Les Saintes – 31st March – 2nd April

At last, we were now heading almost south, as opposed to the ESE that we had been doing from BVI to St Martin to Antigua. With predominately east trade winds the previous trips had all been motor sail jobs.

We left Antigua 3am with perfect conditions and soon had both engines off (what a novelty!). I took the first watch 4-7am. Great wind angle and wind speeds – I had the boat at over 8 knots for a lot of the watch. By 5.30am the sun was starting to come up in the east on my left and a full moon was setting in the west on my right. This is what it’s about!! The full moon was like a big light above us, so we did not have to use the radar very much. The passage between Antigua and Guadeloupe is about 40 miles.

We were planning on catching up with Tracy and Jerry on Challenger on our way down – they had been doing some diving in the Jacque Cousteau reserve at Pigeon Island, just off the west coast of Guadeloupe. We made radio contact and arranged to meet in Les Saintes. Once down the coast of Guadeloupe, not surprisingly, the engines went on again (and we were able to BBQ lunch!). Below is Charlotte pretending she is harnessed up on night watch.



Like many of the mountainous islands further south, the mountains block the wind on the leeward side. Once at the bottom of Guadeloupe, we had an 8 miles close haul over to the Saintes. We made great time and were swimming off the back of the boat by 3pm.


Les Saintes is always a favourite stop of ours, and as it may be the last time in a while, we decided to stay once more day, and then do a straight run for the remaining 125 miles to St Lucia. Les Saintes are some small French islands, part, and south of Guadeloupe. Busy in the daytime with day trippers from the mainland, and like a quiet French village by night – when all the local kids come out and play on their scooters in the square. We rented a scooter (3 to a bike wouldn’t be allowed in a lot of places!!) and toured round the small island.


Tracy very kindly babysat that night and so Jimmy and I got to go out for a meal to one of our favourite restaurants in the Caribbean “Les Petit Saintes”. It was our first time out alone since New Year! Finding a babysitter, when cruising in the Caribbean, is not easy.

By 8am the next morning, Good Friday, 2nd April, we were on our way again, out of Les Saintes, passing Dominica and Martinique. There was so little wind that we didn’t even put up the main to begin with. However as the wind filled in, we put up the main but still had to motor a lot, especially behind the mountainous islands. We arrived into St Lucia at 2.30am Saturday morning. Rodney Bay is a large open anchorage, easy to arrive and anchor in the dark, as it is relatively shallow far out. We anchored far out, went to bed and then moved closer to shore the next morning.