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Larry's LogThe next morning, Tom and Stephanie left before us, at about 8am. They called us on the radio saying that they got depth readings of about 8 feet, so we stayed to let the tide come in a bit, take showers and top up the water tanks. Guy had come down to start working on his boat again and I gave him back the transformer and adapter he so kindly lent us. We will miss the Bonhomme family a lot. They are truly kind and generous people. We finally left the Basse Terre marina at a little after 9am on April 14. The "sortie" was pretty uneventful except for a small bump with the bottom just as we came into the main exit channel of the marina. But we went right over the bump and continued out. Diane later said she was waving to me to go to starboard because of the rocks that had fallen from the breakwater (they had been there when we came in also and had probably fallen as the result of a hurricane) but I never saw her. We had no problem though and made our turn south to clear the southern point of Guadeloupe. The wind was already fresh when we got out but it wasn't too bad. Our crossing was also pretty easy, with wind at about 18 to 20 knots from the east. It took us about 90 minutes from when we cleared the lighthouse at the last point of land on Guadeloupe to the time we spotted Mima. They were already anchored in about 25 feet near the southern anchorage on Terre de Haut, which is the main island of Les Saintes. The town of Bourg de Saintes is there and is the main tourist attraction. They had already looked at some of the other anchorages and said they were very deep (up to 50 feet) and since the guidebook said that this was the best holding for the anchor anyway, they decided to stay there. We couldn't have agreed more and told them later that our friend who was there some weeks before had the same experience, and had stayed in that spot also. So we were in Les Saintes and although it was a little rolly, it wasn't too bad and we both felt better being out of the marina. Although we liked it there, it was starting to feel confining. After relaxing for a bit, we went into town with Tom and Stephanie around 3pm. It was a very cute little town with lots of shops and narrow streets. We walked around a little, stopped to have a beer (although Diane continued walking around) and then continued to see the town. We walked to the "yacht club" which was a bit disappointing and then went back to the boat. We decided we would go back into town tomorrow, hike up to Fort Napoleon (Fort Josephine is on the island across from Terre de Haut) and take some pictures. The next day, Easter Sunday, we did indeed go up to the fort. We picked up Stephanie at around 9am and started our hike. And a hike it was. Although it was only about 30 minutes, with the sun out and all it was really hot, even early in the morning. But the reward were some spectacular views of Iles des Saintes and of Guadeloupe itself. Since Les Saintes are only 10 miles away from Basse Terre, the larger island that makes up Guadeloupe, we could see the Soufriere Volcano very clearly, although the summit did have some clouds. The fort itself was very nice with very nicely maintained grounds. The plants were all cacti and succulents of all sorts. There were also a large number of iguanas living there. We also saw one small snake, a light brown one about 3 feet long. He didn't seem very dangerous but I know that the Fer-de-Lance lives here and it is very poisonous. (Un)fortunately, I don't know what one looks like. After we toured the grounds and the museum, we went back down and met Tom for lunch. After pizza and an ice cream (Real sugar cones), we went back to the boat to relax. We went into town again later with Stephanie and Clementine (their beagle), us to take some pictures and Clem, for a walk. Stephanie said they would probably leave tomorrow as we were coming back to the boats. They weren't going to stay in Dominica since the country wasn't "dog friendly", so they would most likely just anchor for the night and keep moving to Martinique. We said we would talk to them in the morning. The next day, we "slept in" until about 7:30. We got dressed to go into town to get some fresh croissants and bread and saw Mima already lifting their anchor. We called across that we would talk to them on the radio in a bit. After getting back from town, we listened to the morning nets, security and then the weather, and then called Mima. They said that they had about 20 knots already but relatively small seas. We wished them a good voyage and hoped we would catch up to them again. Nice folks. After we finished breakfast, Diane suggested we run the watermaker since we were already down to about 3/4 tank on the port side. We had filled both tanks before we left the Basse Terre Marina, just 3 days before. The starboard side was still full since we didn't use it yet. When I went to turn on the watermaker, I noticed that the metal strip on the terminal block holding the electrical connections was adrift. Great, something else to fix. I tried to fix the original plastic one but couldn't so I made my own from a small piece of plywood and used two bolts as the posts to hold the wires in contact. What's that saying about necessity and invention? After I got the watermaker working again and filled the tank, we just had lunch. After lunch, we took the dinghy to go snorkeling behind a large rock called Pain a Sucre (Sugarloaf). The water was pretty clear and there were lots of fish, with one interesting one that I think was a kind of rockfish. After we got back, I cleaned the waterline on the starboard side (always the worst since it faces the sun). Diane had done the port side the day before. It was too late to go back into town so we just hoisted the dinghy on deck in preparation for the passage to Dominica. We were a bit worried about Dominica since we had heard a lot of reports of aggressive boat boys and some dinghy theft. Boat boys (young men really) come out in small boats to get you to pay them for some small service. They compete very hard for your business and you are just about compelled to "hire" one, otherwise they just keep pestering you. We had gotten some advice from a friend who had been there already some weeks before to use Martin, who had a VHF radio and would take good care of us. We would see. The passage was relatively easy although we did have about 20 knots from the east-southeast. We left Les Saintes at 7:30am, although I had started to up anchor at 7am. There was a lot of chain out. We raised the main, put one reef in and motor sailed south past the islands and started pounding into 3 to 5 foot waves almost immediately. Even at that early hour, the wind was up. We decided to motor sail a bit to get the batteries charged. About an hour later we put some of the jib out and just sailed. The wind had calmed a bit to about 18 and it was delightful. Of course, it was bound to pick up but even then we were fine. As we approached Dominica, the wind was still fair and we just went almost all the way into Prince Rupert Bay under sail. We finally furled the jib and turned on the engine about 3 miles out and turned into the wind, since the anchorage was now directly east. Diane decided to try contacting Martin on the VHF since we knew he had a handheld. She called and actually got him on another cruiser's boat who was leaving. She talked to him and he sounded just fine. She also spoke to the cruiser who had obviously just used his services and they confirmed that he was "the man." About 5 minutes later, as we were motoring in and still about 2 miles from the anchorage, we met another boat boy. He had just stopped at another boat who was n't stopping and he just motored up to us and said "Welcome to Dominica." We said thank you. He asked if we needed any help in finding an anchorage or a tour. We told him that we had already contacted Martin. After that, he just waved and sped off. Hmm, so far so good. We had one more boat boy come out to meet us but saying we had already contacted Martin got the same response, "Welcome to Dominica," and sped off. As we got closer, however, the wind increased tremendously to about 30 knots. It seemed to funnel down the mountains and then across the bay. It was quite rough and if it didn't get better, we would only stay the night. Fortunately, it slowly started to improve. As we anchored, young men paddled out on surfboards to ask if we wanted fruit or if we wanted them to take in our garbage. We said no to all questions. After we anchored, Martin came up in his boat, Providence, and welcomed us also. He said when we were ready, he would take me in to clear customs and immigration. After I was satisfied that we were not dragging, I changed from my bathing suit to shorts and got my sandals and off we went. Customs was north of the town and would have been a good walk from the town dock and although there was a dock there, it was for commercial traffic and not really suitable for dinghies. Martin showed me the office and then waited while I cleared in. A pretty simple process and that cost only $10 EC (about $4 US). Since we were probably going to be in the country more than 72 hours, I had to return when we were ready to clear out and I also had to go to immigration. Martin waited in the boat and then took me to immigration, which was in town. We docked at what was left of the town dock about 3 feet from a wrecked freighter (Hurricane Lenny). He then walked with me to the immigration office. I waited about 2 minutes and got our passports stamped. Martin then took me back to the boat and presented us with a fresh mango as a welcome gift. He also showed us how to eat one. I had tried mango before but this one was delicious and was the first I actually enjoyed. Welcome to Dominica; I liked it already. We had been en route for about 4 hours. |