Leaving Les Saintes

Posted by Liz

I cried when we left The Saintes. Ed told me I would. He did when he was here years ago. He was right. There was something OH SO SPECIAL about the place - - idyllic, quiet, French bread and chocolate croissants every day, fresh fish right off the boat, nice hikes/walks - - and the piece de resistance, the wonderful couples we met and hung out with. Fay and Russ of New Morning and Jean-Marc and Vivien from Jeanvi. Those four made it extra, extra special.

When we arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica - I kept looking back the 25 miles or so - and could still see the Saintes, and missed them and our new friends even more. I cried again then. Then you enter the world of BOAT BOYS, and HUSTLE and "what's in it for them" instead of the quiet hamlet we had just left behind.

Dominica is a GORGEOUS island - but a little scary from a security perspective. I'm not wearing ANY jewelry anymore - not even my wedding rings. The boat boys are definitely "eagle eyes" and notice any little bit of affluence.

It's a wonderful island for challenging hiking (probably an understatement - a bit out of our league!), waterfalls, thermal springs, rainforests - lush, lush - - but you really have to lock your boat down if you're going to go on one of these 1/2 day or all day excursions - which would be fine - except that we have our little cat, Chipper, on board, and we just can't subject him to the furnace down below with no hatches open. So, if we were under other circumstances, without the cat - and were more free to explore, we'd probably have a whole other perspective and a more positive one about the island.

We left Portsmouth this morning and had a 3 hour motor job into the wind heading south to Roseau Dominica - - which gets a bad rap - but frankly, I've felt more comfortable already. Pancho is our "boat man" and he is absolutely charming and personable. He showed us to our mooring, arranged to have his wife do our THREE sea bags of laundry (!) and he took me into town to a BIG SUPERMARKET where I did a major provisioning job - - all the staples - paper towels, TP, dried and canned goods, cat food, etc. - - He waited the full hour while I was in the grocery store, and then took me back to the anchorage near the Anchorage Hotel - and brought all of my groceries down to the dock. ($20 US for this service and his time - which was extremely reasonable) I felt very safe with him - he is a super nice guy.

We're very close to shore here where the less fortunate have shacks along the shoreline with a magnificent view of the west/sunsets and Caribbean sea. But they also like to play their music loud and tonight at the Anchorage Hotel is a big live Reggae Festival - so I'm sure the partying will go on all night. Even Ed said he might want a pair of my earplugs for sleeping tonight!

We met some Americans from San Diego who are here on the Halberg Rassey 40 - right next to us in the anchorage, so that is good - and we're hoping maybe we can buddy up with them - and perhaps, they could look after our boat in order for us to go explore the island one day, and vice versa. For now, we plan to stay here for a couple of days or so, and then either head to Martinique or do a 24 hour non-stop sail down to Bequia and get ourselves in the Grenadines to the Tobago Cays - which is the place I can't wait to see - - for premeir snorkeling!!

Sending a shout out to all of our pals and family at home - but also to our new friends who we met in the Saintes. The people in our lives are what make life worth living!