Green Flash

Got your attention with that title didn't we!  There are several websites that claim these green rays of light are real rather than illusory, and can occur just at the time of either sunrise or sunset.  We still think this is a myth but patiently assess the conditions and wait at each sunset for a glimpse.  The first mate also was convinced the wild turkeys on the trans-Canada highway that Cap'n kept seeing between Toronto and Ottawa were a myth, until she sighted them.

 Cap'n has a fanciful imagination and likes to pull the wool over first mates eyes.  

Volver has had a busy few days and plans to spend today on the beach with a floating noodle and a novel!  Our last two days in Dominica were action packed.  We did a day long tour of the South Island, hitting Victoria Falls and the Emerald Pool, and dining in Moses's "Rastaraunt" with the crews from Fabuloso, Meridian, and Moon River (Eight adults and six kids).  Since the rainy season is over, Victoria Falls was less overflowing than it would have been two months earlier, making the approach less challenging. 

Maintaining stable footing on the Ascent to Victoria Falls

Stu, our guide, helping the children

There is a long walk up the sides of the riverbed, hopping from stone to stone, carefully avoiding the mossy, slippery ones, and sometimes using your whole body to wedge yourself between two stones to ascend boulders that are taller than you are! 

Now where do we go?

There were many beautiful pools on the way to Victoria Falls

 The path crossed the river several times, and we formed a human chain to get across some of the times. 

Forming a Human Chain for one of the river crossings

 The reward at the end was a dip in Fresh! water.  The catch:  much colder than your average bath, and the falls created a 40 knot wind:  the water hurt your face!

Finally, Glorious Victoria Falls

Moses lives on a rasta farm at the entry to an unofficial path to the falls.  There is a commune-like atmosphere, and many families live and work the farm.  The "Rastaraunt" has only one menu item, the "one pot" and this is a stew made from farm grown foods, with a coconut-based broth.  It was overpriced (and the kids were not amused), but hey you can't blame the guy for exploiting a captive market.  Apparently, a tour of the farm is allegedly included, although not offered to our group.  

The more profitable crop, a sign from a nearby community

They were apparently quite laissez-faire about their most famous crop, when one of our group walked upon them.  From Moses's, we moved on to catch the Emerald Pool before dark.  There was a paved path: hence, and a much less challenging approach.  Still very cold, and beautiful.

The Emerald Pool

The next morning we got up early to replenish fuel and water and made a quick trip to the fish market, where we filled up the freezer with fresh marlin, mahi-mahi, and small tunas for $3-4 a pound!  Freshest fish we have ever purchased and very tasty.  They were also selling Lionfish, which is a predator fish, and is endangering the reefs around the Caribbean.  In the USVI, one is to call environmental services if one is sighted, and there is a bounty offered in the Bahamas for them.  In Dominica, they eat them, and in fact, these scuba divers are allowed to use spear guns in the marine park strictly for catching Lionfish. Desmond says they are tasty, and they are certainly beautiful but sadly destructive, and we did not purchase them.

Lionfish Hunting

In the afternoon,  Desmond from Sea-Cat Yacht Services took us by water taxi to snorkel the Champagne Reef, arriving just as the last of the cruise ship guests were leaving.  The Champagne Reef has vents where volcanic gases are released, and bubbles like champagne.

Champagne reef, Dominica

  There were many fish: in fact, we caught a feeding frenzy, but still no turtles, rays, or octapus close up.  

Nice Coral

Feeding Frenzy

 Then Desmond took us over to the little village of Souffriere, where there is a natural hot springs in red rock/sand, that is sitting by the sea, surrounded by a breakwater!  Nice, mostly fresh water, almost a bath!

Beautiful Church, Soufriere, Dominica

We got a bit of a late start the next day for our 35 nm passage to Martinique, but had a fairly good sail, pretty well the same conditions as our last jaunt between the islands.  Made decent time, and arrived in St. Pierre around 1530 hours.  Sadly, this pretty town is very popular, and there is a very narrow shelf of 25 feet depth for anchoring.  We could only find spots of 50 feet depth or more, and could not get our anchor to set after 4 tries (we pulled up small trees worth of weeds each time), and we decided to move on to Case Pilot, about 10 miles south.  We were following a catamaran who was doing the same thing.  He pulled in, scouted around, and left, so we did not even bother doing so.  The anchorage was very small and exposed, and was sure to be very rolly.  So, we were really racing the clock now, deciding to try to get to Schoeler, an anchorage that is another 10 miles down the coast, by sunset.  We were successful, and found a nice spot right beside the cat we'd been following, set the hook on the first try.  By this time, we were tired, hungry, and a little grumpy, when a fisherman came up and advised, loudly, in French, that we could not anchor there.  First mate was of a mind to tell him we'll move when asked to by the police or coast guard, as we had two charts telling us we were clearly in an acceptable anchorage.  Cap'n says the charts are out of date by the time they are published, so up comes the hook.  It took at least 4 times to get our anchor set, and it was dark, so hand signals were not working, and there was a lot of yelling, which I'm sure our neighbor the cat did not enjoy.  It was 1930 when the first mate rustled up a box of soup and a chunk of brie and 2030 was lights out.  This was not a fun day.  Oh, did we mention than the anchorage was so rolly the cap'n barely slept a wink?

The next day, we were underway by 0630, and arrived in Marin, a yachting town at the south of Martinique, after a long motorsail to windward.  Marin is the only city in Martinique with a large marina (in fact there are only 2 other small marinas in the whole country (population:  400,000 people, zillions of boats!):  750 berths, 200 visitor slips, is the official word, but we could not get one of them, and in fact, the office staff told us the marina is full and there are no transient slips!  We wanted on the dock for two reasons:  one, to have a surge-free sleep, and two, to access shore power, as our batteries have not been holding their charge well, and the manual suggests giving them a 24 hour charge before calling in a technician.  Fortunately, the long motor sail seems to have helped this problem (cleaned off the plates?), and cap'n is no longer worried.

Marin has little to recommend it except it has every service a yachtsperson could need.  There must be 2000 boats in the anchorage.  We plopped our anchor down away from the town in a nook called the "Baie de Cyclone," which is essentially surge free.  The first night, the boat did not move at all.  It was silent.  No wind in the rigging, no lapping of the waves as they hit the dinghy, no beach bars blaring music, no sound of the surf hitting the beach (no beach, there were mangroves), nothing.  Bizarre, especially, when you look around and see a forest of masts!  Each time we went to get a picture it was a bit hazy and grey, so no photographic evidence was obtained.

We did a mega provision.  The French islands are the place to buy cheese, baguettes, olives, coffee, sparkling water, chocolate, those little biscuits with chocolate on top, as well as crisps with weird flavours, like carbonara or poulet roti (thought this would be curry flavoured but roti is french for "roast").  Our theory is that the french love to snack, or alternatively, that they have more money to spend on snack foods than people on the english islands.

Then, we moved around the corner to St. Anne, which is a quaint village, surrounded by beaches.  We can hear the activities at the nearby Club Med at times.  This is a fantastic anchorage.  At least 300 boats here: we counted 16 abreast on one point, as there is a very generous shelf of 10-15 feet depth.  There is a big local spice market.  There are supposed to be trails leading to surrounding beaches, but this far, we have not found them, and tourist info is not open on the weekends, so no maps.

We have not fallen in love with Martinique.  I guess that happens sometimes.  

The good news is we have come as far south as we intend, and we should be nearly done with sailing to windward!  We look forward to some downwind sailing!