On the Move

If you've been tagging along with us these past few years you know that we move along at a pretty casual pace. Not lately. We've undone several years of southward progress in the past three weeks since we need to be in St Maarten in another week or so. I left off in Bequia so I'll pick up there.

After just a day we fled the picturesque anchorage by Princess Margaret Beach for the slightly more protected anchorage in the north part of Admiralty Bay when a big north swell turned the corner into the bay. Mostly we did chores, but made time to get back over to Sugar Reef where this time we treated ourselves to a killer lunch and a lazy day in their lounge chairs.


Miranda Laundry - worth the 50 EC for super clean clothes, towels and sheets



Great fresh produce daily



North swell bringing in crashing waves on the walkway along the shore
 

Grilled Mahi at Sugar Reef

Post lunch lazing

Laundry, chores and lazing finished, we sailed on to St Lucia and then to Martinique where we stopped briefly to snorkel with an octopus in Chaudier and watch frigate birds compete with fishermen for their daily catch.

Octopus

Men and birds fishing

Clearing in to the French islands is usually a breeze but computer problems cross all boundaries however and clearing in to Martinique took a little patience this time. We got all our information filled in but before we hit "print" to make our arrival official, the screen went blank. Eventually all got sorted out and we had time for a stroll on the beach at Grande Anse and a stop in the local vendors market.

How do you say "I hate computers" in French?

Lovely Grande Anse

The very robust dock in Grande Anse

Speeding along we headed to St Pierre and anchored under Mt Pelee once again. The beach is beautiful black sand and the beachcombing turned up loads of super polished beach glass.

Black sand and white surf

Sunset in St Pierre

It's a stunning anchorage and we were sorry to have to leave at dawn the next morning and miss the big Saturday market on the waterfront. We watched them setting up as we picked up the anchor and sailed north to Dominica.

Morning mist on Mt Pelee

 As we neared Portsmouth Dominica we were approached by Andrew/SeaBird and he called out a "Welcome to Dominica!" We chatted for a minute and he sped off to greet two more boats trailing in behind us. 

We were still in deep water and had our fishing line in the water (ever hopeful we are) and it suddenly started to run.... fast. Finally, a fish! But as the line whizzed crazily and we watched SeaBird move away at an equally fast pace, we realized we hadn't caught a fish at all. We'd caught a boat boy.


Dominica welcomes us with a double rainbow, but no fish.

I've got to leave it here for now... the light is fading and we need to re-anchor before dark. More soon if the wifi gods cooperate.