Devil’s Island is part of a group of three Islands called the Iles du Salut. It consists of Ile du Diable (Devils Island), Ile Saint Joseph and Ile Royale. It lies just (six miles) off the coast of French Guyana, opposite the town of Kourou, where they launch all the European Space Rockets. As a matter of fact you can see the installation tower with the naked eye, when you have the sun behind you. In the grey and dim past, France assigned the main land over here as a prison centre. I understand that the more severe cases were sent to the islands, from where it was difficult to escape due to the strong currents and the sharks. The current can indeed be very strong; we had nearly 4 knots against us, when we approached. The islands are located on the edge of the continental shelf of South America and the area is extremely shallow. Deep water is 30 feet, so that gives an idea. The cruise ships call at Isle Royale, as the South side of the island is the only place where there is enough shelter from the Ocean swell and the NE or SE winds that normally blow here. This means that in order to get there you have to keep the islands first on the portside and then sail around the south point of Saint Joseph to get to the leeward anchorage under Ile Royale. The average depth close to the island is about 9 to 10 meters, with not much room to deviate.

Iles-salut

Our call was to start at noon time, so I arrived at the pilot station at 11.00 hrs. where a friendly local pilot boarded who was very interested in drinking coffee, having his receipt filled out and who fully agreed with the location where I was going to anchor. (Same as last time, same as where everybody HAS to anchor) With slow speed we progressed to the anchorage. Slow speed, to avoid squat, but also slow speed to make a nice and easy turn around the islands towards the anchorage. As explained before, Squat is the digging in of the ship which increases the draft, when going to higher speeds. Most of the areas around the islands have not been surveyed and thus the only reliable soundings are close to the islands themselves. While making the approach, the strong current, running over the flats, will set the ship towards the rocky islands and that makes the approach here, one that needs careful attention.

lesdusalut The port /landing area on Ile Royale, in the lee of the islands.

By 11.30 we were safely at anchor, with 1.5 meters of water under the keel and a slowly rolling ship, as the swell came around the Isle de Royale from the North West. That made that both tender and ship move up and down on the waves and the guests had to pay close attention to getting on and off the tenders. We were lucky with the weather as it was only partly sunny and with one strong downpour at 12.30. The guests visit the ruins of the prisons on Ile Royale, as Devils Island itself cannot easily be reached. The main prison compound is located on Ile Royale, thus there is more to see anyway. As there are now more than 50,000 people a year visiting, a nice tender dock has been built, which makes our life much easier. Most visitors come by cruise ship, the rest by day ferry from the mainland.

This is only a half day call as that gives enough time to see what there is to see.
I was eager to get under way as the strong current that I noticed on arrival is coming from the South East and that is the way I have to go. Also tomorrow around non time, I will have to go over the Amazon Bar and even with high water; I will have to slow down to avoid squat and the subsequent shaking of the ship. So I need my time.

Going out, was the same routine as going in, only this time we changed course to the East as soon as we were clear of the “unsurveyed” area’s. We did this by sailing through an “incompletely surveyed area” which means that a surveying vessel only did a few runs through the area and did not criss-cross the area completely. So I sailed out over a line of soundings that connected the islands with the open Ocean. The logic behind it being: if the survey vessel did not run aground and indicated sufficient water, then the Prinsendam would not do either.

Tomorrow we will start our expedition up the Amazon by crossing the bar just after lunch time. All the guests will be enlightened then by my announcement of creepy crawlies. The weather hot, humid and a chance of a downpour.