11th June 2019
We had a lovely sail over. The wind was from the NE in the morning which meant the sail from Isle de Saints to off-Dominica was comfortable and FAST – averaging about 8 knots with periods nearer 10, despite relatively light winds.
We stayed well off the Dominican coast (4-5 miles off) to avoid the gusty conditions we experienced last time around. We found more consistent wind, too, with only a couple of shorter calm patches (and even then, enough to gently motor-sail at a semi-reasonable speed without taxing our engines). And no major gusts, which made for a more relaxed period in the day.
We came out of the wind-shadow of Dominica just as veg chilli and rice was finishing off on the hob. It was a bit rocky at that point, so Charlie didn’t fancy cooking naan breads, much to the disgust of Arthur who declared he didn’t want to eat anything without them, then fell asleep hungry. But anyway… The sailing picked up and the passage between Dominica and Martinique was lots of fun. We had a consistent 20 knots of wind, just far enough off the beam for comfort. Full main, a couple of reefs in the jib while we had dinner, and we were scooting along on top of some slightly choppy 1.5m or so waves. Hector was LOVING it, laughing and bouncing up and down as the boat was moving.
Then we arrived in the wind shadow of Martinique, the heavens opened with a heavy shower, and the wind disappeared completely. We arrived in St Pierre after the rain let up a bit, thankfully. We threaded our way through the fishing buoys (which are hard to spot, to say the least, in the dark) and found ourselves somewhere to anchor within easy kayak-ride of the pier. Coincidentally, within a few meters of were we anchored last time we were here!
