Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 24 Dec 2013 17:56

15:34.8N 61:27.7W

 

Sun  22nd Dec

 

We did not get away quite as bright and early as we had sort of planned on Sunday morning and so found that most yachts travelling north had already left.  We raised the anchor and headed off just in time to avoid yet another massive downpour that seemed to swallow up St Pierre behind us.

 

The wind was a steady 15 to 20 knots as we headed up towards the north end of the island and gradually as we approached the open Atlantic again, the swell increased.  Before long we were clear of the lee of Martinique and exposed to the full force of the Atlantic rollers and cross waves that had been building for two weeks now due to the unseasonal strong NE trade winds.  The wind peaked around 30 knots and we were actually pleasantly surprised to find that the big seas we had been warned about were not quite as bad as we had feared – that, or perhaps we are just getting inured to these monsters now!

 

We sailed past several other yachts that had set out before us, scampering along at 9 knots and so it only took us a few hours to punch our way across the 20 mile gap to Dominica.  We were pretty lucky with the squalls as well, since most of them passed either behind or just in front of us, so we did not spend all of the time clad in oilskins, however we did take plenty of green water over the boat when the odd rogue wave slammed into our starboard forward quarter and engulfed us with warm sea water.

 

Once we had reached the southern tip of Dominica, the island blanketed us from the big seas, but sadly it also broke up the steady underlying wind and so we found ourselves alternating between sailing at 8 knots in 25 knots of wind and motor-sailing in zero wind.   But this is very much the nature of the Eastern Caribbean where the islands all provide this type of shelter. Dominica is renowned for the downdrafts the particularly high hills produce and so we had to keep the sails well reefed to cope with the 25 and 30 knot gusts when they hit us, but felt rather foolish when sailing at barely 3 knots with such big reefs in the sails.  And Rob was not at all tempted by Sarah’s suggestion at one stage about raising Flossie with the potential of a short sharp shock of high winds and a shredded sail!

 

By mid-afternoon we had reached Portsmouth which is in Prince Rupert Bay.  This anchorage in the height of a busy season will have upward of 150 boats visiting, but we were a little surprised to find barely 15 yachts. There was however the Super Yacht ‘Serene’ which is a staggering 440 ft. long (one of the biggest in the world) and this was on charter to Oprah Winfrey who comes here every year we have now been told.

 

We found Ruffian at anchor and dropped our hook close by, but Iain and Fiona were not on board to welcome us as they had gone ashore for a walk.  They appeared an hour or so later approaching in their dinghy singing (read ‘murdering’) We wish you a Merry Christmas.  They kindly invited us over for supper in the evening and it was a condition that we brought along Mexican Train.  Sadly for Iain, his run of good fortune (that he has long claimed was ‘skill’) ran out and he came a humiliating last.

 

Very gusty night again and we were subjected to squalls containing torrential rain and strong winds. Not quite what we had been hoping for.