Part of our agenda is the plan to leave Guadeloupe on Thursday, which is the best weather window for wind. Looks like the weekend will be quite strong winds while Thursday looks normal.

So we’re up and moving at a reasonable time. We want to do some Raymarine compass calibration while the seas are calm.

I’ve done all the dockside checks, now time for seatrial calibration. We motor out northwards towards Deshaies, clear Pigeon Island and any boat traffic and first do the compass deviation calibration. This requires turning in two slow circles while the Raymarine autopilot is in cal mode. That takes about 5 minutes and seems to work. Next is the compass alignment – we’re crossing our fingers this will tell Raymarie we are NOT actually going backwards. Our compass has been 180 degrees wrong for over a year. Set the autopilot in ALIGN COMPASS setting, travel in a straight line going 3+ kts, then press AUTO. The autopilot immediately adjusts the bearing by 180 degrees, but our picture on the screen still is going backwards. Press AUTO to save …

WORKS! Our chart now says we are going in the same direction as we are actually going! Perhaps now we can try some of the track/pilot features.

We motor sail for the rest of the trip, about 8 nms, playing with the autopilot features. We think we have it mostly figured out which is good. It was behaving very strangely the past week or so, and we don’t want to make a long, 45 nm crossing with a weird pilot system.

It’s a nice little trip. Wind comes and goes a bit but we motor sail the whole way, making about 4.5 kts.

The bay at Deschaies is a bit crowded but not too bad. It is notoriously windy here so need some swing room. Luckily not too deep and almost everyone is on anchor so we’re all in the same boat. (Little nautical humour there.) We try one spot twice but can’t set the anchor in such a way as to be safe from other boats.

I spy what looks like a better spot up a hundred yards, in shallower, more sheltered water, why not go there? As we approach, I see something out of the corner of my eye – Holy Mackinaw it’s a dolphin! He’s swimming along with us, seems to be playing a bit. A boat or two waves at us and we all give each other the thumbs up. I also see two turtles as we’re anchoring. So far this bay is tres cool.

We anchor safely without too much trouble and immediately jump in the water with our snorkel gear and GoPro to try and film this dolphin. I manage to catch up to him and get some decent footage. We’ll see him and a companion off and on until sunset. Lots of people swimming with them.

Back at the boat, I clean things up a bit, drop the dinghy while Christy scrapes the bottom of the boat. I was secretly glad the dolphin wasn’t swimming around our boat so the other swimmers couldn’t see how dirty it is. She comes aboard after a while and we get set to go into town.

Deshaies (the h is silent) is the home of filming for the British drama series “Death in Paradise”. Not sure if it’s because of the series but the whole town seems to have a fresh coat of pain everywhere. Plenty of tourists from cruise ships over the next two days coming to see some of the famous film sites.

We were thinking of walking up to the botanical gardens but it’s already 4 pm and no point in walking 20 minutes, spending EU$20 for 20 minutes inside the garden. Instead we walk up the river trail for a while until it gets pretty thick, then turn back. Apparently a nice walk for about 2 hours, features a nice waterfall but that will have to wait for our next visit here.

We retrace our steps back into town. Walk around a bit, inspect some of the sites from Death in Paradise. It’s quite hot and I buy a very good, very cold, iced coconut from a street lady. We walk along the beach, it’s about 4:45 pm and their is a nice little bar we would like to stop and have a cold drink. Christy wants to try the eponymous Gwada beer. The sign says they don’t open until 5 pm so we sit in one of their beach chairs to relax and wait. Woman comes out and tells us we can’t sit there, we can’t buy a drink yet, she is not licensed.

OK, we cruise back down the main drag, looking for The Pelican which apparently is where you get your passports stamped. Not there anymore, it’s across the river now. We go in search, find it, then sit in the shade by the beach until the church bell rings 5 pm.

Go back to the bar. Most of the beach tables say “reserved” but not all. I go in to get a drink. The same girl says, we can’t drink unless we eat, she’s not licensed. Grrr. She gives me the menu, I go back out to Christy. The same girl says Christy can’t sit there. THAT’S IT. We’re out of here. They don’t seem to want our business.

Back on Milu, Christy makes a just-as-good virgin punch though we only have orange juice, the pineapple juice has gone south. (What?? We just bought it in January). We can see a large crowd at the beach bar that didn’t want our business, we’re betting they gather for the sun set there to try and catch the green flash.

I don’t believe in the green flash.