HEADING SOUTH AGAIN!

                                           5^th May 2012

After the highlights of Barbuda and the Classic Week, we had to say farewell to Jeremy and Yvonne( heading north ), and turn our attention to the right “window” to begin our trek south. We left Falmouth at first light on 26^th April, with a single reef, staysail and genoa, in a fresh 20knt ENE breeze, covering the 48nm to Deshaies, Guadeloupe, by lunchtime, averaging 7 knots.

Knowing the winds were expected to increase, we took advantage of our early arrival, and set the anchor with 45m of chain in good patch of sand. The holding can be variable in Deshaies, and we watched the stream of later arrivals go through their “anchoring dances”…… some very well, and others less so!

One late arrival sailed right through the anchorage, intent on dropping his anchor up front. With insufficient room to lay out enough chain, he dropped his CQR, and, in the freshening winds, started dragging immediately. He tried to haul anchor to try again, but found he had hooked the chain of the fellow behind him! Much shouting, black smoke from over- revved engine, before some calm thinking by the affected cruiser prevented his anchor from being dislodged. He was persuaded to come alongside the fellow at risk, raft up, so that they both hung from the well set anchor, and then proceeded to recover the CQR from under his chain. Having done so, he then moved off, and tried to anchor in the same place! Once again he dragged, but managed to recover it without fouling anyone else. He received clear instructions from the front row boats to “GO AWAY”.  So he then tried to anchor between the 1^st row and the second row, on top of “Sheer Tenacity’s” anchor! Mary and I both had to exercise our “Bitch Wings”, and explain that he was not welcome to try there either.

Panic had now set in, and he tried in about 5 or 6 other places to drop the anchor, all either dragging or proving to be too close to another boat. As the sun started to set, he was last seen powering out of the anchorage, to destinations unknown, while the rest of us heaved a sigh of relief, and enjoyed our sundowners.

What should he have done?  Chosen a place behind the back row, let out a full 60mts of chain, set the hook, and put up with a little bit of rolling for the night, and move into a gap the next day!

We sailed down to Pigeon Island, and again were unlucky with the diving conditions, so we stocked up at Leader Price, and headed down to “The Saints”, where we hoped to spend a week. We found a delightful anchorage behind the Sucre du Pain, (Little Sugarloaf), and were really looking forward to our time there. Not to Be! When we went into Bourg the next to do emails, the Gribs (weather files), indicated a tropical wave and torrential rain over the Saints. So we checked out on the spot, hauled anchor and headed for Portsmouth, Dominica, while we could! Arriving in the evening, we decided not to check in, and left at first light for St Pierre, Martinique. We arrived in the pouring rain, but were at least back in France!

The weather stayed foul for the next week, as we worked our way down to Fort du France, Anse a’l’Ane, and Petit D’Arlet, one of our favourite anchorages. 

After a few days we did the 18nm beat to St Annes, where we were meeting Chris and Helen Hull, on their Shearwater, “Sea Lion”, on their way up to Antigua, from St Lucia.

SEA LION IN MARTINIQUE

Too much catching up to do, and too little time! They have decided to base Sea Lion in Antigua from now on, so we might cross paths again next year! Once again we were looking for a good ENE to sail to Rodney bay, and this we got on 24^th May, but not before we had time to witness two very different, but memorable events!

The first was the “Yole” boat regatta, which I will cover in the next blog, and the second, an “anchoring dance”, performed by Frenchmen, which proved that management in a democracy, does not always work!

The cast was made up of 3 bareboat charter catamaran’s, each with their barely competent skippers plus 7 clueless crew members, and one French cruising couple on a monohull which had been happily anchored in the same spot for weeks!

CHECK THE BODY LANGUAGE!

 The cats all wanted to anchor as close to the beach as possible, in front of the Monohull. To complicate matters, they wanted to raft up together, which involved the one in the middle dropping his anchor, and setting it, before the other 2 cats came up on either side, dropping their anchors and reversing up alongside the 1^st cat. Firstly, the skippers did not have a clue about maneuvering cats, and secondly the guy in the middle was oblivious of the fact that he was only 5 m in front of the monohull, and right over his anchor! That did not stop the other 2 cats from trying to drop their anchor, and reversing back to either side. They still had not managed to complete this exercise by the time the horrified monohull owner returned from town!

              Bitch wings all round, Gallic shrugs, and “phooffs”, single digit French salutes, nothing seemed to make the cats agree to move! The vocal solidarity of 24 idiots easily outshouted the experienced opinions of 2 cruisers! (The Achilles heel of Democracy???)

              Our experienced French cruiser then told them that if  THEY would not move, then HE would…… so, would they please move away so that he could pull up his anchor from underneath them, and he would move elsewhere. Happy that they had now won the moral victory, they then pulled up their anchors and moved……. Where upon the experienced cruiser just opened a beer, and did nothing except show them the finger!!  

          A sequel to this, was that one of the cats then tried to drop his anchor on top of ours, and it took Mary”s A Grade Bitch Wings, together with my very best internationally respected French way of saying “No, please go away” for sanity to prevail. By then it was Happy Hour, thank goodness!!

Ducks were also happy!