Having a swell time
Irie
Tue 25 Mar 2008 12:27
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Position Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Apologies to the many (well, at least one) afficionados
whom have missed the log over the past week or so. Having returned to the boat
from a week away, the sat-phone refused to communicate with the computer until
all the coms software had been downloaded and refixed. Also the arrival of
family seems to have mopped up all available time!
Just before flying home, we met up with Ashley and Sue who
had completed the ARC at the same time as us in their Moody 'Osprey'.
They had done it again this year on a brand new Lagoon catamaran purchased by
David, one of their crew from last year. The crossing was very tough - eight
days of gales, and one period of 72 hours when the wind hardly dropped below 50
knots. Apparently the mood in Rodney Bay was rather sombre by contrast with the
party atmosphere of the previous year.
We had a little excitement this week as a very large
swell developed from the north. A severe storm in the North
Atlantic drove huge seas south, producing the biggest swell effect for
40 years. With this wave pattern from the north, the western anchorages in the
islands almost all become vulnerable, with only a few
places to anchor or moor safely, and a succession of urgent
warnings were issued. Sister in law Jill and family arived in their hotel on
Rodney Bay, to find a set of notices pushed under the door with damage warnings
and evacuation plans for the ground floor. We had moved out of the marina on the
Monday, collected Kate and Millie from the airport Tuesday evening and
immediately legged it back into the security of the lagoon. By Wednesday
afternoon, there were only a handful of boats left tucked under Pigeon
Island, and the lagoon was full of anchored craft of all kinds, the no anchoring
rule being relaxed for the period of the problem. The beaches in front of
the hotels were all pushed into protective banks, and doors and passages
sandbagged. By Thursday a very large surge was pounding onto the beach, washing
into car parks and occasionally bursting into the beachfront restaurants.
It was fairly impressive, although the feared damage was less than might
have been with a little larger sea or less timely warning. Large
amounts of beach were remodelled or swept away, and a million dollars worth of
imported silver sand was swept away from Sandals, and deposited with delightful
irony outside the impoverished fishing village of Gros Islet.
By Saturday normal service was resumed, we re-anchored in
the bay and set about beach activity with
grandaughter and nieces. Millie loves staying on the boat, but a three year old
does require eyes in the back of heads. On Monday, Andy and I baled out and had
a great four hour sail up and down the coast in brilliant sunshine and 18 -20
knots of wind - excellent!
Alice, Millie and Amy
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