Wednesday 4-April: After our short over night stop in this little piece of France, we get the outboard on the rail, dinghy up and ready to finish our journey to Dominica. Pssss, dont tell anyone that we may have forgotten to check into Martinique! Well, we are Europeans after all, surely there is no need to check in?
The distance to the main town of Roseau on Dominica is 50 miles, and almost half of that will be going up the east coast of Martinique, which is the biggest island yet, for us. We expect to have to motor as we pass the several volcanic peaks, but as we depart the wind is funneling strongly through the Fort de France Bay, blasting us along on a broad reach out to sea. As we pass the capital, Fort de France, where 1/4 of the island’s 420,000 population live, we comment that it looks like any other large city on the coast of France.
Rather than hugging the coast where the wind will be fickle and gusty, we stay about 4 miles offshore. Here, at first, the wind remains strong and we also get a great view of the several volcanic peaks inland. As we pass each peak the wind swings all over the place, meaning that we are constantly trimming the sails. The vang is really not doing anything now (due to the hydraulic leak) so the boom is waivering all over the place as gusts hit us. Well, at least it’s successfully spilling the wind out the top of the sail!
Finally we draw level with the north tip of Martinique and the wind quickly builds to 23knots. We still have a full main and genoa so rather than reefing we crack off the wind a little and Cloudy Bay thunders along at 10-11 knots giving us a thrilling and rather wet ride. But soon we are doing the same speed even after Glen has spilled wind from the main which is now mostly backed, so it’s time for a reef before we break something. Reefing with the hydraulics is as easy as pressing buttons …. well that’s exactly how we do it. Glen watches the sails from above the bimini while Oana presses the outhaul “in” and mainsail “in”. Furling the main is actually very technique sensitive, but we are very good at it now, as a team. So much so that neither one of us could probably do it alone now! Hmmm maybe we need to practice that? And of course, within 5 mins of reefing, the wind is back down to the steady 12-15knts as forecast. So very quickly the sails are both back out again to their full, and we happily charge along at a steady 8 knots. We try fishing. After 5 mins the line is spooling out. As Glen reels it in he comments, “I think it’s only a small one”. We furl the genoa away completely to kill some speed then continue to reel in the line ….. only to find it is a lump of weed! 30 minutes later the same thing happens, so we give up our fishing for the day.
As we approach Dominica there are huge patches of the same Atlantic sea weed. As we hit a particularly big one we feel the speed slightly drop, but Cloudy Bay parts the weed in two and we are off again.
Dominica is now looking very impressive, the multiple volcanic peaks going from sealevel up and into the clouds. This is the most mountainous and the least spoilt island in all the Antilles. They don’t allow big hotels, casinos, all inclusive resorts. They only want to attract tourists who appreciate the wilderness. But sadly it was also badly hit by hurricane Maria in September 2017 and is still recovering. As we approach, Oana reads Facebook cruising group pages that tell of many yachties who have recently dedicated their time and money to help rebuild, including ferrying needed items from Martinique and Guadeloupe. From our offshore position most of the colourful houses look OK, but the jungle still looks ravaged, like someone has stripped off all the greenery. We pass La Soufrierre Bay (every island seems to have a bay of this name!) and the Scotts Head village on the SW tip. All designated national park, so no anchoring allowed.
5 miles north, along the west coast, we arrive at Roseau, the main town. Quite a stark contrast to the main city on Martinique. This one is just a village, it’s shoreline bartered and heaped with dead trees, wood and buckled sheet of corragated roofing. As per our information we call Marcus on the VHF for a mooring buoy. He instantly answers and is there to meet us in his boat marked “Marcus Security”. He vows to look after our boat even when we are away and recommends all sorts of tours for us tomorrow. We will be glad to spend some dollars here to help this island. In the past years the island had a very poor reputation for crime agains yachts and it was strongly advised never to leave a boat unattended. But more recently agencies have got together to make it more secure, given the only foreign money to the island comes from the few visiting yachts and cruise ships.
We finally get to eat lunch at about 6pm, then watch the best sunset we have seen since Barbados. Once the sun has gone, a lovely cool breeze comes from the land as the colder air falls off the mountains. Considering the pilot says this is a rolly anchorage, it turns out to be remarkably flat water, and very peaceful. Around us are maybe 5-6 other cruising yachts, but that is it. It’s too late to complete the check-in formalities so we just have a quiet evening on Cloudy Bay to gentle rocking and the sounds of waves on the shore and dogs barking in the village.