Guadeloupe to St. Martin - out for a Sunday Drive La 18.03.0'N Lo 63.05.9'W Anchor to Anchor - Deshaies, Guadeloupe to Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Martin - 138 miles - 26 hours We lifted anchor in Deshaies, Guadeloupe at l000 hours, February 20, 2010 and set sail in superb conditions - wind E-NE, averaging 12 knots, swell E-SE. At 1610 hours, while making excellent time, we had the north end of Montserrat abeam. Visible off our port bow were the islands of "The Kingdom of" Redonda, Nevis and St. Kitt's, abeam of us starboard was Antigua and off our stern Guadeloupe. By the time we had St. Kitt's (St Christopher) abeam our port we lost the wind and after "bobbing" and hoping for 3 hours for it to pick up again we fired up the diesel. By the time we reached our destination of St. Martin we had been motoring on our Sunday drive for 10 hours. As we were abeam of Statia (Sint Eustatius) the impending front finally found us and we endured heavy rainfall on two occasions on our approach to St. Martin. Tired and wet, we tried to nap in Simpson Bay beside the airport runway as we awaited the 1730 bridge opening to access the shelter of the lagoon. At 1800 hours we dropped anchor beside the "witches tit" amidst a crowd of other boats already assembled. During the past 10 days we have sailed over 300 miles and stopped at 4 different islands along the way, all of them French - Martinique, Iles Des Saintes, Guadeloupe and St. Martin. We truly do enjoy the French culture.