Dominica

Hey Mon

Dis week we sail into Roseau, de capital of dis here Dominica.  De white mon boat is hooked to de mooring ball.  They speeke de English good but dems hard to understand some what dem say and makees us laff a lots !!!!!!

Yes we have arrived in Dominica. We are sitting off the capital, Roseau. We didn’t know what to expect, and the main reasons we are stopping here this season is to have one of our gas bottles refilled as we are not sure if or when we will get our NZ bottles filled again.  Well we are so glad we made this stop.  Our clearance in was so simple.  You visit just one office, and if staying under two weeks you can clear out at the same time – wonderful.  We are able to drop off our gas bottle and pick it up the same day – that will be done the following morning.  After clearing in we wander the town.  A cruise ship is in port so everything is open.  The place is not crammed full of tourists which is nice, and the locals somehow no we are not off the ship.  Maybe we now have taken on that bronzed weather-beaten look that long-term cruisers get. Also we don’t run around in our designer clothes, just cool and comfortable.

Martinique

Bonjour To You All Again

We have a lovely sail across to Martinique with a reef in the main and jib, as winds were gusting up to 30kts. We also had two heavy showers of rain, so SHAMAL got a wash.  As we were approaching the entrance to the huge harbour at Marin, we we buzzed by a helicopter a couple of times with him flying very low over us.  He seemed to be checking out all yachts coming in.  I waved out and took photos. We have just read in the papers that a yacht falsely flying an American flag, with two Spanish and one Venezuelan on board, were stopped and boarded by the authorities in Martinique waters, who found a hundred million US dollars of cocaine on board !!!!!!  A couple of tons of the stuff. That is the second boat which has been caught in these waters in the last six months.

We have now arrived at our first French Island, but the last of the Windward Islands. The Caribs who lived here at the time Christopher Columbus sailed into these waters, called their Island Madinina, which means Island of flowers.  The French colonists were the first to settle the Island in the early 1600’s, clearing the forests to make room for the sugar plantations. The native Caribs retaliated, but by 1660 the majority of them were driven off their Island. Those that survived lived in the Mt. Pelee area, but were later wiped out by the Europeans, but, not before calling on the mountain to take its revenge !!  Once again the British got in on the act, but only occupied it for a short period, between 1794 to 1815. With the French back in control they faced a down turn in the sugarcane market due to the introduction of sugar beets on mainland France.

St Lucia

Hello Again

St Lucia – another gorgeous Island in the chain, but this one really grabs your attention as you sail towards it.  The south western end has two quite spectacular volcanic mountains close together that rise from the ocean dripping in tropical rain forest. These are known as the Pitons. Gros Piton - 2600ft, and Petit Piton - 2500ft.  In fact the they are depicted on their national flag, one gold and the other black rising from the blue sea.

 

St Lucia is a teardrop-shaped island only 27 miles long covering an area of 238 sq miles. Banana plantations ( alongside tourism ) form the staple industry for the island. It is also home to beautiful hibiscus and wild orchids along with many other tropical trees, shrubs and flowers.  It is a little sad as today only 10% of the Island remains covered in rainforest, though you would not think so from the sea as it appears so lush and tropical, but what remains, is now set aside as a nature reserve,  When it was under British colonial administration much of the forest was harvested for its timber. 

Our point of entry was to be the town of Soufriere, which sits in a bay just to the north of the Pitons.  “MOONDANCER” arrived before us, and having done a quick reconnaissance of the anchorage, decided to move further north to the bay at Marigot. We followed.  In hindsight this was a bad decision as it was now Good Friday when we checked in which involved overtime fees to do so.  We had forgotten that Easter was upon us.  Strange how time moves on and we forget what day it is. Never mind, Marigot turned out to be a beautiful anchorage, and the perfect place to spend the long Easter weekend.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Hello Again

 

St. Vincent is the most northerly and largest Island that make up this country, but Bequia is the northern island in the Grenadines group. We entered St. Vincent and the Grenadines from the south, at Union Island.  This was the Island our son-in-law, Dan, was based on for a time flying a piper-arrow.  Our daughter Brigitte joined him for a short stay.  Neither were impressed with the Island, but it was summer at the time and they had no air-conditioning in the house.  Also the mosquitoes and “no-see-ums” were so bad that they were eaten alive.  For us, well we had a completely different experience.  For a start it is the winter months where temperatures are perfect.  You always have a lovely breeze out on the water, so sleeping at night is not a problem, and as for the bugs, well they are not around yet !!!

Grenada and Carriacou

Grenada – The Spice Island – has 75 miles of coastline with lovely sandy beaches, and an interior of lush tropical mountainous rainforest, and different spice trees which give it it’s name as the ‘Isle of Spice’.  It really is a pretty place. We are now in the southern most Island of the Windward group.  The Windward Islands extend southwards from the Leeward Islands.  Grenada is the southern most, and Martinique the northern most of the group. They are all of volcanic origin.

We drop anchor in Prickly Bay at the southern end of Grenada at 10.00am after an 80nm run up from Trinidad. It was a rather ‘lumpy’ crossing sailing on a close reach with winds between 18-28kts.  We also had a 2kt current pushing us to the east, then it would swing to the west, then back again, for most of the crossing.  This is the first time in ages that I did not feel like dinner, so Alec only got eggs, as I did not want to stay inside for very long !!  Also it was humid. The only positive thing about the trip was that we had a nearly full moon.  That always makes for nice night passages. Twenty five miles north of Trinidad we passed an oil platform all lit up like a Christmas Tree.