Fantastic weekend in Guadeloupe

We had a fantastic underwater weekend at Pigeon Island, Guadeloupe – home to the Jacques Cousteau Marine Park. This has been, and continues to be, one of my favorite snorkeling and diving locations. What made it particularly cool is that there are moorings just off the island (I mean 100 feet away from the rocks) where we could park Tahina and spend a few nights. The mooring is in 50 feet of water, in an area filled with live coral. A perfect area to take out the VideoRay ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) we have on board (thanks in part to our partnership with VideoRay).

So, on both days of the weekend we spent a large part of the days in the water. We snorkeled on both sides of the island (using our kayak to paddle to the other side). Just sitting off the back of the boat you could see several schools of fish swimming around. A variety of fish schools such as bar jacks, yellow jacks, and wrasse. Moving closer to the island and the sights were amazing. The variety of coral and fish life is great. But, rather than my describing it, I recommend you look at the slideshow of underwater photos I’ve prepared:

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Amazing sights huh? Some of the photos were from our two dives down to 70 feet. We could have stayed down all day if it weren’t for our tanks running out of air. The variety of coral and fish life, and the beautiful “arrangements” of coral were so spectacular. We couldn’t believe the size and quantity of barrel sponges (which you could see in the photos). The colors were so awesome.

The videoray also got a good workout. The first couple of trips had some flaws because we didn’t put enough ballast, and the current was too strong. When we realized the tides were effecting currents, we waited for slack currents. Then the ROV was working great and we had some great fun exploring the areas off Pigeon Island. We captured several video clips which I hope to upload to YouTube soon. I’m long overdue producing some videos and uploading. I’m going to try and correct that over the next few days.

One interesting note – I thought the point of having a marine park is that you don’t allow fishing. On both mornings of the weekend, there were a pair of fishing boats who were net fishing right off Pigeon Island! One time, they actually set up their net so close to Tahina that the net drifted right up beside our boat while they were hauling it in. They didn’t even apologize – they just asked (in French and hand motions) whether their net was getting caught on our boat. Sheesh! I guess that explains why we didn’t see as many large fish/animals (like barracuda and sea turtles) as we did in 2003 when we were here.

Anyway, we only have two weeks before our daughters arrive for Christmas, so we have to move along south towards St. Lucia. We’ll continue visiting Guadeloupe this week, and then move to Martinique next week.