Came in Like a Wrecking Ball....but We Bounced Back!

Roger is now officially a contributor to the Lionfish harvest.  He speared 6 of them in 30 to 40 feet of water and together, the team of 8 divers, harvested almost 60 Lionfish that would be consumed at the dinner on Monday night.  Unfortunately (or not?) we didn't stay long enough for the Lionfish dinner as the rolly conditions in Portsmouth worsened and frankly became dangerous.  It was next to impossible to take a dinghy ashore as the surge at the dock was so large, thus PAYS team was ferrying people back and forth in their open boats.  After a sleepless night, with the boat rolling from side to side, we decided to head out for either Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on the southern end of the island, or to St Pierre, Martinique.  Roger was able to make it ashore with Pirate and got us checked out at customs (an extra time consuming step as as our original plan was to leave the next day).  Once he got back to the boat, we set to the task of bringing the motor up onto the stern pulpit, and getting the dinghy up onto the bow of the boat.  In the rolly conditions, we knew both of these activities were dangerous, at best, but not leaving was not an option for us, and towing the dinghy could have created more problems in the high southerly headwinds and waves that we would be motoring into.  

As we were raising the motor with the systems we have been using until now, we got hit by a particularly large swell and the new 150 LB outboard motor started swinging back and forth like a wrecking ball, with Roger and I fighting hard to stop it from banging into the boat, or worse breaking some of our body parts.  We finally got the motor in place, but it took a lot of physical effort.  Next we had to get the 145 LB dinghy onto the foredeck. This involves attaching the dinghy by a halyard which runs 65' up to the top of the mast and lifting it up over the lifelines.  We waited for a calm patch, but even though we have an electric winch, this is not a fast maneuver, and by the time it cleared the lifelines, we were hit by another set of swells. The dinghy started swaying back and forth wildly.  Roger got nailed and knocked down down on his back on the foredeck. Thankfully he got back up and we fought our way to get the dinghy in place back down on the deck.  Later Roger joked that it was like being in a cage match. Not for the faint of heart or 60 year old bodies.  We got away relatively unscathed, but it took us the next couple of days and some Advil to recover physically.  Lesson # 1:  We are getting davits installed for next year, which will allow us to hoist the dingy, with the motor on it, up onto the stern (back) of the boat.  This will also give us a place to put additional solar panels, which we need as we are underpowered.  Lesson #2 : For this year, we need to have a preventer system attached to the motor in those kinds of conditions.  

Finally underway, the next decision was whether to go to Roseau, where conditions were likely to be rolly or take our chances and continue on to Martinique and try to get there before dark.  With the customs clearance and the time it took to get the dinghy and motor in place, we ended up leaving around 10:30 am which was much later than we had anticipated.  Our ETA for Martinique was about 6:00 pm which means we would be arriving around sunset, less than ideal for an anchorage we were unfamiliar with. In addition, the Ports Guide indicated that there were many changes taking place, especially around the main anchorage which is a protected area due to all the wrecks that sunk when the volcano last blew its stack. 

When we went by Roseau, we could see the masts swaying back and forth which meant another rolly anchorage.  I said let's go for Martinique.  As we were heading past the south end of Dominica I could tell Roger was not yet convinced on our decision, and I would learn later he was concerned all the way across and could not really relax during the entire journey.  

Just as the sun was setting we sited the masts of the boats in the anchorage on the North end of Martinique. Would there be any balls left? Would it too be crazy rolly? We entered the mooring field just as the light was fading and lo and behold there were a number of vacant mooring balls. We sited one close to the shore, maneuvered into place, tied up and breathed a sigh of relief. The anchorage was calm and beautiful. We were now in the picturesque little town of St Pierre, which sits just at the base of Mt Pelee. 

The Mt. Pelee volcano erupted on May 8, 1902.  At the time, St Pierre had a population of 30,000 and was the commercial, cultural and social centre of Martinique.  After a  couple of warnings, a major eruption took place taking the lives of all the inhabitants except a cobbler and a prisoner in a stone cell.  Many ruins remain and new buildings have been built onto the old structures.  Twelve ships (all but one), anchored in the exact same bay where we moored, were destroyed.

As the sunset reached it's full colour, we got the dinghy back into the water and the motor back on the dinghy transom, without all the fanfare of that morning. We then set out towards town to check in to customs.  While the anchorage itself was not rolly, there were some fairly decent swells at the town dock where the ferries arrive, and the only place for a dinghy to go ashore.  In addition, the dock sits about 8 feet above the water and requires the boaters arriving by dinghy to climb up a vertical ladder to reach the dock above.  This isn't the easiest thing to do, but even more challenging with swells and a 70 lb dog who we had to physically lift from the dinghy onto the dock above.  

In the French islands, the customs/immigration check in is typically at a computer terminal which sits in a restaurant or similar facility.  You enter all of your boat information and personal data, and then print out the form which is reviewed by the attendant, and you are now official.  As I was sitting at the computer filling our the form, the attendant arrived with a glass of white wine which Roger had thoughtfully ordered!  Imagine, clearing customs and drinking wine at the same time.  How civilized. Other countries certainly have something to learn. 😁

Because of the challenges getting Pirate ashore, and as the rolly conditions were starting in this anchorage as well, in the morning we decided to set out again. Next stop was Les Trois Ilets, near Fort de France (the capital of Martinique), which is described in the Fisher/Doyle Sailors Guide as a 'hurricane hole'.  Our focus was finding a calm anchorage and getting some down time after a particularly challenging couple of days.  However we were not really sure what would await us.