Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Grande Vallee

This time we created quite a stir.

The wind finally calmed down last evening and was predicted to remain that way until about noon today, so we decided to leave at the crack of dawn to arrive at Grande Vallee (about 55nm) before the wind kicked up again.  And what a plan it was.  Ke'Ola Kai was the first out at about 5:30, followed shortly by Adirondack.  We lagged a bit, but not by more than 20 minutes or so.  It was a gorgeous morning with a nice breeze and calm seas. 

Typical Coastal Town
We have a slightly faster cruise speed and overtook the other boats after about an hour and were first to arrive at Grande Vallee which is just a cove with a spit of a breakwater, but reported to have excellent anchor holding.  Just as predicted, the wind kicked up for the last 30 minutes of our ride and things were really going when we pulled into the cove.  We dropped anchor close to one shore, but once we had enough chain out to hold in the wind, we were almost on top of an old wreck that's in the middle of the cove and just a foot or two down at low water.  So up came the anchor and we were about to continue on for another 40nm when we got a call on the radio from someone at the little dock by the breakwater.  They were moving a boat and said we should come in.  Wow, what hospitality.  From a distance the docks looked way too small for us, but as we got closer it was clear we could squeeze in OK, so we did.  What a relief to not have to head back out again for another 40nm.

As soon as we were tied up I started looking around to see where Adirondack and Ke'Ola Kai could tie up.  There was one small spit of dock left, then the long concrete wall that the bigger fishing boats use.  The guy on the dock said the other boats were too big for the remaining dock, but that they could tie to the wall, and no sooner did he say that, I looked up and there was Adirondack.  The wall isn't the most convenient place to tie, and makes for difficult getting on and off the boat, but the weather had really kicked up by now and they were thankful for a safe harbor just as we were.  Shortly after Ke'Ola Kai pulled in and we got them tied up too.  Ahh, a great sigh of relief by everyone.

So what was the stir all about, you might ask?  Well, you would think we were Martians who had just landed in the cove.  The parade of cars coming out to check things out has been non-stop all day.  But talking with the harbormaster it became clear why.  They just put these docks in this year in hopes of drawing transient traffic.  Mission accomplished!  Last year they had three boats come in - over the whole year!  And here we were, three boats in one day - actually in one hour.  It was quite the happening in town.

At the moment the predictions for tomorrow are for continued high winds so it looks like we will be here for the day.

2 comments:

  1. Can you post pictures or a link to Adirondack and Ke'Ola Kai? I'm curious to see what the other boats look like.

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  2. How fun was that? You were just like movie stahs! ;)

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