Enough of Grand Case for the moment, despite a smaller swell and lighter winds the anchorage has remained pretty rolly and I wouldn’t mind one night of dead calm for sleep. I’m going to try Île Tintamarre for an afternoon stop and see how the swell is there, if that doesn’t work out I’ll head back to Marigot or perhaps continue on to Île Fourchue and from there to St. Barths.
The sail up to Tintamarre was a tough one with some big Atlantic waves to fight against. I had heavy reefs in the sails and spent the trip listening to a MAYDAY report in the local area where a small sailboat had lost their rudder (or perhaps had rudder problems, that wasn’t clear) with 2 people aboard. The wife called in Mayday although they weren’t in immediate danger, but without control they were drifting from around Île Fourchue towards the rocky coastline of St. Martin and the situation had the potential of becoming life-threatening. The rescue boat from St. Barths was almost on site when I arrived at Tintamarre and turned off the radio so I don’t know if the boat was saved or just the crew.
I’m writing this at Île Tintamarre while the boat is rocking very heavily in the swell – but for some reason I get a powerful internet signal on this deserted island and am taking advantage of that to catch up on things. Anchored behind me is the impressive Stad Amsterdam but even that tall ship is rocking heavily in the swell.
After a quick downwind sail I’m back in Grand Case and hoping that the swell will settle down, on the internet I saw that today was the big swell with over 3.1 m from the North – which explains the terrible visibility in the water and the rocking and rolling at anchor.
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