Today we arrived at The Pigeon Islands (often nicknamed “Réserve Cousteau”) are two tiny islets laying only 1 kilometer from Bouillante and Malendure beach, on the west side of Guadeloupe.

This protected area, part of the Guadeloupe National Park since 2009, and accessible only by the sea, provides a unique concentration of marine life. The islets are famous for the magnificent elkhorn and staghorn corals covering the seabed, where snorkelers can spot a large number of colorful reef fish species (angelfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish), as well as sea turtles.

The best snorkeling area in the Pigeon Islands is the Coral Garden, which covers the coral reef fringing the eastern side of the islets.

The northern part of the Coral Garden is Sheltered from the swell, the seabed is covered by healthy and good-sized staghorn corals and elkhorn corals. These reef-building corals are vital to life in the Caribbean reefs.

The Pigeon Islands have some of the fishiest seabeds in Guadeloupe, due to the currents: several species of forage fish, snappers, damselfish… parrotfish butterflyfish, trumpetfish, trunkfish, angelfish and more.

On our voyage sailing here we caught a couple of black fin Tuna and enjoyed some of this prepared as Sushi for lunch today

We have started watching “Becoming Cousteau” with the kids, a documentary about Jacques Cousteau’s life, enhancing everybody’s appreciation for the reef and where we are.

Tomorrow Emilie’s Dad Phillippe, uncle Laurent, and Marie Laure who will join us for a few days cruising around Guadalupe and Dominica.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:7304925/zoom:10

Sunday Island sailed from Grenada north to Union Island via Carriacou to meet some friends for Christmas. Our Aussie friends on “Cowabunga”, “What Else”, and Dutch mates on “Off Course”. All our friends were cruising with kids of similar age to Issy and Max and we were anchored Close enough for the kids to swim between the boats as they wished.

The anchorage in Ashton Harbour Union Island was surrounded by the remains of a failed marina development and made for excellent kite surfing.

Emilie got a kite lesson and got going strait away after a 7 year absence from the sport. It was great to see Em riding so well and having so much fun on the water. I had a lesson in kite foiling and managed to get going, but I still need a lot of practice to ride correctly for any distance. The next day we hired kites and enjoyed the day zipping around the bay.

While at anchor I got out the sewing machine and made some new deck cushions. I’m building up to making a new awning in the future.

On Christmas Eve our fleet of kids boats sailed around the corner to Chatham Bay and met our friends Rex and Louise from Lord Howe Island sailing Spela.

We had planned a BBQ on the beach for Christmas Day but when a local owner of a beach shack resteraunt offered to make us lunch for $30US per head, with children eating free we jumped onboard.

Christmas lunch was amazing with our new found friends and fantastic food including Lobster, chicken, beef, fresh vegetables rice and pasta.

Later in the evening some new friends we had made who owned a 70m Superyacht joined us on the beach for a bonfire, marshmallows and a $300 bottle of Tequila!

We cruised back to Ashton Harbour the next day for some more kiting before our fleet sailed north to Canouan island.

We hoped to rent some golf buggies to explore Canouan but they were all booked out, so we hiked over the hill to Windward Bay inside Grand Cois Reef. The beach and inner reef were spectacular and would make an amazing anchorage for Sunday Island with her centerboard wound up. Whilst there are a few anchorages marked on the chart inside the reef there is a rumor that a local resort has paid the government to disallow cruising yachts from anchoring inside “their” reef. We will need to investigate this further as it would be spectacular to anchor there on our return to the south.

That night we had some big squalls n the anchorage and gusts funneling down from the hill. We had left our tender in the water overnight and woke up at midnight to a big gust and flipped dinghy. I spent the next few hours flushing out the outboard with engine oil and thankfully by 0300 I had the outboard working again.

The next morning we made a quick morning dash into the beach before a pleasant sail to Bequia for New Years Eve.

New Years eve was spent with s BBQ on the beach before the evening rain drenched us all and we made our way over to “Cowabunga” to re cook the damp meat and enjoy a few drinks yo bring in the new year fireworks at midnight.

The next morning I spent on the beach sanding our new bathroom (head) floor, and had it fitted before lunch. We enjoyed our final Bequia evening eating pizza with our mates, then sailed the next day to Marigold St Lucia.

We are presently sailing north towards Guadalupe to pick up Emilie’s dad and uncle for a weeks cruising.