Dominica

15:34.848N 61:27.807W

23rd January 2015

5640 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            The Sausage and bacon Baguettes turned out to be sausage and egg so having corrected my literary error, pointed out by Norma, I will go on to say that they were a culinary masterpiece and just what the doctor ordered. The sail, and it was a sail for a change, up to Portsmouth in Dominica was a long 70 mile day sail and took us a very respectable eleven and a half hours from anchor up to anchor down. As we approached the final headland before Prince Rupert bay and Portsmouth we were met by Alexis in a high speed punt who introduced himself very politely and explained the PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) system. This is a cooperative of boat boys, tour guides, local restaurant owners, chandlers and taxi companies who have got together to sort out the problems that Dominica was experiencing with rogue traders, boat theft and the like. They share out the work amongst other PAYS members, provide security patrols at night, do the official tours in the areas and in general, as they are answerable to the cooperative for their actions, seem to have sorted out most of the theft and general abuse problems that have been reported in the sailing press, certainly in my pilot book anyway. They also host a big beach BBQ on Sunday nights for all of the yachts in the bay at a very modest price which covers the administration costs of PAYS. So that was our introduction to PAYS and Alexis which as it turned out, after some initial trepidation on our part, was all good. Once we had dropped our anchor and got it well dug in Alexi returned and offered us several local tours and a general rundown on what was available in the area. We booked ourselves onto an Indian river tour for the following day with Alexis at $20 US each, plus $5 for the national parks permit and then spent an hour or two putting the boat to bed and having a bit of a siesta before going ashore to test out the fleshpots of Portsmouth. On a side note, as I walked towards the back of the boat to untie the dinghy in my bare feet I kicked one of the large bronze cleats at the stern, my foot slipped under it and the sharp end met my instep with a crunch. It started to swell immediately and I spent the rest of the night hobbling around as my left foot got bigger and bigger. Not to be deterred we went ashore anyway and soon found the blue bay restaurant that had limited WIFI and cold beer so we could settled in and sent those all important messages and caught up on the gossip from home.

Prince Rupert bay and Portsmouth

Here is a bit of local history for you, Portsmouth used to be the capital of Dominica but it was abandoned pretty early on in favour of Roseau in the south of the island, the reason being Portsmouth is essentially a swamp. The problem with swamps is that they are full of mosquitoes and at that time they carried yellow fever which had the nasty habit of killing off anyone who tried to build a house there. Luckily for us the yellow fever has gone and so the town has been able to thrive, unluckily for us, and in particular for me, the mosquitoes are still here. Why me you say? Well Steve has not been bitten once, Norma has five bites on her legs, while little old me has over 100 on my legs, arms, back and neck, (Norma counted them) why, I don’t know, but they just love a bit of vintage Russell 2015 and tuck right in every time I step ashore. In fact I look like I am at an over 50’s disco as I twist and turn scratching all of my little itchy bits all day and all night. With that bit of background knowledge you can understand why we beat a hasty retreat back to the relative sanctuary of Spectra and her supply of citronella and why I was looking forward to the Indian river tour (which definitely is a swamp) with some serious reservations.

Day two broke with gloomy rain clouds overhead and Alexis arrived smack on time 0800 to pick us up for the tour. We picked up another English couple from the boat next door and then three Norwegians from their boat at the other end of the anchorage before heading up the river. The Indian river has been designated a nature reserve and so once we had passed below the concrete bridge at its entrance the outboard had to be turned off and Alexis rowed us up the shallow mangrove lined waterway.

The entrance to the Indian river

Alexis begins the long row up the river. Talking all the way

What a great morning, Alexis was entertaining and very knowledgeable about all of the plant and animal life that we encountered. Soon the canopy of trees closed over our heads and Alexis told us tales of his youth playing in the woods, of hunting for the land crabs and eating the forest fruits with his friends. He told us of the Carib Indians that used to live in the area and how they now live on a 30,000 acre reservation on the island, and he showed us the remains of the light railway that the British built through the swamp which was finally destroyed by hurricane David in the 1990’s. He then took us up a side river a short way and we came upon the film set from The Pirates of the Caribbean with the shack that Calypso the witch in lived in still in place. He also commented on just about every living thing that we saw, from land crabs through Iguanas and onto white cranes that they all tasted pretty good, just like chicken. Coconuts were his passion and he swore blind that everything to do with coconuts was good for you, except for standing under a tree and having one fall on your head that is, and as proof of this he quoted the oldest woman in the world who lived in Portsmouth until her death at the age of 128 who drank coconut milk every day and claimed to have never been ill. So there, now you know, stop reading this and get down to Waitrose for some coconuts before they sell out.

The tree canopy closes in as we go inland

Calypso’s shack from the Pirates of the Caribbean

Tangled roots on the rivers edge

    At the furthest point up river that our tour reached we stopped off at a bar, conveniently placed there by a PAYS member, for a walk around. Alexis took us about a mile through the woods and it soon became apparent that most of this seemingly virgin forest was actually cultivated but it is done in such a low impact way that you have to look hard to see it. There were, pineapples, passion fruit, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, lettuce, cashew trees, cinnamon trees, ginger, grape fruit, mint, rosemary, thyme, a little plant like a Venus fly trap that closed when you brushed against it and rather bizarrely a cow all in the middle of nowhere. The trip through the woods finished with some local Rum cocktails made by a friend of Alexis in another shack and a slow meander back down the river.

Clear sky as we walk away from the river

A lonely cow in the middle of nowhere

An outside facility should you require a comfort break

Alexis prepares coconut drinks at his friends rum shack

It became clear now why Alexis encouraged us to go early, not only was the river getting busy with other trip boats (all rowed) but the mossies were beginning to bite as the day warmed up. As promised Alexis took us down to the South end of the bay to clear into customs on our way back to Spectra, I suppose officially it should have been the other way round but heck who is counting. Customs was a very easy process and for $14 EC you book in and out at the same time and can stay for up to 14 days, the only thing that marred the experience was the stroppy little mare behind the counter who made full use of her moment of power to be borderline rude throughout the process. Anyway, I kept smiling and very politely pointed out at the end, once my passport was safely back in my pocket, that she had only given me a receipt for $12 when I had paid her $14. She said the $2 was for the paperwork and then under the close scrutiny of her boss changed the figure on my receipt to $14, I’m not proud of it but I have to admit I really enjoyed deflating the little madam, just that little bit.

On getting back to Spectra we unpacked our goodies from the walk through the forest. We had grapefruits, lettuce, coconuts, passion fruit and one frog. Norma found the frog when she washed the lettuce and after an initial squeal rushed up on deck to show us our latest crew member. At that point no doubt having seen Steve and myself the frog abandoned ship and jumped into the sea, he was last seen floating out to sea belly up I’m afraid. After that commotion I commented that my feet were sore from the walking and Norma pointed out that my toes were filthy from the forest mud so I rinsed them in the sea. Unfortunately it was not all dirt and three of my toes and the top of my foot had gone black with bruises from kicking the cleat. Later that afternoon Frank and Mandy, from Infinity B another yacht in the bay, who had been on the tour with us in the morning came over to talk about our HF SSB radio. They are members of the Ocean Cruising Club which is very active in these here parts and they have a daily catch up across the Caribbean by SSB radio. Anyway to cut a long story short Frank gave us all of the frequencies and times that we need to listen in on and so we have another good outlet for information now. That night we went ashore again for a drink with Frank and Mandy and to meet up with Simon and Hilda another OCC couple who have been sailing around the Caribbean for over 9 years now. We gained an awful lot of good information from the two couples particularly reference sailing in America but unfortunately no new information about Visas applications. Later that night the three of us had a farewell to Dominica meal, the plan being to have another look around the next day and then head up to the Ile de Saintes about lunchtime. We ate at an open fronted and sided restaurant on the beach called the Purple Turtle where the bats flew in one side and out of the other dodging around the tables and our heads as they came through at breakneck speed hunting for insects. The food was good but the mossies were ferocious again and so the dots on my legs have all now been joined together.

The Purple Turtle restaurant

A very flashy sign

After a truly awful night of scratch, scratch, scratch I awoke in a foul mood and absolutely no desire to set foot on shore again. Norma and Steve concurred and so we pulled up the anchor and headed North again for the 20 miles jaunt to the Ile de Saintes.

A final note on Dominica, we found absolutely no problems there at all. The locals were all friendly, bar the customs girl, and we really enjoyed our short stay, It is a beautiful country, much greener than some of the other islands and I will certainly return again but for longer next time. What I will do though is pack enough noxious smelling substances from Boots to declare full scale chemical warfare on any flying insect that even thinks about coming close.   

Next blog will be from the Ile de Saintes……………………… 

PS: we are looking for some crew to come back across the Atlantic at the beginning of June. Three legs of about 2 weeks each, Norfolk to the Bahamas, Bahamas to the Azores, Azores to Cork….anyone interested in all or part? drop us a line.

Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com

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Paul {DOT} russell732 {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} co {DOT} uk and I will pick it up when I am on WiFi