Deshaies

Deshaies

We really enjoyed our time in the Saintes. OK, the anchorage was rolly, at times even a little uncomfortable, but that gave us all the more reason to be off the boat during the day, and out exploring, and to the benefit of our health, some hiking.

In the evenings we had no escape from the endless swell. The cooker had to be on the gimbal, and we both found ourselves saying "enough already!" You learn to tolerate it through distraction. Ours came in the form of tuning in the TV, and watching back to back episodes of Dr.Who in English.

It is so much easier leaving a mooring buoy, than retrieving an anchor. Just two lines to slip, and off you go. Picking one up is an entirely different topic under the heading 'Divorce Maker', although those situations for us have been mitigated somewhat, with our new intercom headsets. We are getting better with the headsets, but it takes discipline to focus on the task. The new found freedom of speech can be distracting...

"How many metres of chain left to pick up?"

"At the 10 metre mark now"

"By the way my coffee was cold this morning, you put way too much milk in it"

"Well, you put too much milk on my Weetabix"

"5 metres"

"Don't look now but there's a naked man having a pee off the back of his boat to our port!"

"Anchor clear."

The sail between the the Saintes and mainland Guadeloupe was lively and fast. Going up the coast, less so. We are finding the genoa increasingly stiff to furl and un furl. Luckily we will be in Antigua soon, and will visit Stan and the team at Antigua Rigging to get it checked out.

We have anchored in the small bay at Deshaies. Deshaies (pronounced 'days-ay') is the location for the TV series Death in Paradise. Sadly we have not watched it, but some family members have so we will add some pictures of the town on the next update. 

When we first arrived the anchorage was not too busy at all, but by early evening it was rammed full of yachts. Fortunately the forecast was very light winds for the next few days, and it was glassy calm. We had a really good nights sleep without rolling about from one side of the bed to the other. 

The next day we paid a visit to a nearby Botanical Garden. Very pleasant indeed.

In our next entry, we go on the trail of 'Death in Paradise'.