Departing Martinique at the crack of noon, we set off for the 30-something nautical miles north for the Island of Dominica. It was on this passage that Darren got his first look at sea for 360 degrees. No land in sight. With a horizon of 15 miles, it was in between both that we lost sight of Martinique, but not yet had visual of Dominica. It’s a lovely sight to not see land everywhere you look.
Leaving
We approached Dominica and its awe inspiring mountains with a reef in the mainsail and a full jib under 20 knots of wind until we hit the lee of the island. The wind dropped at 5:00 and we carefully calculated our arrival just a bit further up the coast, missing out the capital of Roseau. Colin had been there before, and it offered nothing of what we were looking for.
So we timed our arrival for a small bay off the abandoned Castaways Beach Hotel, and approached just after dark. Its sort of policy not to arrive anywhere after dark as there are fishing floats and nets everywhere. And it’s a good policy, one that we will stick to more definitely in the future.
After cutting the lines off to the best of our ability, we managed to get the anchor dropped in the dark, and in the morning Colin went under to check for damage. There was only the rope, nothing more, this time we were lucky.
Morning arrived and we travelled the 8 more miles to Portsmouth Bay.
This was the most casual, unofficial Customs office I have ever seen in my life. It was in a building that was thru a fence, and another fence, behind a workshop, and not even marked.
If Christopher Columbus came back today, Dominica would be the only island he may recognize. It is the Caribbean’s most unspoiled county and its most exciting destination for spectacular natural beauty. Dominica is full of lush vegetation, greenery erupts everywhere, and the whole land is covered in a verdant tangle of trees, vines, shrubs and ferns. The land is known for its many rivers due to the high mountains attracting clouds creating the frequent showers we encountered, interspersed with sunshine and warmth, creating many rainforests.
Dominica’s population is about 70,000 inhabitants who have a natural curiosity about outsiders and enjoy meeting and assisting cruisers like us. Many of the local men have formed a group called PAYS- Professional Association of Yacht Services, who help yachties with anything they need; organizing of local tours, customs clearance, mooring balls, provisioning,- whatever a yachtie may need.
Tuesday afternoon after our anchoring and customs clearance, we took a hike up to Fort Shirley. It’s an old British Fort dating from the 18th century with a great museum. It has recently been refurbished and would make a wonderful backdrop for weddings or large parties, and rents out as such. There are ruins in the forest behind the refurbished Fort where you can see the history in the civilization of the 19th century. It was really cool.
Wednesday morning Darren and I went with Andrew of the PAYS group up the Indian River to the sight of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Witches house and “Carib”s small house in the movie.
We saw many ginger and cinnamon trees, mangroves and the most crooked roots on the trees. Many Greenback Herons, hummingbirds, many finches, land crabs and fish survive in this jungle environment.
The Indian River is a protected environment, and the guide has to paddle the boat up the current, as motors are not permitted. He told us of his daily encounters with Johnny Depp, Orlando and Keira as he was one of the boat captains who took them up the river daily.
Wednesday evening, we took advantage of the PAYS BBQ. At $50 EC/pp ( $25 Cdn/AUS) it was a good deal for a fabulous chicken dinner and all the rum punch you could handle. It was a great place to talk with the locals and meet fellow cruisers either heading north or South. Its put on Every Sunday definately, and Wednesdays when you can talk the organization into it. With more than 20 boats in the bay, I guess they were convinced to have, what looked like, a sell out event.
We don’t have many pictures of this, as someone didn’t put the camera card back in the camera before she left the boat. Ooops.
Thursday morning, we groggily left the bay and headed northward to The Saintes, a small resort area belonging to Guadeloupe, 16 miles to our northward.
Next issue; The Saintes and Guadeloupe.