Barb and Stew Hart from La Luna with us on an inner city Guadeloupe bus. Resd further to lean why we're together.

Having got over the flu, and the dental crown was done, it was time to leave Rodney Bay and go to points North. Our "see ya's" were made to pretty much everyone, and we had stocked up on a few things there. The only question was "where?"
We certainly considered Martinique, as we do enjoy that island, and we wanted to stock up on good coffee beans and canned duck confit. However, I had another possibility in mind, as our friends Barb and Stewart on 'LaLuna' were in Guadeloupe. 'LaLuna' has been there since completing their Atlantic Circle, getting some stuff done. I thought it might be fun to bomb straight up (island hopping) and catch up with them. Plus we want to spend time around "Gwada", and it still gives us the chance to pop back to Dominica for carnival, or get up to Antigua, St. Kitt's and Nevis, and Montserrat. Decisions, decisions.
The morning we left St. Lucia was pretty much perfect for us. Nice winds, gentle seas, and the wind pushed us along on a lovely sail to the west coast. We just didn't know where we were going to end up. Grand Anse? Fort de France? Or closer to St. Pierre to stage to get to Dominca foe the next leg to Gwada. We finally decided on what we were going to do when we were level with Grand Anse d'Arlet... we decided to make the three day hops to get to Point a Pitre.
We anchored the first night at a little beach just south of St. Pierre; nice easy place to anchor without the crowd of St. Pierre. The next morning we headed up towards Dominica with the thought of getting to Roseau and planning on an oh-dark-thirty departure the next morning; our plan B was that if we got to Roseau before 1:00pm, we would continue on to Portsmouth. We ended up motor sailing at a, for us, brisk average of over 6.5 knots (pure sailing would have been MUCH slower). We made it to Portsmouth with time to spare. We had the bonus of two sets of dolphin sightings, with one visit, and our best whale sighting yet, with us seeing the whale cresting, and a full view of the flukes... Wow. The best part about getting to Portsmouth was that we could get going at our regular civilized time of 6:00am rather than at about 3:00am.
Our trip from Portsmouth gave us a squall or two, rain, and our least appealing weather of the trip. However, we were contacted by 'Seaquel' on our way in to see if they could follow us in to Point a Pitre. The channel isn't horrible, but it can be a little disconcerting and even a touch confusing the first time in. Ken and I had a miscommunication mess up in the beginning, causing us to initially change course quite a bit, which had to be a little confusing to Andy and Sally. We got in, anyway, and got a good spot to anchor.
As we approached the main area of the anchorage, we saw 'LaLuna', sans crew. When we snagged a ride in with Andy and Sally so that I could get us checked into the country, we left a boat card tucked into the fuel tank of Barb and Stewart's fuel tank of the dinghy.
Later, as I was putting the sail cover on the main, and Ken was below getting some rest, I spotted a familiar dinghy heading our way. It was Stewart and Barbara, coming to say "hi". They dropped off their groceries, and came back for drinks. It was very nice to see them. We also realise that they were dying to speak to someone for whom English is their first language and who had some shared experiences. It was fun. The next night we had pizza on our boat and had Andy and Sally over, too, as they have done the Atlantic and the Med before, which provided lots of conversation fuel.
So now we will get to know Guadeloupe a little better again. And get caught up with some old friends, and get to know new friends better.