Dominica

Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Tue 1 Feb 2011 02:06
 
 
15.34.878N  061.27.811W
 
Portsmouth     Dominica
 
Saturday the alarm went at 05.30 and we lifted the anchor at 06.30 to head North for Prince Rupert Bay at the North end of Dominica. A beautiful morning with variable wind which soon settled into a fresh Easterly trade wind and we headed north at great speed with 2 reefs in the main and the mizzen still furled on the boom as we overtook 3 Canadian yachts. The wind stayed with us up the lee of Dominica and the sea stayed calm and we reached our anchorage at 1500hours having logged 52 miles.
 
                
 
Approaching Dominica
 
The scenery up the coast was all green with 4000' hills covered in rain forest and there were lots of colourful houses on the shoreline ranging from basic shacks to superb "mansions".
 
          
 
At anchor Portsmouth
 
The anchorage is a large bay with palm trees and an old fort on the North end but the 'town' of Portsmouth in the middle is blighted by the rusting remains of some small ships which have been hurricane victims over the last 20 years.
 
          
 
         
 
We did our housework and swam and sunbathed, watched the turtles swim by and the pelicans and frigate birds flying around and on Sunday evening we enjoyed a barbecue ashore put on by the local "Boat Boys" who offer tours and services to yachts. With something over 30 yachts in the Bay the majority are Canadian but also several Aussies, Germans, French, Spanish, Norwegian and also the young Dutch school girl Laura Dekker in her yacht "Guppy"  ( www.lauradekker.nl )
 
          
 
Monday morning we had arranged for one of the boat boys to row us up the Indian River which is basically a small area of Mangrove swamp and we saw the local herons, kingfishers, parrots,hummingbirds and others as well as land crabs and an iguana. There is even a very 'rustic'  bar set up to serve local juice or rum punch !
 
         
 
        
 
     
       
 
       
 
      
 
Roy breaking open the coconuts for us to eat
 
While recognising that Dominica is a very poor island with limited income resources it was alarming to hear that the government is selling valuable tracts of land to the Chinese including much of the waterfront here in Prince Rupert Bay and relocating locals to the hillside. Paradise is not without its problems.