SCENES FROM DESHAIES

Written by Katie Bloxham, SV Persephone

Coming in after a long day bashing into winds on the nose and building seas, Deshaies feels welcoming and calm.  We totally nail picking up a mooring.  Nobody notices.  Someone comes in and takes four attempts to anchor.  Everybody notices.  

The church bells ring at 6am to welcome you to the day.  They ring on the hour and the half hour.  Why not on the quarters?  They don’t ring at night but we’re never awake late enough to figure out when they stop.

Gusts of wind come sweeping down suddenly from the hills.  The mooring lines creak for reasons we can’t figure out.  The sail covers flap energetically.  Ten minutes later it’s calm again.

Rain hangs in the valleys above the harbor.  We make bets with ourselves - will this one get us or will we stay dry?  A squall hits the middle of the night.  We get up to close the hatches.  Later we’re hot and get up to open them again.  It rains some more so we get up again.  Rinse.  Repeat

An old Open 50 racing boat arrives with a young couple on board.  They launch a tiny dinghy and he rows them ashore.  We never see her again.  Next morning he rows ashore furiously fast, with a cigarette clenched firmly between his teeth.  We speculate what the story there is.

A hen and her chicks peck along the beach by Le Paradise restaurant.  What are they finding in the sand?  A very large dog chases a rooster along the beach.  No one seems to care, except perhaps the rooster.

The Doyle Guide recommends the hike up the Deshaies River.  I decide to try it.  The scenery is stunning but the trail (such as it is) is very wet.  That rain hanging in the valleys?  It means business.  I return two hours later with mud up to my thighs.

I visit Le Pelican to buy trinkets and to rent a car.  I’m proud of myself that I manage to do this in French, although I’m quite relieved when we return to pick it up and there’s an actual car there.

We walk up to the Botanic Gardens to look around.  We wonder:  Is Jerk the parrot named for the spice?  Or for his behavior?

Swim early morning laps around the boat.  Reward myself with a pain au chocolat.

One morning two cruise ships are in, and the town is packed.  There are long lines outside the boulangerie, and the Honoré police station plays the Death in Paradise theme music over and over and over again.  The next day there are no cruise ships and life returns to a sleepy pace.

Some local divers seem to have trained a dolphin to show off for nearby boats.  Soon it’s surrounded by dinghies and kayaks.  We wonder if this is a good thing or not?

A large turtle seems to live near our mooring.  It surfaces so close, you can hear it breath.  We’re glad to see the sea grass seems to be doing so well.

We lose track of time.  Life is good.

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