15 17 200N 61 22 600W

Joy
Fri 14 Feb 2014 19:04

9/1/14 Martinque to Dominica

We left Martinique in rain with poor visibility, Pannikin were sailing alongside us.  As we entered a wind acceleration zone at the north of the island we were hit with a nasty squall bringing very strong gusts, heavy rain and a very large swell.  We reduced sail area again, and battled against the elements, a great introduction for Mum on heavy weather sailing!  Waves hit the boat side on and crashed into the cockpit, with eyes stinging with the salt we battled on, watching Pannikin behind us rounding up into the wind with the strong gusts.  We maintained 6-9 knots and were pleased to arrive into calmer water when reaching Dominica at about 3pm. We sailed to the town of Roseau and took up a mooring buoy off the Anchorage Hotel, the water here is deep some 30 metres close in to shore.  We enjoyed a roast chook or two with the Aussies on Pannikin that night and discussed the eventful days sailing!

We took the dinghy to the cruise dock the following day, and explored the wonderful town of Roseau. Colourful buildings, lots of lovely shops and street sellers, and then we found the fresh produce market on the edge of the dock with every sort of fruit and veg you can imagine. The place was buzzing.

The mooring was very peaceful, the sound of chickens and dogs ashore occasionally breaking the silence.  We stayed an extra night here as we had a few repairs to do on Joy, the foils on the forestay had come apart in one place, so with Steve’s help we dropped the genoa onto the deck and Jez went up the mast and made his way down each of the foils on the forestay checking each one and fixing the two that had come apart.  Now we were able to use the genoa again.  Reluctantly we left Dominica, this is somewhere we would definitely like to come back to and explore, the people were friendly and the landscape is stunning and unspoilt.

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