We are not sure how long we’ll be staying here, but hopefully we’ll have more of interest to report.