We hadn't had a weather forecast since Wednesday morning and it was now Saturday. The original plan had been to stay in Monserrat for 3 days but with Little Bay being so uncomfortable, we hadn't stayed to do a tour onshore and there seemed to be no point sitting at anchor for another night, even though the old forecast suggested that Saturday would be the windiest day. That's what reefs are for! We lifted the anchor at 0610, hoping to get a decent way before the wind picked up too strongly, assuming that the forecast hadn't changed. The sails were up immediately and the wind was up and down, between 5 and 15 knots. As we were approaching the headland, at the south of Monserrat, I asked Pete to put a reef in the main. I was on the helm, as usual. 10 minutes later, we were hit by a squall, torrential rain and wind gusting to 28 knots. Pete offered to helm so that I could stay dry but I was already soaked, so I told him to stay under the sprayhood. I asked for a second reef in the main, which Pete could do from the shelter, as we have single line reefing from the cockpit. A reef went in the foresail too and we were sitting more comfortably. The second squall soon hit and was much the same as the first. I could barely see for the rain hitting my face. I stayed on the helm, in challenging conditions for a little over 2 hours. The swell was 2.5 to 3 metres, with the wind up and down between 18 and 28 knots. Pete came up from below wearing his life jacket and brought mine too. He took over the helm and I crouched in the cockpit, under the sprayhood to dry off and stay safe. We went through another 2 squalls before Pete put on the autohelm, which coped quite well. We passed a couple of fishing pots, going right between the two of them, impossible to see in the waves. We had no recorded depth so assumed they had broken away. About 17 miles out from Guadeloupe, the swell increased to 3.5 to 4 metres, with breaking waves and Pete took over the helm. In a short lull, I risked a visit to the heads. I was just fastening up my shorts when a massive swell hit and I was lifted off my feet and airborne in the heads. I reached out and placed my hands on the sink unit and just managed to stop myself from headbutting the mirror, scrapping my elbow on the door as I flew. I sat down for a couple of minutes before struggling back into my life jacket and returning to the cockpit. The big swell lasted around 45 minutes and then the sea slowly started to settle as we neared the coast of Guadeloupe and the last mile into Deshaies was just a gentle 75cm swell. We hadn't seen another boat all day, other than a yacht further out as we left Plymouth that morning. Deshaies was packed, no mooring buoys available and we eventually anchored on the north side with our anchor just inside the mooring buoy field. It was 1305 hours and we had had a fast sail, 7 hours, averaging about 7 knots. We were tired and hungry, having only eaten a boiled gg and a couple of biscuits all day, so we had an instant pasta carbonara to put us on until tea time. A racing yacht came in, with four young men on board wearing life jackets, so we decided they must have been the other boat we had seen as we left Plymouth. When we were confident our anchor had held, we went ashore for a beer and to get some wifi. I felt inebriated on one beer.