2024-12-15 St. Anne to St. Pierre to Dominica

 We stayed in St. Anne until Friday.   We had an issue with our mainsail on the last trip, where the sail was pulling out of the track when we reefed.  Kris noticed that the bolt rope on our luff had parted way, which is why our sail probably seemed a bit baggy in that area as well.  We decided to get a quote from the local sail lofts on repair.   We found out that only one sail loft could do the repair, as the others lofts were too small.  

We talked to the lady at the desk, who spoke good English, and she said they were only booked out a couple of weeks, so we could get a repair within a couple of weeks.  We then asked price, and she went off a bit, saying that we had to bring the sail in, that they would not quote time or price until they saw the sail. 

Then Kris dared to ask if they had any examples or photos of their work.   Well, that did it.  She was quite offended and went off on a full minute tirade, basically saying that if we did not trust them, then leave as they did not need our work.   Love that French attitude.

We decided not to have them fix our sail, so then spent some time looking at the track, and taking measurements of the sail and mast and boom to get some quotes for a new sail.   This involved a trip up the mast for Dean, to check out the track, then a trip up the mast for Kris when the tape measure we hoisted up to measure parted ways from the halyard, so we had to go up and retrieve the halyard.

We also got some new line for our dinghy hoisting, as the old like was getting a bit worn.  Dean did an excellent job putting in a couple of eye splices.

Working on splicing the line

Finished splices look good

We also did take time to walk in for an ice cream, and get some more groceries.

View of St. Anne anchorage from shore (while eating ice cream)

St. Anne town square.  Nice shady benches for enjoying ice cream.

Lovely sunsets

Friday we sailed up to St. Pierre on the north end of Martinique.   OK, no sailing, just a motor trip.  The island blocks the wind, and it was a calm day as well.  

St. Pierre was destroyed in the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee.  There are several monuments in town, and a museum that we had not gone to.   It was Saturday when we went to town, and a small cruise ship was also in, and the Saturday market was going on.

Anchorage at St. Pierre.  Cruise ship on left.  Mt. Pelee center

The main welcome building at the end of town pier had burnt recently.

Busy Saturday market

We took a bit of a walk around town.

Narrow streets with houses side by side

View of harbor and town 

We went to the Mt. Pelee 1902 Memorial museum.  Interesting, but not as well done as we had hoped.

Dean, reading about the eruption.  All information was in French and English

Inside the memorial

After visiting the memorial, we walked a bit more around the town and side streets.

Very quaint town, narrow streets and some nicely tended yards

Very large church for the size of the town

We were going to get ice cream again, but it did not open until 1:00, so we headed back to the boat.

Sunday we went in early, and checked out, and then sailed up to Portsmouth, Dominica. Had a nice sail, where we started on motor only, then full sail, then one reef, then full sail, then two reefs, then full sail, then one reef, then motor, then full sail and ending with motor only.  Quite the day.

Sailing by Roseau, Dominica.

We will most likely be here for a week, but we don't really know.