Things that go bump in the night

Our walk to Fort Napoleon was nice but incomplete as the fort was closed. Turns out it is only open in the mornings. Our intention was to go back this morning but now I’m not so sure. On our return we bumped into an Englishwoman who had spent the last two weeks up and down between Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe. Her feedback on Dominica has reduced our desire to stay too long there. That may be just her perspective and they have missed much in their need to move through quickly so we need
to get more feedback.

Getting back to the boat we found a huge trimaran had hooked up to a mooring near to us and the anchorage overall had turned into a but of a scrum. The trimaran crew gestured that they tended to swing a lot and we needed to move. We shortened the chain thinking this would be enough. We ate ashore at 7pm. The dinner was nice but not memorable and not really worth what we paid.

Back on Dignity we found we had come up alongside another boat that was originally 40 feet in front of us and well to the side. It looked like currents and winds were taking individual boats in different directions. We lengthened the chain a bit and put out fenders thinking it would be better to stabilize the situation than to move and reanchor in the dark. We were woken several times by boats around us lifting their anchors and shifting. Eventually we heard a bump as Dignity came alongside the original boat and managed a light contact. We rushed to deck and were greeted by an angry man who’d come out from shore in his dinghy demanding we move. We had already come to the same conclusion.

Helen had a good suggestion which was to head back to Pain de Sucre. We had our original track to follow on the GPS, it was less than a mile away and we were familiar with the lay of the bottom. This would be better than finding a spot outside of the Bourg or trying to anchor in over 50ft where it was clear.

We made 3 or 4 separate attempts to anchor as we were uncomfortable with where we were settling before finally being comfortable enough to fall and stay asleep for the night well after 1am.

Waking this morning I see we’re one of ten boats in this anchorage which is crowded compared to previously. Perhaps it’s a midweek thing as folks on one week charters find their way here during the middle of their trip. Who knows.

We’re both feeling pretty tired so I imagine today we won’t doing too much. We may move the boat nearer to town though so we can get access to the delicious fresh bread and hopefully the internet again.