Marie Galante, and the unbelievable story of our dinghy (February 25-27)

We had opted to visit Marie Galante (named after Cristobal Colon’s ship Santa Maria la Galante) as Wind4Life and Talitha where already there, also allowing for an easier downwind sail to Les Saintes and the West coast of Basse Terre thereafter. The 15 nm sail was a bit dull, with moderate and variable winds never giving a clear indication of when to make the right port tack

towards Baie de St. Louis. Nevermind, we were quite happy to be sailing again, with friends onboard and on our way to meet our sailing mates on Wind4Life and Talitha.

Marie Galante was inhabited by Caribs at the time Colon showed up, and it was not until almost 2 centuries later that the French managed to expel them (with the survivors escaping to Dominica). The population started to grow thereafter, as usual to develop sugar plantations (with 9 out of 10 inhabitants being slaves), and with that it also attracted new invaders, in the person of English and Dutch, until the Island became definitively part of France in 1815. Today the island is one of the few to be subsisting mostly on its production of sugar, and is also known for yielding some of the world’s best rum. It is a very quiet place, with only 13,000 inhabitants, and that feeling of quietness is apparent from the very moment you land.

The anchorage at Baie de St. Louis is easy, with no dangers on approach and plenty of space, and actually very few fishing pots to speak of. A night attempt may have been more successful than at Les Saintes.

Speaking of landings, what a landing! As we were approaching the dock with our new “machine” (we had inflated our new dinghy and inaugurated the new engine the prior morning) a familiar shape started to appear at the horizon….black Mercury engine, similarly sized …..black rubber band on the transom…I yelled “look, our dinghy!” but I was promptly dismissed with a “yeah sure (“si si” in Italian) ”. Seconds later it was obvious that it was not the morning rum (joking), our dinghy was indeed staring at our faces. Can you believe it?

A somewhat frantic moment followed, as we were trying to assess the situation. Friends and family had booked cars to tour the Island, and I decided to pass and wait for whomever would come back to the dinghy dock. Someone had obviously rescued it at sea and, rightly so, was using it. A guy however mentioned that the dinghy had been there for a couple of days, implying that a gentle soul had secured it to the dock anticipating the original owner would find it…..

Anyway, after asking anyone around whether this was “their dinghy”, I found a spot with a good view on the docks. Sitting and waiting was a great way to taste (a very small corner of) Marie Galante and to meet a couple from Belgium that, as it now happens, I will be sailing with in August. Always interesting how you get to meet nice people.

Time was passing, and after 5 hours under the sun (not really, under palm trees with a beer or two and very nice company) no one got close to the dinghy. In the meantime, the bar discussions dwelled on whether the dinghy still pertained to me or rather to the rescuer, with different views on maritime law, etc. I was not keen to get into that kind of argument and went to get the large cable cutter I had onboard Keraban. It went through the security cable like butter, in front of the folk on the dock watching as I was apparently stealing a dinghy in daylight, not far from the police station. I said “look, if I open the engine lid there is fresh paint here and rust dots there”, and that was enough proof of ownership. I towed the dinghy back, realizing we now had to make space for two sets of tender-outboard-rows-gasoline tanks and went back to the dock to resume the guard. A couple of hours later, at about 5pm I noticed a family, father, 2 kids, grandpa and grandma looking quite desperate. I did not know what to expect, but not this. After the initial shock, but always very kindly, they told me they had stumbled on the dinghy close to Dominica, my guess is about 10nm south of the area it parted company. I explained the situation and gave enough details to comfort them that this was indeed the tender to Keraban. I thanked them and asked whether compensation would be fine, and of course I would be very pleased to give them a ride to their boat and a replacement lock. We even had a nice chat onboard, they happen to be a family leaving in Guadeloupe and enjoying sailing over weekends….gentlemen sailors are out there then.

For obvious reasons I can’t tell much about Marie Galante, but I will convince Isa to get back to work on the keyboard soon.