-- TECHNICAL NOTE -- A bus trip to St. Johns on Friday gave us the tools to get back online from the boat. With little to select from, we decided to purchase a WiFi expander which acts as a repeater. Although this electronic device is designed to be used in a person's house to expand their home WiFi system's range, we are finding that it does a pretty good job for us here on the boat. At least in this anchorage, where we have the circumstance of a signal which is just a little too weak for the internal WiFi cards on our laptops to hold onto reliably, this box sits out in the cockpit, grabs the signal, and rebroadcasts it so that we can connect to it from down below. One potential bonus may be the continued utility of this item when we return to a land-based life. -- End of Technical Note --

We have been using our renewed access to the internet to closely study the weather. We are ready to leave Jolly Harbour for a while and have our sights set on islands south of here. There is a strong low pressure system coming this way which is pushing quite a bit further south than usual. This is making for an interesting weather pattern for next week, as you can see from our frequently used weather resource, WindGuru:



With this forecast in mind, our plans are to move the boat around to Carlisle Bay during Tuesday's light winds...



...from which we can stage our hop across to Guadeloupe. We hope to take advantage of the north winds filling in after the front on Wednesday to propel us across the open water between Antigua and Guadeloupe. If we can cover the distance before we run out of daylight, we plan on dropping an anchor for an overnight in Deshaies (with Q-flag flying). The following morning would find us continuing along the west coast of the big island, crossing to The Saints, and finding an anchor spot off of Bourg de Saints, where we can clear in and rest a while. If all goes according to plan, we should be able to do this trip in 3 days by sailing in daylight hours only.



In preparation for the trip, we have been trying to gather all we might need for our stay in Guadeloupe. Reports from fellow cruisers suggest that the general strike there has diminished supplies of everything. Therefore, we will depart with full fuel cans, full water tanks, and a well-stocked pantry. All three thanks largely to Sheryl's efforts at inventory, shopping, and ferrying jerry jugs in the dinghy. With our current provisions, we could easily live solely off the supplies on the boat for at least a month.

So, if all goes according to plan, the next posting you are likely to see will be from the French islands of The Saints. Please wish us good luck and fair winds.