Bob overslept this morning and rushed about like the Mad Hatter with shouted instructions for me to hurry, hurry, we must get off.  Before I could engage brain he already had the engine started and had ushered me to the wheel ready to depart.  I returned down below to turn on the instruments and close the hatches before wandering nonchalantly on deck where Bob had already put up the mainsail and was shouting unintelligible instructions from the front.  He settled enough to indicate where the anchor was like a well trained Pointer and we left Saint Louis in a mad fluster as if Bob had zombies on his tail. 

We headed off through the channel between The Saints and Guadeloupe before turning North to follow the Guadeloupe coast.   With a following wind we serenely sailed along at between 7 and 7.5 knots over a politely dimpling sea despite the wind blowing at a moderate 18 knots.  Bob calmed down considerably.  I was able to serve a full breakfast, meaning cereal with milk and bananas and we settled back and enjoyed the ride.

The wind became more fickle as we turned north up the coast, belching great gusts and then going very quiet indeed.  After a while we resorted to a bit of motor sailing to make more steady progress, allow cook to rustle up some lunch and eventually took in the mainsail to stop it flapping (somewhat like Bob this morning). 

We arrived at Deshaies at 3:30pm in plenty of time to park up, restore the cabin to rights where nothing was stowed properly this morning (resultant bent Christmas tree), put the motor on the dinghy, head into town, check in (and out), go to the supermarket to refresh the tonic supplies that seem to have dried up (must be the heat) and check out the restaurant that we had our eye on (which turned out to be closed).  It was wonderful to be in a vibrant town with happy smiley friendly people.  Please note that within this sequence we did not have our usual arrival beer.  Apparently there wasn’t the time.  What has got into Bob today?