Chilling in Portsmouth, Dominica

Sunday 15th - Monday 16th December 2024

Life on the mooring in Portsmouth is pretty chill. Our first order of business was to get checked-in with customs and immigration. In the past we have taken the dinghy over to the government offices about 3 miles away, but we weren’t sure they were open on a Sunday. We then heard from some other cruisers that PAYS (Portsmouth Area Yacht Services), from whom we rent the mooring, would organize the process for us. I completed the electronic submissions on-line through “SailClear” and we went to shore around 9 am to talk to PAYS. “Yes, we can sort this for you, give me your documents and come back at noon” - so we left our passports and check-out papers from Martinique with PAYS and left. When we returned sometime after noon … and mid-afternoon … and late afternoon … the office was all locked up. We were a little concerned about not having our passports, but when I returned on Monday morning, Eddison (PAYS) greeted me with the words “I expected to see you yesterday”. Anyway, it was all sorted and we now have passports and clearance documents in hand.

We have been doing some boat cleaning in preparation for the arrival of Tasha, Mac, Don and Dolly (Mac’s parents). We were able to buy some gasoline and diesel at the local petrol station and we have filled up our water tanks with jerry cans from shore. All told it’s been fairly relaxing. We have taken a couple of short walks along the main beach-front road through Portsmouth. It's a scruffy but colorful little town and the people are super friendly. I needed to get a temporary driving permit before picking up a rental car, and even the police officers were charming!

Monday became a display of tall-masted sailing ships, with four in the bay at one time. We often see boats, small and large, that we have seen previously in other harbors or out on the ocean, and the tall ships stand out because they look so beautiful.

Mike

A traditional fishing boat on the beach in Portsmouth. The main road crosses a small river on the bridge in the background

A three-master anchored of Fort Shirley

Vela anchored in Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth

Vela at sunset

Five-masted clipper ship that we have seen around the Caribbean a lot

Working boat anchored in Prince Rupert Bay, showing the mountains behind Portsmouth

St. Pierre episode 6

St. Pierre episode 6

Thursday 12th - Saturday 14th December 2024

We spent some time thinking about our trips to St. Pierre and have come to the conclusion that this is our sixth visit to the town.  

The first order of business on Thursday was to check all the forecasts.  A strange combination of lows, fronts, impulses and Chris Parker only knows what, are resulting in a collapse of the trade winds.  So we were trying to decide if we should make the passage to Dominica on Friday when there would be no wind (less than 5 knots) or wait until Saturday when there should be a bit of wind (possibly not enough do much sailing) but also more squalls.  We have settled on traveling on Saturday.  Keeping our fingers crossed for more rather than less wind.

A somewhat unexpected outcome of the diminishing trade winds was a lot of sideways rolling on the boat.  After a few hours we got our water delivery ( a new fabulous feature of St. Pierre - 250 liters of water for 6 Euro, directly delivered to your vessel). The rocking was taking its toll, we felt we had to go to shore.  Unfortunately, a large cruise ship had anchored off St. Pierre.  One whole side of the dock was blocked by their “transport pods”.  This caused absolute pandemonium on the other side of the dock.  Dinghies were thick as fleas on a cat. Our plan was to walk along to the area where Mike had seen fishermen selling tuna, whilst on his way back from Mt. Pelee.  We found the fish “stall” and bought some wahoo and some blue-fin tuna.  A trip to the Super U yielded some ice.  Mike returned to the boat with fish and ice while I attempted to wait in the shade.  We then made our way to a restaurant for a much delayed lunch. (Grilled Mahi Mahi and smoked chicken - both excellent!) An excursion to the bakery got us some bread and a few pastries! Are we all about food or what?

After a couple more hot hours rolling on the boat, we set out to meet our friends Paul and Tracy, from Magic Pelagic, on the dock.  The plan was to walk up to the statue of the Virgin Mary on the cliff top to watch the sunset and take some photos of the town as darkness fell.  Both Mike and I found the walk a lot easier than when we had trudged up there previously.  As we walked back downhill in the dark, we noted lots of fireflies among the trees at the side of the road.  This brought back memories from my childhood.  As I recall it, fireflies were pretty common in Maine when I was a kid.  It seems quite a long time since I’ve seen them in numbers.  The whole experience of walking around on land after dark seemed quite unusual, also.  We haven’t done much of that in the month we’ve been back on the boat. Our friends came back to Cotinga for a drink.  It was fun to chat with them and hear about their experiences and plans.

Friday, we awoke to more rolling and very little wind, once again.  We went ashore to check out and spent a lot of time hanging around the harbor master’s office waiting for the Capitainaire to show up.  Mike undertook multiple missions while I sat with our check out form and payment.  By noon we were disheartened and all our shopping had been completed.  We decided to return to the boat with our purchases and have some lunch.  Maybe we’d have more luck locating the harbormaster during the afternoon hours.  As it happened, we saw his boat out in the mooring field.  He assured us that he was returning to the office “now”.  We unpacked and stowed our shopping on Cotinga.  We could still see the chap tying up his boat to the mooring.  Mike headed back to the office and was able to complete the check-out and pay for the extra night of mooring.

Mike is now starting preparations for the passage tomorrow.  His first step is rigging up hooks for our bait fish.  We will have many other jobs to do but I suspect none that he will enjoy quite so much.  Maybe the fishing gods will smile on us! 

Gloria

The fishing gods did not smile on us, but the weather gods did. We left St. Pierre at 6.20 am expecting to motor the entire 53 nautical miles to Portsmouth, Dominica. However, once we cleared the northern tip of Martinique we had a good breeze of 13-15 knots at angle of ~120 degrees, with fairly flat seas. Consequently we enjoyed a delightful sail between the islands and only had to start motoring again when we got into the lee of Dominica. My thoughts on the fishing … I read that the predatory fish are more active in the early morning and late afternoon because they can see the bait fish better. Maybe they are down deeper during the day, and we struggle to get much depth on our lures. We tried three options - whole mackerel dead-bait, wooden plug and fancy plastic squid thing. No joy on any of them. Anyway we picked up a mooring off the beach around 3 pm and were rewarded by the arrival of a dolphin off the bow, that stayed around for a minute or two slapping the water with it’s tail. We also saw multiple turtles. After a cool-down swim and some dinner it was time for an early night.

Mike

15 34.872 N, 61 27.807 W

We previously showed a photo of a traditional sailboat completely swamped off Fort de France. Here is a similar vessel actually sailing of St. Pierre

Who wouldn't feed such an adorable animal begging next to our table in the restaurant? - the answer "me" ... who would feed it? - you guessed right "Gloria!

Looking down on St. Pierre just before sunset.

A closer view of the summit of Mt Pelee ... once again, clear in the evening.

I'm a bit of a "green flash" sceptic, but on this evening I really think that I saw what people are talking about.

In this cropped section of the previous photo you can see the final disc of the sun floating above the horizon, and whilst the sun is burned-out I think you can see a green tinge around the outside.

St. Pierre after sunset

Looking down over St. Pierre and the town cemetery towards the ocean. The mooring field is just ourt of sight to the left of the picture.

I took this picture of Sea Cloud Spirit as we left St. Pierre. Last night I was playing around with some frame-format options.

Similarly, a full moon over Portsmouth.

A short video clip of our peaceful sail between Martinique and Dominica

Life-long Ambition Accomplished

Life-long Ambition Accomplished

Tuesday 10 - Wednesday 12 Dec 2024

It’s probably a stretch to say that climbing Mont Pelee has been a life-long ambition of mine, given that prior to 2018 I had never heard of this volcano! However, on our first trip to Martinique we rented a car and drove up to the refuge below the mountain and started to hike our way up. Unfortunately, on that occasion the mist was down to the car park, rain was pouring down, and as it was already mid-afternoon when we started up. Our hearts weren’t really into it and we didn’t get very far! Since then I have wanted to return and complete the climb. Wednesday was that day. 

Mont Pelee dominates the skyline behind Saint Pierre. It is a really impressive sight, although the summit is rarely visible. We have written previously about the significance of this volcano. On the 8th May 1902 it erupted sending an incandescent fireball down the slopes, flattening the town of Saint-Pierre, sinking dozens of ships in the harbor and killing 30,000 people within minutes. It was the most destructive volcano of the 20th century, and from film that we have seen in the local museums, taken after the eruption and subsequent fire, Saint-Pierre bore a striking similarity to Hiroshima. Mont Pelee is still active, but is closely monitored and the last major eruption was in 1929. Since 1932 it has been relatively quiet, but, in April 2019, the alert level was raised to yellow based on increasing seismic activity.

The standard route up Mont Pelee is from the south-east above the town of Morne Rouge. You can drive to a parking lot where the trail begins, which gains you at least some altitude. The peak itself is currently 4577 feet high and the route takes you steeply up the side of the volcano through wild, prehistoric-like vegetation. From a saddle on the side you can then do a circular traverse around the caldera with a branch off to the summit. The whole journey is just under 5 miles and it took me a little under 5 hours to complete it. That may give you some idea of the terrain - steep and rough going, with a lot of scrambling on slippy rock in the upper half. I took a taxi from town up to the start of the trail. Gloria decided she did not want to participate in this particular adventure - which was probably a smart decision. I’m convinced Gloria can do anything she turns her mind to, but she would have hated this! 

As I made my way up, I soon became enveloped in cloud and briefly got rained upon. This wasn’t a surprise as the mountain gets ~ 8 meters of rain a year! But for the most part it was dry, cloudy, and pleasantly cool with a good breeze. The mist is both atmospheric and a little disorientating. Thankfully the trail is well marked. I was lucky because at various points the skies cleared and I got some great views. Being on the summit was a little like I image the center of a hurricane, with clouds all around but clear blue sky above. I met lots of people on the way which helped me feel a less isolated. On the final section back to the car park, I passed a French couple and wished them a good day. I continued onwards and started walking back down the road, hoping to hitch a ride into Morne Rouge so I could catch the bus home. Ten minutes later Lauric and Valerie picked me up in their car and drove me all the way back to Saint Pierre. 

It was an awesome experience, some aspects were enjoyable at the time and others are to be enjoyed more on reflection. By the time I got back to Cotinga I was totally knackered!

P.s On Tuesday we sailed up from Fort de France to Saint Pierre. This is our 6th visit to the town - we really love this place! We picked up a mooring and had just come out of the Port Authority office when we saw Pete and Jo drive past! They parked and we enjoyed an afternoon beer in a local cafe. It was great to catch up with them again. They have been staying in an apartment in Anse l’Anne and will fly home to the UK tonight (Thursday).

Mike

14 44.338 N, 61 10.705 W

An extremely rare view of the cloudless summit of Mt Pelee as seen from Cotinga on Thursday morning (the day after my climb!) The route essentially follow the right hand skyline, over the top and back round the caldera on the far side.

The steep incline starts immediately at the car park

I was soon into the clouds and mist. Mt Pelee gets an incredible ~ 8 meters of rain a year, so it's not surprising that cloudy / rainy conditions are typical

I got super lucky with a number of short breaks in the clouds that gave me some spectacular views - this one from very near the summit.

You can see the trail crossing a flatter section of the summit dome. I found the drop-off on the far side of this hump to be the hardest section of the route, before the path levels out and turns rightwards around the lip of the caldera.

The views westwards down to the ocean from the start of the traverse around the caldera.

This is the cone created by the 1929 eruption. It's amazing to me how vegetation has overtaken all the bare rock and ash. The path follows the lip of the caldera on the right hand side.

I was relieved to have completed the circuit high up on the volcano and to be retracing my steps back down to the car park. The clouds cleared and I had a tremendous view back down to Saint-Pierre, just visible in the distance. You can also see the extensive sugar cane fields that source the local Depas Rum factory that we visited earlier this year.

Squalls track their way westwards in the early evening

Closer squalls killed the wind and left this grey abstract evening view

Fort de France, Martinique

Fort de France, Martinique

Sun 8th - Mon 9th December 2024

Our plan was to sail over to Fort de France from Anse Chaudierre on Sunday, make use of the fine French supermarkets to re-provision on Monday, then head north to Saint Pierre on Tuesday, in anticipation of making a passage to Dominica later in the week.

It was only a seven mile crossing to the anchorage off Fort de France, but we knew from experience that the wind roars through the bay to the south and so we prepared by taking the outboard off the dinghy. That was a smart move. We were a little surprised by how choppy the conditions were, with winds of up to 22 knots almost on the nose and short steep waves. It certainly qualified as a salty motor! There was a sailing regatta of traditional Caribbean sailboats taking place that day out of Fort de France. We know this because we came across one of the boats out in the bay that was completely swamped by the waves and appeared to be sinking. A support vessel, also a traditional wooden boat with an outboard motor, was circling around and we stopped to ask if they needed assistance. We were impressed by the confidence of the crew, literally sitting up to their waste in seawater they indicated they were fine, and so it turned out. The support boat towed them into harbor and it appeared that by the time they reached shore they had mostly bailed out their vessel.

The Anchorage in Fort de France is well protected, but right next to the ferry terminal and thus subject to the wake of all the passing ferries. We spent Sunday afternoon doing laundry and then ‘enjoyed’ the loud music from the beach. It seems like Sunday evening is party night in the Caribbean … everybody winding down after church!

We awoke Monday morning to two surprises. Firstly, a gigantic cruise liner had docked right opposite us during the night. Secondly, we got a text message from Pete and Jo to say they were on route to Fort de France on a ferry to go and pick up a rental car, and we actually got to see them and wave as they passed behind Cotinga. We made two trips to shore today to re-provision. In particular we wanted to buy meat for the freezer, and also pick up items such as salami and pate that are not easy to find in Dominica. We also got some fruit and veg from an excellent market. After two shopping trips we feel we are in good shape for the arrival of Tasha, Mac and Mac’s parents in Dominica next week. Fort de France is a lively and fun place to wander around and I returned to shore in the late afternoon for a photo session.

We have talked too much in the recent past about boat maintenance issues. Can I just say that if you ever here me declare victory again - as in making 5 gallons of water from the water maker - then please just shoot me! The day after our “victory” the water maker crapped out completely. We fear that it is an issue with the Clark pump - the device that enhances the pressure of the water before it gets to the membrane. It seems that our unit is only pressurizing on one of the two strokes and thus is no longer making fresh water. The good news is that I was able to download the 53 page manual for stripping down and rebuilding then Clark pump. The bad news is the comment … “even for a routine rebuild expect to replace many of the parts” … we have no spare parts and you need specialized tools!

Mike

14 35.985 N, 61 04.192 W

The sailing boat is completely underwater. We don't know if they capsized or were simply swamped by waves. (The mast with the sail wrapped around was lying in the support boat at this point)

Cotinga wakes up to find the mother of all cruise liners close by. The channel for the ferry boats lies between Cotinga and Arvia. We are safely anchored outside the channel (yellow marker) and inside the anchorage area. 

A different perspective from Cotinga showing other vessels at anchor and the shoreline of FdF behind

I'm a big fan of murals and it was cool to see the artist on a 'cherry-picker' working on this wall.

Abstract shot of the exterior of the Schoelcher Library

I hiked up to this chapel overlooking FdF. It's a beautiful structure - particularly impressive from a distance

Looking back from the chapel towards the cruise liner port. We actually couldn't see "Baby cruise liner" from Cotinga as she was completely blocked out by the mother ship.

I waited around until sunset, actually so that I could get a photo of the chapel with less contrast, but the view at sunset was beautiful.

Arvia ... in the morning ...

Arvia at sunset as she was leaving (Very difficult shot - 3 x frame panorama shot from Cotinga with the camera on a tripod and 70 mm lens, F2.8, 1/40s, ISO 1000)

Engine issues and other maintenance challenges

Engine issues and other maintenance challenges

Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th December, 2024

As any serious cruiser knows, it takes a lot of effort to maintain your boat. I personally think that if you don’t like boat maintenance then it’s a mistake to buy a boat. The exception of course is if you are financially loaded, in which case you just hire someone to do all the work! I do enjoy working on the boat, but I have to say that since rejoining Cotinga three weeks ago, the number and variety of boat issues has been a little overwhelming. I suspect that keeping the boat in the tropics is tough on all the systems.

Just before we were about to drop Pete and Jo at Anse d’l’Anne, I did a routine check of the engine and found a leak coming from the fresh water side of the heat exchanger.  This was obvious because the greenish color on the white mat below the engine indicated anti-freeze!  We were quite concerned as the heat exchanger is something we replaced just three years ago.  To add to our dismay, there was also salt water in the tray below the engine—AGAIN.  Despite our concerns it was lunch time - so we headed to shore! 

After a wonderful lunch out (entrecôte steak and fries for Gloria, Pete and myself, seafood ravioli for Jo) it was time to transfer luggage to shore and to say farewell to our friends who will spend another week on Martinique, before returning to the UK. It has been great having them cruise with us.

Our attention then became focused on engine leaks.  An examination of the salt water hose  that had been leaking earlier, revealed that the hose clip on the other end was badly rusted. (The hose is only 3" long!). We suspect that this end of the hose might have been the original leak - leading to ingress of salt water and rusting of the clips, with the far one failing and causing the major leak. Attempts to tighten the remaining clip, resulted in a fracture of the metal band.  A new clip was installed.  At least for now that seems to have stopped the accumulation of salt water in the tray under the engine.

The leak from the fresh water side seems more difficult to solve.  I have treated the area with nearly every glue or adhesive that we have to hand.  So far the leak persists but is fairly minor, and aggravating! We have ordered a replacement gasket, but just getting the end off the heat exchanger is a massive job - because of what else is in the way. When I replaced the whole unit three years ago I had to take apart the kitchen cabinetry before I could even start disassembling the heat exchanger. What is more worrying is that it was a similar leak that was a problem three years ago, but on that occasion the aluminum body of the heat exchanger had corroded so badly that a new gasket wouldn’t have solved the problem. Why is this happening?

To add insult to injury, the salt water in the engine has caused the connections on the engine “stop” relay to become rusted and so switching off the engine using the regular “stop” button has become hit or miss. I have tried cleaning up the terminals, with some success, and have ordered a spare relay. Unfortunately the receiver box for the relay is an integral part of the wiring harness. 

Let’s switch topics to a real shit situation! While Pete and Jo were aboard, we started to believe that our holding tank monitor was giving some false readings.  On passages, we would successfully pump the tank overboard, but the gauge would often fail to drop or in fact look higher than the initial level?  Frequently, this could be resolved by turning the whole system off and re-starting the gauge.  Over time, this solution also let us down.  To resolve the issue with the ultrasound gauge, we were pretty sure we just needed to clean the “focus tube” in the holding tank … another lovely job! However, we first had to get to the top of the tank.  This involved removing half of the contents in the lazarette (the large locker in the cockpit). Anyone who had seen the inside of our lazarette will appreciate this Herculean task. That’s only the beginning of the misery.  I then had to unscrew the top of the holding tank and remove the sensor and the focus tube.  Much reaming of the focus tube in a bath of sea water followed by reassembly and general disinfection of tools and hands, seems to have resolved the holding tank monitor problem….

With all of these unanticipated problems, it was something of a surprise when we able to get our water maker (reverse osmosis desalinator) up and running with relatively little effort. Anchored off Anse Chaudierre, we felt the sea water was sufficiently clean and we were able to make our first 5 gallons of fresh water. We’ll call that a victory! 

With so much to sort out on the boat it’s been hard to contemplate doing much exploration on land - so other than boat projects we have mostly been hanging out on the boat, taking the odd swim and doing some snorkeling, and generally trying to relax!

Mike and Gloria

14 28.880 N, 61 04.890 W

This is a photograph of a bowl made from palm fronds that we bought in Marigot Bay, St Lucia. The photo was converted to it's negative (inverted) and partially changed to B&W, thereby muting the colors. I've been struggling for inspiration with my photography recently (probably because we've been so busy) but I really like the way this turned out.

Anchored off Anse Chaudierre. This is a lovely peaceful spot on the south west coast of Martinique. However, today (Saturday) lots of powerboats showed up and it got a bit loud!

A couple racing through the anchorage on their JetSki.