Martinique - Anchor Trials and Tribulations!!!

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sat 12 Mar 2011 01:04
Having had such a fab time in Barbados it was hard to leave, but there are more places to visit and new adventures to be had. We were just pottering along, under sail, so all was very quiet, when suddenly we were startled by an incredibly low flying aeroplane which had sneaked up behind and 'buzzed' us - what fright it gave us, he seemed to flying barely higher than our mast! After that little bit of excitement the rest of the sail when very calmly and smoothly, and after leaving Barbados about 13.00 on Saturday, we arrived in Marin, Martinique about 09.00 on Sunday.
The anchorage here seems huge but in fact has so many huge reefs that large areas are completely unusable and impassable except in a dinghy. We found this out to our cost when we spotted the 'perfect' spot to anchor and headed towards it. Fortunately, we were going very slowly, but still we came to a juddering standstill when we ran the boat aground on the seabed!!! Disaster - we were firmly aground and despite revving the engine hard, we were not moving an inch!!
As we had no idea of the state of tide, we contacted the harbour master who informed us that the high tide for the morning was 09.00. More bad luck - it was now about 09.30, the water level was going to fall - great! John dove down for a quick look to see how we were stuck and to work out how to get out of it and, fortunately, we had just caught the keel on a seabed of shale so no damage was done. The harbour master agreed to put a call out for us to see if anyone could help before sending out the safety boat. To our great shame he broadcast a Pan-Pan over the open channel 16, to all the boats within about a 25 mile radius, asking for help. Three guys soon arrived in their dinghies and eventually, with much pushing and shoving, we managed to get off the rocks and head towards a better spot to anchor. Did our troubles stop there - not likely. We dropped the anchor, but had drifted too far in the process and had to pull the anchor up and start again. When we pulled the anchor up it was wrapped around a heavy duty chain which had been dropped in the bay - the other boats were far too far away for it to have belonged to any of them. After a bit of a battle and more help from a passing dinghy, we got free of the chain, dropped and set our anchor, and went to bed to catch up on some sleep before heading out to the marina bar for moules frites and muscadet wine - after all we are in France now.