St Lucia – arrived! 26/06/2021
It was an interesting sail down the coasts of Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique! Wind very variable. Strong across the open between the islands, and sometimes very strong as we cleared or approached an island. These islands are mountainous and wind gets funnelled around the high ground, producing strange effects. The wind speed clear of land is typically 15 or 16 knots, but in these funnel zones it will easily go to 20, sometimes 25 or more knots, and wind direction can veer suddenly.
Because of this, I sailed with one reef in the mainsail, and on occasion I took the foresail in because I was still over-sailed, with Manuka heeling considerably. In contrast, wind was light in the lee of the islands. I used the engine at times in order to make our destination before nightfall.
Stopping and anchoring for the night worked well (it is a lot easier on the body than sailing through the night!). Each day I left at about 0630 and sailed 55-60 nautical miles, arriving late afternoon. On both French islands I had no interaction with anyone. On Dominica, probably because there were no other boats anchored where I stopped, the coastguard turned up in a launch. They told me that I was not supposed to be there. If I wanted to anchor for the night, the only place I could do it was off Portsmouth, way up towards the top of the island, about 15 miles distant from where we were in the very south. I pleaded ignorance (which this time was true). What saved me I think was that it was almost 6pm, less than an hour before dark. They could hardly send me on a night passage back up north. So after taking my name (but not asking for any documents) they told me I could stay!
Anchoring in a lovely little bay on the southern end of Martinique yesterday was great. The shoreline was forested and mountainous, the water clear. I was worried that the anchor might not be well set, and there were other boats around, so I took my goggles and snorkel and went overboard to examine how things lay (this is really the best way to check on an anchor – I’m happy to say I’m getting good use out of my specially made prescription lens goggles!). We were in about 4 to 5 metres of water and the bottom was a combination of sand, weed and numerous small rocks. As I suspected, the anchor had dragged a little, but I watched it dig itself in nicely. All looked good…
And then I noticed that I was myself under observation. Dozens of fish were looking at me curiously. So I swam around a bit and lots of them were following me. Their equivalent of going to the zoo, no doubt. And then today I was followed a lot of the way across to St Lucia by several seagulls, who seemed to take great pleasure in hovering next to the boat in a pretty stiff breeze, diving into the water occasionally after a fish. I’ve always thought of seagulls as airborne rats, but I must admit their flying is incredibly skilful.
Sailing over to St Lucia was a short trip, less than 30 nautical miles to Rodney Bay, which is right up on the northwest corner of the island. I have anchored at the end of the beach, well past a large Sandals resort and in the lee of Pigeon Island. It’s a nature reserve, well treed with two prominent peaks. It has the remains of an old fort and other military buildings – this was a key British military post, on clear days giving sight of French comings and goings around the south of Martinique.