Bound for Guadeloupe

Until now I've been able to follow my parents path - they're cruising their sloop in the Caribbean Islands this winter - with some degree of understanding. They made landfall in St. Maarten. I'm a veteran of no less than three St. Maarten Heineken Regattas. They proceeded to St. Barths for a brief visit. I've made numerous "on charter" visits to the sparkling port town of Gustavia. From there they took a sail by St. Kitts. I've never been ashore but have anchored off. And they spent the holidays in Antigua, an island I've been visiting since I was a boy. But now they're going off the map - at least my somewhat limited map - bound for Guadeloupe, an island deep in the heart of the French Caribbean. In reading through the wikipedia article I came across an interesting fact about Guadeloupe...it's culture is probably best known for the islanders' literary achievements, particularly the poetry of Saint-John Perse, the pseudonym used by Alexis Léger. Perse won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time."

"The Sea . . . on its confines, under its falconry of white clouds, like a tax-free domain and like entailed land, like a province of rank weeds that was wagered on the dice." - Seamarks (1954 )