15:17.45N 61:22.81W

25 March 2012

So again with great confidence (not) we headed out at 08:00.  Motoring across the harbor was fine and heading north past our last point of turning around everything was fine.  Winds were fickle so no attempt was made to sail right now.  Heading up the coast we passed St Pierre the former important town of the Caribbean a 100+ years ago.  This was the trading capital for many things and it became known as the Petit Paris.  Life was good until things rumbled.  The town being isolated from the rest of the island by having effectively no roads chose to assume the rumbles were not a problem.  Even when a small eruption occurred at one of the plantation areas and several hundreds died the main town chose to stay put.  Hey this was a very important town with a lot at stake if it was evacuated.  So a few days later the main volcano let loose and the ash and fume descended on the town.  28,000 were killed, only a few escaped.  Many of the sailing ship and early steamers were also sunk in the harbor.  These are now dive spots even 110 years later.

The town is partially rebuilt but no longer is of any economic importance.  Still a place of interest.

So we continued on north and broke free of the shadow of the island.  Winds were nice and seas not too rough.  With half a main and ¼ headsail we sailed to Dominica at 8-9 knots.  Nice sail and not a wet one.

Arriving at Roseau, Dominica we were greeted by Pancho, listed in the guide book, who assisted us with getting a mooring and arranging a tour of the inland areas the next day.  Very energetic guy and happy.  Turns out the happiness is partially alcohol and partially locally grown vegetation.

The mooring here are stout looking but since we were in 35 meters of water it was not possible to check the integrity by diving down.  My guess is that the mooring were installed years ago and have little to no maintenance.  Time will tell.

The anchorage is totally exposed to the west and we had some roll to start.  As the night wore on the roll increased to being big.  It felt like being at sea with things banging around.  We were happy we book a tour the next morning to get off the boat.