Sailing Saoirse ??Guadeloupe - 36knot winds?? Incredible underwater life & Magical hot springs ?

We left Les Saints for Guadeloupe, we had beautiful wind and calm seas. We arrived at Bouillante, a little town on the west side of Guadeloupe. We had heard of the amazing hot springs that flow into the bay and we had to go and try it out. The hot springs are supposedly full of nutrients and minerals and are believed to have healing properties. We dived off of a tiny little island off of the south of the bay and we saw the most amazing and concentrated area of coral in all of our travels up the islands. There wasn't much marine life on the day that we went snorkelling but it was incredible to see such healthy coral. We motored around the corner to the bay just off of Pigeon island and dropped anchor. After about 3 hours we noticed Saoirse was rocking around and went out to investigate, we noticed the sea state was horrendous and some of the monohulls in the bay looked like they were underway! The waves were coming from a very unusual southerly direction. After a few hours the seas calmed down and we all had a good nights sleep. We headed across to Pigeon Island to see what all the hype was about. There had been mixed reviews about the condition of the Jacques Cousteau reserve and how its coral was dead and there was litter everywhere. When we got into the water we were greeted by bright blue, clear water and lots of fish! We swam around the dealer parts first before heading into the shallower area. The shallow area was bustling with people, they were standing on the coral and most of the coral was dead. It is always disappointing witnessing the lack of regard and knowledge about coral reefs and marine life. Even though the shallow sections were dead, there was an abundance of fish. We saw the most parrot fish we have ever seen! After one of our dives at Pigeon island we decided to head back because the water was getting rough. We only realised how rough when we were trying to get back across the bay to Saoirse. Then the fun began! Dragging yachts, drifting tenders and 36knot gust winds. Looking back at it after all the commotion, we had to laugh. So much went wrong in such a short period of time, if only we could have gotten it on camera. We really enjoyed our time in Guadeloupe and couldn't get over the abundance of sea life in the reserve.