The hop over to Dominica

The Depaz Rhum factory! Yummy samples.

Even though the wind was howling until late last night it finally did lay down. I know it was making Michael very nervous about greeting the morning and taking on the challenge of another rough crossing after the chum fest he put on last time. Just to be safe he took enough Dramamine to put a horse to sleep. He also chose to take the helm to help keep his mind off of the motion sickness but it wasn’t too rough and he was fine. Perhaps we were due a little good luck after yesterday’s trials and tribulations. It was a perfect 15 knot wind coming out of the perfect NE direction for a smooth sail. We even hit a speedy 8+ knots once or twice. Lol.

Even with all of that, it was a long day. Started sailing about 0730 and dropped anchor at 1800. Basically something that would have taken a powerboat an hour or hour and a half to finish. If in a Cabo we could have gone for breakfast, done our deep dive, had a leisurely lunch and still pulled in the harbor an hour before we actually did. No biggie though. This is all about slowing down and learning a new way of life for me. I have enjoyed learning how to sail and what all of the different rigging does on board. We even tried to put out the Jenaker today. Ya know, that BIG colorful sail you see on the front of sailboats sometimes. We didn’t have the ideal conditions for it but the exercise of putting it up and down and actually seeing it work was interesting. Seeing that big colorful bubble pull you along was very soothing. I could have grabbed a book, felt the breeze and fallen asleep in its shade if the wind conditions would have allowed it. It wasn’t to be today, perhaps next time.

G man chillaxin while cruising up the Dominica coast with the rainbow over the rainforest.

Lots of rainbows over all the islands.

We jumped all the way to the top of Dominica to a harbor called Portsmouth. Because we have some weather coming and we want to spend as much time in Les Saintes as possible we are going to spend the night here and make another jump first thing in the morning to Les Saintes. Besides, we need to land somewhere that we can spend a few days because…huh….we have some outboard motor repairs to take care of. Lol.

 The pictures below are of the local fisherman bringing in a catch. They had been doing it slightly offshore but on this day they did it right on the beach near our anchorage. They bring in Mullet, Flying fish and Menhaden. All bait from where we come from but, in Martinique the are table fare. Not sure how they cook them.

See all that fish...they are fliers.

Men heaving the net.