Christmas highlights: pre- and post-

I'm It’s been a while since the last post but, well, you have all been busy celebrating Xmas haven't you? Hope you had a good one. Down here it's been a very different festive season for us. Having spent 4 days changing the failed starter motor and relay, and fixing the outboard motor, we finally slipped our mooring in True Blue Bay, Grenada, at daybreak on 13 December. The 9h, 50nm passage to Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou was straightforward. A highlight was porridge served with nutmeg syrup. Having visited the nutmeg factory on Grenada, courtesy of a day’s outing with Wendy and Kevin, we could appreciate the work that goes into making the delicious syrup.

It was a peaceful evening

but we had a scare that night: having anchored quite near a shallow reef area named Barefoot Alley, we were woken in the small hours by a series of loud bumps beneath us. It was the keel hitting the reef - the wind had blown up with several very strong gusts and our anchor had slipped a few metres. Luckily Follyfin’s lifting keel enabled us to solve the problem immediately but needless to say, once day dawned we moved to deeper water. One day to recover in Tyrrell, clear out of Grenada customs (Carriacou is part of Grenada) and revisit the waterfront, we then tackled the 27h, 155nm overnight passage to St. Anne on Martinique, leaving Tyrrell on 15 Dec. The high spot was a visit from a pod of about 12 bottlenose dolphins, who played in our bow wave for about half an hour.

It was good to return to St. Anne where we had anchored earlier this year on first arrival in the Carribean.

However the weather was somewhat different, with frequent showers and very strong gusts of wind also frequent. Nevertheless one day saw us recovered from the tiring passage and by Sunday morning the Skipper felt able to tackle the Duogen problem, having been unable to fit it in Trinidad. With the promise of entrecôte and fries for lunch at Snack Boubou, we got it done and went ashore to celebrate. Took our time, chatting to other cruisers, connecting to wifi, savouring locally made coconut ice cream etc. Then dinghied back to Follyfin BUT stepping on board, Skipper immediately knew things were not as he had left them. As we puzzled to work out what had happened, a young French couple from a neighbouring boat came over in their dinghy and told us they had seen Follyfin dragging her anchor during a particularly strong gust in the early afternoon. They and another couple got on board, and started the engine to stop the drag - Skipper had fortunately decided to leave the key in the ignition and the batteries on, feeling that there was a very small probablitity Follyfin might drag (never thinking it would actually happen!). Well, we thought we had the anchor well dug in but… thanks to those young people, so alert and interested enough to help another boat in distress, even resetting the anchor and diving on it to ensure it was well dug in and... we are still afloat. Phew!

Needing an extra day to recover from that experience, the next move on 20 Dec was to sail round the SW point of Martinique and into the bay of Fort de France, the capital of Martinique, in order to reprovision for Christmas. Just 25nm, it was a splendid sail, achieving a record top boat speed for Follyfin of 10.5kn. However this sailing treat was followed by an anchoring nightmare. Suffice to say that during the 2 days we were in the Anse de Mitan, across the bay from the capital, we reset the anchor 6 times, eventually deploying a second anchor as insurance. Knowing that we would be leaving Follyfin for the best part of a day when we caught the ferry across the bay, we needed to be sure she would not move… 

Next stop would be Roseau on the beautiful unspoilt island of Dominica (not the Dominican Republic!). We made an excellent 57nm passage on 22 Dec, arriving after 7 hours and top speed of 10.2kn, experiencing big seas and strong wind on the 26nm open water stretch between the islands, and force 7 gusts off the mountainous SW tip of Dominica.

The west coast of this island is very steep to the shore so we were not prepared to risk anchoring again. We took one of ‘Sea Cat’s’ mooring buoys and slept peacefully there for 4 nights. Visited the wonderful and huge market on Friday 23 Dec. Christmas Eve’s special treat was a whale watching trip. The best view we had was of the magnificent skeleton of a sperm whale in the hotel organising the trip. 

Otherwise much time was spent searching with a hydrophone

eventually tracking one down for close sighting, although we saw the spouts of her group a little further off. Being honest, the trip was slightly disappointing. 

However, this was made up for many times over by the Christmas Day tour with Sea Cat himself (real name Octavius Lugay) we took with two others. He drove us first high up into the Morne Trois Pitons National Parkup to the crater lakes, Freshwater and Boeri, where the air is cool and the vegetation is called ‘elfin’ or cloud forest. Beautiful open views down the 2800ft to the sea, and no other people. Next we went to Titou Gorge - a slot-canyon that winds back ~200m into the mountain and a thundering waterfall. The sheer walls are narrow and twisty and the bottom is a river so you have to swim up and float back…. Diana and I did and were rewarded with dramatic views up to the sky through thick rain forest vegetation. The guys decided against it - they missed a treat. 

The next totally unique Christmas Day experience was a challenging ‘hike’ up, over and between slippery boulders towards the pool at the foot of Trafalgar Falls, clad only in bathing suits and sandals. So unfortunately no photos! Sea Cat was a fantastic guide, encouraging the faint-hearted and less fit amongst us up, up and up again until we left all the other trippers far behind and were able to luxuriate in warm rock pools under hot ‘showers’ spouting out of the rock. Admittedly our skin did turn slightly orange from the iron ore that was liberally deposited on the rock surfaces. What a great way to spend Christmas Day, one that we won't forget.

After lunch at a small roadside restaurant, we were then driven slowly back down through the sulphur hot spring area and the different forest layers, visiting the Botanic Garden to see the humming birds on the Powder Puff tree and on to the Champagne Beach -  so-called because warm bubbles ascend in about 10ft of water - where there is excellent snorkelling on the nearby reef. 

So ended a most memorable Christmas Day… after our Christmas dinner of Confit de Canard, courtesy of Mr Carrefour.

Boxing Day saw us leave Roseau and sail on up the west coast of Dominica to Prince Rupert Bay near Portsmouth. Taking another mooring buoy, we arranged with Martin, the guide recommended by Sea Cat, to take us up the Indian River this morning, 27 Dec. He collected us in his boat at 06:30 and off we went, again sharing with another couple. At that time no one else was about and rowing up this river was nothing short of magical. The following photos may capture some of the atmosphere… many birds were seen, including three species of heron, banana birds, bull finches, humming birds. Even the Dominican parrot was seen fleetingly but not by me. The plants were amazing too, the variety, colours, shapes and sizes, many with medicinal properties as explained by Martin who is a botanist by training and extremely knowledgable.

GIANT MALE CRABWITH FIGHTING CLAW READY FOR ACTION

GREAT BLUE HERONS ON NEST - Family of three

PHILODENDRON CLIMBING SWAMP BLOODWOOD TREE

MARTIN, OUR GUIDE

SATISFIED CUSTOMERS, F HOLDING HAND-CRAFTED BIRD OF PARADISE

We will be heading for Guadeloupe tomorrow, via the Îles des Saintes. Hopefully the interval between this and the next post from there will be less than two weeks.