Dominica to Jolly Harbour - slipped anchors and a rough night passage.

17.03.935N  61.53.05W

10th February 2023

5329 miles since leaving Sandwich.

Well, that was bloody awful. I am currently sitting on the customs berth in Jolly harbour waiting for the officials to arrive. As soon as they do, we can move across to the marina and spend a couple of days getting the boat fettled again before Tony arrives on Monday. And why was it bloody awful I hear you say well I shall tell you dear readers.

We left Portsmouth, Dominica at o8oo with a plan to get as far as Bouliante, Guadeloupe and stop there overnight taking advantage of the large supermarkets ashore to restock the boat. We had a cracking sail up doing a steady 7 knots all the way arriving by 1400 which was well ahead of schedule. We dropped the anchor and were immediately hit by two vicious squalls which ripped through the anchorage. Spectra bucked about a lot but the anchor held firm and after a damn good soaking everything settled down, so far so good. We launched or faithful little dinghy and put putted ashore getting another good soaking along the way. Actually, when we got into the shop we realised that we really didn’t need that much and were only ashore for an hour at the most which as it turned out was quite lucky. On returning to Spectra we immediately saw that she had slipped on her anchor and was now sitting at least 40 meters further out to sea. Dashing aboard we started the engine and pulled the anchor in. As soon as it popped up to the surface the problem was apparent, a huge clump of weed and fibrous roots was clogging the anchor. No harm done, but a very chastened pair of sailors then decided to push on to Deshaires at the northern end of Guadeloupe and stop there for the night. This was bad decision number two. We arrived at Deshaires just as it was getting dark and found the anchorage packed. I eventually located a spot which was sort of ok and we dropped anchor again. This time we motored in reverse and did everything right before settling down, by which time it was full dark. Sitting on the aft deck unwinding and listening to the wind whistling in the rigging it soon became apparent that we were again drifting backwards, this time straight towards the bow of a very shiny 70ft sailboat behind us. The anchor would have the come up again. This time once the anchor broke free from the bottom the windlass tripped out. I reset it and we continued to slowly crank the anchor in which the windlass was making very hard work of. I was thinking, bugger we have hooked someone’s chain which in this wind, in a crowded anchorage and now in full darkness is going to be a nightmare. But no, eventually the anchor showed itself with a very large rock wedged in its jaws which was why we were again dragging as it couldn’t dig in. With a bit of dragging backwards through the water we finally managed to get the rock to fall out and began looking for a new place to drop the anchor. As I said it was pitch black now and half of the boats had no lights on meaning the only safe place to try was at the back of the anchorage. We found a spot in 20 meters depth and let everything out (70 meters of chain) but it was no good the anchor didn’t even try to hold. In nautical parlance, we were buggered.

After a conflab in the cockpit we decided to bite the bullet and head for Antigua overnight. Not the worst decision on the face of it but it was a nasty crossing. The wind was very forward of the beam and gusting from 15 to 25 knots regularly which caused the seas to be very confused. We motor sailed in order to keep the heading good for Carlisle Bay but the decks were continuously being swept from end to end by the waves as the bows dug in to the very short chop. Add to that at least 7 squalls gusting up to 35 knots hitting us on the 9-hour crossing all summed up to make it was not a nice experience at all. But survive it we did; at 04:50 in the morning we passed Goats head reef, entered Carlisle Bay, and dropped our anchor, which held first time. Both of us had no sleep and were a bit battered and bruised, I had been thrown completely across the cockpit on two occasions coming up abruptly against the winches on the other side and they have sharp edges. Norma had her own collection of bruises and poor old Spectra looked like a bomb had been exploded in a laundry basket below.

I slept for the grand total of two hours before the wind woke me again. It was blowing 30 knots and Spectra was pulling on her chain. I let another 15 meters of chain out and the wind died at the same time allowing things to become more civilized above decks. Looking around I couldn’t leave the boat in that state and spent an hour tidying things up before going back to bed again for a few more hours sleep.

Later that day we came up with a cunning plan. We were booked into Jolly harbour, which was only 8 miles around the corner, for the following day and not really fancying another night at anchor we decided to plan our arrival for when the customs office would be closed and use their nice solid quay for a good night’s sleep. The plan nearly went awry as we arrived too early and there was a customs officer standing on the quay as we came around the corner. Luckily for us as soon as he saw that we were intending to moor up and obviously not keen on the thought of any overtime he shot round the back of the building and disappeared home just as fast as his car would take him. 

We parked up, had long showers and a beer before bed and what a good night’s sleep that was.

Norma is ashore now clearing customs and I have been on the radio to Jolly harbour. All is set and we should be on our berth for 10:00. A meal out tonight me thinks because we jolly well deserve it.