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Diane's Diary4/17 Tuesday Well, we left Les Saintes bound for Dominica at 7am. We know it's usually best to cross between islands early, as the wind seems to be less in the early is. We were anchored in about 25 feet of water so by the time we got up all the chain & put the sails up, it was 7:30. The winds were out of the east at about 20 knots so it was a beam reach. The winds gusted up to around 30 knots with about 5-7 foot seas. It was not too bad. I took Sturegon, the seas sickness medication, & didn't get seasick. We were very leery about coming into Dominica as we heard about lots of problems with the boat boys & security issues. Martin was recommended in the guidebook & our friends Rejoice had used him & really recommended him. Fortunately, he had a VHF radio & we were able to contact him a far offshore. He happened to be on another cruisers boat at the time & they told us there was no security problems whatsoever & that they enjoyed Dominica. We had heard this same thing from another cruiser, Boondoggle, & felt better now. Martin said he would assist us as soon as we were in. We were still met by other boat boys as far as 3 miles offshore! We were not even anchored when 2 boat boys came over to us on their surfboards. It was very annoying & gives Dominica a bad reputation. Apparently, the boat boys were even worse some years ago because Dominica lost a lot of the cruisers who stopped coming then. It is an extremely poor country, the poorest we have seen so far. Martin drove Larry over to customs & immigration. With his help, we didn't even launch the dinghy during our entire stay. We just paid him to drive us around. We felt it was easier & safer for us not to put the dinghy in the water. He was a great businessman, as he never pushed anything on us. He was the one who offered to take Larry to customs on his own boat. He waited until the boat was securely anchored before he came over to it. We were very happy with his services. We happened to meet a charter boat that anchored behind us from Sunsail. We thought they were French but then heard American English. Anyway, I called over to them & found out they were from Chautauqua county NY & one of the girls had gone to the same college I had been to, Fredonia!!!. It's a small world. Anyway, we decided to go on a tour with them as the van cost decreased in price with each additional person. We will take 2 tours tomorrow. 4/18 Wednesday Martin picked us up at 7am & had 2 other cruisers from Blue Horizon already on the boat. He took us up the Indian River by boat for about 2 hours. At $10 USD the tour wasn't cheap but we all really enjoyed it. He described the various plants, flowers, trees, spiders etc that we saw. He didn't use his engine so we could hear the forest sounds. Since it was early, there was no one else on the water so that was very nice. He took us to a banana plantation & showed us the 4 different kinds of bananas. I think everyone enjoyed the tour- I know I did. At about 10 am we joined our van tour of the island with our driver Lewis, a preacher & part time driver. I thought he was ok but we had specifically asked for Mad Max that our friends had used & liked. Lewis was ok but I think was inexperienced. For example, he stopped about 10:45 for lunch but that was too early for most of us so we asked for lunch later. Well, we didn't wind up eating until 4pm & by that time we were all starved. We had only had a breakfast bar & some raisins I bought with us. We stopped at this hotel for lunch but at $26 USD for fish & French fries it wasn't worth it. Anyway, the island was very beautiful- definitely the prettiest one we have seen to date. The only downside is the enormous poverty. Lewis drove us to the Carib Indian reservation but there really wasn't anything to see. I guess I was expecting to see more on how they live. We happened to see a lady doing wash in the river, which was interesting. We also happened to see a guy carving a boat for himself & that was fascinating. We stopped to buy some beautiful baskets. They weren't cheap though & the vendors had obviously been used to the cruise ship passengers so the prices have increased. Still, I bought 3 beautiful baskets for $20USD. I didn't bargain, as I knew the money went directly to them & they are extremely poor. We stopped to buy bananas & the lady went into the fields & cut them down for us. $2 USD for a bunch of bananas - approximately 4 dozen! We bought 8 grapefruit for.30USD. We also got coconuts & mangoes. The fruit was all extremely delicious. I don't ever think we will ever have fruit that fresh again. The juice would just run all over the place. We also stopped at Emerald Pool to go swimming. In most of the Caribbean islands, giardia, a parasitic disease that lives in freshwater streams, is present. We were not sure if it was in Dominica or not so decided not to swim in the waterfalls & didn't even bring our bathing suits. We got back to the boat around 5:30- tired but glad we took the trip. Martin drove us back to the boat. 4/19 Thursday The boat boys on surfboards still come over to our boat everyday waiting to get us fresh fruit, take the garbage, & want a coke. We are polite but don't use them for anything. We were going to stay a few days longer but the weather forecast has indicated it's going to start blowing gradually on Saturday & then picking up Sunday-Tuesday. We have heard the other anchorage in Roseau is very rolly. Also, Blue Horizon had a problem with the Anchorage hotel there, which has moorings. They were bringing garbage in on Easter morning. There was no one around but a man stopped & asked what was in the bag. They said garbage. He said they had disrespected him for walking through the lobby with it & they should leave immediately or he would cut their lines. They were very shaken up. The hotel apologized but said they should leave as the man was one of the owners father. I don't think we will stay there! Anyway, we will sail directly to Martinque about a 9 hour sail. So, today will be our last day in Dominica. We had Martin drive us over to the Cabrits National Park. It was a wonderful park. Portsmouth built a beautiful facility including a cruise ship pier but apparently Roseau wanted the cruise ship business so most of the cruise ships go there. It's a shame as it's a beautiful place. A cruise ship was coming in for the day but they didn't use the dock for some reason. They tendered their passengers ashore. It's a good thing we had Martin drive us over as the tender was using the dinghy dock & if ours had been there it would have been crushed. We saw a wonderful exhibit on the fort & the restored fort itself. There was a beautiful view of Portsmouth harbor. We hiked about 30 minutes uphill for another view but the view wasn't worth the 30 minute uphill climb. We met an American woman visiting the park whose husband is going to the local medical college. She gave us a ride back into the medical school where we had lunch nearby at one of the fast food stands. We had hamburgers & fries but they weren't that great. We went to a nearby grocery store & while they had US products, the prices were outrageous. We took the bus back to town. We walked around Portsmouth but it was a dive & I did not feel safe. We did buy a machete for protection on the boat. A woman on the street stopped us & wanted to cook dinner for us. We went to an internet café- actually a laptop in a persons house. She was American married to a Dominican. She lived in deplorable conditions. She told us crack was very big in Portsmouth & not to walk around at night. She said the woman who had stopped us on the street was a crack head! I'm glad we didn't agree to have dinner with her but I had read of this in one of the SSCA bulletins anyway. Anyway, Martin drove us back to the boat, we got our papers & came back to town to clear out. On the way back, we saw the boat Second Tri, come into the anchorage. Our friends on Mima told us about them. We stopped by them with Martin, introduced him & invited them over for cocktails that night. We had a good time with them. 4/20 Friday We left the anchorage by 6:10 am. & had the sails up by 6:20. We had a great sail down the coast we had winds about 15 knots from the east. It was a wonderful sail. For future reference, it took 2 hours to sail to the Castaways hotel, 3 hours to Roseau & 4 hours to the end of the island. Our guidebook warned us that wind accelerates at the end of the island & boy did it ever! We had gusts up to 40 Knots! Thank goodness Larry had reefed the main. The wind was so strong we had to take the jib in. The rest of the trip we had winds of a steady 30 knots with seas up to 9 feet! Not a very comfortable ride & I got seasick again even though I had taken the medication. We were both uncomfortable. Fortunately, it was just a 3 hour ride although it felt much longer. We finally got to the lee of Martinique around 1:30. The wind died & we motor sailed to St. Pierre. We were both exhausted from the trip. We stayed on the boat & rested the rest of the day. |