After
eight days at sea we arrived at daybreak off the town of Kourou and
we headed for the start of the long and shallow channel which leads
into the river and our planned anchorage . In the dark hours earlier
l had spotted the light on Devil's Island and now in the early
morning we could see the three islands which once housed thousands of
convicted prisoners .
At
the time when l was busy putting my passage plan together for this
trip l had read a number of blogs which warned of powerful currents
that sweep westward along the French Guiana coast so now we had over
two knots forward of our beam which meant we were pointing our bow at an
angle into the current to maintain our course down the channel
commonly referred to as “ ferry gliding “ . On the way in we
met the dredger Delta Queen plumb in the middle of the channel which
as we later found out this specialist vessel blows the fine silt off
the bottom on the ebb tide which allows the outgoing current to
deposit it offshore . To maintain the entrance channels into Kourou
and Cayenne respectively costs 6 million euros per annum .
My
bullet-proof Spade anchor which has never let me down struggled to
set in the soupy conditions that exist on the bottom of the river .
The entire time that we spent in Kourou , l was always very relieved
after returning from town to see Windward still safely anchored in
the same spot because apart from the very poor holding on the bottom
we also had to contend with very strong outgoing currents and to make
matters worse our visit coincided with spring tides . We were
basically the only yacht on anchor in the river with all the other
boats firmly attached to either the town dock or the marina dock
which are both extremely over-engineered to cope with the strong
tides . A few tourist catamarans are tied to huge mooring buoys in
the river but out of the main flow . A nasty anchorage .
After
visiting French Guiana with its close proximity to the equator l came
to the conclusion that one day when l finally hang up my sea boots l
definitely will not live in the tropics . The heat and humidity is
stifling and the continuous rain squalls that come and go day and
night made life onboard pretty uncomfortable as we had to keep the
hatches and portlights closed to avoid the boat's interior getting
soaked .
During
the day you can see the squalls approaching but on a calm night you
hear them coming , a solid wall of water sweeping inland from
offshore .
The
one thing everyone carries on them in Kourou is an umbrella . One
minute it is being used to keep yourself dry during a downpour and
the next minute it is protecting you from the blazing sun . My mate
Philippe and l got quite used to walking around in the pouring rain
minus umbrellas , in fact l welcomed the rain just to cool off . The
design of the houses and buildings in town explains it all . Their
roofs have wide overhangs preventing the rain from coming through the
permanently open windows .
Getting
back to the town of Kourou , it would appear that the main economic
driver is the very sophisticated Ariane Space Centre which just as a
matter of interest has 17 launches planned for 2016 .
They
claim that it is the world's best launch site in that with it's close
proximity to the equator it provides an extra shot of energy due to
the rotation of the earth providing a slingshot effect . The extra
energy means that launchers can boost larger satellites at lower cost
while extending the orbital life of these satellites . The other
feature about this location is that there are no hurricanes and
earthquakes to deal with although our much anticipated launch (
bucket list item ) was cancelled I hour before blast off due to heavy
lightning .
It
is an amazing facility offering three different rockets namely the
Ariane , Soyuz and the smallest being the Vega each with their own
launch sites and facilities . Each has a specific payload capacity
starting with the Ariane ( 10,000kg ), Soyuz ( 5000kg ) and the Vega
(1500kg ).
We
found Kourou very expensive which was later confirmed when we were
told that the cost of living in the town is 50% higher than in Paris
. But with the Space Station being French , all the delicacies are
available . At the fruit and veg market we came across the strangest
looking fruits but after tasting each one they were totally unique in
their flavour .
Our
departure from Kourou came a bit early , a few hours before we had planned to leave
. At around two in the morning l suddenly woke up with a slight sound
on our hull and after rushing out into the cockpit we discovered that
we were dragging anchor and the sound was a submerged tree touching
the underside of our boat . We fired up our engine and hauled anchor
only to find that my trusty Spade anchor had impaled a baby's pram ,
fouled a coil of cable and to top it all , a large length of steel
had entwined itself in our chain . While l kept the boat in deep
water Philippe removed the debris and that's when we decided , enough
is enough , even though it was dark and raining we would follow our
track that we had laid when we arrived and leave as against trying to
reset the anchor for a couple more hours of sleep .
Once
we were out in the channel we discovered that the lights on half of
the channel marker buoys don't work so obviously the rocket ship that
transports rocket components into Kourou does this passage in
daylight hours .
We
punched our way in the dark through the short steep chop until we
reached deeper water and set a course for Trinidad in the Caribbean .
