Deshaies to Nevis

Monday we journeyed to Deshaies (pronounce De hay), last stop in Guadeloupe. This was a quaint little village. When we arrived, we did some swimming and then went ashore to check out the grocery store there. The power went off inside the store, so we had to wait a time to get our vegetables/fruits weighed and to use the cash (Mastercard with my chip, earning air miles even in Guadeloupe). We were anchored with many boats and many Europeans. We do forget these Europeans just walk around their boats nude, even working on their boats... with power tools!! With our Canadian Flag flying they must know they will not discover us topless or naked.... Paul and Dave did mention they see mostly men fully nude though. A y9ung man named Harold came by late afternoon and asked if we wanted fresh croissants, plain or chocolate filled in the morning? And maybe a baguette?..... well, how could we say no to that? We were leaving shortly after 7am so they were promptly delivered to us around 6:45am all warm and delicious! What a treat! He went around to all the boaters and sold many a croissant! Off we left for a rough day of sailing to Montserrat. This island has an active volcano on it and sure enough it is burping smoke big time. We captured some great photos. We had to sail 2 miles off the coast as the town of Plymouth and basically ½ the island is off limits. The other ½ is nice and lush green. It is sad to see the whole city of Plymouth under dust and ash, since 2006, it is interesting to see first hand as we sail by (with our binoculars) to see a whole city like that (it used to be the capital). At home we get the weather report daily, here they get the volcano's status report. As this volcano was burping smoke like crazy. A helicopter is flying overhead to give predictions I assume to all the rest of the island. We are flying our “Q” flag but probably won't check in (and pay the $$), we will just stay on board and leave for Nevis in the morning. We don't have access to the internet here either. Dave is lucky to hone in on unsecured internet but not here in Montserrat.

On our way here, it was the roughest yet. I took ½ a gravol and Paul had to take one too. James was fine. We see a sailboat way off in the distance without its sails up. We checked to see if they were in trouble because it was windy enough to sail.... but it turned out that there was a person kayaking in front..... training for the Olympics in this rough weather?? The sailboat was following it behind and can't go faster than the kayak. Anyway it was a sight to see and we will remember it. Who kayaks out in the water with 8 foot high waves?? We had delicious homemade pizza on some pita bread we bought. Everyone made their own with custom toppings. We are eating well. We are all well and hope you are all too.

Wednesday morning we left bright and early for Nevis (part of St.Kitts island). That journey required some gravol again. We are sitting here and enjoying the best anchorage .... we will sleep good tonight. We will spend two nights here and enjoy the town and some snorkeling. We are resting a bit since the last few days have been busy traveling.