Moved on to Dominica

We had wonderful few days in St Pierre Martinique. We found a new spot to anchor and made for a much more pleasant stay. St Pierre is a very deep anchorage and holding a little tough. But we had a perfect spot and quite calm waters making it a great place to swim to a reef for some good snorkelling. We saw many interesting things and some large fish for a small spot. We took all our gear to shore and had a picnic and beach day which is always pleasant with a big shady tree. We were next to busy roadway and a tunnel. Why does everyone have to blow the horn while going through a tunnel? 

There were some interesting "art work" sort of totem poles with eyes on top at the tunnel. Not sure of the significance if any but cool. 

Our boat is only one you see. 

These eyes kept a good watch out for us. 

We crossed over to Dominica on Sunday Feb 12. We had more wind and waves than we bargained for and got pretty beat up. Including a squall with winds to 36 knots. But arrived safe and sound in the day light and reunited with Cat Tales. We re were welcomed with a meal of Dorado. It was delicious and great to see them again. 

Look at the water on the floor. 

But a beautiful sight were the Dolphins that followed us for a good 10 mins and at that time it was so calm Brian walked to the bow and took pictures. There were about a dozen in all. 

This week in Portsmouth has been Yatchie Appreciation Week and lots of BBQs and special events all week. We have taken in many events and have done a couple hikes on our own. This is a wonderful to hike and the trails are well laid out. Some hikes are much more challenging than I would wish for such as the one we did on Friday. It was wild! We left at 9:30 and walked on the road for about an hour to get to the trail start. Then It was straight up and down mountains and some points I was scared to death. But with the help of 7 other hikers I managed. Brian must have had some inside knowledge as he was up most of the night before with a gastro thing and couldn't join in. At one point there was a rope with knots dangling down the side of the hill and I really thought I couldn't do that but actually it was easy. I wished there had been more ropes. At least three of us fell on more than one occasion. Swinging from a tree hand hold was a good safety tool. Near the end was a suspension bridge to cross a small river. I am not good with heights either. But I just kept my head down and barrelled across it. I knew if I looked around or thought about it too much I would have been a goner!  Needless to say when it was over I was done! Mentally and physically! I can scratch that off my to do list! They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I am stronger. 

 You can see the others down below. 

A view from a lookout of Prince Rupert Bay.

It was very busy here with about 150 or so boats at the peak of the festivities. 

Dominica is a very beautiful island with lots of quick showers and lots of rainbows. 

 This is a view of the bay today from Fort Shirley and more than half the boats have moved on. 

Today's hikers ....we really weren't into it and cut short after about an hour and a half and made our way to a nice road side Roti place for lunch. 

We will leave towards the end of this week starting a slow trek south. Dawn and Laurie have company coming next week and we will probably have some fun with them. 

On Our Way North

We have spent couple of weeks in St Anne and Le Marin getting work done and spending a lot of time socializing with friends. We had two wonderful birthday parties at two great restaurants. We played a couple games of dominoes with new people. Often on a Sunday afternoon when a restaurant isn't too busy they open up a space for us to play. More often than not they sell a few beers and we don't leave a mess. So everyone is happy. We had 15 people at two tables last Sunday afternoon. We had a lovely dinner with our oldest friends... The Perrys, Marsha  just turned 80 and Bob is 85. Bob has not been feeling well this winter and it's tough to get on and off his boat and it would be even more difficult for them to get onto ours for dinner. So I made a big chicken stew in the pressure cooker and we took it to them. Their daughter and son in law are also visiting from New York and it was a very enjoyable evening all around. Bob certainly enjoyed the company and a change of pace. 

Since we are in a department (province) of France the food in restaurants is amazing and inexpensive but in the grocery stores not so much. As I shopped for the things I needed for the stew I was amazed and dismayed with what I found. I like celery in the stew with the leaves adding a lot of flavour. This sad specimen was the best I could find. I paid almost 5.00 CAN equivalent. I should have held it upright for the picture to show the true droopy condition. But on a good note I got 2.5 kg of chicken legs for only 7.00 CAN . Top it off with carrots and potatoes from Canada and good McCormick spices it was perfect. Mushrooms are totally unheard of here unless in a can :( . Dawn and I shared this large jar of freeze dried mushrooms at the beginning of the season. We paid 90 EC about 45$ CAN for the most tasteless rubber you ever tried to eat. I am learning just give up on what you can't readily find. 

Yes it was partly cut away. Paying by the kilo you just take what you need I guess. It was almost 2 feet long. 

 Brian is getting better use of the jar than we did the mushrooms. 

They also have a water service in St Anne and for .07 of a Euro per liter Chris the water guy delivers water to your boat. So for 7 euro we topped up our tank before leaving. A wonderful service for people like us who don't have a water maker. 

Brian worked hard on the alternator situation and with the help of another cruiser confirmed his findings that our brand new alternator is shot along with our old regulator. Another cruiser loaned us his regulator for the testing and then sold it to us when all was working. Thanks Pierre and Charlie! Now we must replace our new spare with yet another spare. Hoping the manufacturer offers some help on it. The raw water pump ...well there is another 600.00 problem! 

Last night we had three couples in for sundowners and snacks. These are some of the people we met our first year out and have remained good friends. Today we left St Anne.

We started off on a leisurely sail up the coast with 12-18 knot winds and had a most pleasant sail around Diamond Rock. Sometimes it can be very confused seas but today on main sail only with two reefs we were doing about 8 knots and barely a splash over the bow. We continued onto Anse Mitan anchorage across the bay from the capital Fort de France. The winds usually howl across this bay and today was no exception. We were splashed and salty after a couple tacks ( yes we tacked!) Before we were settled in at anchor we had a small shower to help with the salt. Since we are moving along later this week I will save the real clean up for later. Tomorrow we will take the ferry across to the capital, Fort de France, and do a little shopping and sight seeing. It is a lovely old city. Looking forward to it. 

We plan to carry on to Dominica by the weekend. The boat boys of Prince Rupert Bay anchorage are having Cruisers Appreciation week. I say boat boys but these are men who in an orderly manner wait for incoming boats to greet,offer their services for tours etc and generally are very welcoming. They also do night patrols of the bay to ensure safety. Sunday nights they put on a BBQ with potent rum punch followed by dancing on the sand. Monday is generally referred to as "recovery day". A few years ago Dominica was not a safe island for cruisers to visit but this group of men turned it around and made it not just a safe place but a very hospitable place to visit. The island is very lush and beautiful and much less developed than many other islands. We will have lots of hiking and snorkelling opportunities over the next week. The week of parties will be a lot of fun too. 

To answer our survey last blog..... We had so many people tell us how much they enjoyed it and keep it up was unanimouse. So here I go again. Thanks all.