Dominica

After a very windy week in Deshaies, Guadeloupe we sailed south to Dominica. Before leaving Deshaies, however, we went up to the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies with our good cruising friends, Bob and Brenda on PANDORA. Not only is this a beautiful garden but has a great restaurant that serves a great lunch.

The winds calmed down and we, along with PANDORA and many other Salty Dawgs Sailing Association boats, headed for Dominica for their rendezvous in Portsmouth. We arrived a few days before the week of activities started as the winds were favorable to go south. Our schedule is really wind and sea conditional!

We took a mooring when we arrived but not before dealing with a sticky roller furling jib. That was sorted out and then we finally picked up a mooring. Dominica is a great “nature” island which I wrote about last year. This year was no different as we participated in a tour up the Indian River, the arranged BBQ’s of the PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) and other events with the Salty Dawgs. Bob rented a car one day, and the four of us went over to the east side of the island to the Kalinago Territory.

Thanks, Bob, for the great ride! It was a torturous road as it was being rebuilt along with heavy equipment and trucks heading for the new airport. All this is being done by the Chinese as part of their Belt and Road foreign aid program. Although the locals complain that few workers are hired by the Chinese for these projects, they will end up with better roads and infrastructure. However, the road light poles that were put in by the Chinese apparently haven’t fared very well. The solar and wind powered poles seem to have lost many of their pole top wind generators. Dominica may end up paying for all this but there is no doubt about the Chinese footprints in the sand.

The Kalinago area is home to the descendants of the original native Caribs of the islands at the time of Columbus’s voyages. There were, in fact, many native populations and villages on the islands which eventually succumbed to the European “invasion” of the 16^th century. Like many areas, a healthy respect for the original inhabitants is increasingly recognized and appreciated. The British granted them this 3,700 acre territory in Dominica in 1903 for their own use.   

Since then, they maintained life on the island, intermarried and have maintained their territory. Brenda wanted to visit the area as they make, among many things, amazing hand made baskets.

We haven’t been up the Indian River in a number of years and so we boarded a tour boat. It was a great afternoon on the “river”. Actually it is more like a big stream but it is still a wonder to explore. Part of the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed here:

One night, the Dominica National Park hosted a free dinner at Fort Shirley which was appreciated. The next night was the Lion Fish dinner by PAYS where the guest of honor, the invasive Lion Fish, was consumed with relish to help control or limit its destructive invasion. The fish is actually very tasty and should be on ever fish lover’s plate.

Unfortunately by this time, a swell started rolling into the bay and it was becoming untenable as an anchorage. It was a 7+ on the Kalunamoo roll scale (WTF – we’re out of here). In addition, dinghies and even the PAYS boat launches couldn’t land ashore. We upped anchor and headed for the south end of the bay where it was calmer. A strong cold front was approaching which shifts the wind from the south to the north and, much like Mary Poppins, when the winds change, we do move on. Tomorrow, we sail south to Martinique and continue island hopping to Trinidad. Farwell Dominica, see you next year!