• Deshaies is pronounced Dee Hay.  Now, go back and try again.

Well we finally escaped the allure of Antigua on Thursday and had a glorious 40nm (hand steering) sail down to Guadeloupe.  Ah France; the food, the wine, the indifference.  We’re in a horseshoe-shaped anchorage off the town of Deshaies, which is quite small and easy to get around.  There is a patisserie to one side of the dinghy dock and a bar to the other and an ATM (maximum withdrawal 80 Euros) across the street, so we haven’t needed to go any farther in our explorations.  Seriously, today the weather has been rainy and the winds have been light and variable so we’ve been swinging every which way.  Yesterday we were entertained by a pair of dolphins who swam around the anchorage most of the day, trailing schools of snorkelers eager to watch them.  We of course joined in the fun and I got some decent photos of them.  

Before we left Antigua we did some good hikes through the hills and practiced with the underwater camera…

We exchanged dinner and cocktails with Steve and Linda from Alora, before they headed to their next anchorage.  

And just so you don’t think it is all fun and relaxation, we have been doing LOTS of maintenance.  I had to sew the foot of the staysail back together where it had raveled. We did some other canvas work to make life easier well.  

 

I installed all the parts we had shipped from the States.  We serviced the generator, (and accidentally closed the hydraulic bypass on the autopilot which led to us hand-steering.  I figured it out in my sleep after we got here.  Works fine now).  The day before we left Antigua unfortunately the refrigerator stopped working.  Arrgh!  Fortunately having replaced the module on the freezer last fall I had the foresight to have a spare on board.  0500 replacement and we were underway by 0700.  Yay, cold beer! Today it was cleaning sea water strainers, a very yucky job.  Since it is raining we also spent today with the generator on making water, doing laundry, filling SCUBA tanks, and charging batteries.  

Once this front moves through on Monday we plan to move down-island to do some diving and head to Les Saintes, a small island group at the southern end of Guadeloupe.  I’ll let Nancy fill in the gaps with her photos.