Martinique to Dominica

We’re now writing to you from rainy Prince Rupert Bay, north Dominica.  We have sore legs from hiking, abandoned chores to do, and a weblog to assemble – so we’ll stay aboard for a day.

Cat Tales

Prince Rupert Bay taken from a hike up the Cabrits National park

We wrote last from St. Anne, Martinique in January 4th.  We stayed there a long time, finally leaving on Friday, January 24.  We had not intended to stay so long, but every time a weather window was on the horizon, another close friend was also “on the horizon”.  We enjoyed the company of Komeekha, and soon White Pearl was anchored with us, then Cloud Street arrived, then Fathom this, and finally, Aspen 1 came around the corner.  Most often we got together in the spacious living area provided by White Pearl, enjoying their hospitality for Happy Hours and even fabulous meals cooked by Maria.  It wasn’t just that, however, as Komeekha introduced us to a number of great people, leading to get-togethers in other cockpits.  Compared to past years, Cat Tales’ cockpit saw a lot less party-action.

Hike to Saline to an outdoor restaurant, which we hiked to twice since it’s such a shaded beautiful hour long hike!

Laurie preparing to head to White Pearl to work on Hugh’s tooth.  Check out all the tools required to get the job done!

Dentistry tools to get ‘er done!

Dinner on White Pearl (Maria and Hugh from Saint John, NB)

White Pearl anchored behind us in beautiful lighting

We had our usual “Cat Tales is going to town”, with us hauling a lot of dinghies to Marin for parts and groceries. It was a fun time, with a bottle of D’Aguiar’s Rum consumed on the casual trip back.  We did two more buses to Marin for parts, as things broke or fouled while we were anchored in St. Anne.  We also enjoyed another hike to Saline Point, two meals at Basilic, one at Pirate’s, and the obligatory Bokits and 50 cL Lorraines at BouBou’s – almost all with an entourage of friends.

The ladies of Aspen 1 were on short-time at St. Anne, and we found it advantageous to follow them around the corner for a day or two in Grande Anse D’Arlet.  Finally, we enjoyed clear water for swimming and snorkelling.  My first trip off the stern had me jump almost on the backs of two beautiful spotted eagle rays.  After a hike and tour of the town, we also got to visit our favourite, cool creperie for crepes and elusive IPAs.

Trip from St. Anne to Grand Anse D’Arlet

With Susan and Rachel at the Creperie restaurant complete with IPA, which we hardly ever find!

Rachel found herself in quite a spot during our hike, but we got her fixed up!

Monday the 27th had the two boats sailing to St. Pierre, where we quickly joined by Cloud Street.  The six of us took in a tour of the Earth Sciences Centre, with excellent information on the 1902 eruption that took 28000+ lives, all with a fantastic view of Pele herself.  

The magnificent Mount Pelee clear of clouds…a rare occurrence!

A last minute stock-up of Lorraine large beers before we hit Dominica

We followed that with a fabulous lunch at L’Alsace a Kay.  It sounds like Dawn and I are foodies when we do not see ourselves that way; but these restaurants are hard to ignore.  In reality, Dawn & I  prefer to eat out at lunch and then have a modest snack and wine instead of dinner.

The gang in St. Pierre having lunch.  Susan, Rachel (Aspen1), Joanna and Bill (Cloud Street)

Aspen out in the lead as we head out of St. Pierre, still in the lee of the island for protection.  It certainly didn’t stay that flat for long!

Leaving Cloud Street to return to St. Anne, Aspen 1 and Cat Tales had a beautiful sail to Portsmouth from St. Pierre on Monday January 27th.  Double reefed but with the bit of jib hanked over to the toe rail, we got speeds from 6.5 to 9 knots in the topsy-turvey 2 metre waves.  We took some blue water into the cockpit, but we’re used to that.  Aspen 1 did very well, using much of their cutter rig.  Staying well out from shore as we carried on along the side of Dominica, Cat Tales only had to motor enough to make the 35 minutes of water-making-duty before we crossed Prince Rupert Bay to anchor.  Since arriving, we have had amazingly wet weather, wiping out the idea of rainforest hikes.  The rain has allowed us to collect a lot of laundry water, and some extra time for reading so that’s nice.  We have run ashore for groceries and a search of shops for deals on Demerara rums. The island is looking pretty good since their last hurricane.  The foliage is mostly back and the Portsmouth buildings have been repaired or rebuilt.  

These guys worked all morning on this huge swordfish!

Swordfish head

The winds deposited this in the worst possible place directly in front of the Madiba restaurant.  It will take years before it’s decided to be hauled away!

During this wet period, Dawn and I took some time aboard to work on a Zoom meeting.  I (Laurie) presented a 40 minute talk to 60 members of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineers on Fredericton’s early water supply history.  We got some good questions, which I’m told (by my loyal brother Michael who was one of the attendees) means they were interested and enjoyed it.  I’ll take that!  I might even get some book sales through Amazon! 

  We’ve been joined by friends Barbara and Andrew of “Falcon One”, and just three days ago Anina and Charlie of “Prism” sailed in.   The latter two joined us for a hike up the Cabrits Park and a meal in one of the two new and snazzy Douglas Bay restaurants.  As our first contact with them in over a year, we were quite excited.  You may notice the absence of Steve and Maria in the last few issues.  They have been much slower heading north, both for technical reasons and for a growing preference for flat water.  They made it out of Bequia and had spent some time in Rodney Bay to replace a destroyed windlass and to troubleshoot an engine problem.  Last reports have them on a ball in flat Marin.  We do expect that they will soon again be under way.  Indeed, they have a haulout booked for Jolly Harbour Antigua at season’s end.

Last report for this issue is that we have found that a favourite restaurant, an international/Chinese place that hangs over the laughing Picard River, is back open after almost a decade.  Yesterday, Susan, Rachel, Dawn and I were on a treck to the old Ross University area looking for provisions (found a bottle of Angostura rum!), when Rachel insisted on checking on it.  We had a fabulous meal in the tidiest, prettiest restaurant we’ve found.  Unlike before the hurricanes, the wooden patio over the river is gone, but the repaired wall has windows that allow all of the sound of the river through.

The brook right beside the Chinese Restaurant

We used to eat here years ago, but Hurricane Maria had put a stop to it.  It was wonderful to stumble upon it again!

We spotted our friend Max in this little take-out restaurant on our way back, maybe our next eating spot!  Max runs a taxi and tour service and we’ve known him for a while.  Great smile on this guy!

While the gals were inside the grocery store, Charlie and Laurie found a little bench in the shade to wait for us!  They’ve read most of the same books, heard most of the same music, and share the same positions on the problems of the world!

TECHNICAL

Amazingly, we’ve suffered no troubles, and I refuse to be superstitious about it.  Dawn is asking more and more strongly for me to switch out the 35 ampere alternator on the port engine, so it can be used more often – as the port engine charges our hot water tank.  I’m usually bathing buck naked in the ocean, so I don’t see it as a priority – but I’ll put it on the list.

 

Bequia to St. Lucia to Martinique

Our time in Bequia was lovely and lively, with numerous hikes to the usual spots and usual enjoyment of the restaurants and bars.

The group of us visited the Heritage Museum in Bequia which was well worth the visit.  A talk was given by an interesting lady complete with slides.  We hung onto every word as she talked of the history of Bequia and the art of landing a whale, of which is still done today, following the guidelines set by the government and international whaling law.

This is a huge whale bone.

We found a weather window for our trip to Rodney Bay, and when we announced it, White Pearl insisted on a pre-Christmas party on their boat.  It was attended by Steve and Maria and their guest Patty, Frank and Marie Claude, Joanna and Bill, as well as the hosts and us.  It was a truly great evening. The next day, December 21, Cat Tales had a lovely sail to Chateaubelaire, St. Vincent, and a quiet night once the local kids stopped saying hello and swam to shore.  The anchorage was very picturesque, with 5 other boats keeping us company.  As the location has had trouble in the past, I asked on the radio what frequency everyone monitors at night, but I was not surprised when no answer came.  The use of cell phones has made people a lot less responsible.  We were underway before daylight at 6, simply because two boats were surprisingly circling us to anchor in the dark and we expected they’d be a complication to us.

Pre-Christmas potluck dinner aboard White Pearl (Hugh and Maria from Saint John, NB) with Steve and Maria and friend Patty, along with Joanna and Bill

…and what comes after a very long hike in the heat??  Lunch and several beers, of course!

Arriving at the Pitons in St. Lucia is always a stunning sight!

Our overnight spot at Chateaubelaire, St. Vincent…stunning scenery!

It was an easy sail to Rodney Bay, with two reefs in the main and around half the jib in use.  The seas were rough, but we missed squalls and troubles, travelling between 6 and 7.5 knots.  We were tired after a day of hanging on, and slept well in Rodney, just behind Komeekha by Reduit Beach.  We cleared customs the next day and arranged a lunch with John Fallon.  It was a great visit, and though we saw him a bit afterward, we were surprised with a good weather window and left for Ste Anne on the 29th.  On Christmas day, we had Marie Claude and Frank aboard for lasagne. We only had drinks with two guests on New Years Eve: Zeke and Halley of Wabi Sabi, the big schooner cat.  Still, we’ve had a meal at Le Sextante, had our usual shopping spree in Marin, and had a lovely sundowner party on a vessel named “Entomo”.  The name comes from Captain Guy’s career in entomology.  He has lectured for international universities on the subject as well as a significant tenure at McGill.  This has been followed by another great sundowner party aboard Falcon I, with Barbara and Andrew of Ontario.  We’ve also had our usual hiking and dining experience to Saline Point.  It’s an hour hike to get to the restaurants at Saline, and a longer trudge back after lunch and a couple beers!

Lunch at the Basilic Restaurant in Martinique with Frank and Marie Claude from Quebec.  We must say, besides being lovely friends, it was nice to have fluent French talkers when hanging about a French island with them!

Frank and Marie Claude were stuck paddling since they’re still waiting for a part for their dinghy engine.  Whenever we could we’d pick up their line and tow them one way or the other.  Frank was starting to resemble Popeye! (BTW, Laurie picked out this shirt last season, all by himself! :)

A traditional Yole sailboat.  You should see these things go.  When they race out in the bay, it’s spectacular!

One of the shortest trips is the north end of St. Lucia to the south end of Martinique, and we had the perfect direction and speed of wind to make everyone onboard happy! 

We’re not sure what we will do next, but we need one or more trips into Marin, and maybe some hiking before we begin looking for a weather window.  We may only go to St. Pierre, one of our favourite anchorages – intriguing views, history, geology, and beautiful clear water for swimming and wreck-snorkeling.

 

TECHNICAL

Well, the spilled gear oil was more tenacious than expected.  A second cleaning was required with a spray of degreaser, a scrub, and a cloth followed by a vinegar wash.  It isn’t yet perfect, but the smell is down a lot.

Besides that, we were thinking we were getting off rather lucky compared to others in our little group:  Fathom This didn’t make it out of the boatyard because their rudder had completely seized.  Then when they finally did get underway more than a week later, their windlass electric motor dropped off the windlass.  They are under way now, and indeed just arrived at Ste Anne with us.  Savannah Sky took off north as soon as their time was up at the marina in St. George’s, but when they attempted to anchor in Tyrell Bay, the windlass totally failed.  They have made it to a mooring ball in Bequia – their second, as the first mooring ball let go in the middle of the night.  White Pearl had a similar windlass failure when attempting to up-anchor in Chateaubelaire Bay, SVG.  They are having it sorted in Rodney Bay right now.  I can brag that we have had many windlass failures, and have so far been able to up-anchor manually – a “little boat” benefit.  Komeekha had their troubles too, with some engine work needed, and a totally failed outboard for their dinghy (our cars down here).  Frank has ‘enjoyed’ his extra workouts at the oars, though often someone shows up to haul or ferry them.  He is anchored in front of us at Ste. Anne, and is enjoying a borrowed outboard – albeit an outboard that has required a lot of his attention.  The worst problem was suffered by our friend Jock, who was dismasted at Kick-Em-Jenny.  The mast came straight back on his West System boat, hit his dinghy davits and knocking his davits, his dinghy, and the complete outer skin of the back of his cockpit into the angry sea.  He’s been rebuilding from scratch at the St. David’s boatyard.

Laurie chasing and fixing a leak in the starboard hull hatch.

So, just to keep up, we had a seal failure in the seawater pump for the port engine, showing up with a scary filled bilge.  I took the opportunity to upgrade some hoses and also learned from Frank of s/v Komeekha how to replace the seal without dismantling the pump.  Still, it was hot work over more than two days. 

We have a new ding on the starboard bow and we must find smaller amounts of gel coat for sale somewhere.  Whatever one buys is solid or ruined before a year is up, and they don’t give that stuff away…