16:18.48N 61:47.89W

Thursday 24^th Feb

Very uncomfortable night with frequent strong gusts of wind and an increasingly heavy swell rolling in from the Atlantic.

We opted to make an early departure, partly because it was not very nice where we were and partly because we reasoned that it would be better to be one of the early arrivals at our destination (Deshaies, Guadeloupe) to get a decent anchoring spot!

Anchor came up pretty clean and we soon had a reefed main and a reefed staysail flying and were off at 7 knots between the northern islands and out into the Atlantic swell running between Guadeloupe and The Saints. The first bit of excitement came as we sailed through some fishing/lobster boxes (like pots but bigger!), marked as they are all over the world by an empty plastic container or bottle tied by a line floating on the surface, but barely visible at any time in the waves. This is not usually any sort of a problem unless of course you are motoring as then the line can get caught in your propeller and life becomes very tricky indeed! In our case however, we were sailing and not too bothered (well I wasn’t too bothered, but Sarah was showing concern) so it was something of a surprise when one of these lines got caught around our rudder and stayed attached! We were now out in the bigger seas and making 7.5 knots which rather quickly reduced to 5 knots as we started dragging whatever we had caught along the sea bed. The line held fast and so we tacked through the wind and headed back into the shelter of the islands so we could either heave-to or anchor in some shallows and sort this out. Fortunately as we had hoped, the tacking manoeuvre allowed the line to slip loose and within a few more minutes we were free.

Back on course we found that the forecast 20 knot winds were nearly 30 knots and the sea was bigger than we had expected, but the trip across the gap between the islands was only 10 miles and we made very good time. Then we had to continue to sail up the west coast of Guadeloupe heading for the north west tip, some more 20 miles. This turned out to be pretty fraught as well with the wind alternating between 30+ knots and 5 knots and once again coming from all sorts of different angles. We did at times feel rather foolish as we met boats coming the other way as we sailed along very slowly heavily reefed in just 1 knots of wind. But then 100 yards later, we would be thankful for the shortened sail as we got hit by another fierce squall.

We made the final approach to Deshaies with 30 knots again on the nose and bashing our way through some messy waves until suddenly we were in the entrance to the bay and the wind eased a bit and the sea went flat. We motored past the big Club Med cruise ship anchored in the entrance to the bay and found ourselves a good, secure spot in which to anchor successfully. We had no sooner set the anchor, when a large turtle appeared in front of us and swam past. Sarah thought at first that it was a diver that we had disturbed by dropping our anchor near him!

We launched the dinghy and made our way ashore for lunch, some urgent shopping and to visit Customs and Immigration as usual when in a new country. The handy thing here is that there is a customs computer terminal in the internet cafe on the beach front so at least we did not have to go in search of a Customs officer which we have been told is pretty tricky here as they do not keep regular hours! But this is a part of France, so everything was closed from 1300 hrs to 1530 hrs at least. So we had a nice slow and very pleasant lunch overlooking the anchorage as we passed the time until the supermarket and the internet cafe opened.

Whilst we sat there we witnessed one of the most remarkable sights we have seen. A couple launched their canoe off the beach and paddled off into the anchorage heading for their yacht which was around 200 metres away. What was strange was that they had left a large dog on the beach and for a minute it stood and barked as they headed off and then it gamely followed them into the water and started swimming after them. They seemed quite oblivious to the dog and continued on their way as the dog frantically paddled  some way behind them. We were still unsure if the dog was even theirs, but after 100 metres the dog seemed to be tiring and we wondered if we might have to rush back to our dinghy and go and rescue it, but the canoe paused for a moment or two and then continued and eventually the dog made its way right over to their yacht – which was a very long way out, far further than Sarah felt she would have swum as a reasonable swimmer. I suppose dogs on board do not usually get a lot of walking and swimming must be a very healthy, low impact exercise, but it was very unusual.   The dog was then hauled into the canoe and appeared to be taken for a valedictory canoe trip around the anchorage while it stood on the prow to dry out before he was allowed on board the yacht.

Whilst we waited for the supermarket to open we rang Tom from the phone box surrounded by some very confident cockerels and hens making a helluva row which Tom commented on.  They were particularly elegant fowl of very different  colourings and they all appear to have the complete run of the small town – Cathy Hunter would be most impressed.  The supermarket opened eventually and we were pleasantly surprised by a good deal of what it stocked (including Red, White and Rose Tarapaca wine – some of you will understand the significance of this find!) but there appeared to be just the one girl running the place so she was the checkout girl as well as running the deli counter which made for a lot of delays and queuing!

I managed to complete the customs forms whereby we cleared into the country and then in the same move cleared out again so we can leave first thing on Friday morning for Antigua which is some 46 miles north of here. The only doubt about this trip is that there is quite a bit more wind forecast tomorrow, but we are going to give it a go and if it is too bad, we can always turn tail and run back here.

Made our way back out to Serafina, calling in on another Najad in the bay (a Swedish N400) and had an early night in preparation for tomorrow.