Lyn's Log, 8th December 2006
Martinique to Guadaloupe

Iles des Saintes, Guadaloupe.
N15º52', W61º35'
11,534 miles.

Eventually the clouds thinned out, the gusty winds lessened, and it was time to leave. On Monday 4th December we cleared out at Customs and spent the afternoon sailing up the coast with a strong but comfortable breeze. Part way up the coast we were intercepted by a customs launch. As we tend to be rather informally dressed on tropical sea passages away from other people, it meant rushing down below to get some clothes on. We were afraid this might be interpreted as a hurried attempt to conceal our stash, but in the event after a few routine questions they went away.

We anchored overnight at the north end of Martinique, and started at dawn after rather a wet night, finding we could just hold a course towards the western side of Dominica. The nearer we got to Dominica the stronger the winds, darker the clouds, heavier the rain, and greater the volume of seawater over the deck. We reefed and reefed again and by lunchtime were in the lee of the land. This took away the steep seas and most of the rain, but the gusty winds were terrible. One minute we could barely make 2 knots and the next we were careering along at 6. Eventually we gave up and motored the final ten miles to Rupert Bay at the northwest end of Dominica for the night.

It was dark by the time we dropped the anchor behind all the other yachts, and we reversed to dig the anchor in. By now the wind had picked up to a good force 7, and after a while the anchor broke out, moving several metres before holding again. The anchor chain then kept rumbling over rocks as the gusts screamed through the wind generator giving us the power to run the fridge and write up my blog on the computer. It eventually calmed down in the early hours.

A couple of boat boys in their high-speed motorboats came out of the gloom to greet us with a "Welcome to Dominica" as we came into the bay, but in the bad conditions they could not linger. But then they woke us in the morning at 7.30 with a "Good morning" and knock on the hull, which we ignored, having been awake half the night on anchor watch. We found a tin of ‘all day breakfast’ to eat as we had no bread, and had our coffee, and then found that the loo pump, identical to the bilge pump, sounded like it too needed its diaphragm replacing. It was a good job we had just bought replacement kit. We left the bay at 8am and had a satisfying fast beam reach to the Iles des Saintes, just south of Guadeloupe and 20 miles from Dominica, anchoring off the main town of Bourg at lunchtime (see pic).