A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 6/18/2023 – 6/26/2023

Gooooood morning! I apologize for being a day late this week. I wasn’t feeling well yesterday but am doing much better today, so let’s jump right into it-

Here is our latest YouTube video. 🙂

Last Sunday, we took the dinghy to shore, walked to the Customs and Immigration office, and officially checked into Dominica. Ray fell in love with this island in 2019, and I instantly understood why: it was stunning, and the people were unbelievably kind. 

One of the locals affiliated with Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services (PAYS), named Andrew, picked us up that afternoon to take us down the Indian River. Historically, the river was used as an access route to the Caribbean Sea for locals to transport goods for trade with sailors along the island chain. Now, it is a protected freshwater swamp home to various species of crabs, iguanas, birds, and plants. 

No motorboats are allowed, so Andrew rowed us down the river. He told us about the impacts of Hurricane Maria and shared stories of driving a boat for the production team while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. We got to see the famous Witch House from the movie:  

At the end of the river was a small bar, so we stopped for a few drinks, and Andrew made us three woven figurines out of palm fronds to take home. 

Doesn’t the last one look like the little fish that has been living in our sail drive? 

We returned to Sabado, only for another PAYS man to stop by with a bowl of mangos that Andrew had picked from the tree at his house for us! 

We had planned to stay in Dominica for at least another day, but when we saw the updated weather forecast the next morning, we knew we needed to move farther South. Tropical Storm Bret was expected to hit the islands beginning Wednesday.

We reluctantly left. We hoisted our sails, shut off the engines, and set our course for Bequia. We planned to sail through the night, anchor there, and then decide if we wanted to travel the final stretch to Grenada based on the latest weather projections. 

The wind was steady, and the sea was calm. We averaged a SOG of 7kn for the majority of the trip, and we saw three different pods of dolphins, just after I had been complaining to Ray that we haven’t seen many this season!