Les Saintes to Dominica and Martinique

We ended up leaving Pain de Sucre on Sunday morning to head to Dominica. Had a reef and the stay sail up and it was still pretty rough at first. At least heading through the cut of the islands! Had a pretty good sail and dropped anchor in Canefield, Dominica mid-afternoon. It's a pretty secluded anchorage just north of the capital of Rosseau, but it was a Sunday and the beach was busy. Kyeta pulled in about an hour behind us. While I was down below getting lunch, about eight young lads, ages eight to twelve, swam up to the boat. At first they all decided to just hang on the anchor line. Ann from Kyeta called to ask if I knew this - yes, I could actually feel the boat bobbing with them hanging on the line. The next thing we knew there were little fingers all along the side of the boat wanting to come on board. They were extremely persistant. Finally, Dennis tried to explain to them about the yellow flag. Normally, in the real world, this means we are just stopping by and we're quarantined, not going to shore. They didn't understand that, so he thought he'd expand a little. Told them what the yellow quarantine flag really meant was that his wife was extremely ill, no one could come aboard, she had a full blown case of AIDS. Hey, thanks for that! But, they all talked between themselves and we didn't see them again!!!
Did get off the boat to row over to Kyeta to have dinner.
Up the next morning and underway before 6 a.m. We'd listened to weather on Saturday, and everything sounded good. This was Monday morning, and there is no weather on Sunday, so we were still relying on all of Saturday's forecasts. It was dead calm when we left the anchorage just before six. Put the main sail up at anchorage and Dennis put the fishing poles out before we'd even left the anchorage. Amazingly, we hooked a 4 ft. wahoo before Kyeta even had their main sail up! Headed down the coast while Dennis cleaned the fish and we tried to find room in our fridge/freezer for it. Had another hit about half an hour later that seemed to be an even bigger wahoo. Luckily (I'm saying) it got off.
As we got down to the tip of the island the waves and winds seemed to build. So not what was called for in the weather forecast for the weekend. By the time we hit the tip of the island and got a mile offshore, we had consistent 20-25 knot winds with gusts to 35 and pretty steady seas at 8-12 feet. It was not a good time. Denny and Ann on Kyeta tow their dinghy on a reverse dinghy lift. It was filling up with water and he was pretty concerned. He called us on the radio and asked if we'd consider turning back. Doing something like that had never crossed Dennis' mind, but he turned around before Kyeta did.
We ended up at Canefield for another two days waiting for weather, but got a ton of boat chores done since we couldn't go to shore. Did enjoy that wahoo with Kyeta. Ended up with about twelve meals out of one fish!
Finally left Dominica and sailed to Martinique. Kind of lumpy but we made it into Grande Anse D'Arlet in 10 hours. Probably would have made it sooner if Dennis had been paying attention to the GPS. I guess I left him at the helm too long and he saw a pretty beach and didn't pay attention to the GPS. I called Kyeta to ask their co-ordinates and wondered where they were going. We seemed to be going to the same place, yet we weren't. Then I got behind the helm and discovered that Dennis wasn't paying attention at all to where we were going! I'm always the one that takes us in and out of anchorages, and I guess I need to keep doing that!!!
Had a real calm night in Grande Anse D'Arlet and headed out early the next morning to head to Marin to do laundry (which we haven't done in a month) and groceries. It's Ann's birthday (Kyeta), so we definitely want to get into town to celebrate. Infinity finally caught up as well! We pulled in early, since we sincerely believe in motoring, checked in and picked up forms for Kyeta. They ended up having major motor problems and having to sail the whole way in. Infinity pulled in about an hour after them and we all got together for dinner that night to celebrate Ann's birthday and all the birthdays we've missed!
Next log coming soon! ~~~~_/)~~~~~~

Les Saintes to Guadaloupe

Greetings all - Sorry to have been so lazy in catching up with the blog. We picked up anchor off of Pain de Sucre and headed out through the cut to get a better angle up to Isle de Cochon in Guadaloupe. One thing about being in the Saintes - the weather is always bizarre. I have never seen so many waterspouts, daily, in my life!! Had a great sail up to Guadaloupe - all three sails up and no reef for a change - and missed all the squalls we saw either ahead of us or behind us. Sometimes, life is good!!
Anchored off of Isle de Cochon (Pig Island). Tucked in close so we didn't get any roll from passing boats, but in the middle of the night we got a little close to the boat next to us, so first thing in the morning, we re-anchored and then had a great spot for a week. There was a French boat anchored close to us with five little ones under the age of eight, and she was pregnant. Some women are amazing! These kids were like little fish and we loved watching them every day. Plop, plop, plop, swim around the boat, chase their parents around, plop, plop again!
Took the dinghy up the river a bit to see what that was like, and then visited the town of Pointe A Pitre. A great market, quaint shops, and we enjoyed ourselves walking around. However, it wasn't the marine warehouse Doyle's book said it would be. We've been looking for the styrofoam snorkelling floats and finally found them. They'd obviously been there forever (I worked at West Marine, I know what old stock looks like, especially when bugs and garbage come out when you shake it out!), but they wouldn't come down on the price of 28 Euros. That would be about 35 US. Guess they didn't want the sale that bad since they wouldn't bargain!
Took the dinghy up through the marinas and then went to the mall with the super grocery store. Glad we thought to bring not only the freezer bag but the cart with wheels as well!
Left Isle de Cochon and headed over to Isle de Gosier. Explored with Kyeta and Conch'd Out and then left the next day to head back to the Saintes. Heard Infinity on the radio. They're close!
Again, a great sail back to Pain de Sucre to hang out until we were ready to leave on Saturday.
Till next blog, which will follow ~~~~~_/)~~~~~~

Frustrating Communications

I have to say, the most frustrating thing I do all day is try to communicate. I don't remember this much of a problem last year, but everyone with the Globalstar phone seems to be having the same problem with receiving and maintaining a signal. Globalstar was kind enough to double our minutes this year, but that doesn't really help if you can't get a signal to last long enough to have a conversation! It's a miracle when we get a signal long enough to send and receive emails, and then if there's a long email in there, well, that will take two or three times to download everything.
For anyone setting out cruising, I really don't know what to tell you. What you really want is the ability to send and receive email in remote places, not where you have easy access to internet. We've tried Pocketmail, and that's good for travelling back and forth from the States to the Bahamas, but that's about it in our opinion. We thought, after spending all this money for a phone, data cable to have the ability to do emails and the yearly fee, we'd be all set. Turns out we're wrong! On top of that, Globalstar's Accounting Department leaves a lot to be desired. They're quite good at charging your charge card for roaming, where you've never been - I was told the one time I must have picked up a Peruvian satellite - ????? - long distance where you've never called, and just a charge because they messed up. Oh, they forgot that I paid that yearly fee and started charging me for my minutes used. That wouldn't be bad if they gave you a credit right away, but that never happens until you've sent nasty emails a month later to a supervisor. What a way to run a business!! The best was when I first purchased the phone and couldn't get it to initialize. After many, many conversations with people who answered the phone and tech support, they told me to send the phone back and they would take care of it. No phone ever went out without the ability to initialize and I must be doing something wrong. Three days later I received a brand new phone because they couldn't get the phone to initialize either!
We'll have to figure out something by the time we head west next year because then we will be roaming with Globalstar. If anyone has any suggestions (aside from through SSB), let us know! Ocens, as an email carrier is wonderful, but it's just trying to connect.~~~~_/)~~~

To Dominica and Les Saintes

Well, we had quite the run from St. Pierre to Dominica. The waves were a little higher than forcast! Woke up around 4 a.m. with the boat rolling around and the sound of rain. Had been hoping to leave early because of the full moon, but with the rain were also clouds covering the full moon. We wanted some light, since there are fish traps all over the place, so we decided to wait an hour. Finally got tired of rolling around so we got underway at 5:30 a.m., with Dennis on the deck looking for fish traps. Just missed one! We had a great sail up the coast of Martinique, and then when we rounded the tip of the island, the waves were more like eight to ten feet, with an occasional twelve thrown in, instead of the six that had been forcast. It was an interesting sail. (The photo is not of us sinking, but Conch'd Out got us between the waves) We were going anywhere from seven knots to a dead standstill during the 10 hours it took us to get to Portsmouth in Dominica. At least the waves calmed down once we hit the coast of Dominica. Pulled in, dropped the anchor, Dennis repaired the main sail while I washed the salt off the boat, made a quick dinner and went to bed!
Left the next morning after listening to Chris Parker, our weather guy, and sailed the 15 miles over to Les Saintes, off of Guadaloupe. A wonderful sail and much better than the day before! We were the last in, just after Break & Run, who had to stop to clean the mahi mahi that they caught. We had a bet going that whoever caught the largest fish got a bottle of wine from all the other boats. Needless to say, Al and Joan on Break & Run got wine!
The anchorage near the town is deep, was crowded and was rolly, so we made the decision to head back to one of the little coves to anchor. It was only a 5 minute dinghy ride and was so much nicer. Headed in, checked in, picked up some fresh produce, bread and wine, and went back to the boat to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. We rented scooters the next day to tour the island of Terre D'En Haut and I've never been so afraid. We've put thousands of miles on motorcycles, but this was quite the challenge. Dennis hardly had any room for his knees, and he was one of the shorter guys. Denny from Kyeta had his knees almost to his chest. The island is very hilly and in a couple of places we had to take turns getting a running start from the bottom of the hill! But, it was a lot of fun.~~~_/)~~~