Dominica

Salamander
Thu 6 Apr 2017 20:30

What a lovely island and everyone is so friendly. Sadly Big Papa's death is not the only change. In 2015 Dominca was hit by a tropical storm and had more rain in one day than ever recorded in the history of the island. 13 inches took out many roads and bridges and caused a landslip at Trafalgar Falls. As a result the falls no longer has its fabulous hot spring pool and lost most of its tourist visitors.

Murray managed not to notice the large boulders blocking the road (Where were the red and white oil drums hey??) until his passenger screamed at him and we swerved off the road in a cloud of gravel and dust just in time. The repair work after the rainfall damage is far from complete after about 18 months.

We walked to the highest spot above the boiling lake, but as it was so late in the day we did not complete the final part of the walk. Another wish list item not met, but as we both struggled to walk the next day it was very sensible to have abandoned the walk.

We went to the P.A.Y.S. Cruiser dinner; quite expensive, but good simple food, a DJ and lots of rum punch. Shindigs like that are always great for meeting people, at least our ability to drink rum seems to be improving.

We had already bumped into the Texans we met in Antigua who sailed beautifully in the boat Remora, with just a genoa at about 5.4 knots until they lost the wind right in front of us. As we were motoring we had to give way, but despite Marsha and John waving at Murray he didn't recognise them. Lovely to catch up with them in a bar and on their boat.