We had a decent sail from Martinique to Dominica, though the conditions called for reefing and letting out the reefs frequently! Aiming for Roseau, the capital of the island was the logical option, as it is the first accessible anchorage after the protected marine bay on the South West coast.

We picked up a mooring just to the south of the main dock, with the help of Marcus who looked after the cluster of moorings run by Dominica Marine Services.  English is the language of the island, so communication was straightforward, except when the locals spoke in their patois, which seemed to have some French  influence (not surprising since Dominica was French as often as it was British in the glorious days of naval war mongering), but with a bit of shortening and slurring.

Marcus

Marcus was in his mid-forties, and liked to talk, in the process of which we found out quite a bit about his history, which may not be unusual on this island from what we saw and heard. He had been born into a family of 8 children, with an abusive father and a battered mother. She ran off to Martinique to escape, effectively abandoning her children to their fate, and never contacted them again. They were very poor, had to manage themselves from a young age, and suffered from neglect, hunger and physical harm.

Marcus is a tall and lean guy, and in his youth he became a boxer. He told us he had represented his country on 3 occasions, and he certainly had a “handy” look about him. Unfortunately, he fell into what he referred to as bad company, using alcohol and then drugs freely, and his fists frequently. He spoke of his lost years, when he hurt people (he actually mentioned killing people), and went to prison. This was life-changing for him, though he took a couple of attempts to make the break with drugs and drink. He had some rehab help coming out, but had to leave his partner because she could not give the life up, and he could not live with her without also succumbing.  It was fortunate that she was not one of the women with whom had his 3 children (got the feeling that they were all with different liaisons!).

Having cleaned himself up, he was offered the job at Dominica Marine Services, but he is a prisoner of his past, which clearly haunts him. It was clear that religion had been part of the motivation and/or assistance in his conversion. There are plenty of churches of various denominations, and an awful lot of religious references in many of the street and building names, and the names on the boat boys’ skiffs. You get the feeling that religion on the one hand and excess on the other are the opposing faces of a divided and often desperate society.

Roseau

This town has the reputation of having many of the best preserved old Caribbean buildings on the islands. Given that the island has less than 100,000 inhabitants, even as the capital it is not a large place. There were tight little streets lined with picture postcard houses, stoops and balconies abounding. What is was not, however, was clean and tidy. The gutters were full of polystyrene trays discarded by the fast food eaters, floating in an unpleasant smelling rivulet. There were few pavements, and those that existed were usually uneven, narrow and interrupted (building work, rubbish, storm drains et al).

The shops, often describing themselves as wholesalers, were more like the kind of stores you see in western movies with a small frontage and no access to the internal stock of goods, stacked in piles or in racks on the floor or the second mezzanine above.  The streets thronged with people, dressed in bright colours, though they seemed more serious and less joyous that folk on Martinique or St Lucia.

There are a couple of cruise ship docks, and we woke up on Saturday to find a huge Thompson liner looming above us – how they had docked without waking us is a puzzle. It disgorged hundreds of passengers into the town and onto taxis and buses. A special market had been set up alongside the dock to cater for the demand for local crafts, food and refreshments. 

The customs people had their office and processing desks alongside the dock, to which we had to go to clear in, and they explained that the Thompson liner was due to leave by 16.30, but that another was due later on this dock and a second one at the dock on the northern end of the port. It was clear that the place was geared up for the activity and the trade that the cruise ships bring, and there certainly did not seem to be much other work around that was not tourist based.

Watergaw