16:18.29N  61:47.98W

 

Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 April 2014

 

Distance Run  36 nm

 

We had received an email from Rob and Rhian on Beyzano in Antigua saying they were on their way down to Guadeloupe and then Les Saintes in the next few days.  Guadeloupe was to be our next stop and around 9 am on Thursday we untied from the mooring buoy and headed north to Pigeon Island which lies half way up the west coast.  It was a nice sail and we managed to keep moving under the lee of Guadeloupe as the wind calmed amidst many changes of direction.

 

We anchored in the bay opposite Pigeon Island but it was so rolly we decided to raise anchor again straight after lunch and head north another 9 miles to the northwest tip and try our luck in Deshaies.  To our delight this proved to have much less swell and made a comfortable anchorage.

 

Beyzano was anchored on the other side of the bay having arrived about an hour before us and on Friday morning Rob and Rhian came over in their dinghy to say hello.  We needed to get ashore to sort some things on the internet and met them later for coffee and a catch up.  Coffee became lunch followed by several hours of chat whilst we picked their brains about Antigua, our next intended stop.  We all decided we would go to the ‘Jardin Botanique’ the next day.

 

We were collected by car at 10 am on Saturday for the short drive, up a steep hill, to the gardens and spent a happy few hours strolling around.

 

 

Beautiful pond filled with many large Koi Carp (some at bottom left of the picture):-

 

 

 

 

Rhian and Rob :-

 

 

 

 

Trying to get ‘arty’ with a picture of distant lilies:-

 

 

 

 

 

A colourful Guadeloupe parrot in the aviary:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting root shapes:-

 

 

 

 

Rhian and Lin:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we doing now then? :-

 

 

 

 

After some ice creams at the cafe we made our way downhill to Deshaies.  It was now 1 pm and rather hot so we leapt into our dinghies, charged back to our boats and changed into ‘swimmers’ for a cooling dip before lunch.  Lin was so hot she jumped in before me which is a record.

 

A northerly swell had increased and we moved the boat to anchor on the other side of the bay to get more shelter.  All the boats swung through 180 deg later in the afternoon when the wind changed and our anchor chain wrapped itself around a rock on the seabed in the process.  This changed our position in relation to neighbouring boats - moving us farther from one but much bringing us much too close to another.   So we lifted the chain and anchor and reset it in another sheltered spot.  It’s all go.