One of the great things about living the lifestyle that we do is that we are not ruled by the clock. It's very rare that we have to be somewhere at a certain time and usually when we do it's for a bus that's going to be late anyway. For the first time in a long time we have organised whole days around the hard hours kept by 'normal' people.

Our plan in Deshaies in the French outpost of Guadeloupe was simple; fill up on all the amazing foods you can only find in France and then hotfoot it to Antigua as wind and seas decreased to a sailable level. We spied opening hours of the supermarket and customs and so went ashore in the morning all ready to fill Ruffian to the brim with red wine, stinky cheese, madeline's (thinking of you Alan Phypers), cured meats and olives.

We approached the supermarket with some trepidation. Instead of being the usual hive of activity it was like the Marie Celeste, not a soul was in sight and was so deserted we expected to see tumbleweeds blow across our feet. To our horror the supermarket was shut, announced with a hand scrawled not on the door and our opportunity to dine on fine foods had been thwarted. Not even the local bakery could raise our spirits with its offerings of bread and pastries, and we'd be fine food negative until we get to St Maarten,

As the alarm droned at 5am we were pleased that the customs officer didn't operate on such a slapdash schedule and so we slipped past Serafina & Savarnah getting a head start for the sail to Antigua. The word 'champagne' is often over used to describe sailing, the sail to Antigua was more like vintage champagne cocktail weather served up with canapés by George Clooney (for Fiona) and Daisy Duke (for Iain). We held off Serafina & Savarnah for what felt like hours but eventually physics won over pluckiness as they had bigger sails and longer hulls.

Once in Antigua we took to the sparkling waters of 5 Islands Bay and said a farewell for the day to Larry. Larry was going to 'sit' for the budding professional portrait artist, Sarah on Serafina. Sarah toiled all day pencil in hand and in the afternoon were invited to the grand unveiling of Larry's still life in 'Galleria Serafina'.

We dressed up in our finery, Fiona donning a posh frock, makeup and pearls and Iain dispensing with shorts in preference for long trousers and a shirt. He even thought about a tie but none of our sail ties were deemed to be smart enough to wear for an evening out.

Arriving at 'Galleria Serafina' our hosts were impressed with how we scrubbed up and we were shocked as to what had happened to Larry. In the course of a day he'd turned from a lowly llama into professional modelling diva, complete with sunglasses and attitude. At the grand unveiling Sarah brimmed with pride and with the dropping of a curtain there in front of us was the first and only Sarah Bell original titled 'Provocative Llama. 1 of 1'. Sarah many, many thanks.

Although 5 islands was startlingly pretty (and had good free internet) there was a long fetch making the anchorage uncomfortable and so we made the easy decision to move a little further up the coast to Deep Bay. Deep Bay had the same stunning waters as 5 Islands, but this time it was fringed by a beautiful beach, palm tree's and overlooking it all was a fort where we could go and play 'Pirates & Buccaneers'.

Barbuda and Saba are the next destinations on our list and being in Deep Bay gives us a great hopping off point these unexplored islands. All we need now is for the wind to stop howling and the seas to take some valium and calm down.

We're pleased that's behind us.


The first OCC meeting of the year.


Hiya fella. You're awesome.


Finally it's not howling and actually sunny.


Serafina takes the opportunity to 'snap' Ruffian on passage to Antigua.


and Ruffian takes the opportunity to 'snap' Serafina' as she powers along.


Ah. That view means that Ruffian is now at the back of the pack.


Larry gets all ready for his big day being a life model for Sarah.


Lovely coloured water in 5 Islands Bay.


Larry fully embraces his new modelling career.


After an absence of 6 months, the sword fighting can resume.


Deep Bay, happy days.