La prochaine etape du periple consistait a naviguer une region de mangove et de recifs et de passer du nord au sud de l'ile par la Riviere Salee et ses deux ponts. Il y avait des moustiques (moucherons noirs ou yien-yien en creole!) mais nous avions nos "armes" canadiennes pour nous defendre! Ce territoire est une reserve ecologique, bien balisee mais qui est dificile a naviguer cause des recifs epars et de la mauvaise visibilite (nuageux) qui nous empeche de "lire" les differentes couleurs d'eau afin de ne pas toucher le fond...

Our next step was to cross from the northern part of the island to the southern part by crossing a mangrove area, ecologically protected, with hundreds of snowy egrets flying over our heads.

The area is somewhat difficult to sail...with reefs a bit all over the place and it is difficult to read the water here (compared to the Bahamas) because the sky is very cloudy and the water murky.

There are 2 bridges on this Riviere salee...one opens at 4h30am and the next one at 5h00...this night in the mangroves was reminiscent of Canada..bugs!!! No see ems, actually. But we had our Raid can and our spirales and a Off-candle ..these cute little caribbean bugs did not dare anymore! The River had one spot of about 4feet 6 inches...oups! we have a 4'9" keel..we dragged some mud around but without major problems.

After the second bridge, it was still very dark and we decided to anchor in the river, awaiting sunset before going to the Pointe-a-Pitre anchorage. We could see its skyline (!), with a church spire adorned with green lights bulbs and a some white ones spiraling along the spire..a bit strange...but hey, some decorate their insurance buildings with lights, other their churches. Let's keep an open mind. On this picture, you see Pointe-a-Pitre by day ... with THE church.

We were aware that there had been a general strike on the island for 5 weeks now and when we say general, we mean general...no services and no fuel except for emergencies. no food delivery to stores, no animals slaughtered...general! This of course included garbage collection and so, our first incursion in town was a very negative one. Everything is closed down and it's not appealing at all...as for the marina, it was expensive and ..smelly also (sewers?). So, we decided to delay our land excursions to a latter time and we sailed away to paradise...of Iles de Saintes.

Voila le "skyline" de Pointe-a-Pitre ou nous avions pense mouiller afin de faire des excursions dans l'ile. Mais....il y avait deja une greve generale depuis 5 semaines et la ville etait "morte" et sale, avec des ordures partout...meme la marina de la place, pourtant tres chere, avait des odeurs d'egout tres fortes. Bon, alors on repassera...qu'on s'est dit et nous avons decide de mettre le cap vers le petit paradis des Iles de Saintes!