16:18.47N 61:47.85W

1 April 2012

After a nice stay at The Saints we moved to the northwest corner of Guadeloupe to position ourselves for an easy run to Antigua.  Quadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly pointed to the north.  The western side is normally protected from the trade winds and is usually calm except when the swells from the northwest are present.  Out timing was good so the swells would not be an issue.  Leaving The Saints we hoisted just the headsail as the winds were nearly over our stern quarter.  This worked well and we ran at around 6 –7 knots to the “mainland” as the locals call the main island.  Once we go along the western side (leeward) the winds were not steady but we did get a few short sprints when the valleys provided a nice gust.

So motoring became the requirement and we headed north through many patches of huge mats of floating Sargassoe weed that accumulated on the leeward side.  As we got further north we passed the Jacque Cousteau National Park.  This is when the famous dicer, inventor of SCUBA diving, did some of his research.  Good to see the French government is trying to keep it actively maintained.  It is a small island with several tour dive boat, kayaks, snorkel trips and associated boats all trying to show it off to the tourist.  Not what I think he would relish but maybe I am wrong.  He would want to educate as many people as possible in the beauty of the oceans and the need to preserve them.

It is possible to anchor in a cove just east of the island on the “mainland”.  Not the best protection but in calm weather it is fine.  We chose to continue on and did not stop for a dive.

We made our destination, Deshaies, without issue and found a nice spot to anchor in10 meters of water over sand.  Wind was coming from the west and that resulted in wind driven waves entering the anchorage.  But since this was just the daily thermal induced wind caused by the temperature difference between land and water we knew they would drop at sunset and things would be calm.  Correct this time!

The anchorage is moderately crowded but gets worse as many boaters look at an anchored yacht and behave like a magnet.  Obviously they think that it must be good where you are so they try to anchor right on top of you.  Pat did a respectable job of convincing bareboat (Sunsail) charter boat to use some of the rest of the anchorage that was clearly free.  Never trust bareboat charters to ever anchor correctly.  I think Sunsail has red covers on the headsail to warn other full time cruisers of the potential danger of the incompetent skippers that frequent the rental program.

However, at sunset a British flagged Amel sailboat chose to anchor between us and a Norwegian boat.  I could not believe it with tons of room all around they squeezed between us and dropped anchor.  Since the sun was down and the wind was calm but directional no use in trying to move to a safe spot.  Turns out is was fine for the night but I slept on deck to make sure a wind shift did not bring havoc.  This is the second time a British flagged boat has done this over the past two years.  I guess they become used to anchoring in very crowded harbours and did not think this was a problem.  At dawns light they could see that they anchored kinda stupidly but we were off just past dawn and no issues retrieving the anchor.

The trip was 32 miles and took 5 hours to complete.

Jacques National Park