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| Portsmouth - Rupert Bay, Dominica. |
In Portsmouth, Dominica, there is an organisation called
PAYS. Yes, it does sound a bit ominous – but it stands for Portsmouth
Association Yacht Services. It was formed in 2005 in Portsmouth by a group of
young guys who were eager to make a living out of the many yachts that anchored
off Portsmouth. Security is one of the sailing communities’ priorities, as
dinghy theft and boat boarding in a few Caribbean countries is a grave issue.
Like most things, one bad apple affects many. Originally, the ‘boat boys’ as
they have often in the past been referred to, would paddle out to a boat as it was
entering the anchorage, and offer their services. Their services included
cleaning of your boat, security, car hire, tourist information, etc. You would
then pay them for the services provided.
We have been in several Caribbean countries where this is still happening – the boat boys paddling out
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| Overlooking Ruperts Bay, Portsmouth, Dominica. |
to the boats, and it can be quite dangerous, especially if the rowed boat capsizes. PAYS was established to bring about some control and order along with safety for all.
Every Sunday and Wednesday evening during the sailing season,
the PAYS guys put on a beach BBQ, and most of the proceeds goes towards PAYS. Many
people/sailors will make sure they are in Portsmouth for at least one of these
days to enjoy the BBQ (and plenty of Rum Punch). PAYS has also built a nice
dinghy dock which has access to their offices and the primary areas of
Portsmouth.
We arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica on Friday 21 March and made plans to attend the Sunday BBQ, which we did. We also heard that we were in Portsmouth for the PAYS annual yachting festival 2005 – 2025, which was starting on Saturday 22 March and running through to the following Sunday. They had
organised a number of activities, so Mel and I thought we would support them as best we could while in Portsmouth. One of the activities was a Fun Race to Mero. Mero is another town 11Nmiles south from Portsmouth, along the coast of Dominica. It also has a lovely bay for anchoring in but there is not a dinghy dock. PAYS of Portsmouth are trying to help establish a MAYS – in Mero. This year/2025 was the third such Fun Boat Race. We thought it would be a bit of fun, knowing full well that Passages would never come anywhere in the top three positions as Passages is a cruising boat. She is not designed to go fast like the Dufour’s, Bennetto’s or Jeanneau’s, as she has a full keel, unlike the boats mentioned that are lighter and have fin keels.
We attended the pre-race meeting on the Monday evening and
realised that there were only four participants in the race, Passages being one
of the four. We were also told that the Fun race involved returning to
Portsmouth the following day/Wednesday and that ONLY three of the four yachts were
returning – Passages being one of them. SO, either way Passages would come third!!!!
OR last! Go Passages!!!!
We received our instructions and race procedures, so at 9.00
am, Tuesday 25 March, Passages took part in her first (and only yacht race).
Mel’s competitive and racing spirit came to the fore. We had to sail close-hauled
with the wind coming from forward of the beam, meaning that dear Passages did
not stand a chance of keeping up with the other three boats. IF, however, the
wind was coming aft/from behind the beam, there was a possibility that Passages
could keep up with them, as we have a 130% genoa. Passages managed to reach the
Point of Portsmouth Bay, first and then everything changed from then.
In normal circumstances, we would never have chosen to sail in the weather conditions we found
ourselves in. We experienced gusts of over thirty knots of wind at times. When we eventually arrived at Mero, it was pouring with rain and we were at least ¾ hour behind the last boat, BUT who cares.
One of the boat boys came to collect us from Passages to
take us onto land as the beach was extremely challenging to land a dinghy on,
that is why MAYS are keen to raise funds so a dinghy dock can be built. A
dinghy dock can be a deal breaker for yachties to anchor in an anchorage as it
is not always easy to beach a dinghy.
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| Some of the festivities in Mero |
That night, Tuesday evening, a BBQ was organised and quite a few speeches were made by dignitaries from the Ministry of Tourism. The boat that was not returning to Portsmouth the following day, Wednesday, received their special plaque.
Wednesday morning, we set off back to Portsmouth, with three
boats in the race. This time the wind conditions were much better, and we had a
good sail.
That evening, we attended the Wednesday night BBQ, where we
received our plaque, a prize for coming third and our photo taken for the
Caribbean compass.
For coming third 😊, we received a $50 US voucher from one of our favourite restaurants called the Purple Turtle. Back in 2014, when we had to find free Wi-Fi, the Purple Turtle had one of the fastest and most reliable Wi-Fi in Portsmouth. At times, using our special antenna, we could even get Wi-Fi on the boat. How things have changed now that we have
Starlink.
On Thursday evening, we had an enjoyable meal at the Purple
Turtle. Compliments of the 3rd Portsmouth to Mero Fun Race
We enjoyed Portsmouth and it was so pleasing to see how they
are embracing sustainability and trying hard to look after the environment. I
know in my blog entry in 2014, I was shocked at the amount of litter found on
the streets. It was pleasing to see how clean most of the streets looked now.
Hurricanes are an unpleasant fact for Dominica and often put a damper on their
infrastructure. Along the beach front were a small number of remnants of
Hurricane Beryl 2024 and Hurricane Maria 2017. It is a tricky situation to be
in as we discussed with several Dominicans while we were in Portsmouth. China
is helping to build their new airport, which will encourage Dominicia’s tourist
industry and of course with the current political situation in the U.S.A. makes
for an interesting and at times worrisome topic of conversation for the region.
BTW. Dominica imports fuel from Venezuela and has close ties with Cuba for their
health system. I will not elaborate any further and just leave it like that.
We were keen to stay
for a few more of the yachting festival activities, but the weather looked good
for us to sail across to Martinque on the Friday.
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| Roseau, Dominica. |
Going back a bit, on the Monday – 24 March, we caught the local bus down to Roseau, the capital of Portsmouth. Roseau has changed since our visit in 2014, and I have been in a bit of a quandary as to whether progress is good for a country, at the price of losing its authenticity. Roseau has changed their whole waterfront area to cater for the HUGE cruise ships. It looks more like parts of Florida than Dominica. The authentic markets are slowly being replaced with cookie-cutter style shops and the Caribbean vibe is slowly disappearing.
Anyway, back to Friday – we left lovely and friendly
Portsmouth, Dominica early on Friday morning as we knew we had at least 52NMiles
to sail to one of my favourite destinations, St Pierre, Martinique.
We had a reasonable sail although this year we have done so
much upwind/close-hauled sailing, it is quite unbelievable! It is not very comfortable,
and most cruising sailors do not enjoy it at all. In this part of the
Caribbean, comfortable beam reaching or downwind sailing used to be the norm.
However, as I have said MANY times, anyone who is a ‘Climate Change’ sceptic,
needs to spend some time sailing as the weather patterns have changed. We have
also experienced days on end of high winds and gusts of 26/27 plus knots of
wind. None of the weather models seem to know what is going on either.
We arrived in St Pierre, Martinique, just before 5.00pm and
took a mooring ball next to Dave and Monique on their boat Evy.
It felt so good to be in St Pierre, a place we had visited on three previous occasions: Once in 2014 with our friends Ivo and Mira (sv Fata Morgana), then twice in 2018 – once on Passages, on our way up to
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| St. Pierre and Mont Pelee |
Dominica, and the other time by car with our friends, John and Linda, who once owned the sailboat ‘Blue Moon’. We were in one of my other favourite places, St Anne’s with Blue Moon in 2018 and we hired a car to drive around the island. We stopped off for lunch in St Pierre and then went to the main Rum distillery – DEPAZ to try their rum.
FYI – St Pierre is often referred to as the ‘Little Paris of
the Caribbean’ and is famous for the huge volcanic eruption of Mont Pelee on 8
May 1902, killing everyone except a prisoner who was in the jail’s dungeon and
causing 386 ships to be destroyed in the bay.
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| Some fishermen close to the mooring balls, St Pierre. |
We spent three wonderful days on the mooring ball enjoying St Pierre. It felt great to relax a bit after our hectic time in Portsmouth. We managed to catch up with some household chores and with some friends Mel had met while in Brunswick, Ed, and Donnell on their boat Ibis. They are heading south and to spend time in Trinidad, although the current political situation there is a bit of a worry at present.
On Monday morning, we left lovely St Pierre and headed south towards our last destination in the East Caribbean, St Anne. St Anne will be where we will leave from as we sail to Curaçao. Before anchoring
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| Anse Dufour. |
in St Anne, we decided to spend one night in one of the lovely anchorages along the way, thus breaking the sail from St Pierre to St Anne. We anchored in a small bay called Anse Dufour. It was lovely as we could see the twinkling of the city lights in Fort de France, Martinique’s capital city but we also experienced the seclusion of the small bay. One of the fishermen did come out insisting we move as they put their nets out where we had anchored. We got the message across to him that it was far too late for us to move now but we would be gone before 7.00am the following morning, which we were.
On Tuesday morning, April 1, we sailed towards St Anne,
sailing past the infamous Diamond Rock. Diamond Rock played a strategic role in
the 19th century between the French and the English.
The Rock
that Served in the Royal Navy - Atlas Obscura
The sail started off well with about 20 minutes of downward
sailing and some beam reach sailing, then as soon as we passed Diamond Rock, my
goodness the wind came howling out from the SE, which meant once again we were
close-hauled. The swell was also very choppy and although many boats were
motoring, we know that Passages does not manage close-hauled motoring very well
especially if there is a swell. As I have said many times, she is a heavy boat
so needs wind to slice her way through the water. We sailed, tacking multiple
times as you can see from our track on NoForeignland.
While we were sailing and tacking across the bay towards St
Anne, we noticed that a fish trap had got caught somehow on the boat. The
fishermen tie big two litre coke bottles onto their traps so in many areas, you
are dodging plastic coke bottles. Somehow in our sail and while we were
tacking, we must have gone over one which caught our rudder. The way Passages’
hull and rudder are designed, it is unusual for a trap to get tangled in our
rudder (compared to fin-keeled boats), as was this case, it is still possible.
When we but arrived in St Anne and we were trying to anchor in 25 knots of wind, this became a significant issue as the engine stopped. The bottles and rope had got caught in the propeller while anchoring. Mel immediately dropped the anchor to secure us while I got the fenders out as we were
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| What was caught around our propeller. |
drifting quite close to another boat and their occupants were not on board. Thankfully, the anchor held, and we ended up a suitable distance behind the other boat. This gave us the opportunity to sort out the rudder and propeller as Mel had to dive to cut everything away. After about half and hour, we were free of all the bottles and ropes, we then managed to re-anchor in a more suitable place. There is never a dull moment. Phew!!!
So here we are in St Anne, a place like St Pierre, which I
really enjoy. The anchorage is HUGE, the waters are lovely and clear, and we
see turtles and the odd dolphin on a regular basis. There is a good dinghy dock
with access to many facilities. At the moment, we are a bit boat bound as the
wind has been howling twenty-one plus knots since we arrived and according to
the weather forecast, will continue to until the weekend. The swell in the
anchorage is quite bad so any dinghy ride would not be enjoyable. It would be a
very wet and bumpy ride. In the meantime, as mentioned earlier, we are making
plans for our sail to Curaçao and our eventual return to Perth. We have a few
chores to do like replacing our main navigational light which seems to have
been damaged by someone (we do not know when or by whom). It looks as if
someone has bumped us, so we need to buy a new one as it is an essential part
of the boat for sailing during the night. Luckily, Le Marin, the main town 2NMiles
from St Anne is the largest yachting centre in the Caribbean, so we should be
able to sort it out easily. There are a few other things that Mel would like to
work on before our long and final sail for this year’s sailing season.
So…. Until next time – take care
and keep safe.
Best wishes always.
Mel and Caryn
