Wednesday 14th March

Portsmouth,
Dominica

15 34.917 N
61 27.821 W

08.00hrs arrived and we were collected by our tour guide from yesterday, Andrew. It was a little calmer on the water first thing in the morning and we had no problem climbing into his wooden boat for the short trip into the dock. Dale and Lorie were already in the boat and we were very glad to hear that they had managed to retrieve their dinghy stern anchor using a boat hook. When we reached the dock we transferred to a 12 seat bus (just the four of us – the tour was only for us) and changed tour guides, this time it was Geoffrey – the man we originally employed. The changes didn’t end there though, he drove us out to the end of town where we had a change of driver – Geoffrey was unable to do the tour so he handed us off to another guide named Michael who preferred to be called Buddha (we never quite worked out why as he wasn’t fat and he wasn’t a Buddhist!) Anyway our new tour guide was very pleasant, he was a trained botanist and herbalist, he was also a Rastafarian with dreadlocks longer than my hair. The tour began in Portsmouth took us East wards around the coast line to Calabishie then south to Marigot, into the Carib territory, then down to the Emerald pool, the Layou river and finally back to Portsmouth via the West coast road. As we went along Buddha gave a running commentary on all the sights and flora that we encountered. He made frequent stops, jumping out of the bus and picking samples of herbs and spices to hand to us. The island certainly lives up to the title of “Spice Island” , we found lemongrass, bay leaves, spearmint, basil, cinnamon bark, nutmeg trees, almond plants, and probably half a dozen more that I’ve forgotten. It struck us that none of the spices were grown in a commercial scheme – they were all just wild along the side of the road – it’s an opportunity waiting to be grabbed! The main commercial crop was bananas and even this seemed to be a bit hap hazard. We stopped for several photo opportunities along the way, great views of the coastline and the various bays along the way. We stopped at the Carib Indian territory and did a “tour within a tour” which showed us the typical living arrangements and lifestyles of the Caribs. It was all very interesting, we sampled the cassava bread they were making and watched the women weaving the traditional basket wares which were for sale in their craft shop on site. Then it was time for lunch which we had at a place in the hills that we would never have found by ourselves, the food was all local produce and quite tasty. After lunch we continued our tour and headed to the Emerald pool, a natural fresh water pool deep within the rainforest. It was a 15 minute climb down a million steps to the pool which is fed from the rain runoff forming a waterfall into the pool at the base. It was cool and refreshing to be down at that level of the rainforest and of the four of us, only Dale was brave enough to take a dip in the pool (we think he did it to preserve the shower water on his boat!) I can’t say I was too keen on the million steps back to the top again but I made it. After the Emerald pool it was back in the bus and a continuation of the drive around the coast until we finally got back to Portsmouth. The whole day was quite fascinating and we thoroughly enjoyed it I think that having a botanist / herbalist doing the commentary for the tour was a stroke of luck for us, we learnt all sorts of things about plants that we didn’t know before the trip. We ended our day with purchases of some basket work, dinner at Big Papa’s restaurant and collecting our laundry. The joy of having clean clothes and bedding just about made the day!

Tuesday 13th March

Portsmouth,
Dominica

15 34.917 N
61 27.821 W

Dale and Gerry took off at 08 00hrs to try and get us cleared at customs, get some Eastern Caribbean dollars and check out internet, trash disposal and laundry. Whilst they were gone I ran the water maker and typed up blog notes. When Gerry returned just over an hour later he said the trip was partially successful – they found the laundry service, trash and internet but had to return to immigration as the officers were dealing with the cruise ships. It means an afternoon trip to the office again. He also said that we were booked to do the Indian River trip at 16.00hrs. Our next task was to bag up the laundry and dink it into Big Papa’s restaurant where it would be taken, washed, dried and folded then returned to us within 24hrs. As it had been a while since we had done any laundry it seemed like everything we possess on the boat needed washing. We had 3 large garbage bags full of dirty, salty clothes, towels and bedding – I fear it will cost us a fortune to retrieve it! Anyway we dropped it off but were told that the power was out so it may not get done today, just as well we are here for 3 days! We returned to our boat and after a lunch of left over lasagna from last night (just as good the second time around Laurie!) Gerry managed to get us hooked up to an internet provider for 24hrs. He then went with Dale back to the immigration office to complete the formalities stuff whilst I sent a couple of emails and loaded my recent blogs and photos. When Gerry returned he read for a while and then had a siesta whilst I continued to fiddle around with the internet – when you only have it for 24hrs you have to make the most of it! At 15.50hrs Gerry woke up – grumpy – and dashed about getting ready to be picked up for the river tour at 16.00hrs. Our tour guide, Andrew in this case, collected us from our boats and took us up the Indian River which is very narrow and shallow and can only be toured with a guide in a paddled boat, absolutely no outboards permitted. The tour lasted about 2 hours in total, was very peaceful, calm and the temperature was quite cool compared to the harbour we had come from due to the canopy formed by the trees. We saw some awesome trees and river scenery including one of the sites used in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean 2, this photo of the site is dedicated to the Creighton Island Pirates, we love and miss you all! Half way through the tour we stopped for refreshments at a purpose built turn around dock, the rum punch they served there was stronger than any I have drunk anywhere – it was like rocket fuel! Our tour guide presented Lorie and I with a small souvenir of the trip, palm leaves which had been hand woven into a bird and a fish – very clever stuff. The return trip saw us back on Dale and Lories’ boat from which we headed into the dinghy dock for dinner at the Blue Bay restaurant. It was a good ending to a lovely day. The only sour note for the day was that Dale’s stern anchor for his dinghy came adrift from the chain whilst we were in the restaurant and he is going to have to go swimming for it in the morning, hopefully it will still be in the same spot as he dropped it. We have made arrangements to go on a trip tomorrow which takes us inland somewhere and as we have to be up early I’m off to bed now.

Monday 12th March

Portsmouth,
Dominica

15 34.917 N
61 27.821 W

We had agreed on an early start for the trip to Dominica and at 07.00hrs we were hauling up the anchor and hoisting the main sail in the drizzle. As we turned the boat towards the south the wind became very light and we wondered if it was going to be possible to sail but we stuck up the jib and reduced the revs on the motor. We spent the first hour motor sailing and moving along reasonably well and then the wind began to increase so we turned off the motor and sailed for a while until about 2 hours away from our destination we hit some rain squalls which killed the wind and we had to furl away the jib, drop the main and motor the rest of the way into Portsmouth, Dominica. About 2 miles outside the harbour we were approached by a man in a fishing dinghy ( Albert, one of the boat boys) wanting to sell us tourist services, we had already had a conversation with Dale about the “boat boys” that pester you to buy all sorts of things and the best plan was to employ one, Dale recommended the guy on Seabird, Geoffrey, that they used last time they were here so we thanked Albert who had come out in the pouring rain to offer his services but told him that we were using someone else. He cheerfully accepted this and wished us goodbye, I felt a bit guilty and just hoped that one of the boats following us would employ him, he deserved it for his willingness to come out in the bad weather. Once we were anchored in the harbour the guy that Dale had recommended came alongside and we employed him for our stay, he was followed by several other “boat boys” mostly operating on surfboards, with or without paddles, who offered to sell us fruits, bread, flags (we were flying our Q flag until we cleared in but we have a Dominica flag thank you), take our laundry and trash. We declined all services as it is cheaper to get all these things ashore and as we have to go ashore to clear in then we can sort all that out later. We settled in and watched several more boats come in and anchor after us, it seems to be a popular spot at the moment. After a short afternoon nap we went over to Gypsy Palace to have dinner with Dale and Lorie, this time it was my turn to make the salad and Lorie cooked delicious lasagna (? with her rotten meat). We were all pretty tired so we made it an early night, arranging for the men to go together to clear in tomorrow morning.
A final note on our engine – we had no problems during the period of motoring and the exhaust smoke seems to had vanished, hopefully the problem has been solved, fingers crossed!