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!
No comments:
Post a Comment