Our Grand Adventure

2nd December 2025 | Odometer: 365nm | Dominica

Our engine was repaired and we were packed, prepped and ready to go! All we had to do was drop off the hire car and head out the marina – too easy! Right? Right!?

Well first off, a tradie’s gift to start the day 🙂

Then, we had some… *ahem* difficulties getting off the dock. 🤦

So this marina you are meant to be nose or stern facing the dock but we kinda wound up… sideways! Haha errrgh! The mooring lines which hold the back out took ages to drop below our propeller depth and then the wind really caught the back and before we knew it… woops! Thankfully a big gap next to us meant we just laid up along the dock, although in true irony, if someone was next to us it would have been way easier as we could have just used fenders and pushed off them as their mooring lines held us both in place. Ohhh well…

We ended up getting the dock master to come over in his dinghy and pull us off. This was… hilarious (in hindsight) as we didn’t speak French and he didn’t speak English! With lots of handwaving and pointing and OK!ing we agreed on a plan. He would pull the stern (back) off the dock with a line then when the bow (front) lines were taut we would let them go and motor out backwards. Great plan. All went smoothly until some random French bloke being helpful just threw the front lines in at us when we were definitely not ready! Eep! Ryan did a great job manoeuvring us outta there!

We circled round to pick up diesel – only to have another extremely communications challenged encounter when the diesel lady just undid our bow lines while she was also ‘being helpful’ haha. Then realised she had done the wrong thing, so she just dropped them on the dock and shrugged! I ran over and tied us onto the dock again before the wind could catch the bow and spin us around on another dock. Given we were both a bit frazzled from the marina departure this felt like an unnecessary extra adrenaline rush. I spent the next 12 hours coming down from that morning and thinking intently about how to sell this boat and get the hell back on dry land!

St Pierre

A beautiful trip up and night in St Pierre was a good way to get over my pique at the difficulties of the marina departure. St Pierre has gorgeous views of Mount Pelée to the North. The mountain is usually covered in clouds and only occasionally clears for a view of the top.

The Best Passage Ever

We left Martinique, heading North to Dominica – and, it was gorgeous. We had both been very aware that this would be our longest passage yet at 38 nautical miles, and would take us about 6 hours. We decided to rise really early to get a favourable morning window for the forecast wind & swells.

Starting in the dark was serene with the lights of the township spilling over the bay, the cool breezes blowing and feeling the morning hush as we readied for departure. Travelling up the western edge of the tip of Martinique afforded gorgeous views of the sun rising behind us and over Mount Pelée and the ranges. Passing showers through the morning created some beautiful vistas with the light piercing the clouds and falling rain.

The crossing was an absolute dream. The water was glassy, pristine blues, lightly lapping the hull. Seeing our wake stretch out endlessly behind us undisturbed was very satisfying also. It was a very relaxing trip and we took it in turns napping over the course of the 6 hours. Now THIS is what I had been expecting!

Roseau, Dominica

Dominica markets itself as “The Nature Island” and I would say it is well deserved. After spending a super enjoyable week here I would recommend it in a heartbeat. In spite of the relatively unprotected and rolly anchorages, I keep trying to put my finger on why I like it so much here and it’s just a lot of little different things that add up to make the place feel lovely. It’s a beautiful blend of the chill island vibe and the people have been really great to deal with. It feels like a step back into island life after the modern hustle of Martinique.

The Dominican government and people have done a fantastic job of figuring out how to make the tourism profitable and sustainable. Firstly, by setting aside significant portions of land and coast as protected parks, the coral and nature are incredible and look so healthy and vibrant. Secondly, by establishing training requirements for all the tour guides, we have found they are far more professional and knowledgeable than in other islands. And thirdly, making the check in / check out process super easy and friendly for all visitors – apparently one of the best in the Caribbean! 

Roseau is the main township where the cruise ships dock, often two on the same day, nearly every day of the season. It’s not very picturesque from the water and is definitely the most rolly anchorage we stayed in in Dominica. We picked up a mooring ball and found ourselves swimming in 30meters of water – far deeper than our usual spots (normally around 3m!) 

But, the water is this insane shade of dark, vibrant blue, it almost matches our boat colours perfectly!

Checking in was an experience that I wish I took better photos of; we dinghied to the town, past the cruise ship and, were looking for the fishing port where apparently we could tie up our dinghy, spotting one opening in the large sea wall we motored over for a look and quickly noped out when we saw the enclosed, protected area was packed full of local fishing boats. As we went to leave, one of the fisherman saw us and “Yo Dinghy!” got our attention! Waving us in enthusiastically we somewhat dubiously followed his directions to come on in! We then had to pull ourselves under the mooring lines of a couple of other boats and hand-pull ourselves along several fishing boats to tie up on a concrete pier that he directed us to! They even had a stern line in place for dinghies to secure on. He gave us a cheerful hello and helpfully pointed us to the customs building which was literally next door. 

After winding our way out of the fishing port with water and fish guts and scales everywhere, we traipsed past a line of sunburnt looking tourists waiting for a tour and found ourselves at the customs building. There was no obvious doorway and no one else around. Again, wish I’d photo’d it – we spotted a handwritten sign “Customs” with an arrow to the right, pointing to a huge metal gate with a massive, formal sign saying “NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY”. So obviously we walked right past the no entry sign, then past two more, after we spotted a door in the far side of the building. Not a soul in sight so we carried on.

With great trepidation we opened the door, expecting someone to yell at us at any moment, to find ourselves… behind the immigration desk looking out through the plexiglass onto a completely empty arrivals hall with a very long roped queuing area… with absolutely no one in it! Weird! 

Behind the desks there is another door, with three copies of another handwritten sign “Knock and Enter”. We were now certain we were not meant to be where we were. Cautiously, knocking we started easing the door open and 

“Welcome! Come in, come in!”

Possibly the friendliest, happiest and most helpful immigration agent I’ve ever encountered was greeting us with a massive smile. I had the wrong paperwork from Martinique (woops) and I hadn’t printed it out (woops 2 ) and we had been supposed to get it stamped ? I think ? which I hadn’t (woops 3);  and it was fine! He just breezed through and fixed all the things up and printed things for us. Amazing. Very unexpected, but amazing!

Dominica goes a step further and allows you to check in and out on the same day, so long as you leave within 2 weeks and you stay on the same boat. Customs and immigration all in one place. So good. Easily gets the award for best procedures so far.

We were both feeling the heat at this point so we avoided the crowds of cruise ship passengers, picked our way back through the fish guts and fishing port chaos, weaved our way through the fishing boats and headed back to Perspective for the afternoon.

Time to relax, but first, a quick check of the bilge…. d’oh! Water again!!! I’m beginning to suspect the bilge is the most photographed area of our boat hahaha. After investigating a bit, Ryan realised the stern gland pump had been bumped to off, instead of on auto… so the sump overflowed. 🤦Ah well, easy fix. Clean it out and sticky tape the pump switch into the auto position!

Leaving the Windwards

Arriving in Dominica meant we had officially left the Windward Islands. The windwards have been a varied set of islands including Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Martinique. We were now into the Southern Leeward Islands starting with Dominica!

This meant it was time to say goodbye to our trusty Windward Islands guide book, and move onto the Leeward Islands. We also updated our planning maps on the wall so now we are looking ahead through the leeward islands planning our routes! It’s all very weather dependent but hopefully something like…. Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Barts, Saint Martin / Sint Maarten, Anguilla! Then onwards to the BVIs, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and then the Bahamas and eventually, the USA! It’s seems crazy to look so far ahead whilst simultaneously only being able to plan a few days ahead given weather!