I hope you have enjoyed reading about Dominica as much I had experiencing and sharing it with you, but I had a friend joining me in St Lucia in three days and I was 100 miles away. I know 100 miles does not sound like much, but when you are on a sail boat that is 14-20 hours away. I was sad to be leaving Dominica so quickly, but I know I will see the rest of it next year when I return and hopefully I can stay for a week or two.
I broke the sail up into two days so I could sail during the daylight hours. The first day was simple enough. I headed out at 9am and motored down the Dominica coast for 20 miles. I did this because the island is so tall it blocks the wind unless you go 5-10 miles out and I just want to take the most direct route…..plus, not dealing with waves pleased me after the sailing I did to get here. ???? Once past Dominica I raised the sail with two reefs in it and set off for the northwest corner of Martinique arriving at 6pm. I anchored in 25 feet of water on a shelf (it dropped to a thousand feet within a couple hundred yards of shore) outside of St Pierre.
The next day I was off at 7am motor sailing with the two reefs in the sails. Once I started crossing Fort De France Bay the wind filled in and away I went at 7-8 knots with flat seas, AWESOME! Of course this did not last, because I eventually ran out of land to block the seas and off I went the 25 miles to St Lucia. The wind was blowing 20-25 and the seas were 5-7 feet, but I was able to sail further south than I had up to this point, which put me on a close reach instead of a close haul. Did this make a difference? Oh yea. All of a sudden I am flying at 8.5-10 knots and not even feeling it. The boat handled it great and the miles just ticked off as the radio blasted Jackson Taylor, Flo Rida, Mark Ronson, and more.
As I rocketed into Rodney Bay I thought how cool it was to have hammered out 40+ miles before lunch! I chose to pick up a mooring in the lagoon instead of anchoring outside in the bay for the simple reason that I hoped the marina’s wifi would reach the boat from there. It did but barely!!!!!
Once hooked up I straightened the boat up and put the sails away, had lunch, went to the marina, and check into St Lucia. Check in was a breeze and only cost me around $12, but if I had to do it on a weekend, holiday, or after 4pm then it would have been an additional $40. Now that I am here I will wait for my friend and then we will start exploring St Lucia, so stay tuned and I will tell you all about our excellent adventure!!!!!
