Sunday 19th of January  Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth, Dominicia  15:34.769 N  61:27.733 W  Distance travelled 55 miles.

 

I had imagined the wind strength we could expect in the Caribbean would be 15-20 knots. Our experience to date is 20-25 knots. We weighed anchor in St. Pierre at 08.00 when many of the yachts who anchored for the night were already gone. Mount Pelee was still in cloud. Shelduck experienced an acceleration of wind as she approached the north of Martinique where it blew 23-27 knots for about 2 hours of sailing and then a steady 20 knots for the twenty miles of open water to the shelter of Dominica.

When in Marin I had checked my courtesy flags and noticed I had none for Dominica and so purchased one. Later I remembered I had none because I had decided back in Cork not to go there because or one pilot’s warning of thefts from boats and unruly behaviour among some of the young. In recent times things have improved in that the Indian River Guides with other businesses formed the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security (PAYS) They run regular patrols at night in the anchorage area and since they have been active there have been no problems in Prince Rupert Bay.

Sailing up the coast I first picked Salisbury as a place to anchor for the night but when we reached there it was very exposed in the strong wind blowing. Shelduck pressed on to Prince Rupert Bay and as she approached the harbour we were met by Eric Spaghetti one of the 10 PAYS members who share the work of approaching yachts. Seeing our ensign he immediately knew we were from Ireland and welcomed us to Dominica. He offered to help us anchor but because of the strong wind still blowing Anne asked him for a mooring which he helped us to tie to. The cost of the mooring was the equivalent of 7 euros for the night. Not only will PAYS provide security but they maintain the dinghy dock,  will take your laundry for cleaning, act as water taxis, and help you get fruit, bread and ice.

Eric asked us if we would like to take the Indian River trip, which is PAYS main business, and we were sad to tell him a fib that we would decide in the morning when we had planned to leave early. At our age we were nervous of a dangerous mosquito bite in the river.