Sailing from near Bequia in The Grenadines to our anchorage in Guadeloupe took around 36 hours. For the first half, during the day we were struggling with a slightly northerly wind and a current pulling us back between the islands. Our goal was to stay to the east of the entire island chain, in order to keep the wind with us. Because of the combination of wind and current we were forced to tack a number of times during the first bit of our sail. As night fell, the wind came around to the south more, and we were on more of a close reach, making excellent time. KODA was churning towards the northern tip of Guadeloupe, and we were just along for the ride. We both managed to get some sleep, even though we were mostly hand steering, due to all the Sargassum weed. This stuff gets all over the rudders, and if you are not paying attention, it could be possible to damage the autopilot. When handsteering you feel it immediately, and can adjust course to try to knock it off. We’ve had good luck with this approach, and have become apt at changing angle and speed to free the rudders from weed.

Sometime during the night our DST sensor gave out. This is our depth, speed and temperature sensor, and tells the computer the boat’s speed through the water. By using this information vs GPS speed and other variables the computer is able to give us accurate information about true wind speed and angle, which is vital to trimming the sails and steering the boat. Without our sensor we had to steer by feel, and visual clues, which is how sailors of not too long ago sailed. I didn’t mind it too much. It is a reminder to get our faces off the screen, and look at the sails, telltales, and spray from the ocean. There is plenty of analog information available to sail the boat by, and it’s good practice to ignore the instruments for a while and see how we do.

The breaking of dawn found us near Les Iles de la Petite Terre, which we had visited with Matt a few months before. We came screaming around the corner, into the gap between Guadeloupe and La Desirade and the wind died. Down to nothing. We spent the rest of the day chasing zephyrs and little gusts to try and make it around the north corner. Around four in the afternoon we made the turn and started back down the other side of Guadeloupe towards our destination for the evening, Port Louis.

Port Louis is not a good anchorage. There is a thin layer of what looks like sand over a ledge of solid rock. We dropped anchor, and pulled back successfully. I thought we were all good, but when I swam on the anchor I discovered that we had just hooked a small irregularity in the rocky slab. Swimming around I found that everyone else’s anchor was also simply lying on the bottom, not dug into anything. After a lot of swimming around and poking at the bottom I found a small sandy patch. It was enough to get our anchor to bury completely. We felt good about that, other than the fact that if the wind shifted just wrong we would end up on a reef. It would require a very unusual wind direction though, so we went with it.

Port Louis has a good wave. We had hustled up from Saint Vincent in order to catch the tail end of what was likely the last significant north swell of the season. We had a couple nice sessions out on the well shaped, reef bottomed wave. There was a right and a left, and the trade winds blew from land here, grooming the wave nicely. There was a crowd, with some very good surfers, but we were able to find a few fun ones. I also played around with the wingfoil, but was unable to really line up any good waves, as the wind direction combined with the shallowness made it awkward.

We went for a few walks on a picturesque shoreline trail, once hiking up to the next village and catching the bus back. We ate some coco ice cream, and were unable to find any open restaurants. We spent 8 days in Port Louis, and each day the surf got a little smaller. We left when there were only little ripples left, and retraced our steps around the north and eastern sides of the island. Rounding the eastern most point and changing to a downwind run, we saw a pod of humpback whales breaching right next to the boat. The sound and smell were remarkable. They made their way leisurely past us, jumping clear of the water every few minutes. We had never seen anything like this, and it made the short passage unforgettable.

We were back in Saint Francois, the anchorage with all the wind sports. We like it there, there are nice amenities ashore, and the foiling is great. You can stay inside the reef, and enjoy the flat water, or venture outside and ride the swell in the open ocean. We took advantage, and were here for a bunch of days. Kate picked up her new foil board from the Alboard guy, so we are now riding exactly the same equipment. On one of our days we rode the Onewheels out to the eastern point of the island, and hiked around the headland. There was a guy in the parking lot selling coco ice cream and we partook. This is one of our favorite parts of Guadeloupe—the quantity and quality of the coco ice cream available everywhere, each with its own particular twist.

From Saint Francois we sailed over to Marie Galante, a large, flat outlying island to the south of Guadeloupe. It’s still part of Guadeloupe, but we hadn’t been there yet, thinking it looked boring. I was very pleasantly surprised. The anchorage we chose was one of the most picturesque, and we stayed there longer than anticipated, enjoying the clear water and occasional foiling. We did daily hikes on a nice network of little trails that left from the perfect beach within SUP distance of the boat. We had some of the best coco ice cream yet, and strolled around the small village.

Next it was time for some boat work. We had arranged with Baptiste and his company, Yachtmate, to have a few issues taken care of before we headed further south. He was based in the Point a Pitre marina, so we took a berth there for a week. We also rented a car for a shockingly affordable 20 euro per day. Baptiste and Yachtmate were excellent. He inspected the boat, finding several issues we had not noticed yet, and had solutions ready to go. All their work was excellent, and he dealt directly with Outremer, eliminating us from the billing loop. We also decided to have hatch covers and some other canvas projects taken care of, and he had a great contact for that work.

The boat work required us to be off the boat for a few days, so we took the car and rented a nice place down by Deshais for two nights. As nice as the place was, we still missed the boat. The highlight of this short sojourn was the botanical gardens, where we spent a morning wandering around. Heading home to our dialed in boat we prepared to leave. We went to the massive Carrefour supermarket and spent a great deal of money on provisions. We were hoping these staples would get us through to Panama, as the markets on the rest of the islands were expensive and inconsistent. Stowing all the groceries and enjoying one last meal at the Dragonfly (our favorite restaurant in the marina) we set sail towards Les Saints. This would be our third visit to this archipelago.

Turns out the third time is the charm, as we enjoyed Les Saints far more this visit. We gave up on anchoring, and took a mooring behind the Pain du Sucre. We were flat- no waves to disturb us. Also, the mooring gave us peace of mind to leave the boat, as the anchorage is very deep and gusty, not ideal for good anchor holding. With this freedom we did some fun hikes up the little hills. We visited the fort, which is very well preserved and informative. One morning, riding the dingy through the anchorage, we saw our friends on Arriba, a fancy Outremer 52. We stopped and said hi, and they invited us over for a delicious dinner. The last time we had seen them was when we were leaving the dock in the Canary Islands, as we were leaving for our Atlantic crossing. It was fun to cross paths again.

After three days in Les Saintes, it was time to go. Kate’s sister, Hali, was flying into Dominica, and we thought it would be good manners to be there to meet her. As usual we got an early start, got the sails up, and felt the trade winds power up the boat. Blasting across the wind we settled in, marveling at the phenomenon of free movement across our blue marble.