We sail to Antigua via ‘Deshaies’

February 21^st, 2014

Having negotiated our way out of Pointe a Pitre and the wiggly channel with sand banks all around - we came head to head with Atlantic.

As soon as we cleared the headland the sea state changed from pretty flat to a major swell.   The size of a swell is proportional to the wind, the time it has been blowing and the distance the of open water traveled. So 20 knots traveling over 3,000 miles is always going to be interesting.   Add to this the squall that hit us!

Luckily, as we set the sails we saw a very dark cloud reaching down to the ocean from the direction of the wind – so only half set them.

Within minutes the wind grew to well into the high 30’s – water water everywhere as the bow crashed into the waves! Thank goodness for our dodger and canopy!

Great fun! 

As we circled Basse Terre, the western half of Guadeloupe, (and the mountainous regions), sailing to the north, the wind continuously went from 5 knots to 25 knots to 5 knots to 12 knots and swirled as it we passed various peaks. Generally super fun but you had be aware of the weather the whole time.

Did I mention it rains a lot here? Like every 30 mins or so!

By 4pm we arrived at ‘Deshaies’, a small coastal village that was once a fishing village. ‘Deshaies’ is on the northern tip of Guadeloupe and a perfect if a little crowded evening stop-over for boats traveling both north and south.

Now, because of the yachting brigade, the village has been overtaken by yachties and sailboats. For us ‘Deshaies’ was just an overnight place to anchor, eat and sleep before moving on but it is clearly a fun tourist village with a multitude of restaurants and even those elusive beach cafes that have been so common in Europe! 

I counted over 40 boats at anchor. There were so many boats at anchor in he bay that we found ourselves ‘way out’ in 17 meters – hahaha! It’s debatable whether or not we were even ‘IN’ the bay as we were soo very far out from the shore!   We went to sleep that night to the melodic tones of the sax player a few hundred meters away   …aaaaaah

Up early before the fishermen for our sail to Antigua.

..just another great sail!

If you sail north-south it seems impossible not to have a great sail. There always seems to be a wind in the high teens from somewhere in the east.

We are just about to enter Antiguan waters and I think we must have averaged over 7.5 knots with only half the sails up.

As I write this Les just called me up to the cockpit to see a beautiful racing sail boat with black sails and a huge yellow lion blazoned across the main sail!    Wooh!   This must be sailing yachts practicing for the 'Antigua 600' Race.  600 miles and looping around 11 countries.