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Date: 18 Mar 2012 22:49:00
Title: Back to The Saintes!
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Grand Bourg turned out to be a non-starter which was a shame.  When we arrived the port was well sheltered from the wind but far too small for us to anchor in.  All the boats were much smaller, so we decided not to even try, also our depth gauge was showing far less water than the chart suggested which was slightly disconcerting.  We loved the Saintes when we visited at the beginning of this trip so have decided to spend our last week of fun there.  After this we will return to Antigua where we will have quite a lot of work to do before we leave the boat.
The weather here over the last few days has been a little overcast and I am ashamed to say we have done very little except eat and drink - nearly always at the local restaurants due to our lack of gas!!  That said, having done some research on t'internet, I have surprised myself and managed to learn to cook a few things in the microwave such as steamed shrimps and scallops, and today a chilli and also a chicken stew, hope for us yet! It is a good job because they don't sell ether frozen peas or ready made porridge anywhere here.  We seem to have spent a lot of time on the internet ordering things to be delivered to home when we get back and organising the work to be done in Antigua - it will be nice to be based in the US soon as we will be able to get hold of things much easier without having to bring everything over from the UK which is a bit of a pain - we may even be able to start travelling light.
As I said, the weather has been a little off the past few days but this did not put us off planning a picnic yesterday, we got all the food ready, bread, cheese, ham etc, and set off in the dinghy to find the perfect beach.  This proved easier said than done, the sea has been quite rough so that meant that all the beaches on the Atlantic side of the island were off limits.  We tried a couple on the northern side but these were very stony and steep and the sea was still quite rough so landing would be tricky, we eventually gave up on these, the second attempt behind the small island near the anchorage was being used by the cruise ship and was packed, and our last option had disappeared back under the sea - some of the smaller beaches are only covered with sand for 6 months of the year!!  Not to be entirely put off,and having by this stage spent over an hour looking for the perfect spot, we decided to have our picnic on the foredeck, but the rule was that we could not go in the boat so we could at least pretend to be somewhere else - we got all our things out, towels laid out, food arranged, wine opened and guess what - the heavens opened! Despite being British, and therefore being well used to picnics in the rain, it seemed more than a little daft to be sitting on the deck having lunch in the rain and so we retreated to the cockpit! 
Tomorrow we are leaving for our second to last sail on this trip.  We have a 35 mile journey up to Deshaies in the north of Guadeloupe where we will stay the night before travelling the last 40 or so miles back to English Harbour, Antigua, on Wednesday.

 This place makes the best passionfruit flavoured rum punch for the grand sum of €11 - it is a honesty bar outside of someone's house

 Local boats sitting in the harbour

 The main town - Grand Bourg
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