Harbour rot cured
Oriole
Sun 11 Jan 2004 22:02
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The combination of the Christmas and New Year
celebrations with strong winds and big seas induced a severe dose of
harbour rot which reached its crescendo at 0600 on Sunday morning, the time at
which we had decided to sail up from Martinique to Dominica. Some yachts
had been reporting having hard times on inter-island passages and we did not
want to be included in their number. But we had a schedule to keep to and
Ian and Lynn were arriving in Guadaloupe on Saturday. Well, we had a
magnificent sail in big seas and strong winds on the beam and dropped anchor in
Prince Rupert Bay Dominica 70 miles later with any remnants of this severely
incapacitating condition blown away. We made friends with the boat boys
promising them lots of business on our return in February and then sped on our
way across the short passage to the Isles des Saintes. It would be perhaps a
little insulting to say that this little group of islands, part of
Guadaloupe, is populated by French drop-outs. The chique and bohemian
flavour is undoubtedly created by the old locals, largely fishermen, and
new incomers who have built up tourist businesses to cater for cruise ships
and day trippers.
 Once the cruise ships had
left we had the place to ourselves.
The result is captivating and our wallets felt
the worse for wear when we left for Guadaloupe. We did another
dive, not spectacular but great fun, and Chris fell for the young
blonde bearded dive instructor.
The Dive Instructor.
I suspect we will be back for more. Lynn and
Ian joined us after their exhausting schedule and have been greeted with more
unusual Caribbean weather, cold and rain. As I write the cabin
temperature is just under 30C, most unusual! And today we sailed back to
the Saintes!
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