After our various OCC friends left we had a day generally by ourselves in Prince Rupert Bay. Avin came by in the afternoon and took us in his boat a couple of headlands north for some snorkelling, some of which was down a sheer cliff wall – reasonable visibility and pretty interesting; lots of fish, corals and sponges. We had put together a bag of things (clothes, shoes, food) that we don’t need urgently on board so passed these over to the PAYS guys, who will get things to those in need. The PAYS organisation is first class and should be a model for many other Caribbean islands in terms of how to encourage, manage and benefit from yacht tourism.

Today’s photo – Kate and Avin on our snorkelling trip. Avin was our primary guide and contact in Dominica. A delightful and helpful Dominican guy. Until we meet again…

So, Dominica (and particularly Prince Rupert Bay): we’re really glad we went there. Very interesting – lovely positive people – an amazingly fertile island, working hard to get over a natural disaster. The best help we can probably give is to encourage others to visit, take trips, spend money in the local economy – they are ‘open for business’ and getting better every day.

We left Dominica yesterday (16th Jan) and headed north. It was a really fine sail – around 20 kts on the beam and we rocked along at 7 kts with 2 reefs in everything, which seems to be becoming our Caribbean norm. Very steady winds, but with a bit of Atlantic swell coming in between the islands. We headed north to Isles Des Saintes , which are a group of islands that are part of Guadeloupe (and hence part of France) so we are now back in the EU, with local phone rates and good croissants. Still can’t quite get used to this!

We went ashore yesterday to check back into the EU. It’s a cutesy wee place – very French with all the things you expect in a French village, but with the lovely island gingerbread houses and colourful paintwork. As always there is a town clock that chimes on the quarter (unusually accurately for France). Once again we see a more prosperous side to the Caribbean. Oh – and they have pelicans in the bay, living happily alongside the glorious frigate birds.

The contrast between Dominica and these islands is amazing – there is only about 20 miles between then and whilst Dominica was hit so hard by the hurricanes this year Isles des Saints was pretty much untouched, just like Martinique on the other side. And while Dominica struggles to get food onto the market stalls, the Isles are awash with tourist shops and sidewalk cafes.

We seem to move from film set to film set. Dominica featured heavily in Pirates of the Caribbean (Calypso’s hut is on the Indian River but was rather squashed by a fallen tree). Guadeloupe is the setting for the recent Death in Paradise series.