20-2-2022 : Leaving Martinique

Up early today and set off from St Pierre at 9 am planning to sail North towards Guadeloupe. There is an island between Martinique and Guadeloupe which is Dominica. Sad to say the covid entry protocols for Dominica are a bit over the top with multiple tests being required to allow entry. 
Singer it's about 80 miles to go all the way in one hour we decided to stop as a yacht in transit in Dominica which means we anchor but never set foot on land.
The wind was pretty good and we made 7 knots most of the way across the Martinique Dominica channel.  Magic Dragon followed us along the way which was nice. Given they are a 50foot Oyster and we are a 38 foot Jeanneau managing to keep pace with them for much of the way was quite good going. Week done Cloud Jumper.
Annoyingly the connectors for our tiller pilot were corroded, we discovered.  Despite replacing one of the terminal blocks we were unable to get enough current to power up the pilot so hand steered instead. It was pretty good fun and Alfie really enjoyed steering with the boat heeled over at about 19 degrees.
Made it to Mero beach roughly halfway along the island about 20 minutes before sunset and anchored alongside two other ARC boats , Big Bubble and Magic Dragon with whom we had drinks before dinner. Had to row across to the other boats as we didn't want to winch down our outboard in the dark. Tomorrow we will set off in the morning and head up to Les Saintes which are the southernmost Islands of Guadeloupe.

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