17:05.2N 61:53.6W

Wed, Thurs & Fri – 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd Jan

One look at the weather forecast persuaded us that we would be staying in Deshaies until Friday when the big seas rolling in from the open Atlantic ocean were expected to reduce and the wind was also due to drop to 20 knots from the east.

This gave us a couple of days to get a few things done and use the very strong wifi here. We were delighted on Wednesday morning when Savarna with Keith and Pam from NZ came in and anchored next to us.  We last saw them in Israel when the East Med rally ended in 2010, but we have been in touch via email and both read each other’s blogs!  They have recently joined the OCC (which we proposed them for )and were proudly flying their new OCC flying fish burgee.

2014 is the 60^th anniversary of the formation of the Ocean Cruising Club and there are various events being staged around the world, but we decided to steal a march on them all and invited Savarna and Ruffian for drinks on board Serafina that evening to make it the very first of all the international events!  We posted this report and a photo on the OCC Facebook page which has generated a lot of comments and congratulations!!

Thursday was another light day and we were all rather surprised as this was the first day any of us has experienced in Deshaies when the wind did not howl through the anchorage in the afternoon and early evening. It was sunny and almost a flat calm which is unheard of there.  We all had drinks on board Savarna that night and it was a long and fun evening again.

On Friday we were up at 0600 hours and by 0630 hours were raising our anchor and following Ruffian out of the bay on the passage north to Antigua.  Deshaies had been packed with boats that night and we had been concerned that we were going to have to ‘invite’ the French boat that was sitting directly over our anchor to get up and move but fortunately the wind came round a bit and they were lying to one side of it, so all was well with the entente cordial for another few hours.

The wind was very light at first and so Serafina wallowed a bit, struggling to get going in the seas as they were, but soon the wind picked up to 10 knots and we were off and running with the cutter rig set up and we then enjoyed the best sail up to Antigua ever.  We batted along at 7 to 8 knots in relatively flat seas sailing on a beam reach and made great time up to Jolly Harbour on the west coast of Antigua.  Along the way, we started well by catching a tuna, but decided that it was too small and released it back into the wild.  However the highlight of the day was when Sarah spotted two humpback whales (mother and calf) and she had to slow the boat up to avoid hitting them as they seemed oblivious to our rapid approach, before they dived in the classic way with the high arching flukes.

We made our way into the small harbour and tied up on the customs dock and checked into the country. We were followed in by Savarna and Ruffian, but Savarna then went into the marina as they are picking up friends on Saturday, whilst we headed off to anchor in Five Island Bay where we were joined later by Iain and Fiona.