Wet and windy in Dominica.
Oriole
Mon 28 Mar 2016 14:54
Prince Rupert's Bay,
Dominica. Monday
28th March 2016
15:34.87N 61:27.81W
On Sunday from St Lucia we had a good 20
knot wind on a beam reach which we carried right up the lee side of
Martinique to St Pierre ready for an early start for Dominica on Monday.
There is a lot of Zika virus reported in Martinique so we had decided not to
linger here. We had more great sailing conditions but with big seas piling up at
the south end of Dominica so that a couple of nearby yachts were completely
disappearing in the swells.
Our good friend Martin of Providence welcomed us as
we anchored close to Moonsong who had invited us aboard for supper. All
the boatboys have wanted to hear the unexpurgated version of our tangle with the
ferry in Tyrrel Bay as of course we failed to get this far north last
year.
There are a good number of Ocean Cruising Club
boats in the anchorage with some very keen walkers amongst them. Sadly
John has a broken toe which has curtailed our walking activities to the least
arduous such as early morning up the Indian River with
Martin.
Martin rows us up the Indian River at
0630
featuring Johnny Depp's eco-hotel left
over from the Pirates of the Caribbean film set ..............
........... and the amazing Swamp
Bloodwood roots, and heavy rain (not shown!)
The toe is firmly strapped to its neighbour and is
making good progress. There has been much partying and we organised a
get together of 12 boats (mainly OCC members) for rum punch and nibbles on the
beach on Saturday evening.
Who's for another rum
punch?
There is a strong pressure gradient across the
Caribbean at the moment with winds in the passges between the islands up to 40
knots with lots of rain squalls and 3 meter seas. Yesterday it rained and
blew all day, and today, albeit with some blue sky, it is blowing over 30 knots
in the anchorage, so for the time being we are staying put as we have no wish to
punish ourselves and we await more clement conditions - perhaps we are
getting a bit soft.