We arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica, yesterday; after stops
in Schoelcher and St. Pierre, Martinique; jumping to Roseau, and then coming
north up the coast of Dominica. The trip
was not bad, but little fun; as we had to motor the 17 miles directly into the
wind and swells, both coming from the north.
It is great to be here though, talking to the marine services boys and awaiting
a big barbecue beach party for Sunday night.
Last year, with brother Ken's help, I had made some placards in English
and French for Bounty (who says we are his adoptive parents), explaining what
services he could offer to visiting yachts.
He reports it has resulted in a significant increase in business.
Lorna and Brian left Anse Chaudiere,in Martinique on the 4th
of January, the day after our last weblog.
They returned to Rodney Bay St Lucia for an insurance survey and to
enjoy some time with many of the cruisers who return there after each
Christmas. We enjoyed one last lazy day
in that beautiful calm anchorage, then started to travel north.
Our first intended stop was Schoelcher, just across the
large bay of Fort de France. The trip was
like open ocean, with sharp waves and wind gusts to 27 knots. We found good holding in close, up behind
some local moored boats and made tracks to find an advertised craft beer
brewery. The brewery was in a big restaurant
which was in a massive theatre that had many showings - possibly a dozen. It must be movie central for the whole
island. However, we noticed they were
all blonde beers, no scenery, and at a premium price; so we lost interest, and
determined that we'd buy two cold 1/2 litre Lorraine beers when we pick up the
groceries, and drink them on the dock, looking at the ocean. We did just that, and then headed back to our
boat just after 1500h so we wouldn't be late for the Cat Tales Happy Hour.
However, Happy Hour was not to be. As soon as we left the dock, we noticed that
Cat Tales was ass-to-the-wind. Getting
closer allowed us to see a half dozen pirogues with fishermen, one of which had
tied a rope to our swimmer's handle and was using his 40-50 hp to pull her back
along the anchor chain against the 20+ knot wind. We quickly got on and tried to put some sense
to the scene, but the fishermen were yelling in patois, and my bit of French
was of little value. It seems, or we
guess that they had set a large net behind Cat Tales, and the current was
carrying it into our boat before they could either set it correctly or harvest
the fish or something. We untied their
line, turned the boat around, picked up the anchor, and made a very large arc
away from the activity and back to sea. I
was quite happy to check that the little handle was not pulled out or loosened,
and a little angry that the men had not considered tying to the giant cleat
just a few feet away (assuming all that had gone on was necessary). As we have learned, this kind of (possibly callous)
treatment by the fishermen is common in most of the islands. Indeed, we have learned that most island people
do not understand the economic benefit of anything unless the money goes directly
and immediately into their hand, and often act against their best interest
because of this poor understanding. This
is a statement not made in anger, but in sadness.
We put our boat into high gear, and, after finding no near
anchorages that suited us and the weather conditions, finally put a hook down
in St. Pierre, just before dark.
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| A view of St. Pierre, Martinique from our hike up the hill. This is a typical cemetery found in the French islands. |
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| Mount Pele, just outside of St. Pierre. It's rare to see it without clouds covering the top! |
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| Laurie walking the beach south of St. Pierre |
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| We were surprised to find okra growing along the roadside. It grows on top of a long a tall skinny stick like bush. Okra is the thickening agent used in gumbo because of its sticky consistency. |
St. Pierre was very pleasant. We combined our trip to clear customs with a
hike up and out of the town and then a truly excellent French lunch. While we waited for a weather window, we also
got in a great snorkel and swim and a walk on the beach. Sadly, on a wreck in shallow water, we
counted six lionfish - an invasive species that looks beautiful, but has long,
poisonous barbs that look like long feathers.
This species is very docile, but just sits and vacuums up the young
reef-dwellers we love to visit. Which
reminds me, I had bought a rubber band-loaded trident in Marin, and had killed
my first lionfish in Anse Chaudiere.
These ones, however, were too deep for me.
Denis of Tiger Lily II, our weatherman, told us Tuesday was
a great time to get to Dominica, and it was a fun sail - for me. Dawn found it just a little bit scary. We stopped at Roseau and rented a mooring
ball for 3 nights. We spent one full day
hiking in and around Roseau, and the next with a hired guide who took us to the
east side of Dominica and up the White River to Victoria Falls. The tour was with 3 other couples and we were
all picked up at our boats at 9:00 am and delivered back in the dark around
6:00 pm. The drive to get there and back
was outrageous, especially with the damage done in Hurricane Erica a season
ago. I'll let the pictures tell you that
story.
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| Roseau as seen from our hike up Morne Bruce. |
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| Dawn hiking up "Jack's Walk" to Morne Bruce Fort from the Botanical Gardens in Roseau, Dominica |
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| More outdoor furniture ideas for the resourceful! |
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| Moses, a rasta who lives at the base of our hike, fed us "Ital" lunch. He made us a vegetarian stew made of roots and vegetables from his land. |
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| After crossing the swift river a few times and swimming a short section, all that was left was to clamber up the last section to get to the pool. This was a very challenging hike that Octavious (from Sea Cat tours) took us on, indeed! You can see Laurie getting up one of the last sections to the left. |
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| Hearty Ital stew full of starchy roots, carrots, green beans and okra to thicken. The rastas don't eat salt, but it could have used a smidge... |
Technical:
Not much good news here.
I have to research some anomalies in our Raymarine electronics to see
what is up. Hopefully some calibration
might straighten most of it, but we are also getting error messages about the
AIS antenna.
We had the bad luck of burning up an alternator belt on the
way in to Roseau. Repair was quickly
accomplished, but I have spent at least an hour cleaning up the black soot that
totally coats the port engine compartment.
As well, the search for the source of a nuisance leak in the port hull
continues.
Good news is that I was able to source an Italian tap for
the bathroom while in Canada, and replaced the existing one that was
deteriorating earlier this month. Of
course, like anything on Cat Tales, it is easily done if you know how to stand
on your head!
