LinoCat

The weather was nice after a rolly anchorage in St Pierre. We left around 7.30 to Dominica. The Wind came most of the time from behind but was quite weak and so we had one engine running at 2500rpm and making water until our tank was full. We passed Roseau where we had been in January and went to the north end of Dominica to Portsmouth. Due to the sourtherly winds there was also a southerly swell and so we anchored in the most secure place at the Portsmouth hotel. There is also free Wifi here and the water is clear. Albert, one of the boat boys is highly recommend by others and we heard also good about him from Ralf and Inge but we do not need anything. Lani will soon operate the anchor on her own i guess. She is now more and more trying out things. here she is trying out how far she can throw her doll :-)

Howdy, i am typing on a french keyboard; which is the worst layout i have ever seen. You know that you are back in Europe, since a coffee costs 2EUR and no free wireless lan. When LinoCat left the buoy i thought we will have to motor. There was no wind and the sea was flat but as soon as Scott heqd was passed the wind picked up and we sailed. 30 minutes later reef 1 and another 30 minutes and reef 1 in the genoa with winds up to 30 knots we did 8.5knots. Waves and wind came at 45 degrees angle from front but after 3 hours the crossing was done. We reached Saint Pierre and dropped anchor on 8m sand with 30m of chain since the wind can be gusting up to 25knots here. After a short walk around we went back to the boat and Lani had her dinner. Now i am sitting at the customs office, which is a bistro with internet cafe and do the blog while waiting for the customs PC to be available; then back to the boat and salad and beef for dinner. Bon soir M et and

Today our mood for Dominica changed. After succesfully clearing in, we had a nice island tour with Hayden Luke, a Taxidriver and Guide. He knew a lot about the islands history and plants. Our trip went from a botanical garden to the rain forest and the sulfur springs. On the way Hayden showed us wild lemon grass and ginger, coffee, bread fruit and many more plants. Trafalgar falls was also worth having a look and on the way we found a television with an empty rum bottle right next to the street. An open air TV cinema? ;-) Dinner was at a chinese restaurant and was good.

Well, we are at a mooring buoy in front of Dominica Marine Center. It is 30m deep and the mooring seems to be OK. Unfortunately the guy to whom we paid the mooring was not authorized and just took our money. Well, lesson learned :-) On Sunday Alan from Ca Canny and myself walked through the deserted harbor and found the customs closed. So we went again Monday morning. There was an officer but he was not to happy to see customers and told us we had to go to the deep water port. So all the way back to the boat. Now our mood was almost in a state to leave the island but we decided to give it one more try and so we took a Taxi to the deep water port and clearing in and out at the same time was easy and costs around 30EC Dollar. They accept prepared crew lists. Then we walked around the town which is quite nice with many old houses. This afternoon we will do an island tour. I just dived below the boat and the water is crystal clear with visibility around 25 m. I removed some growth from th...

Yesterday evening we arrived at around 1800 at the anchorage of Saint Pierre, a cute little village in the north of Martinique. It was a beautiful sunset while we dropped the anchor but we had to do it twice. It is very deep in this area so everyone has to anchor close to the beach. A few meters behind the others it drops to around 25 m which means you would have to use around 100 m of chain. LinoCat has 100 m but then you boat moves around a lot and you might bump into others if the wind turns. So we dropped the anchor right behind an american boat and let out 25 m of chain. In the beginning i was not to happy but it looked like we are anchored OK. After bringing a very naughty Lani to bed (she did not have a long enough nap yesterday noon), i lowered the Dinghy and went to town to search the bar "L´Escapade" for clearing out. I found it at 1920 and they would close at 1930. The Doyle cruising guide says 2100 and noonsite.com says 19.00. Well thats life. Jason Batt from Bat...