Guadeloupe
Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Tue 15 Feb 2011 18:39
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16.18.436N 061.47.863W
Deshaies - pronounced Day-ay )
Saturday afternoon we motored the mile around to
the main anchorage of Le Bourg in the Saintes and it was good to see the
Nicholson 38 "Alexina of Shoreham" who had been alongside us for a week back in
La Gomera.
In the evening we went to dinner at the lovely
restaurant "Couleurs de Monde" with Paul, Janie and Brad and Ann from "Breezing
Up". The restaurant is full of 'object d'art' and the food was excellent- a very
enjoyable evening.
  Sunday morning we walked to Fort Napoleon which
overlooks the island and the exercise hopefully helped to offset some of the
previous evening's food!
   Also in the anchorage was a Nicholson 32 "Mitty"
whose owner Mike knows Oban well and we have several mutual acquaintances. He
invited us to visit him at his house at the Chesapeake plus Brad and Ann have
invited us to visit them in Maine during the summer!
Monday morning we left the anchorage at 08.45
and headed north in damp and misty conditions but it was warm!. The wind
was varied but gradually the wind improved and the sun came out. As we
headed up the west coast of Guadeloupe we watched a rain squall coming our way
and reefed the mainsail to the 3rd reef which paid off as the wind gusted to 35
knots on the quarter and "Moonbeam" clocked 8.93 knots!
  The wind died down and for the rest of the day
varied between 5 and 20 knots as we enjoyed a sunny sail up to Deshaises where
we anchored in the busy bay at 14.30 hrs.
We were welcomed by a turtle that kept swimming by
the boat looking at us !
    We had last been here 6 years ago in a charter boat
but thankfully this time the weather is much better!
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