Although I woke up early, I didn’t really get going until the afternoon. At just after 6AM I heard a boat pass me close-by and believe it was Rocking B heading south towards Martinique, then got a call from Katzenellenbogen somewhere before 8AM that they’d departed as well, leaving me alone (sort of) in the anchorage. I had to do a bit of cleaning up below decks in order to get my boat ship-shape and to ensure that nothing moved or shifted during the next passage; but I couldn’t get the energy to depart Dominica. I waffled about and made a full breakfast (eggs, bread, bacon, coffee) then turned on the generator to charge the batteries and run the dishwasher. After that was done I still had no big incentive to get going. Both Katzenellenbogen and Golightly were heading straight through to Deshaies on the north side of Guadeloupe and I was in no such hurry and opted to just do the short hop across to the Saintes the first day and then head up to Deshaies the following day. I had originally planned on dinghying in for dinner, but then realized that I’ve got so much food left aboard that I would prepare dinner aboard after all. In the end I didn’t turn on the engine and lift the anchor until 14:00 but ended up having a great sail to the Saintes with speeds constantly over 7 knots and occasionally going to 9.5 knots despite a reef in both sails. The seas were about 3 feet, and I loved today’s sail, it is the kind one tends to remember (rather than the bashing splashing nasty ones).
I had the GoPro charged and fired up and got some nice video footage during the sail, but I don’t know how to edit the video accordingly and that will have to wait until I am back home and have time and energy and perhaps some help in getting it sorted out. The GoPro was held at various angles and I cannot figure out how to rotate the shots in the GoPro software, so I can’t even get started!
I anchored behind the Pain du Sucre hill in calm conditions and this time didn’t have to anchor in 60 feet of water but in only 30 and, even better, as I let out chain it got shallower and when I dove upon my anchor I saw that it had set perfectly with a foot and there was no way I could drag (a good thing, since I have the cliffs and rocks downwind of me! I made some Spanish rice with spiced mince meat (ground beef) for dinner and had a glass of 20 year old Tawny Port to go with it, as I’d run out of both beer and wine. I will have to stock up on both as I’m now back in a French island.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |