Looking Ahead to Next Week
18 December 2013 | St. Anne, Martinique
Lynn
This is the time of the “Christmas Trades”. While it may sound like some kind of re-gifting game at a Christmas party, it is the name for the strong North East winds that take over the wind patterns around this time of year. They may start as early as mid-November, and may blow in closer to Christmas, but when they start, they have a tendency to like to keep going strong for a couple of weeks or more. Most of us hole up somewhere, or at least hang around islands that we can go up and down the lee coast a bit to avoid the heavy seas that build up to accompany those winds. It isn’t so much the winds that deter us from moving, it is the big, uncomfortable waves and swells that occur because of those winds.
So we have been relaxing and enjoying St. Anne here in Martinique. I have done the obligatory dinghy ride into the yacht haven of Le Marin to pick up groceries. I hitched a ride with Izzy and Jeff of ‘Izzy R’ and we actually got a little lucky on the trip in to town, as a rescue boat was making his way back in as well. Jeff drafted in behind him, so we got to take advantage of him knocking down some of the waves for us. That was an unexpected bonus! That doesn’t mean we got away completely dry, just less saturated and less shaken up than it could have been.
We are now keeping an eye on the various weather forecast sites and options that we like to use, as there looks like there is a possibility to head farther north sometime next week. Right now, though, it is looking like Christmas Day may be our actual travel day, but we don’t know for sure, since none of our forecast options go beyond that date yet. Travelling on Christmas Day feels strange to us, but it doesn’t faze me all that much as my family has celebrated the family Christmas on Boxing Day (December 26) for decades now. Still, it still seems a little weird. However, if that is pretty much our only option, then it is either go, or wait who- knows-how-long before striking farther north.
Then there are the other questions that go with it. I love Dominica, there is absolutely no argument there. The island is fantastic, and I have friends there that I really want to see again. Ken enjoys visiting with “the girls” and finds Roseau, the capital, a really neat place to visit. The only problem is that there are no really great anchorages there for when the swells kick up, as they do with the Christmas Trades. So do we stop for a day or two, if possible, or just bomb up to Guadeloupe to visit Dominica on the way south again, when the trades will have subsided. Portsmouth is slightly better protected, but the swells can still be untenable; what if we get stuck there with conditions too boisterous for us to want to move on, but the swells are rolling us out of our bunk?
So now we are doing our “what ifs” and “I’ve been thinking” discussions. Thankfully, we have plenty of time to deliberate, and as yet, we don’t know the full forecast for next week, which will certainly have an influence on our decision making process. We are hoping for a good three or four days of calmer conditions, rather than just a 48 hour window of opportunity.
In the meantime, I believe I will deliberate our options better with some good French cheese on a fresh baguette. Maybe chased by one of those locally grown clementines…