Deshaies, Guadeloupe

We had a fast, wet, and salty passage south from Antigua to Guadeloupe a couple of days ago. We had 25 - 30 knots of wind and 8' - 10' waves, all on the beam, which made for a fast and exciting ride. With 2 reefs in the main and one in the jib, we were hustling along at 8 to 9.5 knots the whole way.

Weaving our way between fish trap floats hiding in the white breaking wave tops we dropped sails and turned into the bay at Deshaies, on the west side of the island of Guadeloupe. We found a place to drop our anchor in about 35 feet of water after looking for an open spot in shallower water. We had hoped to snug up closer to the town, but the anchorage was a little crowded in there and Jen and I prefer plenty of room between us and other boats when anchoring. This is the first time we've had to let out all 200 feet of our chain rode. With 35' of water plus the height of the the deck at 5' above the water, we needed it all to give us the 5:1 scope I like to have in 20 - 30 knots of wind. Although Deshaies is on the lee side of the island, there is a valley that cuts across the island that funnels the trade winds right down into the Deshaies harbor.

The anchor took hold on the first try and didn't budge while backing down hard with both engines. With the gusting winds we decided to stay on the boat for a little over an hour to ensure the anchor was truly stuck before heading in to clear customs. Clearing customs was very easy at a cyber cafe right in the center of of the small town. Later that evening we were treated to a delightful moon rise over the hills of Guadeloupe (photo).

Another boat had less luck in this exercise yesterday. They arrived, dropped anchor and the captain promptly disembarked to row ashore. While he was away, his catamaran broke free and started drifting through the anchorage, heading towards a few other boats and then open sea. Jen and I were on deck watching and it seemed odd that there were several people on board the wayward cat but their engines were not running and no one was trying to retrieve the anchor. Then the reason became clear as we saw the captain rowing franticly trying to catch up with his drifting vessel. Our guess is that he was in a bit of a hurry to clear customs before they closed and left the boat with the engine keys tucked in his pockets. His crew was helpless to do anything without those keys, or knowledge of where the spares might be.

A helpful cruiser with a vested interest (the drifting cat was heading for his boat) jumped in his dinghy and quickly towed the captain back to his boat. Sure enough, as soon as he was back aboard, the engines fired up and the anchor was retrieved. As far as I could see they avoided any serious damage to their or other's boats, with the possible exception of a significant dent their rum provisions once safely again at anchor.