Change in Itinerary

For those of you who do not know, our plans have changed.  Originally, we figured we’d be in Panama by now and waiting our adventure through the Panama Canal.  Then we were going to head north to either California or Seattle.  We’ve reconsidered.  There have been many issues to ponder … such as safety, security, maintenance, upgrades we’d like done, dental issues, condo issues, etc.  All of these added together made our decision rather easy.  We will head back to the east coast of the US.  State-side, we will be able to more easily achieve the tasks at hand AND we will work to replenish our cruising fund.  We are not sure yet where we will find work so our return location is unknown at this time.  We just know that it will need to be coastal since we will still live on Soulmatie while we are land-based.

Shortly, we will begin the trek north, exploring our favorite spots or those islands we blew by on the way south.  We hope to be back state-side in either late December or early January but it will be completely weather dependent. 

Hope to see you all soon.

Even in Paradise, Life isn't Perfect

SV Soulmatie has spent the past 2.5 months anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada.  We have left for short excursions to explore surrounding bays but have always returned, anchoring within feet of our original spot.  Boats anchored nearby have called this part of the bay home for months/years and welcomed us.  We have felt safe here; a great anchorage, with great neighbors. 

So … it is with deep disappointment we must report this news. 

On Sunday, October 6, 2013 SV Soulmatie was anchored off Calabash Beach, in Prickly Bay, Grenada.  We (Larry & Tracy Lambert) left our vessel (via dinghy) at approximately 1:45pm and headed to Prickly Bay Marina to join fellow cruisers in a game of Dominos.  The vessel was secure; all hatches, ports, and companionway entries locked.  Nobody was told where we were going or how long we’d be gone.

Sometime between 1:45pm and 4:30pm, Soulmatie was boarded.  Our forward companionway was forced open.  The teak trim was chiseled and damaged to obtain access to the metal locking bar.  The metal was bent until the secured door opened freely.  An unknown number of intruders entered our vessel … our home.

We returned to Soulmatie around 4:30pm when we discovered the crime.  Cash and electronics valued around $2K - $3K were missing.  This included two Kindles/chargers/leather cases, Canon underwater camera/case/memory cards, IPOD/IPOD speakers, and various other items … but most importantly, two Acer notebook computers.  For those of you who have read our blog or e-books, you know these computers are barely 3-months old … purchased during our time in St. Thomas.  These computers are our livelihood.  We are documenting our cruising adventures and all our financial data, files, research, etc were on those computers.  Our life was documented on those computers.  Also, we were both near completion of our next fiction novels.  All data was backed up between the two computers.  We had no reason to think our computers would be stolen and naively trusted Prickly Bay, Grenada to be a safe and secure harbor.  We were sadly mistaken.  Our next book in our cruising series was to be “A Safe Harbor - Weathering Hurricane Season in Grenada”.  All the research and prep-work is gone.  Now what do we write about this beautiful island after being violated in this manner?  How safe is safe?  We’ve heard about a growing number of crimes over the months we’ve resided here and it is disconcerting.

Although we are saddened by the events that have affected our lives the past couple of days, we consider ourselves blessed.  Given the severity of some of the most recent crimes, we are grateful we were not onboard at the time of the incident and there was no violence.  There were no injuries except to an intruder who left blood droplets in our cockpit.  He must have injured himself trying to break open the lock.  Our hearts go out to those cruisers who weren’t as fortunate as us and sadly, weren’t ashore during their criminal attacks.  May God bless you in your period of healing.

We will remain optimistic … from all tragedy, comes good.  It is times like this that you realize how strong the sailing community is.  We have had many offers of help & moral support from many cruisers … some already friends, and some who were strangers until today.  Thanks to all of you.  A special thanks goes out to Mark from ‘Sea Life’ and to Rescue One for all your assistance as liaison between Soulmatie, the Grenada Police, and fellow cruisers who may have witnessed the event.  Your help is invaluable and very much appreciated.  Thanks again!

As hurricane season winds down and we head our separate ways, Soulmatie wishes everyone a safe journey. 

Fair winds and calm seas,

Larry & Tracy Lambert

SV Soulmatie

Steering Issues

We are safely back in Prickly Bay after a couple short trips up to Carriacou and Isle De Ronde.  Tested out our steering, but the hydraulic ram rebuild was not successful and we lost steering again in the rough waters up near Kick'em Jenny.   Larry had to pour hydraulic fluid into the steering system's resevoir as fast as it leaked from the ram for a couple hours. So, now we sit and wait for a brand new ram we've ordered from the states.

Another found bottle!

We received this email and photo:  "Bottle 15 found Sept 21st in Big Pine Key, FL by brothers following a dive trip. This was our only keeper of the day! "  So this bottle traveled over 2 months and over a thousand miles to get itself back to Florida!

Life in Grenada

Hi All,   we are sitting here in southern Grenada with many other cruisers, awaiting the end of hurricane season.  What are we doing?   Being lazy, drinking margharitas?   Well, not only that, but much more.  Going on hikes, riding our bikes, lots of snorkeling - it is now lobster season (sept 1st) but haven't found any yet.  Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary of leaving Florida and setting sail.  We have had a lot of fun, and done a lot of work.  On the boat, we had our hydraulic steering RAM re-built.  We just had to replace all our main house batteries - a BIG expense out here in the islands.  Still finding and patching small tears in our worn-out mainsail - soon it will look like we are sailing with a patchwork quilt, so I guess we can claim that we are into arts and crafts too?  Still writing and publishing, though we are behind in getting out our Windward Islands cruising blog and photos into book form as we have both been working on fiction.   Just search amazon.com for "soulmatie" and you will see everything we have out.

Going for a test sail tomorrow, to northern Grenada, Ronde Island and then maybe Carriacou and Petite Martinique and then back to southern Grenada, so will not have internet for a little while probably.

Grenadines

We are in the Grenadines.  We went to Bequia on the 8th (Admiralty Bay).  Everyone told us how much we'd love this place but to us, there was so much garbage and non-friendly locals that we really didn't care much for it.  It could have been a remarkable place if the people just cared a little about their island.  Too bad.

From there we went around to the south side for a couple of days.  We left Admiralty Bay on the 12th and headed to Friendship Bay, Bequia.  Not much better.  We tried to snorkel but there was trash in the water and it really turned us off.  Nothing like floating along and having a bottle hit you in the head or get smacked in the face with a chip bag .... if you weren't watching where you were swimming.  Oh well ... hope all the Grenadines aren't like this.

From Bequia we sailed the short 7 miles to Mustique.   This is a private island for the rich and famous but they allow us to explore freely (as long as we don't trespass on private property).  This was so much nicer.  The waters are beautiful and there is no trash strewn about.  We really enjoyed Mustique.  The only drawback is that it cost $200 EC (about $75 US) for 3 nights.  That includes a mooring so it's not too bad.  The first two nights were awesome ... last night was very rolly.  The winds must have shifted even though the weather forecast states they haven't!

Today we move on.  We are undecided whether we will stop in Canouan (it's also private but about 1/2 the island is blocked off and secure and you are not allowed on it).  If we pass Canouan, we will stop in either Mayreau or Tobago Cays.  We're looking forward to this because it is much more remote. 

Not sure when we'll have internet again but will try to write asap.

Between the Pitons, St. Lucia

This is the first update in our revised blog format.  Instead of reporting daily on this site, I will post minimal information to let everyone know we are alive and well.  You can read our day to day synopsis through our books on Amazon.

We are sitting between the Pitons in St. Lucia.  For those of you who have traveled here, either on a cruise ship or on vacation, I'm sure  you have seen this view.  But it is nothing compared to actually sitting here, having our morning coffee and enjoying the view for hours on end.  In addition, the view is not only surface ... drop below the water and the snorkeling is most excellent.  We are really enjoying ourselves.  But like all good things, this must come to an end.  We will head to town today to get fuel, groceries, etc and to clear out (officially).  Then our plan is to head to St. Vincent tomorrow morning.  The weather has been perfect so we're hoping it will hold for one more day for our 35 mile crossing! 

Hope all is well with everyone back home.
Miss ya!

Changes to our Blog

It is with mixed emotions that I write this entry. 

This blog has been a work in process.  We are trying to find the best compromise between getting the information out there for your reading enjoyment and the time/expense it takes in producing it.  We haven’t found that balance yet.

We’ve expressed that maintaining this blog takes a lot of time, effort and expense but what you really need to understand is, maintaining this blog actually affects HOW we are living our cruising dream.  Instead of finding that remote anchorage where we can experience a real adventure in a beautiful, picturesque bay, we sail right past and head for town.  We anchor as close to civilization as possible in the slim chance that we can get WiFi on our boat to upload that update or picture.  If we can’t, we head into town in search of it.  We are spending more time trying to get you the information than we are actually living the dream.  We’ve decided something has to change.

We will continue to update the blog periodically to let everyone know we are alive and well.  However, we will keep these updates brief so upload time, effort and expense are kept to a minimum. 

For those of you who are still interested in reading about our adventures in detail, we will document them in book form, representative of each leg of our journey.  You can read them chronologically, as we have experienced them (with full color photos for your viewing pleasure). 

We’ve already put out Bahamas Bound and Back Again (our 2006 sailing adventure) and Around the World on SV Soulmatie-Year One-Book 1 (our journey to and through the Virgin Islands).  Thank you to those of you who have purchased these books. 

Between production and publishing costs, we have priced each book at a basic break-even point but unfortunately, because they have full color photos, the paperback version still ended up being quite expensive.  Since they are available on Amazon, you can easily download electronic reading software to your computer (available free on the Amazon website) to be able to read/view our adventure in full color at a much more reasonable cost to you than the paperback version. 

Around the World on SV Soulmatie-Year One-Book 2 (our journey through the Leeward Islands) should be available any day now.  Book 3 (the Windward Islands) will be available shortly after we leave Granada … we need to experience the Windwards before we can write about them J  From there, we will publish with each milestone we reach or basically (to keep production costs reasonable), we will publish when we’ve reached about 100 pages of blog/picture material. 

We hope you can understand our decision in changing this process and hopefully, by reducing some of our ties to civilization we will be able to live a more adventurous life for your reading enjoyment J

Still in Martinique

Last night, it rained a lot.  It’s gotten to where we don’t even bother opening the hatches at night because we know Larry would have to jump up and close them as the mid-evening rain set in.  Instead, the electricity police (Larry) actually allows me to have the fan on in our rear cabin.  It runs all night and helps to keep my menopausal body cool.  Thank you Larry!

This morning, it was dark and dreary.  We’re hoping it will burn off as the day progresses but we have our doubts.  We relaxed with a hot cup of Martinique coffee and watched the rain showers move through.  We ran out of the cheap Amaretto for our coffee quite some time ago and have now almost finished our big bottle of Disaronno (expensive for using in coffee but a necessity when there is nothing else around)!  We’ve searched every store we can in the last couple of nations and can’t seem to find Amaretto of any kind.  Our hopes are that Saint Lucia will supply us with our fix!!!

Finally, Larry worked on the pictures and uploaded them to the Photos page on our blog!  He had taken over the ‘photo’ aspect of our blogging but had fallen short on keeping up.  After all, it is much more fun to snorkel and take the pictures than it is to spend the time going through them, finding the best, uploading, etc.  AND … in his defense, he has a lot of other things he’s been working on so it just wasn’t a priority for him.

We did computer work all morning.  By early afternoon, the rains had subsided.  Well, at least, there was a break between showers.  We have 28EU left to spend before we head out of this place.  We headed to town, not expecting much since it was dead when we first arrived so we expect the worse on a Sunday afternoon.

Ashore, we stopped for ice cream/sorbet.  Yum!  $7 EU gone, only 21 more to go!  We stopped by a very small grocery store that was ready to close.  We bought a six-pack of Lorraine Beer (local) and two bottles of French Bordeaux … another $16.80 EU gone.  Then we found another little market that had a bottle of French Merlot … the last of our Euro’s gone.  Actually, we have 1.17 Euro left.  Not bad!

We just made it back to Soulmatie when the rains started again.  We basically vegged most of the remaining day.  Larry did a couple of chores and I updated and am sending this blog.  Martinique was a very lovely stop.  Tomorrow, we head for Saint Lucia … another nation!

Saint Anne, Martinique (N14 25.944/W60 53.155)

When you clear out of a country, you must do so within 24 hours of leaving the nation.  We plan on going to St. Lucia on Monday (when the weather looks best).  This means, we should clear tomorrow.  HOWEVER … we have to clear from Marin and we don’t want to be in Marin tomorrow.  That sucks!  We want to head back to the Sainte Anne area until we’re ready to leave.  Hmmm … a lot of people clear out and don’t leave within the required 24 hours.  We’ve never done this.  We are taking a gamble this time and clearing today, even though we don’t plan to leave within 24 hours and will head out Monday.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this won’t be an issue!

Clearing was easy.  The French nations use a computer system where you just enter all your information, print it out, and a representative stamps it.  We were able to clear at the marina office.  There is no real fee for clearing but the marina charged a $5EU service fee. 

Once cleared, we headed back to Soulmatie.  We pulled anchor and were underway within minutes of returning.  It was a short trip (less than 2 miles) back to the anchorage at Sainte Anne.  This is a nice (less crowded) anchorage and is close to the point where we head to St. Lucia.  We will be all set for leaving Monday!

The weather wasn’t the nicest.  It was cloudy, overcast and drizzly.  During breaks in the rain, we floated behind the boat in our floaty chairs.  The water was surprisingly cool and without the sun to warm us, we got quite chilled.  We also got quite a bit of sun.  You forget when it’s cloudy and you’re bordering on shivering that you actually are getting the UV Rays!  Luckily, we got into shade before we got too crisp!

Later in the day, we took a dinghy ride along shore.  There are some places that look interesting for snorkeling.  We may try tomorrow and see how it is.

For dinner, I made pasta.  It’s fun being on the boat and trying to make yummy dishes from limited stock.  We only have one package of ground beef left (it’s actually some of the ground filet mignon) so I’m saving it for really good burgers!  Before we left, we’d bought some canned beef from Costco.  Hmmm … wonder how that would be in pasta sauce?  I got out my Magic Bullet and ground the roast beef into tiny pieces.  I then got a can of mushrooms (I hate canned mushrooms but it’s better than nothing) and ground them into small pieces also.  We still had fresh onions and a green pepper so I was able to add some fresh veggies also.  We’d bought quite a few jars of marinara sauce before we left so we were set for a yummy sauce.  It turned out very thick (probably only needed about ½ the can of roast beef) but really tasty.

The pasta was another issue.  We had several boxes of various types under a bench seat in the main salon.  Somehow, they’d gotten slightly damp and were now covered in mold.  MAJOR YUCK!!!  Into the trash they went!  We dug out a box from a different location and it was fine.  Lesson learned … from now on, all pasta is removed from the boxes and stored in air-tight bags!

Dinner was excellent.  Our last bottle of French red wine accompanied our dinner and we sat and watched the sun set over the hills of Martinique.  Very nice evening!

Shout Out to Clarke Jelley

We’d like to say “Hi” to our favorite yacht broker, Clark Jelley of Edwards Yacht Sales.  He helped us find our current floating home-around-the-world.  He also sold our old Irwin for us. So if you need to buy or sell a boat, ANYWHERE, email Clark at clark@edwardsyachtsales.com and tell him that Soulmatie sent you.  You'll get awesome help from a terrific guy!

Marin, Martinique

We had an agenda for today.  Our cruising guide says Marin is the best stocked city in the Caribbean if you need spare parts, supplies, etc.  It says you can find anything needed to fix/replace boat items.  Well, we were on a quest to find a hose for our watermaker.  The low pressure side is leaking badly.  We have our doubts of success but are keeping our fingers crossed that the book is right!

We dinghied ashore.  Just the ride itself was an adventure, trying to veer in and out around the masses of anchored/moored boats.  Then we saw the marinas, up close and personal.  OMG … haven’t seen anything like this before.  The boats are tightly packed in their slips, fenders touching the next boat.  It is so tight!  Some are even double parked with boats in front of them, in the same slip!  This is supposed to be a great hurricane hole.  The boats are actually tied off to moorings also (never saw anything like this either) but with the number of boats, so closely packed together, we can’t imagine what it would be like if a storm came through.  We think back to our time in Fort Lauderdale when we experienced hurricanes while living on our Irwin.  The boats at our dock were moving so violently, the rigging almost got entangled with the boat beside you.  And this was a much more protected area!  Can’t imagine what these boats would be like if a ‘real’ storm came through this area!

We finally found our way through the masses and to one of the dinghy docks.  After securing our dinghy, we started on our quest.  We went to several stores that advertise they have watermaker parts.  Nope … no one had a replacement hose.  They would recommend another place.  Many suggested the same place (further up a river in town).  We finally gave up.  No one had our part L

We went to MacDonald’s for lunch (it was hard to find a spot that was even open).  I had a McFarmer.  It was a double cheeseburger, with lettuce, tomato and mayo.  Not bad.  Larry had a Filet-o-fish meal.  The total was $13.90 EU … expensive for MacDonalds!

We gave up shopping and went back to Soulmatie.

Marin, Martinique (N14 27.526/W60 52.153)

We decided we needed a change of scene to help us forget the turmoil of the previous day.  We pulled anchor midmorning and headed further up the bay to Marin.  Wow … this place was massive.  There were definitely well over 1000 boats in an area about 1 mile square.  Some were in marinas, some moored and a few of the cruising-type boats were anchored.  We anchored near other anchored boats.

The city at the head of the bay was also massive (compared to what we’ve seen lately).  It included high-rises and everything.

We decided just to veg for the day and will head into town tomorrow.

To Saint Anne, Martinique

We had a lazy start to the day.  I woke about 6am and decided I’d best catch up on the logs.  I haven’t written in several days so I’m hoping I remember all the key points and that the writing comes out smoothly.  We plan on heading around Martinique to the south-east coast and will hopefully find internet so I can send these updates.

Larry checked the weather and it might be a rough trip but we’ll head out anyways.  But … we’re afraid we might be trapped there for several days because a front is moving through and the next few days will be 6-9 foot seas.  If that’s what’s forecasted, I can’t imagine what they will actually be!  We will wait for them to settle some before crossing to St. Lucia.

The trip started out wonderfully.  We were sailing with headsail and mizzen (didn’t raise the mainsail) and it was a perfect ride.  We were making about 7 knots.  If only it could have continued longer.  As we rounded the southwest corner of Martinique, the winds shifted.  The winds were on the nose, howling at about 35 knots and the waves grew.  Our speed dropped to less than 2 knots.  We had dropped the sails because they were luffing (flapping in the wind) violently and we didn’t want to damage them any further.  Damn … this was going to be a long, hard ride for the balance of the trip. 

Luckily, we have a strong motor in this boat and were able to maintain about 4.5 knots through the crashing waves.  We pulled in to Sainte Anne, Martinique and were happy to find calm waters.

Sainte Anne is a cute town from a distance but up close, it was VERY dead.  Don’t know if it was because of the time of day or the season or what but no restaurants were open and only one or two shops.  This was surprising because there are probably over 100 boats in the anchorage.  How many does it take for businesses to think it’s worth their while to open?

Just as we got into town, there was a local event with young kids doing native dancing.  Cool to watch!

Back on Soulmatie, Larry and I got into a horrendous fight.  Somehow, a simple conversation turned into a war.  We haven’t fought about many things during this trip but this fight was one of those that was about EVERYTHING at once!  Nothing was off limits for the attack.  Usually, when one of us is in this type of mood, the other is able to calm the situation.  Tonight, we were both on the warpath.  Neither of us slept well and the following morning was tense!

Snorkeling in Martinique

Last night was a very peaceful night and we had a great sleep.  Very glad we made the decision to pull anchor and move.  Very comfortable.

We headed into town and took a walk ashore.  Anse Mitan is a mixture of old, dilapidated buildings and pretty, colorful newer ones.  The currency is Euro and they do not take US Funds.  This limited our spending as we only have a few Euro left.  We would have bought more things (like beer and ice-cream … and maybe some groceries) if they only took US $’s.  Oh well, this was better on our budget!

Since we are closer to town, there is an entirely different area to snorkel.  Off we went!  We are having some of the best snorkeling adventures on this trip and seeing such awesome and unusual things.  Today, we saw schools of about 25 squid.  I would be content just hovering above them all day and watching them flutter about.  Except, suddenly, they’d change to an almost opaque color and I knew Larry had caught up with me.  He can’t help but chase them down for that perfect photo op!  Good for him but ruins my tranquil moment alone with them!

For dinner, Larry made a pizza dough and we wrapped it round hot dogs, baked them in our oven and then topped them with chili, cheese (on mine), finely diced onions and mustard.  Boy, were they filling.  We could only eat one each!  Oh yeah, we had to save room for the Chocolate Brownies Larry made.  Brownies and a nice French Red Wine … what a perfect way to end the evening!

Anse Mitan,Martinique (N14 33.542/W61 03.543)

We cleared customs in Fort De France and did a quick walk around town.  Very cute place for such a large city.  We stopped at The Baguette Shop and had a yummy steak/cheese panini and bought a fresh, hot baguette to have for lunch. 

Back on Soulmatie, we headed across the large bay to the small town of Anse Mitan.  Great sail across the bay! 

There used to be a huge hotel here (which helped grow the town) but now the hotel is abandoned and in ruins.  What a waste … it must have been a beautiful resort in its prime!  We anchored just off the ruined hotel.

For lunch, we had sliced bbq chicken breast, chalet sauce and red onions on ½ of the baguette.  Most Yummy!!!

Shortly after lunch, we hit the waters.  The coast is lined with rock breakwaters that form cute little coves.  Our hope was that the rocks would house many little fishes and reef creatures.  We were not disappointed.  We swam to shore and explored for a very long time.  I know I said to check out our Photos Page to see pictures of our past few snorkeling excursions but Larry is trying to identify and label everything so it’s taking longer than expected.  We will try to get it updated as soon as possible because we really have seen some awesome things!

When we arrived here, we didn’t notice the clear, plastic bottle floating at the surface.  We anchored, dropped back, and were uncomfortably close to this contraption.  We just hoped it was marking a fish trap and not an actual mooring.  Just our luck … about 4pm, a boat pulled in behind us and took that mooring.  There wasn’t even enough distance between us for our dinghy to float behind our boat.  What an asshole!  He had no concern in the world that he was THAT close to us.  He just tied off his boat and went ashore.  So … now the decision was on us, do we stay uncomfortably close to this boat or do we pull anchor and move.  We moved ahead, closer to shore to give some clearance from that boat but unfortunately, we felt we were too close to the boat beside us.  Damn … let’s just pull anchor and head to the back of the pack!

We motored through the parade of boats until we found a nice clearing in the back, closer to where the ferry runs.  It will be rolly when the ferry passes but at least, we don’t have fear of other boats around us smashing into us in the night.  Oh … and here’s the real reason we moved the second time (away from the boat beside us).  Earlier today, while sitting on Soulmatie and enjoying our surroundings, I glanced over to the boat off our starboard side.  There, squatted down and leaning off the back of the transom was a bare-assed asshole (no pun intended) taking a huge dump into the beautiful, tranquil waters.  Can you believe the nerve of that guy?  Taking a shit in the waters that so many of us are swimming in! MAJOR YUCK!!! 

Fort De France, Martinique (N14 35.936/W61 04.128)

Bye Bye Dominica … Hello Martinique!

 

This was a milestone.  We have passed through the Leeward Islands and are now officially in the Windwards!  But it wasn’t an easy passing.  We left Roseau, Dominica at 5:15am.  The trip along the western coast was pleasant.  Then we hit the open waters between the two islands and our adventure began. 

Forecasted weather … E WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT.  But as I’ve said so many times before, reality and forecast very rarely sync.  Actual weather once we hit the open passage … E WINDS 30 TO 40 KT. SEAS 6 TO 8 FT.  Our rock and roll from the prior nights anchorage, carried us out to sea.  It seems whatever the forecasted winds, take the lowest of the range and double it.  For the entire trip, the wind gauge would only drop down into the high 20 knot range for a few seconds before it was back up into the mid-high 30’s.  It spent more time over 40 knots than it did under 30.  Nothing like the weather predicted.  And there was no rhythm to the waves.  The seas were rough and pitched us all about.  It was not unusual to be on a heel of over 35 degrees.  This wouldn’t be bad if we could sustain it but before you knew it, we were pitched in the other direction as the waves broke over our bow and crashed high over our bimini.  We spent more time with the deck of our boat in the water on this trip than on any prior trip.

But we reached the coastline of Martinique and the winds settled.  Okay, now they settled too much.  There were times when the gauge would read 0 knots.  How can you possibly make progress with NO wind at all?  We had to start the motor and motor-sail our way into Fort de France.  We arrived at 3:30pm.

Since it is Sunday and we cannot clear customs until the morning, we stayed on board and ‘vegged’.  We had an awesome salad with all those fresh veggies we’d bought and bbq’d 4 large chicken breast.  Thank you Marg & Roger for the Swiss Chalet Sauce.  It was the perfect addition to this meal.  Almost like we were right there in Canada dining at our favorite restaurant but the view here was much more spectacular!  We were anchored off the old Fort St Louis  in the harbor right off town.  The skyline was much more modern than most of the cities we’ve seen recently with high-rises and lots of city lights!

Roseau (N15 17.200/W61 22.623)

 

The alarm sounded at 6am.  We had one hour to shower, have coffee/breakfast and be ready for Lawrence of Arabia to pick us up (from our boat) at 7am for our River Boat Tour.  It was lots of time to ‘veg’ before heading out.

It was a little surprising to see how prompt Lawrence was.  At exactly 7am, he was along side our boat and ready to go.  I was kinda expecting ‘Island Time’ and didn’t know what time we should expect him!

The Indian River is part of the Dominica Parks System.  No motors are allowed on the river.  Lawrence had to row the entire length up and back.  It reminded me very much of some of the rivers back in northern Florida (where I used to cave dive).  The branches overhung the river and made a dark canopy of green not far overhead.  I said a silent prayer that we wouldn’t see any spiders or snakes as the river narrowed and the branches hung so close to the water, which we had to push through them at times.  I could just envision me being your typical female and screaming and crying if a snake fell into the boat!  Luckily, my prayers were answered and it was an uneventful trip in those aspects J

 

We saw some of the coolest looking root systems of the Bloodwood trees.  The muddy banks were crawling with land crabs.  Since it is a national park, these are protected and have multiplied in numbers.  They were everywhere you looked. 

Have you watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?  Remember when they went up a river to visit the witch?  Well, this was that river and here is the cabin they built for the movie.  It fit in perfectly with the eerie shadows and darkness.

The river continued beyond where we stopped but it got shallow and narrow (at least that’s what we were told).  We reached a river bar and got out to look around.  Lawrence said during peak season, there would be over 200 tourists stopping here at any given time.  Today, it was just the three of us.  Very cool place and would have been interesting to see in the peak season when it was hopping!  But the solitude made it seem spooky and fit with the atmosphere surrounding us.

We would highly recommend Lawrence of Arabia if you are ever in this area.  He was very professional, gave a wonderful narrative of the river, and was very friendly.  Soulmatie gives him an A+.  The cost for the tour ($25 US/per person – includes the $5 park fee).  Thanks for a great trip Lawrence.

After the tour, we were dropped back at our boat.  Lawrence had pointed out the market that he said has very good fruits/veggies.  He offered to take us but we choose to go on our own so we could be at our own pace.

We bought quite the assortment of fresh veggies (2 huge cucumbers - $1.00, 1 super sweet pineapple - $3.00, a small bag of onions  - $1.00, a small bag of potatoes - $1.00, a large bag of leaf lettuce - $2.00, (5) green peppers and about (10) small sweet peppers - $2.00).  Total price $10 US … great fresh veggies to supplement our diet and go with the bananas and tomatoes we’d bought yesterday.  Yeah!!!

We decided to head south along the Dominica coast to the capital city of Roseau.  We are hoping to find a guide to take us on a waterfalls/rainforest tour tomorrow.

The guidebook says/shows that you can anchor just south of town in about 10 feet of water.  Well sure you can … if you want to be up on shore with your first swing at anchor.  First off, it was all private moorings (not mentioned in the book).  Secondly, we sailed the coastline looking for that 10 feet of water.  We stayed within about 100 feet of shore and didn’t see anything less than about 70 feet (unless you were at someone’s mooring and then it dropped to about 40 feet).  The elusive 10 foot anchorage evaded us.

As we approached the area, one of the boat boys (Sea Cat) approached us and asked if we needed assistance.  Since we planned on just anchoring, we told him no but that we’d get with him later to talk about tours.  After our unsuccessful trip up and down the town looking for a suitable anchorage spot, we called him on our VHF.  It took a bit for him to finally respond but he did come out and point us to a mooring.  Now, these moorings looked scarey!  They were just bottles tied to a line (no fancy balls like in the other mooring field).  At first, we weren’t even sure if it was a mooring or a crab trap!  But he helped us tie up and surprisingly, we held through the night.

BUT … it was horrible!  We pitched and rolled our way until finally, daylight broke.  We got very little sleep, partly because of the motion and partly because of the fear of breaking the mooring and ending up crashed on shore!  We couldn’t imagine another night like this so about 5am, we untied the line and set ourselves free.  We were headed to Martinique!

Dominica - Portsmouth (N15 34.865/W61 27.800)

Perfect Day!  We released Soulmatie from the mooring at 8am and headed between the beautiful island chains of The Saints.  It was more than picture perfect!  We were sailing as a ketch (all three sails raised) and just zipping along.  Complete silence … the way sailing is supposed to be!

Weather forecast … NE to E winds, 15-20 knots, 5-7 foot seas.  Reality … very close this time.  Probably the closest we’ve had a weather forecast in a very long time.  The only exception is the winds were definitely East … maybe slightly SE … but even so, it was an amazing ride.  Larry referred to us as having flown to Dominica because we were flying.  We averaged over 6.5 knots but a lot of the time we exceeded 7 … even 8 knots … and we were strictly sailing … no motor!  Compare this to the 3 knot average going from Nevis to Guadeloupe and you can see why we were excited!

A couple of storms in the distance threatened to ruin our perfect day but none actually hit us.  The sky was blue with intermingled fluffy white clouds. 

We were anchored in Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica well before noon.  There are a surprising number of boats here in the anchorage.  Probably 10-15.  And most of them seem like cruising boats.  Maybe we’ve caught up with some of those heading south?

This is a funny country.  They have ‘boat boys’ … guys who come out to your boat for anything you can imagine … to help you anchor/moor, to act as water taxi to take you to customs or shore, to arrange guided island/river tours, even to sell you fruit, vegetables, ice, etc.  Each boat is painted colorfully with the persons name (or call name) in large letters on the side.  We are working with Lawrence of Arabia since he approached us first.  We’re going to go on a river tour with him tomorrow.

Larry went ashore to clear customs; another awesome nation for clearing.  It cost $4 US and we were able to clear in and out at the same time.  This means, when we’re ready to leave, we do not have to visit customs again to get our clearing paperwork.  We already have it.  Hope this is an example of the future nations cause we can really afford these fees.  After clearing through the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, and the DR (where the clearing fees were in the hundreds of dollars), we thought clearing fees were going to break us!  This is nice J

We went ashore for an early dinner and attempt at WiFi.  Yeah, right!  I guess in the islands, there is no such thing as an EARLY dinner.  The restaurant we were going to was highly recommended by the cruising guide.  It was supposed to open at 4pm.  The girl (bartender) finally showed up at about 5pm and until she got there, no one could do anything to assist us with WiFi, drinks, or food.  Until she arrived, we could just wait and wait and wait.  This wait had better be worth it!

We ordered grilled Mahi sandwiches w/fries.  About an hour after we ordered, our food finally arrived.  The cruising guide said Blue Bay Restaurant had generous servings at reasonable prices.  We paid $27 EC (about $10.80 US) for each sandwich.  I didn’t even know you could filet Mahi so thin.  The filets were tiny.  The buns were rock hard and the sandwich as a whole was cold.  Highly recommended by Chris Doyle … NOT recommended by Soulmatie!

The only decent thing about the restaurant was that the Carib beers were on special (Happy Hour) for 5 for $20 EC (about $1.60 US each) … not the best prices we’ve seen in the islands … but not bad.

As soon as we got back to the boat, ‘Nature Boy – Mickey’ was waiting with our ‘stuff’.  We bought 5 bananas and 4 small tomatoes for $15 EC ($6.00US) … not bad but we’ll have to see how it all tastes.  Larry says they smell wonderfully fresh!

Borge de Saintes (N15 52.199/W61 35.083)

 

Considering our sleeping arrangement from yesterday’s disaster, we had a pretty good sleep.  The simple fact that there was no additional trauma made it a good night but we actually slept pretty good as well.  Maybe it was the exhaustion of hiking/swimming or maybe it was too much booze, in either case, we woke refreshed and ready to start a new day!

Priorities first … of course, we had to snorkel again … and it was just as amazing as yesterday.  We really like this place!  If it weren’t for hurricane season, we would definitely spend more time in this area.  A picture is worth a thousand words so check out our photo page … instead of my trying to describe the awesomeness of it all!

Back on Soulmatie, we knew we needed to head back to Borge de Saintes to clear out of customs.  We headed over late morning.  Our guidebook says Customs is open from 2pm … after closing for lunch of course!  We got ashore about 1:30 and waited.  2pm came and went and no customs people.  Guess they were taking a long siesta!

We decided to walk to one of the local grocery stores while we waited.  Oops, it’s closed too!  We just can’t get used to this ‘island time’.  We were walking town and stumbled across John and Nancy from Silver Seas (we’d met them our first day in the Saints).  We had figured they’d be long gone from this place.  Their plans were to boot past Dominica, Martinique and head straight for St. Lucia.  It turned out, they went around the bay to get fuel (here in the saints) and had starter problems with their motor.  While we were having an awesome time snorkeling the past couple of days away, they were desperately trying to find someone who could fix their starter.  Luckily, Nancy speaks French because she was able to communicate enough to find someone.  They hope to get it installed and working and head out tomorrow or Saturday.

The customs office finally opened.  Too bad all nations weren’t like this.  We paid nothing to clear in and only $1EU to clear out.  Now that’s in our budget!

Our plan is to head out tomorrow for Dominica! 

Ilet a Cabrit (N15 52.476/W61 35.855)

Wow, what an absolutely horrible way to wake up!  I was sleeping nicely.  For those of you who know our boat, we have two ports on the stern (right by where I sleep) and they allow for some awesome fresh air during the night.  Well, last night was probably the last night I will ever open those ports.  About 7:00am, a massive wave hit the stern of our boat and flooded in through those open ports.  A ferry passed a little too closely and THEIR wake became OUR wake-up call.  Saltwater was everywhere!  We quickly closed the ports, stripped the bedding, grabbed towels and tried to soak up as much of the water as possible.  But … our mattress was already heavy with saltwater.  It was a disaster!  We spent the next couple of hours trying to dry things out.  We hand washed the sheets/towels in fresh water and hung them around the boat to try to dry.  We removed the mattress from the rear cabin and it is now standing in our main salon.  It will not be able to be used for some time while we try to dry it out completely.  It was a horrendous start to the day!  But hey … it can only get better from here … right?

Wow … it did get better!  I’m proud of us.  We could have let this little disaster completely ruin our day.  But … we both kept it in perspective and refused to let it ruin anything.  We dinghied to shore to hike the island as planned.  We met a guy who actually lives on this otherwise deserted island.  There is an abandoned hotel and this guy has taken up residence in it.  Ilet a Cabrit … population ONE!  He has quite the set up too.  He makes clay masks and part of the hotel has been converted into his art studio.  Larry is very jealous of this guy.  He’d love to find a little hide-away just for us.

The hike was amazing.  There are stone paths that lead to many old ruins.  This place must have been amazing before all these ruins were … well, ruined.  And the views from the hilltops are exceptional!  We hiked all the paths and ended up at the highest peak where Fort Josephine sits.  We’d brought a picnic lunch and dined with the goats.  This island has MANY goats who call it home. 

I want to tell you that our picnic lunch was picture perfect.  We sat on one of the stone walls of the fort and dined on crab salad sandwiches, oranges, chips and of course no picnic would be complete without a nice (few) glasses of wine!  Herds of goats cautiously watched us from a distance.  The picturesque town of Borge de Saintes could be seen far below and the surrounding waters shimmered in the sunlight.  Everything was perfect … and then … they found us!  The bugs hit with a vengeance.  I guess they figured, if we could stop and eat … so could they!  Our paradise had been invaded.  We quickly soaked ourselves in bug spray in an attempt to ward them off and gathered up all our “stuff”.  As long as we were moving, we seemed fine.  Once we stopped, ouch!  It sucked!  We kept moving. 

Now this is the way to hike.  I had a glass of French Bordeaux and Larry a glass of our homemade chardonnay (he didn’t care for the Bordeaux).  The remainder of our hiking was done sipping wine from our plastic, stemless wine glass.  Nothing was going to stop us from enjoying ourselves today.  Even when the rains came and we were completely soaked to the core, our moods remained high.  We were having a blast!

During our hike we saw two spots where lightning hit from the last storm.  The inside of the branches were burnt right through but the outside barely looked damaged.  The trees still smoldered.  It was lucky the fire hadn’t spread and stayed contained to the effected tree.

Back on Soulmatie, we quickly shed our wet clothes and donned our bathing suits.  Within no time, we were gliding along with the fishes.  The water felt refreshing and soothed my aching back.  We are moored very close to shore so it was a very short swim to the rock/reef along the coast.  As Larry describes it … it was the best snorkel ever!  We saw so many unique critters and lots of sea anemones.  Make sure you view our “photos” page because we’ll upload all our snorkeling photos so you can see for yourself how beautiful it was.

Once playtime was over, we had more chores.  We had to set up the rear berth with cushions from the salon so we had a place to sleep.  We used the one cushion from the long settee and the two from the bench seats around the table area.  It wasn’t ideal but it was a great deal better than sleeping on the hard fiberglass!

Luckily, we have a clean set of sheets.  The other set is hanging in the cockpit with all the towels trying to dry in this damp air.  It may be awhile!

So … considering we had such a miserable start to the day, it has ended up being one of our best days ever!  So, as we so often find … along with the good comes bad … but fortunately, along with the horrible comes amazement!  This was a day we will not soon forget!