The best laid plans of mice and men.
Notice they do not say anything about dogs.
What ever your plans, make sure you have a back up plan in case things go wrong. This is especially important on a boat.
Well, it all started when the human’s decided it was time to leave our friendly, protected anchorage on the south coast of Grenada and head north to Dominica.
They had the ‘silly’ idea that it would be better to do a two-day ‘jump’ to Dominica rather than island hop there. They thought a ‘bee line’ to Dominica would put them a little further out to sea, than coastal sailing.
They hoped this would give them better winds while they were still in the protected lee of the island chain. We left with a two-day forecast of South Easterly winds to push us there.
It started well, but……..
….the weather forecast was wrong.
Instead of SE winds we got NE winds on the nose.
Instead of coasting to Dominica we ended up beating into it. My least favourite point of sail. I hate trying to wee on deck when the whole boat is heeled over and waves are breaking over the bow.
The winds and sea built up enough to make the second night uncomfortable and then, in the middle of the night, the GPS stopped working. The humans tried cleaning connections, resetting and rewiring the aerial connection to now avail.
Thankfully they had a back old hand-held GPS and paper charts. Even though they were confident of their navigations skills I was still very happy to see the island of Dominica in the morning light.
It is not that I do not trust the humans, but I was also happy that Prince Rupert Bay is free of navigational hazards like reefs.
Great beaches here.
The humans, after walking me ashore first of course, had to see what the ‘damage was’.
So, as usual, I put the humans to work ‘fixing the boat in exotic locations’ while I got to work ‘weeing in exotic locations’.
The next day the human’s figured out they could ‘piggy back’ off the older GPS antenna and get satellite reception for the chart plotter again. Just a bit of wiring to do!
With that done it was time to explore town.
They will eventually moved inland to make way for hotels and restaurants along the sea front.
The next day the human’s abandon me to do some snorkeling with the ‘boat boy’ Martin.
Next we have booked a guided tour of Dominica’s famous Pirates of the Caribbean set ‘Indian River’.
Stay tuned for that one!
For now, mix your sun downers, for one last sun set.
