Saintes, a group of small islands just south of Guadeloupe. We had a
great sail, very fast for the first four hours, beam reaching with a
reefed main in 17-20kts of wind and doing 8-10kts through the water.
The autopilot couldn't handle the quartering seas so we hand steered
most of that leg. Then on the lee side of Guadeloupe (a very large
island) the wind went flat so we motored for two hours at about 7 kts
and did a couple of tubs of laundry. When we came out from behind
Guadeloupe we had 25+ kts and sailed close hauled the last hour to
arrive in just under 10 hours.
We were pretty tired by the time we arrived so when we didn't see an
easy place to anchor in front of the town of Bourg des Saintes we
motored about a mile to this anchorage named for the small piton of
rock known as Pain de Sucre you can see in the picture. We anchored
in 35' of water that is crystal clear, we could see the bottom even in
the fading light at the end of the day.
It's been raining fairly steadily since shortly after we arrived which
probably helps explain why these islands are so green. We welcomed
the rain yesterday to give the boat a good rinse. We even applied
some soap and water to loosen up some of the more stubborn salt, then
let the rains wash it all away. But now the boat has been thoroughly
rinsed many times and we're ready for some sun. The sun came out
briefly late in the day when I shot this picture, but it's been mostly
overcast and rainy with some gusty squalls. We'll hoist the anchor
and look for a place in front of the town shortly, then see if we can
find a good bakery!
