1.2 tonnes cocaine bust
The two yachts that were carrying 1.2 tonnes of cocaine between them are shown in the pics. They were shadowed chased and eventually forced to stop and boarded by the French douane when we were in Grand Anse d'Arlet watching all the activity.
It looks like they had some kind of tip off or info on the suspect yachts and were checking out anchorages and yachts at sea. However there does seem to be a heightened level of customs activity in French waters as we see more movements and more interceptions of vessels although not much is coming up on local nets.
One thing that is coming up on local nets esp. the St Maarten one is the triumphal arrival of Laura Dekker after her round the world cruise in Guppy. Kudos to her.
I have bemoaned the state of the anchorage here in Portsmouth Dominica on previous visits. The unsightly spectacle of rusting steel hulks lining the seafront and parts of the bay. I mentioned before that there seemed to be some small scale activity to clean up at least one of the smaller wrecks but I was wrong, there is a major project underway to cut up and cart away all the wrecks. They are working hard on this one and the plasma cutters are sputtering away turning once proud ships into manageable chunks of scrap metal.
Picking a day with no cruise ships in the bay we went over to the point and explored Fort Shirley as well as doing some exploring on the old cobbled roads laid by slave labor in the 1700s and 1800s.
But the most atmospheric of the locations is the Douglas battery overlooking the sound to the North that separates Dominica from the Saintes.
If it dawns fair tomorrow we will be off to the Saintes, a short 18 mile sail.
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