St. Lucia, Martinique and Dominica

Today is Wednesday February 29th. My wrist watch doesn’t even do the 29th of February, proof that we are in a time warp. I do know we are in Prince Rupert Bay Dominica. Jim and Sharon R. just arrived for their visit on Heron. (Together with Emily, Pete and Jay, we are now five strong.)  Their adventure began yesterday, when their flight from Boston-San Juan-Antigua was cancelled to Dominica (Doh-mi-NEE-kuh). Even though they have just extended the runway here on Dominica (an understandable source of national pride), they cancel night landings when the winds are too strong –which they were. But the early morning flight came in on time despite heavy squalls, mountains downwind, ocean upwind. And here they are, safe and sound in Jurassic Park.

We arrived with a deep sigh on Monday after one of the most spectacular sails I can recall, coming 67nm North from Anse Mitan Martinique, near Fort De France, crossing the Dominica Channel. We spent Sunday night there after a short 24nm sail along the West coast of Martinique from Le Marin. We had spent two nights –Friday and Saturday, in an incredible marina there, after a hardy 25nm crossing of the very boisterous Martinique Channel from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. We had spent Thursday night in Rodney Bay after a long 74nm passage that crossed both Bequia and St. Vincent Channels. Blah blah blah. Just look at the track from the SPOT tracker that is visible on the link on the right-hand side of this web page. Hell, you can see which slip we were in, if our anchor was down is sand or grass, and every other detail visible when you zoom in on the satellite image. Amazing.

We are still in the strong wind pattern mentioned in the earlier post, so have adjusted to sailing in the strong tradewind –very different from what I know from home. Using the last hop as an example, we depart early with a single reef and #4 (85% FT) jib, gliding at 9+ knots in flat seas in the lee of Martinique. Sweeet. We are always fighting a current of around 1 knot that is usually on the nose when we are running North along the islands, then on the beam setting us to leeward when we are sailing across the open channels. But we know what is coming. As we approach the northern end of the island, in goes the second reef, up rolls half the jib, hatches closed, vests and tethers clipped on.  We’re goin’ in. The seas start to roll to the 7 to 11 ft, as forecast, frosted white in the increasing wind. Squirly and gusty, it’s always interesting near the ends of the islands. As we separated from Martinique, a blast at 41 knots apparent took the windex off of the top of the mast. Ohhh Kaay. But with a double reef and tiny jib, the boat just cranks down the line of waves with no stress, nice motion. It’s really fun to be sailing a 53 footer like a dinghy in big seas, threading our path around the nasty bumps, heating it up down the long swell at speeds in the 10’s and 11’s. But that’s too fast for the 3 hour channel crossing, so we push the power winch button and furl in more jib and slow down to 8’s and 9’s. Then the wind drops to 18 knots just to frustrate us.  That's when we start the "five minute rule".  "Be patient; it's coming." as Pete says.  A glassy patch off the bow moves to our starboard side and a 24 foot smooth gray shape surfaces –a whale with a squarish head –a baby version of a bigger one that must be around here somewhere. Awesome. When we finally pass into the lee of Scotts Head, Dominica the seas get huge then later go flat. Jib out, hatches open. Dozens of dolphins swim in lines, some going airborne, seeming to leap with glee. Wicked awesome.  We are greeted by "Andrew", who was to be our boat escort for the next few days, and taken to a mooring near the Purple Turtle restaurant.  We are there so Emily can have good wifi --a necessity for 16-yr-olds to survive.  We purchase a bunch of locally grown bananas from another 'boat boy" and call it a day.

We’ve got wifi again, so more posts and some pics to follow. Right now we’re off on a boat tour of the Indian River with Andrew.