We never in our wildest dreams thought we
would sail to Haiti, as the country, unfortunately, has a bad reputation
amongst the sailing community due to various incidents that have been reported
in the past.
As mentioned in our previous blog, we
were told about Ile A Vache, which is a small island off the southern coast of
Haiti. For sailing information about various places in this region, we often
refer to Frank Virgintino’s free cruising guides and he mentions Ile A Vache,
Haiti. We thought that we would break our journey, as I was reluctant to spend
3 nights at sea, although I will be spending up to 4 nights when we sail to
Guatemala from Cuba. ☹
When you approach Ile A Vache, you see
large white sails dotted all along the coast line. These are fishermen on their
boats called ‘Bois-Fouilles’ – native sailing boats. The sails are
disproportionally large to the rest of the boat, with some of the occupants/crew,
standing on a board to balance the rest of the boat. We were also mindful of
fishermen in dug out canoes fishing far out in the beautiful aqua water around Ile
A Vache.
The main bay in Ile A Vache is called the
Bay of Feret (Baie de Feret), with the main anchorage known as Port Morgan, after the
pirate Henry Morgan. The entrance is large, however, as you make your way into
the anchorage area, you are met with small dug out canoes scurrying like crazy
to be the first to reach your boat. These are the boat boys eager to make a
quick deal with you!
We were met by four young gentlemen who hitched a ride along the side of
the boat while we were trying to find a suitable place to anchor. It was quite
disconcerting as Mel was trying to give me instructions where to steer the boat,
plus chat to the boats boys who were quite relentless. We eventually anchored
and took down the names of the four young teenage boys, saying come tomorrow,
Monday and we will discuss what they could do for us – we had been told by Bill
and Lisanne that Ile A Vache was a great place to have all the stainless
polished on the boat, plus have the deck polished. Mel was keen as he had been
doing bits and pieces for quite a while – it’s a never-ending job as the salt
water is harsh.
Grete and Fred – Sans Peur had arrived in Ile A Vache about an hour or
two before us and they had contacted the other boat that was anchored there in
Port Morgan as it had a Swedish flag as well – the boats name was Solea and Roger,
a lone sailor, was on board. He was a wealth of information as he had been
anchored in Port Morgan for over 5 weeks.
The island is very basic and primitive by our western standards – no
cars just the odd motor bike, no roads just tracks, people on horse back or
donkeys, many walking miles to get basic supplies. Most houses did not have
electricity BUT……. many had a small solar panel which was used to charge their
mobile phones!
For the rest of the day, we were inundated with visitors offering to do
some work for us on the boat. It became quite tiring especially as we were keen
to relax after our overnight sail.
Roger was eager to take us to the local market on the island which is
only on a Monday or a Thursday. We arranged with everyone that we would meet
them at the hotel dock at 10.30am after we had discussed with the four young
gentlemen what we wanted them to do on the boat.
Talk about being keen – we had said to the four boys, come to the boat
at 8.00am – well 7.00am they were already knocking on the side of the boat.
Their names were Bernard, Colbee, Clemens and Johnny. Clemens was the only one
that was still in school, so we arranged with him to come to the boat after
school and we would find something for him to do. He did the stainless steal
trimming around the edge of the boat which we always forget to do as we can’t
always see it from the cockpit unlike the rest of the stainless.
Mel gave them all instructions on what they should do – polish the
stainless and that we would be walking to the market. They would be paid once
we arrived back from the market.
The walk to the market was interesting – at least 5 – 6 kms, meandering
up and down the island, along the beaches, through some settlements, passing
schools and many homes. As we passed one of the schools, the children were
finishing school for the day and two little girls started walking home, which
was the same direction that we were going in. Many people were keen to chat to
find out where we were from and to let us know what services they could provide,
from laundry to music, hull cleaning and scrubbing. As we were walking to the
market, it was quite disconcerting to note the amount of litter along the beach
front – a third world issue created by the first world – plastic bottles,
polystyrene food containers. I am just going to leave it at that…….
The people in the market are very shy or reluctant to have their photo
taken. Roger said it was because of the variety of plants that are used by the
people for recreational reasons only, of course. They don’t want to be captured
smoking/partaking in anything illegal. Whatever!!!!
When we arrived back at the boat, we soon realised that something had
gone wrong by the look on the three boys faces, plus our new Rocna anchor was
up and our spare anchor was being used. Apparently, the boat had dragged while
the boys were cleaning, so they did what they thought was the best situation
and waited for us to return. We were shocked as this was our new anchor which
should never drag but there is a saying in the boating world, ‘It’s not a case
of ‘if’ you drag, but WHEN you are going to drag’. We were extremely grateful
to the three young gentlemen that we gave them each a bit extra for all their
troubles.
When the young gentlemen left, we re- anchored thinking that we should
be fine now but….. 4.00am the following morning our anchor watch alarm went
off! AND we were dragging once again!!! So once again we had to reset the
anchor. As soon as Mel could, he ‘dived the anchor’ to see what was going on –
the holding wasn’t good – just mud and soft weed, so he let out more scope
(more chain).
I was reluctant to get off the boat and was planning on staying on the
boat even though we had planned with one of the locals, Dedee, to have a
traditional Haitian meal prepared by his wife, that Tuesday evening.
Mel dived the anchor twice and decided that it was okay – not as good as
we had hoped but enough to make me feel that the boat would be alright and not drag
again.
Word got out that we were planning on leaving Ile A Vache for Jamaica on
Wednesday morning, so the three young gentlemen came to say “Bye” to us, before
we headed out to Dedee’s place for dinner.
We met Dedee at the dinghy dock and then walked to his house which was
about 1 -2 kms along the same path we had taken to the market. The whole family
treated us like royalty, opening their extremely humble home to us. The main
table was set, ready for us to partake in a traditional Haitian family meal of
fried fish, rice with black beans and a type of mango chutney/vegetable dish.
All very tasty.
Once back at the dinghy dock, Mel and I said our ‘Good byes’ to Grete
and Fred as they intended staying for a few more days in Ile A Vache before
going to Kingston, Jamaica.
Our plan was to leave early Wednesday morning for Port Antonio, Jamaica
which is in the NE corner of the Jamaican island.
Until then….. when I will write about our time in Jamaica – ‘Respec – Yea
Mon’, take care.
Mel and Caryn
sv Passages
If you want to see where we are, go to:
top right corner – search for Passages
with the Australian flag – that’s us!
