We started the 2024-25 cruising season from Grenada with our Oregon family—see Newbies Never Ending Escapades—November 2024. Then our friend Ron joined us for 3 weeks of sailing between Bequia and Martinique. Even though we have visited these islands several times, we found plenty of fun and new adventures.
Bequia
In Bequia we celebrated Ron’s birthday. I made an Instant Pot (IP) chocolate cake and while, the cake turned out, we were not enamored with the recipe. I’ll have to keep trying. If you have a favorite IP cake recipe, leave the link in the comments, please! I should have used the tried and true Instant Pot Cheesecake Recipe or the Icebox Cherry Cheesecake Recipe. But no matter, we topped the cake with cherries to turn it into a black forest cake and it was scrummy none the less.
We also enjoyed hanging out with our many cruiser friends who had gathered in Bequia for Thanksgiving. Before Ron arrived, 70 cruisers participated in a Thanksgiving dinner buffet at Bequia Plantation Hotel where they pulled out all the stops with turkey, ham and even pumpkin pie!
We continued enjoying visiting with our cruiser buddies with happy hours and woman’s coffee. SV Snoopin’ Around even had a fun happy hour on their boat.
However, it was time to head out to sea once more.
We made a stop in Chateaubelair Bay, St. Vincent where Kemroy Harry provide great assistance in anchoring on the shelf by the shore.
St. Lucia
Early the next morning we left St. Vincent where the wind was quite light until we were way out into the channel. Then the sailing became fun and sporty. Ben and Ron enjoyed riding the waves. It was always wonderful to see the Pitons come into view.
We moored in one of our favorite places, Marigot Bay where Adrian from the marina assisted us with a mooring ball. The bay was super cute with a marina, restaurants and ferries running between them.
Ben even found a big boat to dream about—NOT!
This protected bay afforded us the ease to decorate for Christmas. Both Ron and Ben got in on the action.
We went to JJ’s Mangrove Dockside for dinner and their lobster special hit the mark!
Martinique
We had a super nice sail from St. Lucia to Martinique where our first stop was in the bayside town of Les Anse d’Arlet. You can review the snorkel pictures in Caribbean Underwater Wonders Fall 2024.
The bay is open to the west. So it allowed for some breathtaking sunsets. 
Our second stop in Martinique was a little beach resort village, Anse Matin across from the capital of Fort de France. Once we had Daggers Down safely anchored, we went ashore to explore and rent a car. I tried to use the French I had learned but everywhere I went, as soon as I started trying, the people began speaking perfect English. I think they would rather speak English than hear by Texas twang French—HAHA!
On a prior visit, we drove around the north side of Martinique. Thus, this time we wanted to explore the southern region. We picked up our little car bright and early and set out for one of the oldest rum distilleries on the island, Trois Rivieres. They didn’t have much of a museum, but the grounds were interesting.
Next we explored the southern bays of Le Marin and St Anne. This was where we bought our boat. It continues to be a place which is overrun with yachts and charter companies as well as chandeliers. We bought few things in Le Marin from a boat store and walked around St. Anne. We bought some sandwiches for lunch and some pineapple from the market. Then we turned north and drove up the east coast.
We found an adorable beach town that was a kitesurfing haven, Le Vauclin. The water was protected by a reef and extremely shallow. It was fascinating to watch the kite surfers traverse across the shallow calm water. You would not expect such flat water on the east side of the island.
Our final stop for the day was at one of the largest distilleries in Martinique, Clement Rhum Agricole. In Martinique the rum was made exclusively from sugar cane syrup without using molasses. Thus, it was identified as Rhum Agricole.
The grounds were beautiful which included a sculpture garden. There was a museum and a self-guided tour through the distillery itself. You could spend hours walking around this interesting estate. However, I was not a big fan of their rum even though it was evident that they sold beaucoups of it!
Sculpture Garden
Distillery
This was the end of Ron’s time with us this year. The next day we took him to the airport in Fort de France where he endured a lengthy flight home arriving at 0200. Au revoir Ron!
Ben and I turned in the rental car and began to plan our escape to lovely Dominica. We sailed to St. Pierre where we spent the night before heading onward to Dominica.
Dominica
The passage between Martinique and Dominica was one of the wettest passages to date. It started raining right after we pulled anchor and didn’t stop until we were on the north end of Dominica. The forecast had been for a “few squalls” but this was NOT squalls it was RAIN! And most of the time in white-out conditions. Thank goodness for chart plotters and AIS!
The wind was also crazy. The forecast had been for 20 knots from a little south of east with 4-5 foot rollers. Well how about wind at 5 knots from the west, wind at 26 knots from the east, wind at 7 from the south then wind at 20 from the south, and finally no wind at all. We saw at least 10 foot swells along the way as well as flat calm in the lea. We had to use all our sailing knowledge to keep the boat going. However, at the end, we relented to turning on the motor and motored sailed our way around to Portsmouth, Dominica. It finally stopped raining just before we made our turn into Portsmouth. So at least we were able to moor without rain on our face.
We were wet for so long that we actually got chilly. This was the first time since we entered the Caribbean that we donned our waterproof pants—or pants of any kind!
We were happy to arrive in Dominica where we were greeted by a beautiful sunset after the torrents of rain!
We moored in Dominica a few days before Christmas and relaxed until the Sunday night PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) BBQ where we met up with a few cruisers from SV Moonshadow and SV Salty Katt.
The following day, I went to Maford House Cafe to help my friend Whitney make cheesecake bites and serve her many guests! Dale and Ken from SV Moonshadow and Kathy and Matt from SV Salty Katt met Ben and I there. We all had fish and chips for lunch. It was a fun day!
December 23, 2024
Today we celebrated 4 years of fulltime living on Daggers Down! We didn’t set sail until April 2021, but we move aboard on December 23, 2020!
For Christmas Day, Ben and I went to Maford House Cafe and assisted Whitney in preparing some food for a party. I made gravy for 45 people! Then Ben and I had a nice quiet evening on the boat. But don’t worry because we cooked lobster and steak for Christmas Eve!
We decided to rent a car and drive into Rousseau for a few provisions. Then the next day we took one of our favorite drives around the north side of the island. I never tire of driving around Dominica through its lush jungle rain forest and mountains. Glory be to God—beauty is EVERYWHERE!
Tomorrow is New Year’s Day, and we will depart for Guadeloupe locally known as Gwada. We finally convinced Whitney to take a short vacation and join us for the passage. Ben is quaking in his boots as he thinks maybe there will be one too many Libras on the boat. Haha!
See ya in 2025—Happy New Years!
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