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| Farewell to Dominica |
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| Martinique |
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| Fort de France |
It's short hops from here on as we make our way down island heading for Grenada. We decided to leave Prince Rupert and anchor for a night in Roseau, giving us a few miles head start the next morning for jumping off to Martinique. Big mistake. As we mentioned Dominica is steep, and that steepness is not just on shore. We make it to Roseau to find that the water is over 100 feet deep less than one hundred yards from shore, kinda hard to anchor. So we grab a mooring, compliments of Longsauce and Pancho, should we worry? Of course the "anchorage" such as it is, is also exposed to the ocean swell, so as we sit tied to our US$25 mooring rock-n-rollin' we wonder, what are we doing? We decide the best option is to kick off early, planning a midnight departure we get a reprieve as the swell falls off a bit, until 0400 that is. So we're off before first light, and into the gentle swell of the open ocean before 0500 with full sail and NO ENGINE, ah, nap time.
Making our way into Fort de France, Martinique we are anchor down and relaxed just in time to watch a nasty little squall blow through.
This is what a squall looks like from the water. Heavy rains and winds about 30-35k, basically a good opportunity to fill the water tanks and wash the decks, of course it is also a chance to test our anchoring skills, will it hold? In the first picture you can just make out a small sailboat on the right side (double click on the photo to enlarge). That boat is approximately 26' in length and is the home of Camu, a singlehanded sailor of unknown age from French Canada. He has become somewhat infamous along the islands as he has on several occasions been asked to move on. Of his many hobbies, he is currently tattooing himself, head to toe. Doing the ink work himself, just wanted to be clear on that. Below you can see that Ed has discovered the black and white setting on the new camera.
As we've arrived on a weekend things are fairly quite in this town. Just right for a nice stroll through town. The town has a European feel to it, in that the streets are narrow and the buildings old and close together, with some streets still sporting cobblestones. Well, we also had our first taste of Mc'D's in several months. Unfortunately we seem to have lost our immunity to fast foods as the cheeseburgers and fries do not sit well with us. Oh well, back to fresh fish and goat. Off to St. Anne.
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| St. Anne, Martinique |
For those sailing to Martinique, St. Anne makes a much nicer anchorage than the Fort de France area. For protection you can tuck up in the Cul-de-Sac du Marin either on anchor or a mooring, there is also a descent marin in Marin. However, for picturesque, the anchorage just off of the town of St. Anne is wonderful. We arrived as the weekend reggata, Combat des Cocques was kicking off, so we had front row seats to the racing. Well, once again it's time to fetz. Off to St Lucia, another staggering 30nm voyage.
While the trips are short they are in open ocean rather than coastal cruises, which gives us opportunities not usually found along the coastal waters. Dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun.......
Nope it's not Jaws, it seems we are being accompanied to St. Lucia by a pod of Sperm whales.
Yet another wonderrful sailing day, what the hell. Oops, we left on a Friday again, June 3. Well, perhaps the gods think we're dense, becasue they were kind to us and we covered the 28nm in 3.5 hrs, the entire way under sail. Anchor down in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia and guess what?... we have a WiFi signal on board, lets see what's happening in the world. Oh well, nothing new. Of course we do have the chance to stock up on fruits and veggies.
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| the fruit and veggie guy, Rodney Bay |
We had spent some time on St. Lucia several years ago and planned a brief stopover, so we checked in and out in one shot, however we did revisit the Pitons and the beautiful coast, not too mention some of the local music.
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| Anse Chastenet |
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| another bridge to no where |
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| Petite Piton |
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| Grande Piton |
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| another day....... |
Well, it's that time again, so we toss off the mooring lines in the shadow of Grande Piton and set a course for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a little bit longer hop this time of roughly 60nm, but the forecast is good.
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| what, you talkin' to me? |
This is what a squall looks like from the water. Heavy rains and winds about 30-35k, basically a good opportunity to fill the water tanks and wash the decks, of course it is also a chance to test our anchoring skills, will it hold? In the first picture you can just make out a small sailboat on the right side (double click on the photo to enlarge). That boat is approximately 26' in length and is the home of Camu, a singlehanded sailor of unknown age from French Canada. He has become somewhat infamous along the islands as he has on several occasions been asked to move on. Of his many hobbies, he is currently tattooing himself, head to toe. Doing the ink work himself, just wanted to be clear on that. Below you can see that Ed has discovered the black and white setting on the new camera.
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