Bourg des Saintes
Les Saintes
15.52.019N
61.35.165W

While I tore the boat apart looking for coffee I knew I had packed, Dale camped out on the doorstep of the Customs office bright and early this morning, hoping that we’d have more luck today. He did meet the cleaning woman who indicated that the office was closed and didn’t know when it would open (or didn’t know what he was saying, we’re not too sure which).

On his way back to the boat, he dropped by Indigo Moon who said that they had heard from some of their friends about another office located in Les Saintes (part of the French protectorate) that was supposed to be open. Since we had wanted to spend a day or two there, we decided that it would be better to keep moving than to get hung up for the entire weekend waiting for a bureaucrat that would never show.

So about 9:30 am, we hoisted our anchor and headed south to a group of islands called Les Saintes. The trip was exciting. We either had no winds to speak of or up to 30kts coming from around and down the mountains and out to sea. We knew to expect some pretty intense winds once we cleared the island from those being diverted between the two mountainous islands. However, as we rounded the tip, we also saw a squall line approaching. I grabbed the cruising guide and plugged in a waypoint to guide us to before we were lost in the rainstorm while Dale ran around closing hatches and dropping down the side curtains.

The rain cleared once and then another squall moved in behind it. By the time both cleared, we had made the crossing and were at the entrance to the harbor of Bourg des Saintes. Again this is an extremely deep harbor surrounded by mountains. We circled and circled but the shallowest we could find to drop our hook was in 35’. Many boats are anchored in 50’ or more. So far, we seem to be staying put.

Dale took the dinghy in to see if we could check in but, you guessed it! They were closed. Well, at least we can walk around the town tomorrow as there are no car rentals and try to check in and out on Monday.