After leaving Barbuda, we headed south & back to Jolly Harbour in Antigua.
We picked up Peter - a former co-worker of mine (Gary's) & good friend. The
next day we headed south again - bound for Guadeloupe (& ultimatyely Dominica where Peter's return flight was scheduled. This trip highlighted one of the problems of cruising under a deadline. We would normally have waited in Antigua
for better weather but didn't have that luxury.

The trip to Deshaies (on the NW coast of Guadeloupe) was not too bad. We had a decent wind that even though we were going close into it we could make Guadeloupe with no problem. We did have some rather large seas at times - some swells were over 10'. But they were mostly gentle, so they just slid under the boat. We got to Deshaies in the early afternoon & got the last open (& free)
mooring.

The next day, we left very early, heading for Dominica. There's a reason why
the southern part of this island chain is called the Winwards - you need to go
to/against the prevailing winds to get to them. And it's worse if you can't
wait for favorable winds. We got past the south coast of Guadeloupe - where a boat ahead of us warned about 35+ mph winds coming around the island (the winds & seas sweep around the tips of these islands resulting in faster winds & stronger, choppier seas). So we reefed the jib & main before we hit those conditions.

Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that we could not make Dominica
without (at some point) dropping the sails & motoring into the wind. And by the time we got in, it would be way past dark. So we decided to lay over in des Saintes (a small set of islands just to the south of Guadeloupe). We ended up tacking twice, which got us to within 4 miles of the
western island. We dropped the sail & motored into a delightful small yet
protected bay where we anchored for the night. There was one small sailboat & 6-8 small fishing boats there but no one around or on any of them.

The next morning was another early morning departure for the rough, 20 mile
sail to Portsmouth, Dominica. We like Dominica a LOT & were happy to be able
to just hang at anchor for a few days. Windy was happy too as she wasn't liking the day after day sailing, especially being rather bumpy.