Merry Christmas from Marigot Bay
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sat 24 Dec 2011 22:06
| The Christmas winds have arrived!! We have been boat bound in the bay for the last 3 days waiting for the wind to drop. On Monday we had the first indication that high winds were on the way starting from Tuesday night. Forecasts were initially showing the wind to drop and change to an easterly direction by Friday, but by Wednesday this had changed to Sunday at the earliest. Also the swell was due to be quite high, up to four metres, which is unusual for the area at this time of year. We had basically resigned ourselves to staying on the boat for a few days but were hopeful that we could move to Marigot on the French side by Friday. Winds would be less, if not ideal, but we wanted to be there for Christmas. Tuesday night was quite eventful, about 8pm John heard a metallic scraping noise outside and went to check our anchor as he thought we might be dragging, only to see another boat coming right at the side of our boat - they were a few metres away and drifting towards us side on. Fortunately, all the crew were on board. Their anchor had dragged and as they had been hauling the chain up, they had hooked our chain, which had stopped their boat and was causing them to swing into us. To make matters worse they spoke little or no English, and our French is not definitely not good enough to deal with that kind of situation. Anyway after about half an hour we managed to free them, their anchor was literally hanging on our chain just under the water and so it could be relatively easily unhooked. We were very grateful for the assistance of another couple who had seen what was happening and jumped in their dinghy to come and help. A quick check in the dark showed no immediate damage to our boat, and in the morning all you could see was a few small scratches - we were all lucky, no damage to boats or people. A second incident happened when we were called upstairs by 3 guys in a dinghy - a guy from the yacht club had given the other 2 a lift out to the bay but they had lost their boat! No idea if it had drifted or what had happened - never saw them again though. Yesterday, Friday, we set off for Marigot, and the winds were awful, we were head to wind and waves all morning although thankfully it was a short 5 mile hop round the corner. As we approached we realised that the wind and swell hadn't really changed and that it would still be rough here so we decided that a marina berth was a good idea. This would give us the chance to relax over Xmas and mean that we could actually get off the boat and go ashore - spending Xmas day on board defending the boat and making sure she didn't drift was less appealing!! The wind has calmed down a lot today, but although the usual speed is less than 10 miles an hour, it is still gusting up to 25 miles an hour at times. The other benefit of a marina is constant water and electric without having to run water-makers and generators every day, we can shower without turning the tap off - what luxury, but I still haven't figured out how to get my hairdryer to work without fusing the whole marina, you can't have everything!! Today, we went exploring in the morning to look at some possible restaurants for our Xmas lunch, we have decided to go to a bistro in the marina that we went to last Sunday, as the food was excellent, and this afternoon we indulged in a spot of last minute Xmas shopping, and treated ourselves to some very nice wine. Shopping here is much more pleasant than at home, although there are a lot of people around, it is not too busy and there is a nice vibe. We now have all our presents wrapped and around our Xmas tree, unfortunately due to the size of the tree, putting them underneath was impossible!! All that's left to say now is a huge "MERRY CHRISTMAS' to you all. We hope you have a fantastic day, lots of love and best wishes from John & Jane xxx |