I woke up a couple of times during the night, as the boat turned around in the light winds. Sometimes I’d get wave slap for a couple of minutes, then it would go silent. Overall it is all quiet in Deshaies today.
Morning
The only sounds I’ve heard today are the church bells ashore ringing at 6 and 7 and the occasional boat departing the anchorage. I’m rolling around a bit at anchor, and I think that the winds are going to set in again soon; but hopefully nothing approaching the angry gusts of yesterday.
It is 10:30 and I turned on the instruments to measure steady 25-30 knots of wind in the anchorage. It feels about the same as yesterday, with the wind whipping water from the surface. I am going to wait before going ashore, since going upwind in the dinghy in these conditions is no fun at all.
At around 11:00 I thought about taking a look around and was more than a bit surprised to see a sailing dinghy with fluttering jib drift along. 2 people in the water and 2 aboard. But they got snagged and tethered by an anchored boat, so I thought all was good. But the skiff kept on capsizing. And the anchored boat dragged and had to untangle itself. There were still people in the water. I got into the dinghy to at least rescue the swimmers while a dive boat was working on the skiff. I’d started the engine when first one, then another dinghy came by. We looked at the situation and the swimmer were now out of the water; we realized we couldn’t do anything to assist as even the big dive boat couldn’t pull the skiff closer.
The quiet in Deshaies this morning is no more.
Noon
The winds are still up, but have settled down a bit and I’m optimistic about going ashore later without getting soaked in the process. There are now occasional lulls in the wind, promising yet ultimately disappointing as the wind picks up again.
Evening
I went ashore at 18:00 to see about getting a happy hour libation and dinner. But as it is Sunday I was doomed to failure, most of the places were shut down tight.
I found Le Madras on the beach and had a local Corsaire or two before their kitchen opened at 19:00. This was very nice, and is also one of the filming locations for Death in Paradise.
When dinner time rolled around I decided that I wasn’t in the mood for anything on their menu and chose to return aboard for a light dinner.