About 8 miles south of Deshaies is the anchorage known to cruisers as “Pigeon”, or more formally – Islets Pigeon off the beach of Malendure, in the Bouillante region of Guadeloupe. The big draw at Pigeon is the Jacques Cousteau Reserve, a protected natural marine park featuring an exceptional variety of seabed corals and marine life.  You can enjoy the underwater scenes by snorkeling, SCUBA, or taking a ride in the glass-bottomed boat.

We dropped anchor near our friends Bob & Ann on BALOO, and I (Lisa) went ashore to book a Sunday morning dive with Archipel Plongeé, one of the three dive operators based on Malendure beach.  Winds were SE, and the swells from the south created a rolly anchorage – we had to wedge ourselves into the bunks that night, as if underway!

 

Saturday’s goal was to do a major provisioning run to the Carrefour and Leader Price stores located just south of Malendure, easily accessed by dinghy through a stone seawall. That is, if the outboard is working properly… Our Yamaha suddenly decided to cut out at idle rpm – definitely a problem when changing gears inside a seawall! So instead of provisioning, we spent the day working on the outboard. Bob of BALOO provided expert technical assistance in helping Andy tear apart, clean and rebuild the carburetor, and we were back in business. Bob and Ann joined us for happy hours onboard – we still had some treats procured in Deshaies.

Andy made the provisioning run on Sunday morning (stores open till noon) while I went on the dive at the Cousteau Reserve. I was the only English speaker in the group (most were French, some Germans), but was able to manage with SCUBA’s universal hand signals and a patient divemaster named Delphine. We had a fantastic 54 minute dive to about 20 meters depth. Jacques Cousteau has been a hero of mine since I was a kid, and to touch his underwater statue and dive in his vivid marine reserve was a dream come true.   Afterwards, Andy and I snorkeled the perimeter of the anchorage, which is abundant with fish, coral and sea turtles.  We’ll be back to “Pigeon” again!