Now of course we don't have a bath tub aboard, so we were looking for one ashore. Not just any bath tub, but a special bath tub. Since we are adventurers, and my middle name begins with "D", we decided we had to have a bath in water heated by ...... a volcano. I had thought that I had anchored close by the night before, but on closer examination, it turned out the bath in question was a couple of miles south, so we pulled up our anchor and headed south. With no good coordinates for our destination, we had to search for likely targets using the binoculars. Having found our goal, we anchored in a tiny cove off a beach full of people. The building did not look too appealing, to be honest, but since we'd gone to all this trouble we were not going to turn around now. The beach turned out to be the site of a jet ski school, and the students seemed to be taking their practical exams that day. We pulled the dinghy up on the beach (a conglomeration of stones and black sand - just the right size to go through the holes in sandals, but too large to be comfortable walking on) and made our way the tub.
Bath House - not too appealing
In an open air concrete shelter, The "tub" itself was a rectangular pool covered in mosaic tiles (about 8'x 4' and 3' deep), filled with fresh water at the perfect temperature. Water constantly flowed from a nearby hot spring into the tub, which then overflowed into a foot pool before overflowing into the sea. Alongside was an area where you can stand, soap up, and dump jugs of warm water over your head to rinse off (so as not to pollute the main tub with soapy water). What a luxury to be able to use gallons of hot water.
Clean and Happy - taking a HOT bath with Footprint in the background!
Feeling very refreshed (and clean) we returned to Footprint, and secured the dinghy for the short, brisk sail back to Deshaies. We were surprised to find when we got there, outside the harbor was anchored and enormous (5-masted) cruise ship (Club Med-2) that was busily shuttling passengers back and forth into town. We had not planned on going ashore, but seeing this we were very pleased not to have to share the town with a ship load of people - it would certainly have been quite a different place so full. I was happy to watch the sun set from Footprint, with memories of Guadeloupe drifting through my head.
2 comments:
very nice! and didn't they used to call swimming "bathing"? i'm glad you each got your bath - and the particular kind you were hoping for, too! footprint looks none the worse for wear, i must say.
Isn't it strange how something so simple as a hot bath and getting clean can be more valued than a dirty old pot of gold at the right moment?
Post a Comment