Guadeloupe

Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Tue 15 Feb 2011 18:39
 
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!