Wednesday 25th December,  2014

Deshaies, Guadeloupe 16 18.5N 61 4.9W

Today's Blog by David (Time zone: UTC -4.0)

Kate having been discharged from the Antiguan care system, and having had a couple of days’ rest on Friday afternoon, we set out first for Carlisle Bay.  The following day we sailed down wind, bound for Montserrat  - an island ravaged by a volcano in a big eruption in 1995 with the most recent  in 2010.  The devastation is plain even 20 years on.  No lava trails here – contrast This was a pyroclastic flow eruption: volcanic  ash and sand fluidised by hot sulphurated gasses; it still emits 500 tonnes of Sulphur Di Oxide every day (causing the cloud above it).

We were guided there by our new pilots: Chloe and Max.

From Montserrat, we had a bumpy day sail to Deshaies in Guadeloupe – a journey most of the crew would prefer to forget – where we spent Christmas Eve and  Day following an overnight stop in Les Trois Tortues.

Santa had made clear that he wasn’t delivering to two places in one night - and thus planned to pass us by in Guadeloupe – the kids will have to  collect their presents  when they are back home.  That didn’t prevent wild optimism among the crew …. And so morning  broke early on Serendipity …..

Dinner in a rather nice restaurant ashore ……  priced in Euros: Ouch! (Sorry, it’s the Ebeneezer in me) – then ashore for bed.  An early start tomorrow bound for English Harbour.