Anchoring as a spectator sport - Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 29 Jan 2012 22:20

Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sunday – 26th, 27th, 28th & 29th Jan

When we arrived in the bay here in Deshaies, we had spotted a yacht called Shian with Paul and Janie on board who we knew to be friends of David and Lyn Wilkie, on Moonbeam, so on Thursday morning on our way into town we invited them for a drink in the evening.   They had watched us energetically signalling to them the previous evening with some trepidation as they thought we were indicating that they had anchored too near to us!

Otherwise, after a quick shop in town, having decided that we wouldn’t move Serafina closer into shore as we were happy that our anchor was well lodged, we spent most of the day catching up with correspondence (Rob still receiving and sending lots of emails to the various OCC contacts) and a lot of planning for our trip north as we finally have great wifi courtesy of Hot, Hot, Hot.   We are beginning to comprehend some of the geography of the East Coast and have pinpointed the OCC Flag Officers on an ancient fold-out map inside a pilot kindly donated by Tabasco Jazz.

We had a great evening with Paul and Janie, including a good Green Flash sunset and thoroughly picked their brains for our sail to America.   David and Lyn had already passed on their list of places visited and what to look out for.   We are beginning to realise that there is just so much to see, sail to and enjoy in the States, quite apart from the massive amount of hospitality that will be on offer – two seasons there may be the bare minimum!   The only small fly in the ointment is that Rob is able to considerably lengthen his list of sailing horrors to include fierce lightning storms, tides of up to 30’ (plus the joy of tidal anchoring), the Gulf Stream, hurricanes, wall to wall lobster pot buoys, and impenetrable fog!

The following morning proved more windy but Sarah felt it was good practise to go up the mast in less than clement weather, so was winched up to have a further look at our inner Furlex mast vang to see if it also is due under the recall.   Sure enough it is, but we have been told that although Selden will pay for the forestay fitting to be replaced they will not cover the other fitting which sounds completely idiotic to us.   To have admitted responsibility for this fitting and then to leave potential problems just waiting to happen or cause the client considerable expense (we may well have to have our mast lifted for this replacement, at our cost) seems madness in a world of publicity and litigation.   So we will try and pursue this further.

Unfortunately we spoke too soon and the great wifi signal here packed up, so we decided instead  to walk  to the Jardin Botanique  about one kilometre up the hill with Paul and Janie. This is a very pretty and exceptionally well laid out garden with an artificial but convincingly done waterfall and streams meandering throughout the gardens.   They also had some very loud Parakeets, Macaws and Flamingos and even the Koi Carp had feeding stations with a pay slot for the visitors to be able to feed and attract them.   The carp were actually squirming right out of the water over each other to get at the food.

On our return the wind had got up and was gusting 30 knots plus, so we settled down to the expected anchoring spectacle.   The anchorage is described as a “vent” in the wind system and it can fairly howl here despite being relatively quiet outside the anchorage.   Many yachts arrive from the Saintes and Antigua each evening as it is really the only stopping point on the75 mile odd stretch and we had watched a few altercations the previous evening.  This afternoon was nothing short of bedlam:  an American yacht was the first to have a good five goes at getting his anchor to hold; meanwhile a Breton yacht was constantly racing out of the anchorage dragging an anchor back and forth.   After three quarters’ of an hour of this it continued to drift right out to sea still with its anchor down and it became apparent that its engine had failed.   They appeared to refuse help from a returning dive boat and after another hour when they were at least a mile offshore they finally raised their anchor and slowly sailed away downwind and we did not see then again!   A German yacht demonstrated their anchoring technique (their boat boasted a website address that seemed to indicate some sort of training scheme) at the very least, 15 times and after a good three hours of failing at this, settled for a position at the back of the pack well out to sea much to our great relief as their penultimate attempt had been too near Serafina.  

Finally a French boat sailed into the anchorage with its sail still up to try and anchor; it too had a failed engine.   They ambitiously attempted to get in amongst all the other packed boats in the anchorage, which with the gusts we were experiencing, was nothing short of madness.    Eventually they sailed too close to the bow of the American yacht that had struggled earlier, caught their keel on the American’s anchor chain and their boom in his forestay, dragging the yacht forward with them narrowly missing another boat in front.   Inevitably the poor Americans had to re-anchor again.   The French yacht managed in the end to drop its anchor also fairly well out to sea.  Various dinghies set off to offer assistance but the generally consensus was that the boat was in a pretty chaotic state and since now their anchor windlass had also stopped (flat batteries?), it was best to leave well alone.

All this was well debated over drinks on Shian with another couple, Craig and Karene, Americans with an Oyster 56, Il Sogno.   They will probably be heading north at a similar time to us and we have agreed to stay in touch.

Saturday morning we went ashore for yet more French bread, roti chicken and Chilean Tarapaca wine.   Anyone who knows us will be aware that we used to have a garage full of this wine courtesy of Rob’s brother who used import it along with the wool that was his business.   Sadly his brother no longer does this and we have been unable to find anywhere, in the UK or on our travels, which stocks it.   Last year in this very small port, Rob found a stock of red, white and even a rosè Tarapaca in a very tatty Spar supermarket.  This year Rob has finally cleared all their red wine and a fair bit of the white from the shelves over the last few days!  

Whilst we were in town, all the roads were lined with very smartly dressed locals in black and white clothes (and some amazing shoes, this is France after all).   This is done to pay their last respects to the passing funeral cortege and then pretty much the whole town walks in procession behind the coffin to church.  It is quite a wonderful sight.

In the evening we were invited to Il Sogno, together with Paul and Janie, for supper.   It proved to be a very interesting evening all round.    First we were treated to a very good snoop around their beautiful yacht which they have recently purchased second-hand.   The previous owner had latterly done less sailing but was very keen on improvements and they have inherited some very cleverly and beautifully executed enhancements.   It then transpired that Craig (surname White) is a recently retired, very well-known NBC news cameraman and it was really interesting to hear American politics from a different perspective.   Karene treated us to a lovely meal including good ol’ flame grilled hamburgers from their BBQ and fries and Sarah discovered the joys of a Margarita – and not just one!

Today, Sunday, we have signed out with Customs for our trip north to Antigua tomorrow - the wind is due to ease round to the east a bit further to make this probably just one tack.   Then on Monday night quite a blow is forecast so we thought we would go into Jolly Harbour to see about some work on the boat.   We are hoping that after that the weather may be such to make a trip north to Barbuda possible.

So the rest of the day was spent just getting all the internet work, bank statements, Skype calls etc completed whilst we still have great wifi (back up and running now) and the boat ready for a bouncy trip to windward!