Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth, Dominica

Friday morning and another early start, we had another fast and exhilarating sail across the channel to Dominica looming tall and green in the distance. After passing halfway I was at the helm to catch a splash out of the corner of my eye about 5m off the starboard quarter. I saw only the dorsal and tail fin, but the streamline shape and blue colour of both persuaded me it must be a blue marlin from all the pictures I have seen in Kevin’s books and from the one hoisted up at the Grenada Fishing tournament. I called excitedly to Kevin knowing that he was desperate to catch one from the boat and literally seconds later his newly rigged marlin lure was taken and the reel was running off at quite a rate, there was only one thing it could be and Kevin leapt up as fast as I have ever seen him move to pick up the rod. We could see a big splash on the surface, technically referred to as a hole I’m reliably informed, where the marlin dashes up from the deep and snatches at his prey to stun it before going carrying it away. However pretty much as he’d picked it up the line was slack again and the marlin was gone, not to be defeated though Kevin said that if he reeled in it might come back. Kevin was therefore reeling in that lure when we saw the quite unmistakable dorsal fin come in the water behind the lure not 20m off the back of the boat, we were both hooting with excitement now, me from something more like fear as Kevin put it afterwards which such fast and perfected predators it is not always clear who is hunting who. Kevin next released the line off again as he saw the characteristic bill coming toward the lure and sure enough the marlin took the bait and was hooked up again the reel buzzing at high speed as it swam off. The rod was bent right over and Kevin was carefully trying to tire the fish out, whislt I start to try and slow the boat by reducing the jib. However within a couple of minutes it was all over again as the marlin had spat out the lure and disappeared leaving us both shaking and exhilarated. When the lure was brought in it showed one of the hooks, not really bought for this purpose had been bent which presumably aided the marlin’s escape. Kevin has been firmly hooked, if you pardon the pun on game fishing since he caught the big wahoo off Grenada and was fairly buzzing all afternoon after this episode swapping and changing lures to increase the potential of another hit but unfortunately the sailing routes are not usually the optimum ones for game fishing which are usually considerably further offshore.

However, to sooth the disappointment we were greeted by two different shoals of dolphins that day, one in a very concentrated hunting party passing us to leeward up the coast making a steady procession north in convey breaking the surface only occasionally. The second pod were however far more fun and introduced themselves with a very impressive jump out of the water and with such clear water in this area we could see them below the surface as well as on it as they played at the bows before disappearing as fast as they arrived with a couple of very nice leaps as they left just fast enough to avoid a photo of anything other than the splash.


Dolphins playing at the bow

We came in at Roseau the main town of Dominica just after lunch but north finding Papillon here and still not reaching him by VHF we decided to carry on to Portsmouth on the north west coast where he had planned to take a tour of the Indian river. We arrived into Portsmouth after a slow motor in the lee of the island and yet another false alarm on the fishing as the line ran off just on the entrance to Prince Rupert Bay, under the eye of one of the local tour guides come out in his boat to try and sell us a tour. However, as always with the bigger catches, this one got away and we headed in the anchor, we didn’t manage to find Papillon here either but found a good clear space to anchor just off the town. By 7am the following morning we had discovered why there was so much space at this part of the anchorage when the music finally stopped at the Old Skool disco just on the shore here.


Roseau