A change of plan and some interesting weather!!

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Tue 15 Nov 2011 16:56
As you know the best laid plans often need to be changed and ours for today was no different.  After a leisurely breakfast and a short wait while a squall or two passed over we set off - the rain seems to come from nowhere here and a gorgeous blue sky can go black in seconds, and when it rains you are guaranteed to be soaked immediately.  Our plan was to head south to Pigeon Island, a Cousteau National Park, to dive for a couple of days before going to The Saintes.  The wind had been variable all morning, it had gone from light sailing winds of about 12 knots down to 3, and for the next 4 hours struggled to get about 7 or 8. The wind was also changing direction frequently.  As we reached Pigeon Island we realised that with the wind as it was there was going to be no shelter from it all if it blew up, again the wind is prone to doing this with no warning, and the danger was we could, at worst, be washed in the direction of the land.  So with that in mind we decided to carry on to our next stop, The Saintes as we can do Pigeon Island on the way back.  
The Saintes is a small group of islands south of Guadeloupe, which are again French.  We have spoken to loads of people who have told us that they are a 'must see'.  
Just as we were arriving near to the anchorage John spotted this on the horizon......

  

Yes you guessed right - it is a water spout from a tornado!!  Where did that come from??  We had checked the weather before leaving and saw nothing like this forecast!  So being responsible sailors, the first thing we did was.... rush downstairs and get a camera to preserve this moment to share with you all.  Don't worry - we didn't get too close, the storm was about 6 miles away - we have a great zoom lens on the camera!  Having dealt with the most pressing matters we then got lifejackets out and reefed the sails as the squall was getting closer.  We could track the storm with the radar and decided to hang outside the anchorage for about half an hour while it passed away from us - it actually missed the land altogether.   

Once we had moored and settled in, we went ashore having booked in for 3 days and immediately decided to stay a week - it is fabulous here, everything we have heard about the place is true. The weather is great now and this is the view from our cockpit.

  

Our plan while we are here is to spend some time exploring the area and the smaller islands by dinghy and our canoe - we will let you know what we find!!