Although Rocking B, Katzenellenbogen and I had agreed to depart for Dominica at 08:00, the crew of Rocking B got going much earlier and soon Katzenellenbogen was doing the same while I still had to stow my stuff for passage and check to make sure that nothing would succumb to the forces of gravity and go “Bang!” during the planned 3 hour sail. I had full sails out for the first half of the trip and at times was doing 9 knots but most of the time was spent with ground speeds around 8 knots. The wind and waves started piping up a bit around the halfway mark and I put two reefs in the main and one in the genoa (which balances the boat nicely in stronger winds) and was still doing about the same speed with less heel while both other boats kept full sails out. Although I was just a tad faster, with the slight head start that they had I couldn’t catch up and Rocking B arrived first by a good margin, then Katzenellenbogen and I at about the same time.
We had the usual boat boy encounter at the headland but were otherwise not disturbed as we anchored – the two catamarans in the inner sanctum close to the Purple Turtle bar while I anchored in 50 feet outside. Later on we measured the depths inside and I realized that I could easily anchor very close to shore and will probably do so at some time in the next couple of days.
Although we’d arrived before noon, we opted to complete formalities after the lunch break was over and at 14:00 we dinghied across to the commercial dock. Clearing customs and immigration was a breeze and we all received inbound and outbound clearance for a 2-week stay without any problems and I ended up paying $3 for Dominica. After we’d officially entered the country we zipped across to the Purple Turtle beach bar and had some local “Kubuli” beers in pygmy bottles that nevertheless quenched our thirst. We would have stayed longer, but saw that some people were standing and swimming of the back of Rocking B and also on my dinghy; so we headed out to see what was going on. As soon as they noticed us getting up from the bar they swam off. When we came by in the dinghy they pretended not to speak or understand any English (they were Chinese) at all. They were probably just slumming it aboard but the two dogs must have been going crazy behind their locked doors.
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