A Tale of Two Chemists: Blessings be upon the clouds

Blessings be upon the clouds

Sunday 21st - Monday 22nd April 2024

Leaving Portsmouth, Dominica, the skies were mostly clear and the winds were light. This meant that conditions in the cockpit were quite toasty. Hence, the clouds that drifted past the sun were a true blessing for the crew. The first twenty-five miles of the journey to Martinique was on the west side of Dominica. The high mountains made for strange wind directions including both north and west. Shortly after we rounded Scotts Head at the southwestern point of the island, Rod saw a strange shape in the main sail. Immediately after, he heard the sound of mylar tape ripping apart. He quickly released the traveler to reduce pressure on the main sail. A section of seam had ripped out –about 3 or 4 feet long, below the level of the first reef. Thankfully, Rod’s quick action prevented the entire seam from ripping. We dropped the mainsail and secured it to the boom.

We deployed the genoa and continued on with the engine running for a while. The wind seemed to be building, so we turned off the engine. The swell was also building and having only one sail made for difficult steering. Eventually, we decided to raise the main but only to the second reef point, keeping the damaged part of the sail well away from any forces. I did find myself wondering how many times we had used the second reef but couldn’t recall any episodes (probably due to extreme fright!) The journey went fairly well. Near the north end of Martinique things got a bit lively (possibly a squall). We arrived at St. Pierre, picked up a mooring. After a cold drink, we released the clew of the main and started to attempt a repair. Sunset intervened and dinner followed. We did stay up until boater’s midnight but it was a struggle.

Today we walked to the Martinique Zoo—a shortish walk from St. Pierre. We enjoyed the beautiful grounds and abundant hummingbirds. The aviary with parrots was a delight. By the end we were all hot and tired. An awning (fully equipped with chairs and tables) provided a shaded area for our lunch. Thus revived, we walked back to St. Pierre, visited some of the ruins left by the volcanic explosion, did a little food shopping and returned to the boat. Unfortunately, when Mike jumped into the dinghy, our combination lock flew out of his pocket into the ocean. We headed back to Cotinga to put away our groceries (including frozen meat) but returned a short while later and I was able to dive to the sea floor and retrieve the lock.

Rod and Mike have been up on deck sewing furiously on the mainsail. Our hope is to stabilize the rip enough to allow us to use the sail reefed only once. This will give us bigger sail area and hopefully better handling. Fingers crossed the stitching with be robust enough!

14 44.355 N, 61 10.689 W

Gloria

Purple Throated Carib. I spent maybe an hour photographing this bird and must have taken close to a hundred shots of it, with the vast majority being drab and uninteresting. It kept coming back to the same area and I was shooting upwards into the branches. It was only when it started going to a lower branch adjacent to the path that I was able to catch the vibrant colors. (This was not a captive bird)