The Opposite of Hallucinations

The Opposite of Hallucinations

Wed 7th - Friday 9th February 2024

The weather has been weird for the past several days with southerly winds predominating. Our mooring off main town of Bourg de Saintes has excellent protection from this direction, but we were also aware that a front was going to come through on Thursday, and the wind would strengthen and veer to the west then north, before finally diminishing and settling to north east. We thought long and hard, but decided that our current position was the best option available. 

On Thursday morning we took the Dainty Dog into the town dinghy dock and hiked over to the Pain de Sucre beach on the west side of the main island. This has one of the three designated mooring fields (with anchoring forbidden) and looks beautiful. However, it has no protection from the west or north, and the boats that remained on moorings were already bouncing around a lot. It did not look like a good place to be, with the sterns of the vessels close to breaking waves on the lee shore. We saw one boat (also called Cotinga !) Frantically trying to bail out their a little skiff before it became completely inundated. We might have explored the west of the island further, but we were a bit concerned that our dinghy might get damaged on the dock as it was also subject to winds and waves from the west, so we beat a hasty retreat.

Back on board Cotinga things were really starting to rock and roll. It seemed like the wind was all over the place, perhaps influenced by the hills to our east. In any event the boats nearby were lying in all sorts of directions. At one point we came close enough to a neighboring catamaran that we became concerned that our main mooring line may have broken. We set up an anchor-alarm (drift warning) and although our position moved as much as 200 feet, it stayed within a consistent radius. The water is 50 feet deep here so we assume that there is simply a long main mooring cable and that all the boats move significantly. As the wind picked the boats started to point in a more uniform direction and we became less concerned. However, the swells increased and so we took some Stugeron sea-sick medicines The rest of the day and night are a bit of a blur. 

We had chosen not to put the dinghy on the davits (too much strain under the bumpy conditions) and left it tied on to the side of the boat with a number of fenders to stop it bumping. It was tied securely, but not locked, so as the daylight faded I went outside to lock her up. The dinghy was gone! Actually it wasn’t … but I couldn’t see it and was convinced it had been stolen. I shouted to Gloria and she came up on deck. She could see that the line to the dinghy was still attached and when we pulled it, the Dainty Dog appeared from her hiding place near the bow of Cotinga. I blame my inability to see, what should have been obvious, on the sea-sick medicines. It was the opposite of a hallucination, not seeing what was there! It also illustrates my lack of ability to think clearly whilst under the influence of these drugs. In any event, once our heart rates had returned to normal, we locked up the dinghy and retreated inside.

A fine dinner of Ramen noodles with sautéed steak, with genuine British “chocolate digestive” cookies for dessert, was followed by an early night. After an hour or so in our bed in the v-berth, I gave up and moved into the main cabin. The winds by this point were from the north and topping 20 knots and, with little protection,  the boat was pitching and rolling dramatically. Gloria stayed where she was and, with little that we could to help the situation, we both slept as best we could. By morning things had returned to almost dead clam. We spoke to a couple of other boaters who said it was the worst night at anchor they had ever experienced. It certainly wan’t comfortable, but we didn’t feel in any danger. We’ve experienced worse, for sure!

Mike

Moored off Pain de Sucre Beach, "hobby-horsing" in the waves on a lee shore. We aren't sure why they have a skiff and an inflatable (hauled out on a halyard) but the man was bailing frantically. This is the only other baot we have ever seen that is also called Cotinga.

Another vessel moored off Pain de Sucre beach. This shot gives you a better sense of how open the anchorage is to the north and west, but doesn't capture how bumpy it was, even before the winds picked up.

The Bourg de Saintes mooring field, well protected to the east and south, but little protection from west through north

A foil boarder, Thursday afternoon off Isle de Cabrit, Isles des Saintes

It rained hard in the early evening. I took this shot on a tripod under the dodger as Cotinga swings around on the mooring (4 minute exposure). The lights are mostly from other vessels nearby.