Well there have been ups and downs and not entirely due to the height of the waves. The sail from Saint Pierre in Martinique to Dominica was not the best. It is about forty six miles and the first sail where we left land behind us. The sea was rather rough but we were sailing well and quite enjoying it. Well I was. Colin was being a bit are we nearly there yet Mum? Then we got hit by a rainy squall with wind gusting to 35 knots which is pretty strong and the poor old mainsail ripped in half! Rather surprisingly she carried on sailing quite well. The mainsail is as old as the boat so 1989 and frankly I'm surprised it has lasted that long but it is a bit of an embuggerance. (Spellchecker doesn't like that word but I do so I am keeping it. Pascale it means merde so don't bother looking it up.) Luckily it split just below the top reefing point so we were able to continue to sail under reduced sail but sorting it all out in ten foot waves was challenging and made Colin feel seasick for the first time in years.

We made it to Dominica before dark which was all that mattered really. There were no facilities for sail repair there so we resigned ourselves to the idea of continuing under reduced sail until we got somewhere with a sail loft. Investigation led to the discover that there was a good rum bar a couple of hundred metres from our boat with a jetty for the dinghy, a brilliant view over the bay and excellent internet. A couple of rum punches later we were entirely philosophical over large waves and torn sails. Dominica is probably the poorest island we have visited in the island chain and very much a contrast to the affluent French islands that we spend much time in. Given that Dominic was previously a British colony this is nothing to be proud of. In Portsmouth many people live in shacks with no toilets or running water. There are public conveniences every couple of hundred metres and there are standpipes for water every fifty metres or so and seeing women struggling from these taps with large plastic containers of water is a common site. Some women take the washing up or the grubby child to the water. Note that I say women as there seems at all times of the day to be a large contingent of men sitting in the shade drinking beer. Despite the primitive conditions all the shacks are clean and the children are pristine in their elaborate school uniforms. There are many small shops but there is very little variety of foodstuffs in them. Everyone has chickens and they charge around amongst the lorries on the high street remarkably managing not to get killed. When the cruise lines come in the women put on their best dresses and set up little stalls along the high street selling whatever they have to hand. One lady appeared to have little more than a tin of peanuts and a couple of bottles of hot sauce. That hot sauce needs to be approached with caution! I do wonder what the affluent cruise liner passengers make of it all.

Dominica is quite simply beautiful. We took a long walk and saw humming birds, egrets, bird of paradise flowers, lizards, pools and waterfalls and met some very friendly people. The men are a little daunting as they brand machetes but they explain in a very reassuring manner that they are only going to climb huge coconut trees with no safety lines to hack off a couple of coconuts. Such is life in Dominica!