180. Guadeloupe

The sail to Montserrat took way longer than I’d hoped, first a massive squall – I quickly reefed in all sail and got drenched, then I couldn’t reach Little Bay and had to motor along the coast. Against the current it took ages, but I made it to Little Bay and anchored before dark. I had a swim and cooked some pasta.

The sail to Guadeloupe was great. I decided to ignore the exclusion zone for the volcano on Montserrat and just head directly to Deshaies. I could smell sulphur as I passed, but my boat didn’t get covered in dust, it was fine. I was going seven knots all the way into the bay at Deshaies. Awesome, all I had to do was anchor.

Deshaies anchorage

My biggest anchoring nightmare yet. I found a spot in the very crowded anchorage, maybe fifty boats in a small semi circle bay. I dropped the anchor in about thirty feet and let out my chain and rode. I started dragging straight away, so I pulled it all in again. As I was doing that I was coming very close to a yacht behind me. I really needed to go to the cockpit so I could steer clear, but my anchor was going to get tangled in his if I didn’t get it up. I heaved it in, it did catch his chain but just beneath the water, so I could free it fairly easily. Back to the cockpit.

I was alongside the other yacht, drifting backwards and away from him. But Sonic Boom was also twisting round so that my bow was going to bump him amidships. I went hard reverse, and hoped I would just miss, or barely touch. It was actually quite a big bump, but no one was onboard.

I tried again to set my anchor, this time at the back of the bay behind everyone else. But I dragged again, almost out to sea. I just couldn’t heave up the anchor. It must have picked something up. I fought with it until I was completely exhausted. I saw a passing boat and waved them over. They looked at my rope, then one guy came aboard. I said two of us could haul it up no worries, but he said his arms were tired and he didn’t want to hurt his hands. Eventually me and the other guys on his boat persuaded him to ‘just one try’, and together we got it in. I went back in to the bay and tried again. This time it held long enough for me to dive down and check.

Sonic Boom anchored (finally) in Deshaies