12/1/14 Dominica - Isles des Saintes

Our sail from Dominica was another lively sail, but a lot more comfortable as we managed to avoid most of the squalls as they passed behind and in front.   The wind died as we approached the north of Dominica so we motor sailed for a little while just to keep up pace in the swell.  Once out of the lee of the island we had a great sail, and arrived in a small bay called Anse Fideling (although the sign ashore said Grande Baie) on one of the islands, Terre de Bas.  Mum had her first snorkel around the boat, not very much to see unfortunately but the water was clear and beautifully warm.  The anchorage was pretty calm with just a slight swell working its way in but we didn’t mind, the sun was shining and Pelicans all around us dived into the water to catch their supper.   The trees on one side of the bay had dozens of Pelicans nesting in them, quite a sight.

We ventured ashore in the dinghy looking for customs, a pleasant stroll along a wide residential street (chickens and goats roaming everywhere) brought us to a small harbour with local fishing boats and a small tourist office and a bar.  We were informed that they no longer had a clearing in/out facility and so we enjoyed a cold beer in the bar instead! 

The following day we had a pleasant morning lazing in the sunshine on deck, catching up with all the news from home with Mum, and then we said our temporary goodbyes to Steve and Angela on Pannikin and made our way out of the bay towards Guadaloupe.  Our generator had not started the day before, so we used our ‘donkey’ engine to operate the hydraulics to lift the anchor and we motorsailed to charge the batteries. We soon had a large squall pass behind us, and again we had luck in avoiding several more squalls on the sail across to Guadaloupe, some squalls completely blocking your vision of the neighbouring islands, but we stayed dry!