Antigua to Guadeloupe

Deschaies

Our perfect sail took an interesting twist. As we entered the French waters on the North Coast of Guadeloupe, we heard a ‘Maday Relay’ call on the VHF. There was a boat adrift about 4 miles to the east, our port side. We were the closest boat and were asked to head over and check on the vessel in distress. We agreed, and altered our course, unfortunately giving up our lovely beam reach for a close hauled. At this angle, we could only make 1-2 knots, which meant we would reach the boat in about 2 hrs! We reported back to the coast guard, and they seemed a little surprised at our speed - and then shortly thereafter called us off. The boat had been brought under control and thats all the explanation we got. We shifted back to our beam reach and made for Dechaies.

It wasnt long until we found ourselves in a minefield of fising pots. We take this very seriously now after having one wrap our prop leavin Monserrat. Christian, Flo and I were all on Buoy watch as we entered into the gorgeous bay, with stunning church and a small area that allows anchoring. We ended up just infront of our great friends on Wildly Intrepid, and say 2 more boats we knew from Luperon, Roamin and Holly on Riko. It does start to feel like a very small world!

The next day we headed into the dock and did a short hike up the river to a refreshing set of pools and played with our friends for the afternoon. They showed us a mango tree they had foraged 20 mangoes from the day before, and we took a couple more home. We walked through town and checked out the grocery stores and stocked up on chees and baguettes. There are many cute seaside restaurants, so Michael and I decided to leave the kids at home and have a date night the next night. Deshaies is very picturesque and is even the setting for the BBC series ‘Death in Paradise’ that has 15 seasons! They were filming one morning we were there. Its a really lovely spot.

Pigeon

Our next port of call was Pigeon. As we left Deshaies we learned what sailing beside volcanic islands is like - a very wild ride! Because of the steep and very high peaks, the winds alternate from high acceleration funneled through the valleys, and dead calm from being blocked by the mountains. So we saw a range in winds from 3 - 25 knots! Once you understand this, you can ride out the slow spots and be ready to catch the next gust to keep you moving, but its quite frightening when those first big gusts hit you! Then you add on dodging all the fishing gear and its not easy at all. We were happy to pull into Pigeon and found our spot to the south, which turned out to be a bit rolly, but really convenient for provisioning and doing laundry, which we sorely needed to do. There is a great snorkel area which we enjoyed, in a couple of small islands that you can swim around.

While in Pigeon, we got a call from Michael’s mum, his Dad was in hospital and it wasnt good. We quickly decided that Michael should fly home and see him. We would put the boat on a mooring ball and I would hang out with the kids for a week or so while he went back. We decided Point a Pitre would be the best spot and so we made plans to sail there as quickly as possible.

The Saints

We made a goal of getting to Point a Pitre in 1 day, about 45 nautical miles, knowing we could pull into the Saints, off the south coast to rest if needed. We set off early and made great time down to the southern tip. However, once we turned east, we were again in a position to fight the current and the wind off our nose. We tried tacking to make some headway but it was just too slow. It was also squally, wet, and our engine started to lose pressure - not good. So around 2 o’clock, Michael made the call that we would pull into Anse Crawen off of Pointe Jolie and grab a mooring ball for the night.

Wow, the bay turned out to be so beautiful, that we had to go for a snorkel. The Saintes are favourites of many, and we could see why. Small islands with little hotels and beaches and lovely forrested cliffs and rock formations. The snorkel spot was stunning, dark blue crystal clear water with huge sponges and corals, many different schools of fish, sea snakes and eagle rays. The anchorage was very calm and we rested well. The next day, we had a much better angle and easily sailed up to Point a Pitre.