Dominica here we come!
Worthy Sailing Mojo
Paul Worthington
Wed 17 Jan 2024 12:38
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15:16.99N 61:22.57W
A shame that we were limited to only one night in Saint
Pierre because of our itinerary. We were told the night before that the office
would be open at 8am for clearance departure so we dutifully wandered into town
for an early morning coffee and pain au chocolate and then wandered along to the
office, 8am came and went and we queued with the other hopefuls impatient to get
on our way, finally someone arrived at 8:30am and opened up without any
explanation for his tardiness. He printed our forms, stamped and signed them and
we were then free to so.
We cautiously left with main 1/3 reefed as we expected
the usual swells and 25knot winds to Dominica and we were not disappointed, the
journey across was about 38 miles to Rousseau the capital and we made reasonable
time with some rain on route but generally good conditions. At 2pm I called
ahead to reserve a Seacat buoy opting for the easy option especially as we would
be required to clear into Dominica customs and immigration too, a buoy was no
problem and as we approached the mooring field a boat came to greet us, not
Seacat but Pancho, who claimed rather lamely to be Seacat when he was clearly
not! We declined his assistance and called ahead on the VHF so that Roots was
awaiting with buoy in hand as we pulled up at 3:15pm, he was extremely friendly
albeit with the usual the buoy is $12 and a little something for me too!
We asked him about clearing in and he said the ferry was
due at 4pm so that he would take me across to complete paperwork when it
arrived. It finally turned up at 5pm so he collected me true to his word and he
sped us across to the ferry berth, as we approached the customs gate we were
denied access and told we would need to wait until all the passengers had
cleared so after an hour wait I was finally permitted entry to discover a $40
supplement for overtime for a Sunday apparently normal but the first time I came
across this, welcome to Dominica indeed!
Root waited for me and then took me back to the boat and
as I tipped him $10 he scoffed and said it was normally $20 so out came another
$10! First impressions of Dominca were mixed really, the scenery is amazing but
clearly lots of poverty and lots of rubbish and discarded items on the beaches
and in the streets, probably "rustic" would be a good adjective. We enjoyed a
good meal ashore at the restaurant just opposite the moorings but declined his
offer of a tour as we needed to get on so at 10am having promised ourselves a
leisurely start we set off for Prince Rupert Bay at the top of
Dominca |