Trip Update - 9th March 2009 Deshaies, Guadeloupe

Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Wed 18 Mar 2009 02:10


Position: 16:18:50N 61:47:81W

 

Well, the forecast was for moderating wind and seas so we decided to make a run for it.  We probably left a day too soon as we ended up having a hard motorsail up the coast of Guadeloupe.  It is about 8 miles from the Saintes to the SW corner of Guadeloupe, and from there we were expecting a nice calm motorsail in little wind – much like we’ve had going up the lee of all the other islands we’ve come across.  But no.  We got to the corner and to our dismay, had 20kts and 2.5m seas bang on the nose!  Lovely.  So it was a long slow and painful 32M up to Deshais, and we got in just after sunset.

 

We decided that as this was to be our last night in France, we would go out for a meal, so headed to the small fishing harbour to go ashore.  I have to say, I forgot where I was when we were in the fishing harbour.  We could have been in Europe; there were just lots of private fishing dory-type boats and it was easy to forget you weren’t in Britanny.  We had a nice meal in a menu fixe place, with a carafe of rouge to wash away the memory of a slog to windward.