The Adventures of Francesca
Part 5
The Saints to the Grenadines
March 2, 2005
Hello to all our family, friends and fellow MTOA members.
Our anchorage on February 17 was at Anse Fideling in The Saints, just south of the big island of Guadeloupe. It was a goodly dinghy trip to the nearby island and town of Terre D’en Haut and at our present anchorage and small island there was no convenient way to go to shore. Each day the wind blew heavily and a dinghy ride to the town would have meant seriously wet butts. So we sat at anchor and did some snorkeling in and around the cove. Several times during the day and night there were substantial booms that made Francesca vibrate. I thought perhaps there were naval gunnery exercises going on. Then one morning there was a really big bang that shook Francesca to the keel. It was clearly an earthquake. Later that day, we found out that it was a 5.7 Richter scale quake and that there had been many lesser quakes.
After a few days, the wind dropped just a bit. However, the weather was forecast to deteriorate within 24 hours and remain windy for perhaps a week. So, February 19 we took advantage of the short weather window and moved on to Prince Rupert Bay at the island of Dominica, 20 nm to the south. The winds, while stiff, were out of the NNE. We wanted to go SSE and even with 6 to 8 foot seas it was an easy ride. We arrived mid-afternoon. Prince Rupert Bay is large and given the forecast it would be quite comfortable until the weather improved. Portsmouth, the capital town of Dominica, resides there. We found services and stores to provision with produce, water and entertainment. But Dominica is indeed a strange and beautiful place. The island has 8 potentially active volcanoes, makes its own weather and has only two serviceable bays (so long as the wind has an easterly component). The mountainsides are a quilt work of lush green jungle mixed with various farming activities. Caribs dominantly populate the island. As cruisers we found Dominica a little oppressive. There were restrictions against everything that makes cruising nice. No fishing, so scuba (except with a Dominica dive boat), no dinghies in the rivers, etc. It is understandable that the Dominicans need to capitalize on their assets, but as a cruiser, the restrictions don’t set well. The Customs House officials also ranks among the worst we have ever experienced. They seemed to take pleasure ignoring us while fooling with personal toys or chit chatting endlessly with other office workers. That was followed by admonishing remarks regarding my ability to fill out their stupidly ambiguous forms. On the good side, our stay ad Dominica was comfortable even considering that it rained frequently and the wind was often greater than 25 knots. Thankfully, we didn’t notice any more earth tremors.
1
