Sunday 4th July

Location: Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and went up on deck with a cup of tea to watch the sunrise. It was a quiet, calm, beautiful morning, and the bay looked so pretty. This is a side of boating life that I really love, the peace, and the extraordinary beauty surrounding me in all the fabulous places we visit.
As soon as Bob and Edi were up, we went ashore for great French coffee and chocolate croissants at the local café in town. I took my computer with me and luckily they had Internet at the café, so I was able to post my blog for the last week and Bob and Edi were able to look at weather and check e-mail.
As soon as we got back to Daisy we weighed anchor and set sail for Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe’s largest city, and harbor. The harbor offers 2 very well-protected hurricane holes for yachts. We were now working on plan B, plan A being sail to Dominica, but after Bob checked the weather this morning and saw another couple of tropical waves coming through, he changed our plans. The wave expected to hit us on Tuesday looks as though it could be quite bad. He decided we would go alongside in the marina where we would be protected and safe, but also give us more time for exploring Guadeloupe, an island we all love.
We headed out of Deshaies at 11:30 and sailed down along the west coast, we had between 18 and 24 knots of wind across the beam, but with calmer seas it was a very pleasant sail. We stayed close to shore so we could enjoy the beautiful mountainous scenery and pretty coastal villages. As we moved further down island we started getting strong 30 knot wind gust’s, so we reefed in the sails a little and continued on at a steady 7-8 knots. After we passed Pigeon island the wind dropped off and we had to start the motor. To get to Pointe a Pitre we had to sail around the southern end of the island and then back up the eastern side, dodging fishing pots the entire way. We arrived at 6:30pm and dropped anchor in the first bay. Despite this being a safe hurricane hole, I was dismayed to see one boat on it’s side in the bay, and not far away a mast sticking up out of the water! Once we had the anchor secure, we retreated inside, locked up the boat and put the air conditioning on, as swarms of mosquitoes were invading. Tomorrow we plan to take Daisy alongside for a few days, and hire a car. I’m so excited about exploring Guadeloupe again.