Dominica Rerun

It’s a pretty long jump to make it from Fort de France all the way up to Portsmouth, Dominica in daylight (approx 68 miles), but it’s doable with favorable winds and an early start. So we were up and at ‘em bright and early, and were underway before 6 AM. We motored along the lee shore of Martinique 15 miles up to the northern tip of the island, and then struck out for Dominica, about 30 miles away. These inter-island passages can be easy or difficult, and sometimes conditions don’t seem to match up with the forecast as quite as well as you’d hope. This time around though things went according to plan, and it was a nice sail across.

Once across into the lee of Dominica the seas calmed down, and we stayed a few miles offshore, so we held onto some wind for awhile and were able to sail on for a few miles before we had to turn the engine on again. After a pretty long, uneventful day we were approaching the harbor at Portsmouth when we saw really dark clouds easing over the mountaintops towards us, and before long we could see heavy sheets of rain pouring down, and heading towards us, eventually blotting out most of the land.

So it was back to closely watching the chart plotter screen and carefully checking our charts as we throttled down a little and crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t have to anchor in a full-on tropical downpour. Just as we eased into the bay the skies brightened up a little and the rain tailed off (thank-you!), and we found a nice spot just off the “Purple Turtle” bar & restaurant to drop the anchor in the large smooth bay.

We’re trying to get some miles under our belt on the way back home to St. Croix, so we only planned on anchoring overnight, and didn’t go ashore. The game plan is to head over to Marie-Gallant if the weather in the morning is favorable, or back up to Les Saintes if the wind is blowing out of the east. We enjoyed a quiet dinner aboard, and settled down for a calm evening of rest. And then came a “whoomp.” Whoomp-whoomp. Whoomp-whoomp, whoomp-whoomp-whoomp. Hmmm…that sounds like the bass line of some sort of music…and it is Saturday night…I guess they may have some music at the Purple Turtle tonight.

And so it continued until 4AM! The craziest thing is that when I looked ashore closely around 2AM, there didn’t appear to be anybody at the bar, but the music was blaring across the bay at sonic boom levels. Sheesh. So we slept in a little and didn’t get quite the early jump we’d hoped for - the wind was whistling too, so it looks like Marie-Gallant will have to wait until another time, we’re on our way to Les Saintes. Goodbye Dominica!