Thursday, January 8
Roseau, Dominica
Miles traveled: 36.8nm

We left St. Pierre, Martinique at 724am with less than 5 kts wind and 7 boats in front of us. Walkabout was ahead of us and had cleared the end of Martinique having 11-13 kts wind and 5′ swells. We started sailing ourselves when the wind became 17kts and I went below as I feeling seasick. I took watch with 11nm to go when the wave motion was calmer and I was feeling better. As soon as we were close to Roseau Harbour, the boat boy, Dennis came out to meet us wanting to guide us in to one of his mooring balls. We wanted to be close to our friends and scoped things out. It turns out that the mooring ball we wanted was Dennis’s at $10 USD a night. Rick from Vision Quest called us on the VHF radio and offer to go with him and Bob with the guy he hired to clear Customs and then go get Propane. here you do need to hire someone as they need to drive you to Customs for $50EC which was split between the 3 guys. It was an additional $50EC to go to the Propane facility which Rick covered.

We relaxed on the boat today and I made Brats, potatoes and cabbage for dinner. We saw our first green flash of the season during tonights sunset which is always great.

Walkabout with boat boy at their bow in Roseau, Dominica.

Children playing on the rocky beach in front of their home.

Harbor in Roseau, Dominica

Continuing further south Harbor in Roseau, Dominica

Friday, January 9
Passage to Portsmouth, Dominica
Miles traveled: 19.8nm

After raising our Main Sail, we released the mooring ball at 820am. Once we were heading in the right direction, phil let out the head sail with a moderate reef with winds 8-12 kts. That lasted a whole 10 min as the wind angle was too close to,sail. An hour later we were able to roll out the head sail again and this time turn off the engine! which lasted about 30 min. Oh well. Finally we met Martin in MV Providence who had been recommended by friends of our with 2.5 nm to go. There are mooring balls here in Ports out but we decided to anchor and was set by 1153am. Quickly the boat boys were out to sell you fruit and vegetables and water. We bought some from MV My Way.

We didn’t do much but did buy a months worth of WiFi from HotHotHotSpot
for $20USD as we’ll be able to it in Deshais, Guadaloupe and also in Antigua.

We had heavy rain at 515pm and as the sun was getting lower in the sky, saw a rainbow.

Rainbow, one of many in the afternoon – ends at Vision Quest, our friends.

I worked on Rachel’s sweater and did computer stuff for the evening and didn’t go to bed until midnight.

Start of cuff on sleeve