The sail to Dominica from Martinique isn't too far, only 26 miles (about 4 hours). We always consult our weather software, PredictWind, to see what the conditions are forecast to be when we want to leave. After so many miles (6300) of using this software, I have learned to be very skeptical of what it's telling us, and always add at least 5 knots of wind to the forecast range. The sail to Dominica was supposed to be "normal" trade wind speeds around 20 knots, but what we encountered were building seas, steady wind 27 knots with gusts to 31. The boat has no problem handling these conditions, although they are uncomfortable, they end quickly when we sail into the lee of the land. We thought we would use Dominica as a quick overnight anchorage, not even checking into the country and move right along to The Saints (small islands between Dominica and Guadeloupe).

But the conditions we encountered made us take another look at the forecast and saw that the winds were to build steadily over the next several days. The Saints have limited mooring balls and anchoring, and can be exposed to wrap around waves causing uncomfortable rolling at anchor. We knew the place was packed with boats as friends were already there, so we made the decision to stay for several days in Dominica on a mooring ball, and check into the country after all.

Albert, one of the "boat boys", actually a middle-aged man as most are, met us in his boat as we rounded the corner of land into Prince Rupert Bay, and offered to help us tie to a mooring ball. Albert came highly recommended by Sea Rose whose services they used when they last visited 18 years ago! Albert asked me if we wanted to book tours then looked so dejected when I told him we had already done the big hikes and tours when we visited Dominica with Matt 10 years ago. But the guys make their living running tours, arranging taxis to all the sights. They also do an important service of policing the anchorage, running night patrols to discourage crime and provide the mooring balls which is why we stayed on the mooring ball 4 nights instead of anchoring (which costs nothing). We had heard the guys also host a barbecue Sunday and Wednesday nights which serve as a fundraiser, so I told Albert we'd be interested in that.

The mooring balls were a bit rag-tag, and in fact, during one of the windy nights (bad things always happens in the middle of the night), a large catamaran broke free of the mooring. Mike woke to horns blowing, lots of lights, while I slept through! We knew from reading reviews that this had happened to another catamaran just a week prior, so naturally we did not sleep the rest of the night, as the wind howled around us and the boat tugged on the mooring lines. The next day, Mike tried to dive to the mooring base to inspect the line but cloudy waters prevented him from really seeing it. (He did see it the following day and it was robust). We shared the anchorage with a very large sailboat!

We attended the barbecue on Sunday night, as most all boats in the anchorage did too! We met a couple of very nice Canadian sailors on catamarans, enjoyed salad, fried chicken and rice, but returned to the boat before the dancing began.

We rented a car from Pink Wish Car rental with plans to get off the boat for a half day, tour a small local chocolate factory across the island, have lunch. The drive to Calibishe wove through lush tropical forest and small towns, and ended in stunning vistas of the very wild ocean. The Point Baptiste Chocolate Factory is a small operation making many varieties of chocolate bars from locally grown pods. We were told about and shown the various processes and machines involved in creating small batch chocolate. We saw the locally grown trees and beans and learned that the community growers supplied most their chocolate beans, which ferment then dry on tables in the warm air. For the finale, we were able to taste the multiple varieties available for purchase. Yum! Of course we purchased a few of our favorites.

The next stop was Red Rocks, a natural formation of red colored soft rock, with cave formations, on the coast with a short trail and overlook requiring a $2 entry fee. A restaurant owns the access point and had the chef been on site it would have been a nice place to eat lunch as the bartender was a very friendly woman. We chatted about our guide, Wendy, from our hike to boiling lake years ago that still lived in the area. Comparing photos of Wendy, he apparently hadn't aged, unlike me!. We then had a tasty lunch overlooking the sea at a restaurant called Unique, and we marveled at the waves and hoped they would settle a bit before we left for the next island.

We returned to Portsmouth, a bustling "real" Caribbean town, meaning not touristy. The town was brimming with people and everyday shops, and we stopped to purchase fresh veggies from farmers with booths along the main street.

Returning to the boat we suddenly had a surprise visit from a dolphin, who popped up besides the dinghy then played with the mooring float at the front of the boat. I called to the dolphin and it would surface and look at us, and appeared quite tame. Before we knew it the boat in front of us with 4 children were squealing in delight as the dolphin appeared next to their boat as they swam and jumped from the boat. The following day it appeared again! That night brought rain and the winds calmed. Rain often works to tamp down wave height, and I hoped that was the case as the next day we were leaving early for Iles Des Saintes (The Saints), a short 16 nm sail away.