We catch something that we can eat!

We catch something that we can eat!

Feb 10th and 11th, 2024

Before I get into the “fish tale”, let’s catch up on the more mundane happenings.

Saturday morning we left “Les Saintes” in Guadeloupe having checked out the previous day.  We sailed back to Portsmouth, Dominica.  The weather looked a little threatening early on and sure enough we had a little shower.  The seas were not too extreme and we sailed along quite well with the staysail and one reef in the main.  Somewhere along the way, it started to rain for real.  We donned our foul weather jackets but slowly got thoroughly soaked.  In four hours we reached Portsmouth and here the troubles really began.  We must have attempted anchoring eight or ten times while getting cold (I’m shocked to admit)! We kept feeling the anchor skipping across the ocean floor and not setting. Where there was space to anchor the water was very deep, and the bottom was probably hard, rather than mud or sand. Eventually, the south side of the harbor provided an anchor set.  

We had come back to Portsmouth to meet up with our friends, Nigel and Susan.  Mike first met them as part of the ARC rally in 2017.  Later they moved to Duxbury, Massachusetts, so we were able to meet up with them fairly often.  We had invited Susan and Nigel to dinner on Cotinga.  It was a rainy, horrible night.  I give them both a lot of credit for making the effort, especially as they had spent the day touring Dominica in a mini-bus.  It was terrific to catch up with them.  

Despite the late night (for us!), we were up early and on of way to Martinique shortly after 7:00 am.  The first few hours were motor-sailing in the protection of Dominica.  Once we emerged from behind the island, the conditions were vastly different.  There was significant swell and wind chop, resulting in 6 foot seas and plenty of white caps!  The winds were 18-22 kts fairly consistently.  Fortunately, we had both applied a scopolamine patch so there was no worry about seasickness.  I’m not sure if it was a side-effect of the patch or the late night but I began to feel drowsy.  I lay down on the leeward bench and had a nap.  A few salty sprays got me a bit wet.  Mike was not quite so fortunate, he got completely soaked with salt water.  Sailing seems to be a wet undertaking.

After a while I must have fallen asleep, as a loud bang shocked me awake.  I was totally disoriented, however, Mike realized that we had a fish on the “clothes line”.  As he pulled in the line, he could tell it was a Mahi Mahi.  Even though we were sailing at about 6kts, Mike was able to land the fish.  It was a beauty.  We still had about two hours to sail, so Mike placed a bag of ice on the fish.  Once we were anchored, Mike filleted the Mahi.  Dinner was lemon pasta, salad and pan-cooked fish.  It does not get a lot better than that!

Gloria

Gloria at the Grande Anse on the east side of Terre Haut, Les Saintes, on our final afternoon before departure south

Gloria enjoying the sail to Portsmouth, Dominica, before it started raining!

The weather looked threatening and it turned out to be the wettest day we have experienced in teh Caribbean

Sunset from the anchorage in Portsmouth. It had been really challenging to get our anchor to set properly

The clipper ship "Sea Cloud" arrives in Portsmouth just as we are leaving.

We made steady progress with a single reef main and staysail, but we were well in control and fairly comfortable. This catamaran "Plaisir" passed us doing more that twice our speed (13.3 knots when I checked AIS)

The hulls of another catamaran "nanomole" disappear behind a breaking wave on route to Martinique

Looking westwards in to the sun with dramatic seas and light

The first edible fish we have landed. This Mahi Mahi was a fine specimen, and maybe weighed ~ 10 lbs. We filleted it as soon as we dropped anchor, and generated 3 x two person packs of fillets and 1 x four person pack of smaller pieces that I plan to use in Bouilliabaisse

Mahi Mahi are beautiful fish, although their color fades after they have been landed and dispatched.