Greetings from Dominica

Smell of burned wood hits my nostrils as soon as I wake up, the smell I associate with Dominica, the wonderful lush mountainous island south of Guadeloupe.

4 years has passed since Ray and I, as sailing novices last visited this island on our journey heading north to the East Coast.

We are on anchor in Prince Ruperts Bay, also known as Portsmouth, on the north western corner of Dominica. It is a large bay, two miles long and a mile wide, offering stunning views over the rainforest covered mountain tops in between white chubby clouds. Fort Shirley stands beautifully at the north western side of the bay, reminding us of the history of settlers protecting themselves from the neighboring islands as well as the feared Caribs who once ruled this island.

We were within minutes of anchoring greeted by numerous boat boys, Emerson, we remembered from our last visit, and his comment; “I remember that face,” when he spotted Ray, sealed the pack. Emerson will be our man.

I have tip toed the burning hot deck, hanging out the fresh laundry, which soon will smell more of a bon fire. That’s how intense the smell from the island is. Shreds of ashes are flying in the air and I smile of the memory of our last laundry experience we had here. Our washing machine had packed up and we arranged with Emerson to have our laundry done. It rains a lot here, and in order to dry it out, they hang it under their huts and lights up fires to dry it out. The laundry bill was the most expensive laundry bill we have ever had, with a very intense local flair to it.

Ray is still as sleep. It has gone 10:30 am!!!!! I can definitely feel the after effects my self after numerous delicious local made rum punches, however, Ray must obviously feel worse. Or, he simply could not sleep from the locals partying on the beach after the fun barbeque we attended last night. Historically there have been safety issues here, but since locals formed a “night watch” service, we feel safe. Every Sunday the locals arrange a barbeque to raise money for the night watch men, and we felt obliged and more than happy to support the cause. It was great fun and as usual we bumped into true sailors making us look like amateurs in comparisons. One couple had spent 11 years circum navigating the world! (What do you do after that?)

Silver Lining Car Rental (just love the name!) was closed during Easter, but adamant Ray found another on the outskirt of town who agreed to pick us up to do the paper work. A car is a must for visiting Dominica and for two days and a half we toured the entire island. It is a small island, but it is so picturesque (like driving around in a botanical garden!) and the roads quite demanding that you should allow at least 2 days. We decided against 7 hour walks to various waterfalls and did the easier accessible ones such as Trafalgar Falls (10 min…), (overcrowded with Royal Caribbean cruise passengers) and had the Emerald Pool (10 min…) to our selves whilst above mentioned crowd were hiding from the rain. We found the Northern part of the island most quaint (1 hr walk, we are improving) with far less tourists and only had to look out for the local minibuses like “Lover Boy” who drove like crazy. We have purchased local made baskets en masse from a charming lady in the Carib Territory, how we are going to get them on to the plane I worry about later. We filled the car up with wild unripe mangos hand picked by Ray who is convinced they will ripen and not so wild papaya picked with Ray’s skilful umbrella technique! We had a wonderful afternoon drive in the Syndicate national park spotting parrots and as we were leaving we stopped by some locals who had finished working their land and asked to buy some bananas off them. We got a whole bunch for a symbolic note as they had no experience in selling their goods and off we went for Ray only after a few minutes to do a complete U turn to return back to the guys to offer them a lift back to Portsmouth. “Yes please” was the instant reply and soon the car was filled with 3 happy rum drinking fellows and the boot stuffed with buckets of yam potatoes, more bananas and God only knows what. But what a company, they are just such happy people, and that is not only down to the rum, despite that was all they had had since breakfast and it is now getting close to 6 pm. They are just very decent, hardworking positive people, and stunningly beautiful as well. We got into the habit of picking up locals as we drove around and found it very interesting talking to them. We both agree that Dominica is the loveliest of all the islands, and the people the nicest!

Off to Guadeloupe to do some more driving before returning to Antigua for Classic Week in a few days time, then back to the BVI!

Wishing everybody a wonderful springtime wherever you are.

Ray and Birgitte