16:13.29N 61:31.78W

Bas-du-Fort Marina, Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe

First, a quick note on the chart: the flags show our position each time we send in coordinates (so they don’t necessarily show up every day). The flags coming in to St Lucia from the east were of course the positions when Charlie brought Neroli over from Europe 18 months ago.

Once we leave Antigua we’ll be sending blog entries via satellite phone, without being able to check that the position was entered correctly; or to make any other changes or adjustments. So please bear with us if occasionally a stray location creeps in. The text will presumably make it clear that we haven’t suddenly been transported to Dubrovnik. (Although we’ll be sailing through the eastern part of the Bermuda Triangle, so who knows what might happen?)

(On the outward trip such an error made it look as if Neroli turned round and retraced her steps for a couple of days – of course, the blog reported the true situation of steady progress.)

We’re still in France, though we moved further north yesterday to Guadeloupe, with a lively upwind sail. Pointe a Pitre is a large, prosperous town and a striking contrast to the picturesque and charming (but far from prosperous) Les Saintes.

Needless to say, we’re anxious to get started on our voyage. But we’ve been continuing to work on a still-long list of preparatory tasks involving equipment, supplies and systems. These include resolving a couple of minor rigging issues and also sorting out how to get around the various holidays (including closed shops) in the islands this May Day weekend.

Today we cleared the first issue with a visit from Jean-Paul the rigger, who was up and down the mast three or four times in the space of 30 minutes. He replaced a damaged halyard block, checked out every stay and shroud, pronounced himself happy with the tensions and balance, and gave Charlie some useful guidance on fine-tuning the running backstays.

And we’ve also resolved the second issue by doing our final provisioning here rather than waiting until we get to Antigua. It’s not ideal, with most stores closed for part or all of the weekend and a much poorer selection of fresh fruit and veg than we expected. But it’ll work, and this means we can make up a day or possibly two by having everything done when we pick up Allan in Antigua.

The route further north is also going to be interesting. When we leave Bas-du-Fort we’ll be making not for the open sea but for a short cut: a narrow, shallow, saltwater mangrove channel called the Riviere Salee. This cuts Guadeloupe in two. Provided our two meter draft clears the mud (only a few centimetres to spare in places) this will take 40 miles off the sail to Antigua.

The Riviere Salee has three bridges and they only open once a day – between 4:30am and 5:30am. The Leeward Island Cruising Guidebook makes it clear that if we aren’t there on time the attendant closes down and goes home. But if all goes well we should then have a good sail to Antigua, arriving around midday Monday.

It will be great to pick up Allan, our fourth crew member. We should then be in position to set off for the Azores on Tuesday, just about in the time period that we originally planned.