Location: 16° 18 N, 61° 48 W
Saturday 12:00, 05.13.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s noon position today is in the port of Deshaies (Duh - high), Guadaloupe, 16° 18 N, 61° 48 W. We arrived last night after an eight hour run from Antigua. As before, we anticipated the normal NE’erly trades, but got quite the opposite, namely a light SW’erly, and ended up motoring about half way.

Crew aboard is Frank Blair, Bori Kiss, Richard Francis, Nadia Mohammedi, and Mounira Alameida. An American, a Hungarian, an Englishman and two French. Henry Yung was to sail with us, but had to return to the USA for personal reasons.

The passage was mostly marked by the smoking presence of the island of Montserrat on our starboard, with the volcano still putting out steam and ash. We also had a marvelous school of about 30 dolphin greet us as we approached Guadaloupe. One individual specialized in belly flops near the boat.

Deshaies is a port of entry and we attempted to register with Customs (closed until further notice) or the Police (closed at 5 PM). A marvelous waterfront restaurant accepted our business for dinner, even though we were incompletely documented. There are about 40 sailing vessels anchored in the harbor, of all descriptions.

We hope to be off at about noon for the 30 mile run to Isle des Saintes. Iguanas and great beaches!

All is well.