Bottom + Damp
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 1 Mar 2009 23:04
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Arriving in Dominica, a Dodgy
Bottom and Damp Doings
   We left Rodney Bay Marina at 12:30,
anchored out in the bay for lunch and prepared to sail at 18:30. Anchor up at
18:20 for the eighteen hour, 76.9 mile journey to Dominica. Final view of Rodney Bay, a nice sunset and in
the third photo you can just make out the coast of
Martinique. We had decided sadly to by-pass Martinique.
French holiday makers have been cancelling in their droves and we had heard
that fuel is being stolen from dinghies. Immigration told Bear that we were
yacht 79 to register this month in Rodney Bay and three weeks later the
number was 854, completely unprecedented. Most of this number is made up of
French yachtsmen leaving the French Caribbean Islands to go stock up and re-fuel
in Rodney Bay as things have become so desperate.
   I got up at 10:00 for my third shift
to find the boat in chaos. 300 litres or one whole tank of water had leaked
through the bookshelf in the office, through the bedding and into the bilges. A
pipe had come out of its fitting on top of the calorifier, ( hot water tank -
high in a cupboard in the office) the bilge pump was not on at the time so the
huge amount of water had had a few hours, soaking all our text books as we
were leaning that way on a starboard tack.
First sight of Dominica, the flag ceremony and a thoughtful Bear pondering the chaos below.
   The coast of
Dominica shows Pitons, whilst not as high as on St Lucia, shows rainfall
must be frequent to keep the level of greenery.
 The capital and our port of call -
Roseau.
   A real banana boat, one of the Geest Line. Safely on a buoy with Ocean
Village on the cruise ship quay and a shot of her leaving.
  Our welcoming committee was Roots and his six year old son. They helped us with the
buoy, gave us a business card should we wish him to organise any trips and
told us a lot of helpful stuff. I rang my brother Pete - aka Lord
Grisswold, he had been back from hospital about ten minutes having had his upper
humerus repaired by chippings from his hip. I'm sure there is a story there,
but, later. He is in quite a lot of pain at present, we wish him a speedy
recovery.
   After a stiff drink it was time to
get down to the nitty-gritty of toilet paper
insertion in between each page of our books.
 Next was a dip over the side, SHOCK
HORROR. Half the coral of St Lucia came for a ride. I
put the paint scraper through - showing the gap - to see if it came off
easily making thousands homeless. WE really do need to put some SUPER TOXIC
anti-fouling on in Trinidad when Beez comes out. Skipper went to report to
immigration at 16:00 to be told to come back at 18:00, where he waited until
19:00, returning at 20:30.
   The best part of the day was a really
special sunset.
   ALL IN
ALL Bloody glad to get into bed. Total miles
5298.
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