There is no doubt that the gods did not want us to get to Antigua, on our second attempt on doing the stretch of water between St Barts and Antigua, we again met strong head winds, and seas to match, so decided to put in a long tack down towards St Kitts. We wished we had had more time to stop here, as this huge volcano has lovely fertile foothills, which looked very enticing.
As we approached Antigua, motor sailing by this time, in the dark, the engine suddenly thumped and stopped. It took us a while to work out that we were not moving in spite of sails drawing. We were firmly hooked by a fishing bouy round the prop. It took a couple of hours with Emily in the dinghy with boat-hook and knife before we got away, we were only too grateful that the seas had subsided by then, or we would have had to wait for morning. Not a happy prospect with shipping around and no way of avoiding it.
Poppy and Ned arrived the next day, unaware of our struggles to reach them!
Antigua proved far nicer than I had anticipated, and we were sad to say goodbye to it after three days. We liked it far more than I had expected, it seemed to be an island of flowers, and very charming people. The legacy of slavery seemed much less apparent here, and the blacks we met were doing jobs that in St Martins would have been the preserve of the white man. There was no undercurrent of lassitude and surliness that we have encountered before.
English Harbour lived up to all expectations, very pretty, and Nelson's Dockyard beautifully preserved. We also met two RCC yachts here which was fun.

From Antigua, south to Guadaloupe, where we decided to cut through the centre by river. We had an interesting anchorage in the middle of reefs, and a lovely dinghy trip up a mangrove lined river, where we felt like natives as we paddled silently around listening to unfamiliar birdsong. The river trip which we lined ourselves up for next day is a shallow mangrove lined river until two opening bridges, which open only at 04.30 and the next at 05.00. We picked up a mooring by the first bridge, and were eaten alive by mosquitoes. Until we put up all our screens, which we inherited with Brother Wind, a fly screen for every hatch, which really proved terrific, and we went below put the generator on and turned on the air conditioning for a while!

The following morning we went ashore to enjoy the delights of Pointe a Pitre, the capital of Guadaloupe. It is truly Caribbean, and totally untouristy. Wonderful markets to buy delicious and strange fruits and veg, as well as spices galore. We couldn't believe how many spice stalls there were for a totally home market. Giles found himself a wonderful banana leaf hat, see photo, made of woven green banana leaves, which presumably will dry eventually! Prices in Guadeloupe are all Euros, and seemed the same sort of cost as home. The two islands one flat the other high and volcanic seemed to us to have continuous clouds over it, and we had more than our share of rain storms here.

From Guadeloupe Basse terre, we are now twenty miles south in some delightful islands, Isles des Saintes, that live up to all Caribbean dreams, not crowded, water so clear that you can see your anchor 40 foot below. Great snorkeling, and Napoleonic forts to climb to for sunset, with only wild goats for company. So we're here for a couple of days before moving on to Dominica, where sadly Gus will be leaving us on 23rd.