Feb 21
We went into St. Anne early this morning, right after the radio nets. We want to see about getting gasoline for the dinghy, and some groceries. We docked at the dive shop and took the gas tank out of the dinghy. The gas station is about a quarter mile down the road from the dive shop, but it's around a bend in the highway, so you can't see it until you are halfway there. We started walking and once we saw the station, we could see a line down the shoulder of the road going away from us. I couldn't tell how long it was, but if we have to stand in line we will. When we got up to the station we could see that it wasn't even open. These people were in line in the hopes that it would be opening today. This is what frustrates me the most about this strike. You don't know what is going to be open or when or for how long.
We walked back to the dock, put the can back in the dinghy and locked it up. I'm beginning to be less worried about somebody stealing my gas can because there isn't enough in it to make it worthwhile. We left the dinghy at the dive shop and walked over the hill to town. At 8 a Huit, the small grocery store, we found the doors closed, but a line outside. Patrick, the owner of the restaurant near the beach where we have been using the internet connection, was at the end of the line. We joined him and joked with him about how even he had to stand in line instead of getting his supplies delivered to him. The store has two large roll-up doors that normally are open and are pretty much the whole front of the store. These were closed, and access was through a regular door at the corner of the building. There was a man inside that door controlling the flow of people. When we first got there, he was letting people out, one or two at a time. He did not let an equal number of people in each time he let some out. After about twenty minutes, he decided he could let more in. He opened the door and stood aside. Everybody was orderly except one lady who had not been in line. She just walked up as he opened the door and thought she would skip the line part. Patrick, who is pretty stocky, stepped in front of her, and then turned his back to her and stepped back pushing her back and making way for Barb and I to go in before him. We laughed and thanked him for the block. We found the store to be pretty well stocked. They are obviously still getting deliveries. The only things they were short of was dairy products, which of course we needed some of. Even with the throttling at the door, there are too many people inside the store and its narrow isles are full. With this crowd, browsing around isn't practical, so we just watch the items go by as we slowly made our way around with the flow of the crowd, and grabbed things as we passed them. We didn't need a lot and when we wrapped around into the last isle and were headed to the front of the store we were just naturally in the checkout line that extended halfway down the isle. This gave us lots of time to peruse the liquor isle as we stood in line. Barb picked out a couple bottles of wine, and I studied the rums. We got checked out finally, although the clerk could not get my credit card to scan. I know the card works, so I'm not sure what the problem was, but I just paid cash instead.
Once we were let out the little door, we felt relieved to be out of the close quarters of the store. Across the street is L'Epi Solei where we wanted to get a fresh baguette. This is the boulangerie (bakery) that we frequent because they consistently have cold beer. We have gotten baguettes and sandwiches here several times before as well as just enjoyed a few beers out on their patio by the water. There were a lot of people waiting when we went in, and we found it was because they were out of baguettes. But, we could smell some cooking and it was apparent the people were waiting so they must have been told it was imminent. Sure enough, after just a couple minutes the baker rolled a cart of hot baguettes out from the oven room. The baker took them right off the racks and bagged them as people said how many they wanted. We just got one, and headed back to the boat.
It is still very windy today, as forecast. It's blowing over twenty knots consistently. There still has been no issue with any boats dragging anchor here, so I'm very pleased with the holding. This much wind makes for a wet and choppy dinghy ride though. We managed to get back without getting soaked. Just a few drop here and there, and most importantly the bread and groceries were dry. Today and through tonight is supposed to be the windiest period we've had.
My experience with French rums so far tells me that they should have stuck to making wine and imported the rum. One of the things we were looking forward to doing in Martinique was a rum tour. There are a dozen operating distilleries here, which I think is more than any other island. They also still grow the sugar cane here instead of importing the juice or molasses. French rum is called "rhum agricole". It is distilled from pure can juice and not from molasses or any other concentrated form of sugar. The distilling process and the proportions of ingredients also vary with the French rhums, which gives them a distinctive taste, different from rum from any other island. While so far, I have not acquired a taste to the French rhums, I was looking forward to touring the distilleries. So many of the islands these days have closed their old distilleries and now just bottle rum or maybe blend and age it then bottle it. Unfortunately, because of the strike, we could not rent a car or take an organized tour. My tasting here has been limited to two different brands, and they both have the taste that I don't care for. There are white rum agricoles, which could be substituted for gasoline if necessary (hmmm), and there is rhum vieux, which is aged but still retains the agricole flavor. I may have to switch to wine until we get to Dominica.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 22
It was very windy all night, and about 04:00 a squall came through. I didn't turn on the instruments, but I would bet the wind was in the high thirties for fifteen minutes. It also poured down rain during that time. We have given up even thinking about leaving any hatches open at night recently because it just disturbs my sleep more to have to jump and close them when it rains. It has been cool enough that we haven't been uncomfortable with just out little fans on. Once the squall passed I only dosed a little before getting up for the day. There is a noticeable swell coming into the bay today, but the angle is such that it is not causing us to roll at all. It is making for some interesting big waves on the beach though.
In the morning I spent some time writing. I've undertaken a new writing project besides keeping this log, that may or may not ever turn into anything. We had a light lunch aboard and then joined the gang ashore at 13:00. Our plan was to go to Les Filets Blue, which is right on the beach. This is the place where the guy was playing the Obama speech the other day. Barb and I were the first to get to shore, and rather than wait at the dock, we walked on down to Les Filets Blue. It was quite crowded for lunch, but one of the tables with the big rocking chairs was open. Barb sat down and I went to the bar to order two beers rather than bother the waiter. They only had the small bottles of Lorraine today, and the two I got were not very cold. We had found out that this place also had free wi-fi, so I took out my laptop. I could see their network, but it would not connect. When the rest of the gang got there, I gave them a status report - wi-fi doesn't work, beers are small and warm. On to L'exotique. We sat down at L'exotique, waved hello to Patrick and set up our computers. They had large Lorraines and they were ice cold. I updated the website and did a little internet research for my other project.
Once everybody finished their internet use, we walked back down the beach to Les Filets Blue again. Most of the lunch crowd was gone, so we took our table again. I went to the bar to order five beers and a wine for Barb. There is a waiter and a waitress who work when it's crowded, as well as the owner and his wife. The waiter was behind the bar and insisted on carrying the drinks to the table for me. This guy was a black version of the cowboy from The Village People. He was dressed the part and acted the part. He wore a black cowboy hat, a black leather vest with no shirt underneath, black shorts (that may have just been underwear), and an island flair with a floor length black and yellow wrap-around. He did pass on the cowboy boots, and was barefoot. He was sporting a brand new button on his vest that Bob from Tranquila gave him. It had a picture of President Obama on it and said "Yes We Did". He kept chanting "Yes We Did" as he went about his rounds. The waitress was interesting too, but more subdued. She was quite tall, and wore a black dress that was backless to the waist. She had long black hair and was fairly attractive. But when you watch her walked and studied her general build a little, I'm not sure she was born "she". The beer was cold now, and we had several rounds while some of the group played Rummikub. I didn't play and just enjoyed the show.
We were back to the boat about 17:00. Barb made us a nice dinner and I spent the evening writing. The wind seems to have abated a little, but is still blowing about twenty knots.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 23
We are getting very low on gasoline for the dinghy and water. We switch to our last water tank Saturday, so we will probably run out Wednesday if we don't get some. The dive shop owner where we docked the dinghies had told me the other day that while they normally didn't do it, she would sell me some water. She indicated that she was there every day. After the nets this morning, we saw the dive boat getting ready to take a group out diving. I got my jugs and went in to the dock just as the boat was leaving. I found the shop closed up. There was a very large group of divers on the boat, so perhaps she went out with them. Bummer.
I went back to the boat, feeling bad that I had now wasted gasoline for a trip to the dock that accomplished nothing. Lynn from Seabbatical called on the VHF to see if we wanted to join them ashore this afternoon, and I mentioned my wasted trip. Don from Liquid Courage broke in and offered to give us enough water to keep us going another week. Liquid Courage carries several hundred gallons, and has a water maker, so that was very nice of him. I will shuttle a few jugs across later today or maybe tomorrow when the wind is supposed to die down some.
It is still windy, in the low twenties, and it has been raining off and on all night and this morning again. I'm about ready for this weather pattern to change. The forecast is for the wind and seas to die some by Friday, so maybe we'll move north to Dominica then.
We spent the afternoon ashore with the gang. We didn't take our computer in but the others did. We spent a couple of hours at L'exotique and then walked the beach back. When we got to the dive shop dock about 17:00, we heard drums beating nearby. It seems as though some folks don't want to forgo Carnival even if it has been officially called off. We didn't hang around and went back to the boat.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 24
It was still fairly windy this morning. It has "calmed down" to only about twenty knot most of the time, but small squalls keep blowing through with increased wind and some rain.
We are getting quite low on water and the strike is keeping the fuel dock at the marina closed. That is the only place here where we could take the boat and fill our tanks. The owner of the dive shop where we dock the dinghies offered to sell me some, but I can never catch them there. Liquid Courage carries a lot of water, and has a water maker, so Don offered to give us about thirty gallons, which will keep up until we get to Dominica this weekend. I made two trips with our two jerry cans and that filled one of our tanks.
The rest of the day was spent aboard reading and writing. Some of the gang went ashore to do internet and beer, but we elected to take a day off from that. We had a nice quiet evening, with dinner aboard. I plotted our next few days, when we do plan to leave Martinique. The weather is forecast to subside dramatically and be great for movement Friday through Tuesday. So we will probably head to Portsmouth, Dominica in three hops.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 25
The wind and rain continue this morning, although the forecast still holds that it will calm down tomorrow and through the weekend. I don't recall rain being in today's forecast when I heard it yesterday, but it was there when I heard it today. Sometimes the "forecast" is just made up by seeing what's happening right now I think.
In the morning I donned by SCUBA equipment to check out or prop. I only have about a third of a tank of air, so I won't do much. I had trouble getting down last time I dove, so I have three more pounds of weight in my pocket today. I still had trouble getting down. I finally got under about five feet, swam to the front of the boat and pulled myself to the bottom using the anchor chain. We are only in fifteen feet of water, but the big swell we have had for several days has churned up the water so much that I couldn't see the bottom until I was about a foot from it. I wanted to check our anchor to see how buried it was. I should have done this the day we got here, not the day before we leave, but oh well. We have held great through a lot of wind, but I just wanted to make sure it was buried and working as designed, and not just caught on a big rock or something. I got to where the chain disappeared into the sand and saw no sign of the anchor. It is so buried that we could stay here forever. I brushed at the sand a foot in front of where the chain disappeared and still didn't hit anchor, so it's way down there. We'll see if I have trouble getting it up tomorrow (Ha Ha! This sentence was funny when I - Barb- proof read). I swam back to the boat and had Barb hand me the wire brush to clean the prop. I found it had some of the same hairy growth that it had in Bequia, but no barnacles. I brushed it off and took the brush back to Barb. She then gave me the scraper to get the growth of sea grass off the bow. We are loaded bow-heavy, so the bow is slightly in the water above where the bottom paint ends. This means we always grow a nice crop of grassy stuff there for about the first ten feet on each side. I swam up and ran the scraper along the waterline. The stuff comes off pretty easy, but the water was still very choppy with the wind blowing hard. The splashing water, and the fact that my regulator is not closing entirely when I don't inhale was making me quite uncomfortable. To add to the confusion, I felt one of my fin straps come off my heel, so I had to get that back on before I lost the fin. All this conspired to get me hyperventilating. I didn't clean the other side of the bow, just swam quickly back to the boarding ladder and got out of the water. I got my equipment off and sat there for a few minutes regaining my composure and calming down. I really need a nice, calm, fairly shallow, clear anchorage where I can put my gear on, and just go sit on the bottom and get comfortable with being underwater again.
After rinsing all the equipment and setting it in the cockpit to dry, we called Seabbatical to find out what the day's schedule is. Lightheart and Liquid Courage are leaving early in the morning, so we all wanted to have lunch together one more time as we may not all be together again. We had seen a new place yesterday that had pizza on the menu, so we decided to try there. We met at the dinghy dock at 13:00, and walked down the street that parallels the beach. We were joking about how the posted menu is just a list of what they might have, not what they do have, and with our luck they wouldn't have what they needed to make pizza because of the strike. When we got there we found the place packed. There was a tour bus parked outside. If we had been fifteen minutes earlier, we would have been good, because the people all still had menus in front of them. We could have found a place to sit, but we figured that being behind this huge group it would be forever before we ate, so we moved on. We found another little place that we hadn't tried before. It usually has a good crowd, and they had room for eight inside the dining room, so we sat down. The two very old ladies that run the place didn't speak any English, but between me an Lynn and our French for Cruiser book, we figured the menu out. Lynn went to great lengths to look up the phrase in the book to ask the lady taking the order if she could give us separate checks by couples. The lady didn't look pleased but shook her head yes. In the end, we got one check. It turned out not to matter, because they were out of a couple of the items on the menu resulting in most of us having the same thing anyway. So we just divided the check. The food was good. Most of us had mystery shaped pieces of chicken that was in a sauce with a hint of vanilla. It came with typical sides of rice, christophine au gratin, and lentils. The appetizer we all got was acras, which are little fritters. We passed on the blood sausage appetizer. For desert, we all had a dish that was similar to a banana flambé. The half a banana was warm and had a nice sauce over it, but it wasn't flaming when brought to the table. It turned out to be a good thing we got seated inside and not on the patio, because it poured while we were here. The people on the patio we scrambling to move in as far as they could so their food did not get wet.
After lunch we went across the street to L'exotique to use the internet. We had more beer and surfed for about an hour before returning to the boats. The sky remained gray, and we laughed about how many people still come to the beach even when there is no sun, and we feel like it's chilly. Chilly is relative, because it's probably 79 or 80 degrees, and the vacationers on the beach probably came from France where it's winter.
We were back at the boat by 17:00. The sky finally started clearing from the east, but not in time to be clear and let us have a nice sunset. About 19:00, I was below and heard noise nearby. I stepped into the cockpit to see a sailboat pass right behind us very close. The boat anchored behind us had his million candlepower spotlight on us I guess to help the moving boat see what was in his way. The moving boat went a little ahead of us and dropped it's anchor. This won't work. I came out on deck and just stood there watching. As they dropped back, they ended up about twenty feet from our bow. Barb was below figuring out the phrase in French to tell them they were too close. After a few minutes of surveying the situation, they figured it out themselves and started pulling up the anchor. They moved away from us a couple of boats to the north and became somebody else's problem.
We went to bed about 21:30. I fell asleep, but kept waking up hearing voices. Finally, there was a lot of yelling and loud talking that made me get up and look. The boat right behind us is apparently friends with the boat that came in after dark. The talking I have been hearing was coming from the boat behind us where apparently the crew of the new boat, and our neighbors to the south had been partying. The party was breaking up now so the noise was everybody getting in their dinghies, yelling goodbye, etc. Obviously too much fun had been had, because the guy from the late arriving boat thought it would be funny to push the host boat sideways with his dinghy. When I looked out our aft hatch a second time, the boat was sideways to us and much closer than it had been. The dinghy guy finally went home yelling and laughing, and the boat behind us drifted back to where it should be.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 26
Lightheart and Liquid Courage had planned to leave at 03:00. Before we all parted company in the evening, there had been talk of maybe delaying that until 05:00. Liquid Courage did have company on their boat until fairly late, so I figured any pre-dawn departure would be hard on them. I kept waking up during the night looking to see if they were still there. They were. I awoke to hear the church bells in St. Anne ringing, which meant it was 06:00. I had left the VHF on overnight since depending on the angle of the wind, we thought Liquid Courage might need us to move forward a bit to retrieve their anchor. Just after 06:00, I heard Lightheart calling Liquid Courage on the radio. I think they woke them up, because a few minutes later, Don & Devin were on deck weighing anchor. I went to the cockpit but they didn't need me to move, so I waved goodbye and wished them a safe trip.
We hung on the boat most of the morning, and then joined Mike & Lynn at the main town dock for a walk. We checked out the inside of the old Catholic church in town, which we had not done before. They had five beautiful chandeliers over the aisles. The construction was stone walls with a wooden roof structure. This was no typical island carpentry job. From the church we walked up the hill behind it. There is a winding pathway to the top of the hill that is part of the church property. We have seen this path from the boat and been reminded of Lombard St. in San Francisco. Along the path as you climb were small monuments, each representing a station of the cross. In each was a plaster or concrete relief picture depicting the station, and a marble plaque was on each describing the station. At the top was a small building with an alter. The whole place has fallen into a bit of disrepair, but somebody still takes care of it. At the top we noticed the position of the old alter with the cross on top, with the modern cell phone tower and equipment right next to it.
After our little hike, we went into town. The first thing we did was go to the open market. We got some produce and a bottle of rum punch. Each vendor has dozens of flavors of homemade rum punches. Several have interesting names that indicate what they are purported to do for you. I won't mention them all here, but let's say they were a little explicit. One didn't even need a French/English translation.
From the market we went to a pizza place. This is not the same place where we hoped to get pizza yesterday. This place is run by two very friendly young women who do speak a little English. We tried our best to order in French, and when we got stuck, they did they best to find the English to fill in the gaps. Mike and I mentioned how we enjoyed the exchange with them. Some places we have been to speak zero English, and that can be either frustrating or an adventure, depending on your outlook. And some places insist on talking to you in English, which reduces your incentive to try and say the right things in French. Speaking with these two ladies was just right. The pizza was good too. Each couple ordered a large pizza, and we all stuffed ourselves. Our plan was to eat half and take half home for tomorrow, but next thing you know there was only two slices left and that's not worth boxing up, so we ate it and were about to explode.
We got our dinghies and went to the boats briefly. We dropped our market purchases and got our garbage and computer. We then met Mike & Lynn again at the dive shop dock. We walked to L'exotique and did internet for an hour or so. When we were done, we thanked Patrick for his hospitality and told him we were leaving in the morning.
We walked back along the beach, which was pretty busy today since it has not rained all day and the sun has been out. We went back to the boats, dropped off the computer and packed up our snack and beverages for the weekly sundowner gathering at the dive shop dock. As we were mingling with the other cruisers, we found that at least seven boats we know had gasoline stolen from their dinghies today. The bad guys hit both the main dock and the dive shop dock twice. Somehow, us and Seabbatical avoided this fate at both places. We don't know if we just had perfect timing in when we went from dock to dock, of if I have so little gas in my tank that it wasn't worth their time. I am almost out of gas, and have been keeping my fingers crossed each time we go to shore that we will make it back without rowing. One boat we know got hit twice. He had been at the town dock and came back to find his tank empty. He rowed back to his boat, filled the tank from a jerry jug he had. Later he went to the dive shop dock to drive to the airport and pick up a guest. When he got back, his gas tank was empty again. If we weren't already planning on leaving, this might be enough to convince me to. We did have a nice happy hour. Bob from Tranquila brought his guitar and sang a few songs. Those who have heard me sing karaoke tried to get me to sing along, but without the words on a screen in front of me, I draw a blank even on songs I can sing to myself all day long. The owners of the dive shop came by to get something while we were there. (The shop is closed by the time we do the happy hour.) I made a point of going in and thanking the owners for letting us use their dock. It turned out to be just as much a target for the bad guys, but it was much more convenient when we went to the places along the beach instead of in town.
We went back to the boat and cleaned up and prepared for our departure tomorrow. We are only going fifteen miles around the southwest corner of the island, to Grand Anse D'Arlet, but we still have to secure things.
GPS N 14-26.099 W 060-53.247 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9741.
Feb 27
We are leaving St. Anne today. We were up at the normal time and listened to the nets on the radio. As soon as the Coconut Telegraph was over, we weighed anchor with Seabbatical. Our trip today is only to Grand Anse D'Arlet, a small town on the west coast near the southern end of the island. Our reason for stopping here is two fold. One, Seabbatical has been there before and says it's a neat little town. Two, you can clear out of Customs there and not have to make the two and a half mile dinghy ride to Marin.
The trip is fifteen miles and will take about three hours. Most of the way is due west along the south coast of Martinique. This means the wind is dead behind us, making sailing a little tricky. We put the main up, but kept it sheeted in tight so when it jibed from side to side, it didn't hurt anything. Having it up did help keep us from wallowing in the fairly large swell that was still coming from the east. As we rounded the southwest corner of Martinique, we passed Diamond Rock. I'm not sure where it got the name, because it doesn't look like a diamond to me, just a big rock. Once around the corner, it was just a few miles north to Grand Anse D'Arlet.
The anchorage was fairly crowded, and as with many west coast anchorages, it stays deep until you are quite near the shore. But, we were able to find a spot in about seventeen feet of water to drop the hook. Seabbatical anchored right behind us. It was about noon when we were all secure. We knew that the Customs office in Marin closes for the day at 12:30, so Mike and I hopped in our dinghy, which we had towed around so it was ready to go, and headed for the main dock. Customs did not used to be here. It was at Anse Mitan, which is the next bay north of here. However, the swell from Hurricane Omar destroyed the marina where Customs was, so they have opened this place in Grand Anse D'Arlet. We had been told Customs was right at the head of the main dock. When we got there, we were looking for a sign, but saw none. We went into the little cafe at the head of the dock, and there was the Customs computer sitting on a table in the corner. We logged in, filled out our forms, printed them, and the girl behind the counter taking orders stamped them for us. Why can't the rest of the islands learn from the French how to handle this?
Mike and I went back to the boats and collected the ladies to go back ashore for lunch. I had been down to less than a quart of gasoline in the dinghy, but Mike had a half gallon that he gave me so we used our dinghy rather than them having to launch theirs. We walked down the waterfront street past numerous nice looking little restaurants. We had a particular one in mind that Mike & Lynn had been to before. It was the last one down the beach. The two waiters didn't speak any English, but we figured it out. The first nice surprise was that they had Lorraine beer on tap. We had never seen it on tap before. Most places have been running out of Lorraine because I think the brewery must be closed for the strike. In fact, all they had here was the draft, but that was cool with us. Next, the waiter conveyed that the only main courses that had left were a chicken curry dish, and a marlin with Creole sauce dish. We all opted for the marlin, and it was delicious. Unlike most island restaurants, there were no bones at all in the fish. We finished the meal with scoops of chocolate ice cream.
From lunch, we walked back along the waterfront street, past the dock, and down the beach on the other side, almost to the end. There we found another nice restaurant/bar, where we had another round of drinks. The ladies ordered pina coladas, I had a plantuer punch, and Mike stuck with beer. The pina coladas were not exactly the same as you would expect, but they were good. The rum punch was also good. While we were sitting there we were observing a large sailboat that was on the rocks past the end of the beach. It didn't look like it had been there all that long, since it wasn't stripped of all it's equipment. We wonder how it got there and if they are going to try and salvage it.
We were back to the boats before five. Since tomorrow we will be crossing between islands, where the seas are usually bigger, we raised our dinghy. We had towed it from St Anne, since we were in the shelter of Martinique. We were in bed by 20:00, since we plan to leave at 06:00 in the morning.
GPS N 14-30.281 W 061-05.181 Nautical miles traveled today 15. Total miles 9756.
Feb 28
Today, we are leaving Martinique and going to Dominica. The trip is fifty miles, which if we average five knots, will take ten hours.
Going to bed early didn't prove to help with the early wake up, since we both slept like crap. I fell asleep soon after going to bed, but awoke about 23:00, because we were rolling some. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours before the rolling diminished. After that, I know I kept falling asleep, because I had odd dreams, but I woke up every hour or so. That is until I was supposed to. I had not set the alarm because I always wake up by 06:00. I had been awake at 05:00, but then fell sound asleep and was into a very involved dream when Barb woke me. It was only 06:05, and she had been awakened by Seabbatical calling us on the VHF. We had agreed to leave our radios on just for this reason.
We were up and away by 06:20. We turned north out of the harbor in almost no wind. We had put the main out just for the heck of it, but for the first half hour it was dead calm. As we approached the wide open mouth of the Fort de France harbor, the wind started to freshen a little. We unfurled the foresail, and for the first time in a long time had both sails all the way out. The wind was still only about ten knots though, so we kept the motor on too. It would have been beautiful conditions for a nice leisurely sail, but since we had to cover fifty miles today, we need to maintain at least five knots. Just passed the Fort de France harbor, the wind shifted to the northwest. The trade winds never blow from the northwest, but since we are only about half a mile off the coast of the island, we are seeing the effects of the daytime heating of the land mass causing an onshore breeze. We simply tacked the foresail, without changing course. We were making about six knots motor sailing, so we were happy.
As we passed the Fort de France harbor, we saw our first confirmed whale. Back in the Bahamas we saw two creatures that were either huge dolphins or small pilot whales, but we couldn't confirm it either way. This time was definitely a whale, but I can't say what kind. It was about a thousand feet from us, traveling along the surface. We would not have noticed it except Barb was looking at something on shore through the binoculars when her view was obscured by the mist from an exhale. We then watched as the whale moved along, barely breaking the surface with it's large back and blowing a mist into the air each time it took a breath. If I hadn't been under sail for the first time in forever, I would have turned to get closer without hassling it.
As we moved north along the west coast of Martinique, we were intrigued by the geography of the island. Mount Pele is the volcano on Martinique, and it is on the north end of the island. But even near the south end, the geography looks as if it were formed by rivers of lava flowing to the sea. The tops of each ridge of land are flat as if somebody took a spatula and smoothed them before they hardened. Then it looks as if they trimmed the ends off along the coast line. It is so uniform that it's hard to understand how it became this way.
During the ride up the coast, the wind shifted back to the northeast again, and then the northwest again. So, we tacked three times without ever changing course. Then, nearing the northern end of the island, the wind got very light, but right on the nose. There was no way to keep the foresail filled, so we furled it. Once we were almost clear of the north tip of the island, the wind filled in from the northeast again, so we unfurled the foresail once more. We haven't done this much sail handling in a long time. The wind picked up to almost twenty knots as we cleared the island. It was only forecast to be thirteen to fifteen. We were heeled over pretty far, and Barb wasn't comfortable with the heel. But, we were up to seven and a half knots, which we haven't seen in a long time. I pointed out that at that speed, it would take us an hour less to cross between islands than if we furled the sail and just motored. She let me keep the sail out, and within a few miles, the winds dropped to the forecast amount. I think what we were seeing was funneling around the end of the island, which is typical. We maintained seven knots or more for the next three hours to Dominica. The seas weren't too bad in the open water. Again, they were a little larger at the island ends, but out in the open they were ok.
As we approached Roseau, Dominica, which is on the southwest corner of the island, we saw a boat boy heading our way. There is obviously no shortage of gasoline here, because he came out three miles from the anchorage to be the first to get our business for a mooring ball. You almost have to take a mooring in Roseau, because it is very deep right up to the shore, and the currents and wind are squirrelly and keep you moving in odd directions all the time. Brian, who either is also known as Roots, or works for Roots, got us on the mooring. I usually approach moorings very gracefully and stop just at the right place. This time however, when I put the engine in reverse, it stalled. By the time I got it restarted, we had pretty much run over Brian and his boat, and he dropped the mooring line. I got the engine restarted and backed up, and we got it all sorted out. I felt bad about ramming him and gave him a few extra dollars tip.
We enjoyed an arrival cocktail(s) and had a light dinner of homemade pizza bread. Barb put pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni on the baguette we had left over and put it in the oven. It came out very good even if it was an Italian meal made on French bread. As we sat in the cockpit we saw a turtle. Actually, either we saw several, or we are in the cruising grounds of one who passed us several times. Each time, we would see the head pop up to take a breath several times before it would dive down again. I guess it was our day for animal sightings.
As the sun was setting, a cruise ship departed Roseau. We had been thinking we might get to see a green flash, but then it looked like the cruise ship was going to block our view just at the wrong time. It turned out the cruise ship got by in time, but there was too much haze on the horizon, so we didn't see a flash, but it was a nice sunset regardless.
We aren't leaving real early tomorrow, but still were to bed by 20:00 since it has been a long day.
GPS N 15-17.189 W 061-22.582 Nautical miles traveled today 50. Total miles 9806.