13:00.59N  61:14.51W

 

Wednesday 20 to Wednesday 27 May 2015

 

Total Distance Run  218 nm:-

 

 

Les Saintes to Roseau, Dominica, 40 nm

 

Dominica to Grande Anse d’Arlet, Martinique, 53 nm

 

Grande Anse d’Arlet to Le Marin, Martinique, 18 nm

 

Le Marin, Martinique to The Pitons, St Lucia, 45 nm

 

The Pitons to Bequia, 62 nm

 

 

After three pleasant nights in Les Saintes the weather was looking good on Wednesday 20th to get underway again.  A leisurely departure around 10am after clearing out of Customs and Immigration was followed by the usual confused seas near the islands which settled down about 8 miles out.  We saw our first whale, leaping three times about 100 metres ahead of us.  We kept a careful eye out as whales are not something we particularly want to get close to.  It was travelling in our direction and as far as we could tell didn’t come close under us.  We have read too many reports of yachts running over whales or whales becoming either aggressive or ‘affectionate’ with boat hulls and causing great damage so we were elated to see a whale and relieved when it disappeared!

 

Once we reached the lee of Dominica we continued sailing in quiet water but alternated between sailing and motoring as the wind either died or reversed direction.  We have been to Portsmouth in the north of the island before but decided to carry on to Roseau, the capital, near the south.  The southern tip of Dominica seems always to be very windy and starting from Roseau would enable us to get through that section in early morning before the wind picked up.

 

We took a mooring laid by ‘SeaCat’ with the help of Desmond who also arranged for us to tie our stern to a second mooring.  This held the boat so the bow would face the swell from the south and turned what would be a very rolly spot into something very comfortable for the night. 

 

The shoreline at Roseau was not inspiring although it would be good one day to go ashore and see the capital.

 

 

The rocky shore:-

 

 

 

 

 

There is a bar hidden in the trees to the right of the turquoise house:-

 

 

 

On Thursday we left Roseau bound for St Pierre on the north coast of Martinique.  Even though we passed the southern tip of Dominica earlier in the day than usual there didn’t seem to be any less of a blast and we had continuous 28-30 knot winds for two or three hours.  The wind was coming from the south east which wasn’t advertised but eventually settled into a more usable easterly.  We reached St Pierre about 1.30pm and, as the sea state was good (it can be unpleasant along the west coast of Martinique) we continued to Grand Anse d’Arlet and picked up a free mooring buoy around 4pm.

 

We were glad of the extra miles but, as on the two previous visits, the bay was exceptionally rolly to the extent that glasses and dinner plates made several attempts to leave the table during dinner in the evening.  This bay is now crossed off the list!

 

The next day we were glad to get away and, as we needed some fresh water and wanted to run the watermaker (which needs the engine running to charge the batteries) we  motored our way around to Le Marin which would provide good shelter from the anticipated strong winds over the next few days.  We could top up with diesel and get some things from the very good chandleries.  As it is our 22nd wedding anniversary today we were keen to get the trip over with and celebrate with a nice dinner at a favourite French restaurant this evening.

 

The trip was short but we could still make around 170 litres of water in the two and a half hours the watermaker was running.  Once we anchored in Le Marin I was surprised to see that the water level in the tanks had not increased.  After some checking the bilges I found they were about 8 inches deep with water!  When running the watermaker I do intermittent checks to make sure the pumps are running correctly and pipe connections are not leaking and everything had been fine.  I eventually found that although the connections were good one pipe was perished and had broken under the floor boards.  So we had made 170 litres of water and pumped it all straight into the bilges!

 

We had a cuppa and spent the next 4 hours pumping out, transferring water to buckets, lugging them up top and throwing the contents overboard, removing and drying all the items stored in the bilges (fortunately most are fittings made to be in water).  Happy Anniversary.  ‘Oh how we laughed’. 

 

Then we raised anchor and motored into the marina and filled the water tanks from their tap!

 

This is unrelated to the water pipe problem in the engine room but I am getting quite accomplished at plumbing.

 

After 3 days of chandlery visits, during which I was unable to source suitable dedicated watermaker piping, the winds abated and we set off on Tuesday for St Lucia.  We had a very nice sail between the islands and, having reached Rodney Bay in the north of St Lucia in good time we continued instead down the length of the island to pick up a mooring between The Pitons near the south.

 

The following day we set off in light winds with the intention of by passing the next island, St Vincent, and going on to Bequia.  St Vincent doesn’t have a good reputation for security and whilst we haven’t had a problem there it was good to skip it and make progress.  We counted at least 11 other boats doing the same passage and not one stopped in St Vincent.  That’s a lot of commercial opportunities missed and hopefully one day the government or the yachting industry there will take steps to improve things as they have done in Dominica.

 

The winds were very light so several of us attempted to sail down the eastern, windward side of the island where we hoped to find more wind.  This didn’t work out and we hit calms and adverse current whilst those who went down the ‘chicken’ western side experienced wind filling in opposite to the forecast direction (wind reversal caused by heat on the land) and they reached Bequia two hours before us!  Good job we weren’t racing which I decided after the event we weren’t.

 

So on Wednesday we had reached Bequia and completed 380 nm of the journey from Anguilla to Grenada and have just 70 left.  Strong winds are coming again for the next few days so we, along with many others, are sitting out our time in lovely Bequia.

 

 

Lin had an opportunity to visit the Bequia market stalls:-

 

 

 

 

 

And every Saturday the ‘the Meat Man’ visits.  He is advertised over the morning VHF radio net as ‘best supplier of beef, pork, foul and goat’.  Lin bought a few things but skipped the last one:-

 

 

 

Lin said several customers were flinching as ‘the axe man’ came within millimetres of his fingers which all seem surprisingly to be in place.