South winds and the spinnaker

February 9 - farewell St-Anne

The weather improved, and we did jump off the transom.  Every sundowner on Raconteur is great, but the ones at St-Anne are special, with a view of Diamond Rock and the sailboats coming in and out of St-Anne and Le Marin.

On Monday, we tore ourselves away - we had been promising ourselves a visit to Anse Noire, a small black sand harbor on the West coast of Martinique, where the snorkeling is said to be superb.

Once past Diamond Rock and the southwest corner of Martinique, we had a sweet 2-hour sail northward along the coast.  Anse Noire was lovely, but very small,  with variable depths and lots of fish pots.  There was only one other boat anchored there, but we could not find a comfortable spot.  In the end, we motored back south about 45 minutes to Petite Anse d'Arlet, a charming village that also has a customs station and several restaurants.  We found a spot to drop the hook in Anse Chaudière and made fish chowder with our homemade (boatmade!) lobster broth and the rest of our mahi-mahi.  So good.

February 10 - Petite Anse d'Arlet

The next day we had a almost-superb snorkel just off our anchorage, and a lovely French island lunch starting with ti punches at Le Littoral.  It turned out the customs office was closed Tuesday afternoon, so we developed a plan to check out quickly Wednesday morning and jump off for Dominica to take advantage of rare forecasted south winds.

February 11 - fair winds and following seas - up to a point

We raised the spinnaker twice on the way to Dominica (making this the second and third times in our entire Caribbean adventure so far).  We are not as good at this as a racing crew, but it is so worth it when that sail breaks out. 

We made fabulous time until the last 2 hours when the wind slacked, and current and swells fought us the last few miles to the Dominica coast.  We picked up a mooring at Seacat's area off Roseau, the capital of Dominica, and tried to settle down for the night.  Unfortunately, the south winds had created some pretty big rollers and then disappeared, leaving us at their mercy.  This was one of the rolliest evenings and nights ever, with dinner preparation more like a dance, and sleep intermittent at best.

The next morning, we dinghied and then walked to town, to clear in, visit the market (oh, those island markets) and grab some lunch in a non-rolly environment.  We stopped at the Fort Young Hotel for a daiquiri and light lunch in their charming bar area.  

Although you can't tell from the sea side, this hotel was created from an old stone fort and is impressive and unique on the land side.  We decided to move on the next day further up the coast, hoping to find calmer conditions.