N15.17’510 W 61.22.998W – Current Position - Roseau, Dominica
I left Barbuda on April 21 and anchored in Jolly Harbour, Antigua to wait for Laurie’s arrival on Saturday. On Monday the 27th we departed for Falmouth Harbor on the south side of the island. We arrived in the middle of Antigua Race Week so needless to say, it was pretty busy. Races were going on as we arrived. We anchored in the bay to await a berth at Catamaran Marina, home of Antigua Rigging to finally have our main luff track changed. The track change went quick but the boom was scuffed pretty deep when it was taken off. It took longer to have that paint touched up than change the track. They did get right on it though and did not squabble about it. They just made it right which is nice.
We left Falmouth for Deshaies, Guadeloupe on Sunday May 3 (it is May already???). It was a nice sail on a reach where we held around 7.5 knots and maxed at 8.9. Deshaies (pronounced “day-eh”) was interesting. Fairly high hills around BUT it funnels the wind from the east so you get some pretty good winds and they tend to switch about 180 degrees on some nights. We were speaking with some other cruisers not long after we arrived and they mentioned that the winds were so strong a couple of nights previous, a few boats dragged their anchors. First, we always take care to make sure we are well set. We had decided to move in a little closer to get into shallower water (it was 75 feet) and found a nice spot in the morning where it was 25’. Affords us the ability to have a good scope without taking up half the harbour. Not that it matters though, some people just plop their anchor down and ignore our warning that they are on top of our anchor. We had an anchor trip buoy set so boats coming in would see where our anchor was. We will get back to this in a moment.
After setting our anchor I dove in to check it out. We had seen 3 dolphins earlier in the morning; well they decided to join me! It was quite interesting watching them take turns diving to the bottom and rubbing their backs on an old tire down there. One even came directly at me. Laurie though he (?) was going to hit me. He was just checking me out but I did get a photo of him. It was pretty neat. Not sure if I will be that lucky again.
So, back to the anchorage. Around 8 PM the wind started to pick up. Actually it started to howl. 45 kts steady with gust to 55. (Someone in the anchorage saw 60). Boats were dragging everywhere. We did not budge but we did set our anchor alarm and held an all-night anchor watch. We were worried we might need to fend off other boats as they dragged by, not to mention that we wanted to be ready in case ours let go. Around midnight I pointed out to Laurie that an anchor light that was drifting out between boats. I don’t know how they missed the boats downwind of him but they did. We lite up their boat with our search light and blasted the horn. Hope to wake them up (we were not certain if they were on board). We were talking with other boats in the anchorage (all night) but we agreed it was too bad to go after them in a dinghy. It was pretty steady wind close to 50. We tried calling the coast guard but to no avail. They drifted out close to 2 miles (water is thousands of feet deep there) when I noticed that their anchor light was moving back in. I guess they finally woke up. Didn’t turn on their nav lights coming in though…. BTW, we watched this couple anchor when they first arrived. The just tossed the anchor overboard while they were going forward and just drove over the chain. It did not set so they did it again in another location. I guess that didn’t set too well either….
All night long boats were moving and re-anchoring, anchoring on top of other boat anchors etc. One boat near us had another come in and anchor too close to them and then decided to move. He brought up both their anchors and away they went…
So, back to our trip line. After the squally night I went over to our trip line and disconnected it and double checked the anchor set it (our Rocna anchor was completely buried in the sand) as I did want that “other” boat to snag our anchor trip line and pull it out. I told them again they were too close and they just stared and then ignored me. Well the next night the wind did that 180 degree turn as advertised. Laurie was up on anchor watch and when the wind quit she knew we were going to turn. She shone our light on them and told them the wind was changing. They ignored her and went back down below. She got me up and sure enough, about 30 minutes later the wind picked up to 20 kts from the west. This time I just leaned over and tapped on their hull and told them they now HAVE to move. (Yes, that close) They then went into panic mode but got their anchor up and moved across the bay. Hope to never see them again. With that wind shift several others also had to move including 2 others that drifted into boats on the mooring buoys.
We left Deshaies on Wednesday morning not really having much of a chance to see any sights. We continued onto “The Saintes”. It was quite nice and peaceful and we caught up on our sleep after the previous 2 fun filled nights. We hiked up to Fort Napoleon and museum. Drank lots of water and sweated it out just as quickly on the way up. It was so peaceful and relaxing we stayed 4 days walking the streets and visiting the shops. On Sunday May 10th we departed and arrived in Roseau, Dominica. This place is amazing. Nothing like the other islands we have been to. It is off the beaten tourist track but I do not know why. We hired a guide for a day who also happened to own Dominica Marine Services. It is a Budget Marine franchise and has plenty of stock.
We toured a fair bit but it would take a month to really get started. We went to a “champagne beach” where the water is bubbling and warm. If you stuck your toes or fingers into the sand (in the water!) you could only keep them there for a couple of seconds, it was that hot. The seawater was nice and warm though. We hiked up to several water falls including Trafalgar Falls, boiling water holes, steam vents and so on. The rainforest is extremely dense. You can pick your own mangoes just about anywhere. In places they covered the road!
After speaking with Hubert (guide and owner) I mentioned that I was having trouble getting the electrician in Grenada to communicate with me and order some parts we need for the transition to 230 volt, 50 cycle power. He said no problem and that they could do the work. We had a meeting with his electrician and ordered everything needed that day. Yesterday his fibreglass guy came aboard to glass in panels that we will use to mount the transformer (79 pounds) and the new battery charger. We will need this all done before we leave the boat in Grenada for 6 weeks at the dock as we want to leave our refrigeration on and will need to run a dehumidifier as well.
We are booked into the Le Phare Bleu Marina on the south side of the island and have a Yacht Management company who will oversee and look after the boat in our absence.
So, we hope to be done this work by Wednesday but that will now dictate that we will need to bypass a couple of islands south bound. But, we will be coming north again in the fall so we will have our chance to visit then. We will definitely set aside a couple of weeks for Dominica in November!