Day 19: Les Saintes to Dominica

Today we woke up about 6am in preparation for our big sail to Dominica.  We convinced Dad to wait until after the boulangerie opened so we could load up on pastries and baguettes before we left.  Linz and Grant took the dinghy ashore and came back with pain chocolat, eclairs, and baguettes.  Amazing.  We could definitely live on French bread, cheese, and chocolate!!!

Today was our best sail day yet.  We had HUGE waves with rolling seas (according to wind guru weather they were on average 8-12 feet, which is pretty darn big when you are in a little boat on the ocean).  We had a straight beam reach to Dominica and made it there without any tacks.  We hit our top speed yet - 13.7 knots.  We had one reef in the mainsail and 3/4 jib with 20-25 knots of wind. Dad said it was definitely ocean sailing conditions.  Amazing to think that the last time that water hit land would have been in Africa.  Makes the world seem such a small place and the ocean, on the other hand, very vast!

To give you an idea of the sail over, the waves were splashing over the deck of the boat.  We had to close the front hatches because salt water was pouring into the cabin.  In spite of the heavy seas, we all felt great.  I guess because the waves were coming at about a 45 degree angle across our bow, they didn't make us toss and turn so much and the ride was more predictable.  Whereas on our agony sail day headed to Guadeloupe we had rolling seas but the waves were coming at us head on so the boat dove with each wave and it was much more uncomfortable.  We were out of sight of land for a little over an hour before we could make out the silhouette of Dominica in the distance.  We couldn't help but think about the two people our friends Al and Rochelle had rescued years ago.  With the waves so big and the wind gusting, it is a miracle that they even saw the young men in the water that day.  After about a 3 hour sail we approached our destination at Prince Rupert Bay.  When we arrived we were greeted by a pod of about 15 dolphins - the first we've seen on our trip.  We have video but I don't know if it will let me attach it here.

So if you have been to Dominica, you know the boat boys there are notorious.  When my Mom and Dad were here years ago. A young boy about Grant's age now paddled out to them on a surf board about a 1/2 mile out.  Today's conditions probably kept the young boat boys in close to shore, so we were met by Raymond who cut another guy off to get to us first.  They are so desperate for tourist income and depend on the boating community to support them.  We had agreed to go with the first guy so the rest would leave us alone, but Raymond and Titus got in a major shouting match over who would take care of us.  Dad was very diplomatic and told them to work it out and let us know who to deal with for our stay.  We really thought it was going to get ugly - even people on other yachts were yelling at them to calm down and work it out. 

A couple of years ago, crime started to become a problem in Prince Rupert Bay.  A guy named Jeffrey who goes by Sea Bird was smart enough to realize that their livelihood depends on tourists, and if the harbor is not safe, the tourists will not come.  He started an organization called PAYS of boat boys (now they are really boat men) who agree to a certain etiquette system and also patrol the bay for security infractions.  As it turns out, Raymond was not a member of PAYS; he was a tour guide looking to make a few extra bucks.  We really wanted to support the PAYS group because they are trying to do a good thing and make an honest living, so we ended up going with Titus.  Titus works with Lawrence of Arabia.  He took Mom and Dad to customs and arranged a tour with Anselm for tomorrow (also part of Lawrence if Arabia ' s group).  They all have crazy names, I guess so people will remember them and ask for them by name next time they come visit.

Our sail was so fast that we ended up hanging out all day and swam by our boat.  Dad saw a Catana boat in the harbor and atarted salivating because he has read a lot about them but has never seen one up close.  He just jumped in the dinghy and drive over to meet them.  Turned out they are incredibly nice people from Switzerland and have a little boy named Nino who is about two years old.

After a bit they all came back to hang out on our boat.  We invited the couple we met in the Saintes to join us also since Jackson and Nino are roughly the same age.  It was a bit of crazy babysitting - all new hazards I'm not normally used to dealing with like automatic winch switches,  trampolines - oh, and of course the ocean! Buy their parents were super calm and appreciated us taking the kids off their hands for awhile so the parents could talk.  The coolest thing about Nino is that his mom is French and his Dad is American, so Nino speaks both languages.  He is only two, so he doesn't speak either fully yet - but it is incredible when you ask him something in English and he replies in fluent French.   He doesn't really distinguish between the two languages.  Buy if you ask him to repeat what he said in English, he does so perfectly.  Really cool.

After our cocktail/socal hour on our our boat, we did sort of a pit luck dinner on Matt & Jenny's boat.  We brought grilled chicken, salad and wine and they made risotto.  Their boat is the same brand as ours but a 48 foot boat compared to our 40 foot boat.  It is just the 3 of them now, but they are meeting 2 other families and will have 12 on board later this week.  Their boat was a palace - literally a floating condo.  We couldn't believe the difference that 8 feet made in the width and the interior accomodations.  It was really fun to see another layout.  There are things we like better about our boat and some we like better about their's.   It was just really fun to see a different setup and compare.

Our excitement at dinner was Dad dropped the kill switch for the dinghy.  Thank God it was Dad who dropped it because we never would have heard the end of that one.  I guess we will dive to find that in the morning.  Lucky for us, it is only about 10 feet of water!!!