Homeward Bound

It’s surprising how little distance can be covered in so much time. Sailing is a slow business at the best of times.

We jumped finally from St Lucia to La Marin, Martinique. Our anchorage was actually off of St. Anne, a very popular spot on the south west end of the Island with a better breeze than going deep into the La Marin bay. We arrived in the early evening of March 2d just an hour before dark and stayed for several days, one day to get to Customs and check into the Island and a couple of days waiting for good weather for moving on. The winds were up at 25+ and gusting higher on the 5th when we finally left for Les Anses d’ Arlets. We anchored there for a couple days just because it was a quaint spot. On the 7th we sailed out and north to St Pierre where we checked out of Martinique the next day and began the passage to Dominica.

On March 8th we left Martinique bound for Rousseau, Dominica. It was a rollicking trip with winds gusting to 28 kts and as always we had a bit too much sail out for comfort. But after rocking and rolling in the breaking waves and heeling over pretty heavily we did manage to arrive in the lee of Dominica. In Rousseau we took up a mooring with the assistance of the local guides association and for $10 US spent a safe secure night tied firmly to one of their moorings. This is always good for a sound night’s sleep no matter how much roll there is from the swells.

Next morning it was slip the mooring and off to Portsmouth on the northwest corner of Dominica. Here we will tour a bit, snorkel a bit, change oil and filter, and get ready to move on.

We are again on a secure mooring from the local Portsmouth guides association (PAYS) with a security patrol at night. Our local guide and agent is Martin, sometimes called Providence after the name of his boat. He is a senior member of the local association. On Sunday nights to raise extra funds the association sponsors a BBQ with meat and fish, local produce, Rum punch and music into the night so we headed there. Fortunately for us their pavilion is virtually 500 yards from where we are moored, so even after Rum punch it should be no challenge to find our way back aboard… The BBQ starts at about 7:00PM and by 7:30 I counted over 100 Yachty’s there. The beach looked like the front row of a huge used dinghy sales lot. The food was good and the mood festive (helped along by large quantities of Rum Punch).

Dominica is not a heavily populated place, some 300,000 people live here. It is a very poor place with 50% unemployment and many live a subsistence life but seem happy with that. Life is very slow here. So slow that for instance you can only buy meat on Saturdays, other than frozen chicken in the “super market” which itself is more of a Stop and Go sized thing. There are no big hotels in Portsmouth for tourists, and about the only tourists that come do so via private yacht or on small cruise ships or Clippers, so the Island is like a big, pretty much unspoiled Eco preserve. It is far too beautiful to escape the world for long and we can only hope a progressive government will take steps to preserve a lot of it.

This morning we are up early and off to the local farmers market held two mornings a week in a pavillion right at the base of the fishermans pier. They have fruits and veggies from the surrounding areas where people have small farm plots in clearings in the jungle. Right next to that is the fish market where every morning you can get fresh seafood just off the boat.

Today is March 13th and tomorrow we will move on to Guadeloupe. While a longer time lingering in Dominica would be great we do have to make some progress toward home to arrive before Hurricane season gets under way in June.