Two days after sailing due north from St George’s, Grenada, the small group of islands known as “the Saints” lay on the horizon ahead. The Picton Castle had sailed past Bequia, St Vincent, St Lucia, Martinique and Dominica to make for the charming Saints. A decent passage it was. In the lee of the bigger islands winds died down even though these islands were almost 40 miles away. In the lee of the passages between islands both the winds and seas picked up again. Just about 0800 we closed with the narrow pass that would lead us into a nice anchorage off Terre De Haute. Anchor down, skiff in straight away to get cleared in as quickly as possible. We wanted to make the most of this short stop. Time is running out and we must get north to Lunenburg for June 1. Hard to imagine that after more than a year and over 30,000 miles that we are in a hurry now.
Back to Les Saintes…
Once anchored Tammy and Dirk scooted into the town, got us cleared in (and out) the free watch went ashore. Terre De Haute is a beautiful small town, on a sweet little bay, once a sleepy small French West Indian fishing village, now, while still fishing, very much a destination for travelers coming from Guadeloupe and, no doubt, France. And thus plenty of shops, cafes, restaurants and so on. The beach in town is clean and welcoming. Excelent dinghy docks. A perfect place to do nothing at all. Not cheap though. The Euro has made its claim here. So, the gang wandered through the village, enjoyed French style and French island dining. Some walked the half mile over the island to a beach on the windward side. Some found places to snorkel. Picnics with baguettes and cheese and salmon made lots of sense. Dawson found a beach right near the fish cleaning station and a grocery store so he and his family spent most of a day there in the shade of an almond tree listening to French reggae music and watching people going by. The very definition of “limin”. Then we sailed NW for the British Virgin Islands. And Jost Van Foxy’s. From here we will sail north for Bermuda and out of our beloved tradewinds and tropics into the North Atlantic.