Rainy Vacation....

Mike arrived for a weeks vacation last Tuesday...it has now rained 5 out of the last 7 days.  Not the usual tropical showers...but day long monsoon rains dumping 3 to 5 inches of rain per day.  We are saturated.

So on Monday, we decided to sail south to show Michael St. Lucia's impressive Piton Mountains.  All of the moorings were reserved (new thing) except for one in the southern corner of the bay directly under the larger of the two Pitons. The location was dramatic as we were under the mountain; only 100 feet from the rocky base.  We were enjoying watching a video when the wind shifted to the Southwest and the ocean swell shifted from the west simultaneously.  An ocean surge started pounding into the bay....the sea floor raises from several thousand feet to only 50 feet in a mere 100 yards.  The result was a dangerous surf  re-bounding off the side of the Piton wildly rocking Persephone from side to side. Suddenly, our situation became perilous !!

Rainy approach to the Pitons......

  Despite being 11 pm and driving rain, there was only one seaman like decision to be made....immediately escape the 'deathtrap' to the safety of the sea.  Quickly we bailed out the flooded dinghy (full of rain water, as it was pouring that hard...being in the dinghy was like riding a bucking bronco; without the clowns to get you out !), readied the boat, reviewed our escape plans to safety and quickly dropped the mooring lines.  There could be zero error...as we were only 100 feet from the pounding surf against the base of the mountain.  THE PLAN was executed perfectly and Persephone motored away from danger.  It is counter intuitive to drop a mooring line and motor out to sea, in the black of night,  with driving rain studded with cracks of lightning.  But boats like water... not rocks.   Persephone was MUCH safer at sea than trapped against a lee shore.

We motored back to Marigot Bay and arrived just before 2 AM where we picked up a mooring, had a beer and had a comfortable, safe nights sleep.

Lesson Learned:  Last summer there was a debate among serveral  sailing friends about whether radar was a worthwile expense in the Caribbean.  Many 'seasoned' sailors said I was foolish to spend the money replacing our radar as it was an unnecessary, needless expense which used to much power.   Despite their 'sage advise', I bit the bullet and installed a new digital radar system when  upgrading the navigational equipment.  Was this the right decision !!  Without radar, our escape from Monday's deathtrap would have been much more difficult, and entering narrow Marigot Bay  in the black of night would have been as dangerous as staying on the Piton mooring.  (The light on the outter marker at Marigot had nearly failed;  blinking only sporatically).   Simply, radar saved our butt, making a very difficult situation managable by increasing our situational awareness.  Thank God I listened to my gut and kept radar as an essential part of our navigational instruments. 

RADAR ROCKS (and keeps you off them too) !!

THE CREW