I awoke far too early for a Saturday morning; but I’d gotten enough sleep. It was windstill in the anchorage when I woke up, but soon it would turn gusty in Deshaies.
Morning
I spent two coffees worth of time working on the new responsive header and footer for this site. I really have little talent for layout, and was frustrated by undocumented restrictions and bugs in the WordPress software from Elementor.
The winds started early and got stronger as the morning progressed.
Noon
By noon there was some significant gusting up to 30 knots. I felt like Zanshin was hunting at anchor like a fish on a hook. But my 200 feet of chain in 50 feet of water seemed to be holding up quite well.
After a particularly violent jerk on the chain I went topsides and noticed a sailboat anchored surprisingly far offshore. It really is getting gusty in Deshaies! Seconds later I realized it was drifting at anchor. My binoculars showed that there was a dinghy and a paddleboard attached aft, so I thought it was likely that someone was aboard.
After consulting with Mark on the internet (I asked him if one would notice drifting while belowdecks), I called on the VHF and asked if anyone would be willing to help retrieve this errant boat. I was met with silence. Several minutes later 2 different boats called out a warning about a drifting boat. But when I hailed them, seconds after their announcements, they remained silent and didn’t respond. Despite it being gusty in Deshaies and boats going walkabout, people preferred to be spectators.
By now the boat was too far away from the anchorage and the winds were too strong for me to be willing to risk a singlehanded approach. As I was composing my next VHF message, I saw that something was moving aboard; it turns out that someone was aboard after all and they were raising the anchor.
Gusty winds
Some particularly powerful blasts hit the anchorage. The Australian boat ahead of me dragged at anchor, bearing down on poor Zanshin at speed. There were people aboard, but they didn’t react until I started shouting and waving. The got their engine started just as I motored away from them (still anchored) and they drifted past my port side with just feet to spare.
When my pulse had settled again I turned off the engine. I debated opening a celebratory beer despite it being only around 13:00 when I heard another VHF announcement about yet another drifting boat. Once again nobody responded when I asked if anyone could help me retrieve that boat. This one had no dinghy and was drifting at speed; the anchor was certainly no longer dragging, but free-standing.
After about 10 minutes there was a call on the VHF asking if anyone would help rescue this boat. I responded and soon Peter and Tom came by to pick me up. This time I remembered to bring my camera along so that I’d have some evidence of our actions.
Adrift at Sea
This boat was quite a distance from the anchorage by the time we reached it. The 3 of us got on board, and the engine had no power, the main hatch was locked and all the hatches were closed and locked. We couldn’t let out more chain, as every link had been let out.
I saw that the hatch mechanism wasn’t particularly secure, and we found a screwdriver which I used to unscrew 2 screws that held the wooden locking dowel in place. I was inside within 30 seconds of finding the screwdriver 🙂
We found the main breaker and got the engine started, then had to find the windlass breaker, too. But soon we had the pitifully short anchor scope up and I was motoring back to the anchorage.
We tried anchoring in 6m of water, but the anchor wouldn’t hold. So we snagged a mooring ball that looked substantial. The winds were gusting very strongly while we were doing this, so much so that despite full rudder and throttle I couldn’t hold a heading.
And of course the minute we’d snagged the mooring ball the winds died to almost nothing. Thanks to help from Rob Roy III and the three of us we got the boat secured.
I had put some Presidente Beer in the freezer to cool down, and upon return to Zanshin we congratulated ourselves on our good Samaritan actions with 2 extremely cold, and tasty, beers. Then my supplies were exhausted and Tom and Peter departed.
Evening
I wasn’t sure about what to do for dinner, but I wanted to get off Zanshin. After a shower and a shave I headed over to the cliffs on the northern side of the anchorage to get some pictures. I ended up at Tom and Carol’s boat and went aboard for a beer and a chat. I didn’t leave until about 21:00 and returned home to finish off my cheese and bread for a late dinner.