The bad bit
Moonshine
Thu 5 Apr 2007 00:11
It was 4am when the alarm went off, but without reason, as we'd been up since 3.30 anticipating the day ahead. There was torrential rain. It almost, but not quite obscured the bridge that would open for us at 5. There were 4 other boats waiting to go through with us. ( that's just setting the scene, as in 'it was a dark and stormy night.......')
The bridge opened, one boat came through the other way. You could tell by the boat's general demeanour that he had not enjoyed the night, but was pleased to be out!
The bridge allows access to a second, and then into the Sallee. This is a mangrove swamp in the centre of Guadeloupe. It would be more fun, I thought, to go through this swamp than to go around the outside. Mosquitoes live in this swamp, but I doubted that they could fly in this torrential rain. Within minutes the deck was covered in drowned mosquitoes that couldn't, and had been washed out of the air. They were in the minority. The ones that made it under cover into the boat were adopting hit and run tactics.
We made it through the two bridges, and anchored waiting for light. A lit boat in a swamp full of moquitoes. The rain continued.
In other circumstances we would have enjoyed the trip, but the rain was making it difficult to see, or even to open our eyes. The wet weather gear I have on the boat is meant for the channel in February, not the tropics. We were soaked. So much water was running down my legs that my deck shoes were overflowing.
The channel is quite closed in. There are so many branches off, that without a pilot book and the markers, it woud be difficult to find a way through the maze.
Then suddenly, we were through.The channel opend into a vast lagoon inside a coral reef. Even in the rain we had not missed a marker.
Pilot book in hand, and gps working overtime, we set about negotiating the way through the reefs.
The radar was concentrating on getting good solid signals from raindrops, and doing it really well. He had produced a picture showing that we were in the middle of a small continent nowhere near the sea, and I swear he was humming a tune.
We watched a boat ahead of us get it wrong and run aground, and wondered how he would sort it.
Then it happened to us.
The pilot book had an error, the reef had changed, the channel had moved. We were stationary. It was still raining.
The day was going wrong.
After ten minutes of activity we got it free. There was no damage, but the day was definately taking a blacker turn.
In the distance, we could see the edge of the lagoon, fringed with breaking waves. We shouldn't see them from here, they are still 3 miles away. I told Sandra that this was a mirage which appeared to increase the height of the horizon. She didn't believe me. It was still raining.
We successfully negotiated the reefs and on out into the 7 to 9ft Atlantic chop!
This is not the Caribbean, this is mid ocean. The wind was up to 23 knots steady, but with gusts to 28. The boat settled into a routine of climbing over one wave then submarining through the next, sending the tops of the wave over the boat, into the cockpit and us.. It was unpleasant, still raining. and ten hours to go.
The radar had found a new game. No longer looking just for raindrops, and desperate to demonstrate his skill at finding targets, he turned his attention to waves. Using all the experience gained with rain, he showed a picture where every wave was coloured black, boats coloured black, land coloured black, and of course rain. The result was a 24 mile diameter circle of black, with him in the middle - extremely skilfull, a touch self centered, accurate, but unhelpful.
We beat into this weather for ten hours. Sometimes it was better, sometimes worse. It stopped raining at about the five hour stage, but we'd stopped counting by then.
We arrived at Antigua exhausted, in sunshine, to find a beautiful marina with every known facility.
Am I glad this is a strong boat!
Rod Sandra and the mouse
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