Dominica: January 19-February 5, 2009
Click on the above thumbnail for a map during this time period
The Nature Island
Two weeks in Dominica -- great to just hang out. A bit of
rain every day so didn't get the caprail varnishing finished. We initially
were going to hang out in Roseau (at the south end of Dominica) when we arrived,
but none of the moorings with wifi access were strong enough for four big
boat. There is no anchoring in that area, so we went to the north end of
the island to the anchorage in Prince Rupert Bay near the town of Portsmouth,
where we spent most of our time in Dominica. While we were there, a
sailboat anchored next to us was burgled by a swimmer because the owners had
left a small porthole open when they went to shore for dinner one evening. They only lost $30, but also their drivers
license and two credit cards. The local Indian River guide association was
very sympathetic and attentive, but not entirely for altruistic reasons, since they were
anxious to forestall any reporting of the incident to the "safety and security"
website maintained for and by cruisers. In the end, the victims reported
it to the local police but not the net. Never let it be said that we
aren't continually learning out here. We usually leave the portholes in
our showers open for ventilation and because we couldn't imagine anyone being
able to squeeze through them. Since the porthole that was slipped through
on the sailboat was smaller than ours. we have now started closing ours when we
leave the boat.
While in Prince Rupert Bay, we socialized with a number of
interesting cruisers, including a young couple aboard Kosmos, a 43'
Nordhavn, the only other trawler in the anchorage. Eric and Christi were
just completing a 2-year circumnavigation. All that remained was to go
through the Panama Canal and traverse up the West Coast to San Diego, where
Eric's job with DivX was waiting. One of our hikes through some of Cabrits
Park was with Eric and Christi and the crew from S/V Keesje II, Peter and
Wendy. Peter has spent a lot of time in the USA (Atlanta), but is in fact
a Brit, as is Wendy, who is holding Peter to his promise to return to Great
Britain now that their two years of sailing is about up. And we met Wayne and Betty (Bright Ayes),
Americans who are also going
to cross the pond but due to our tales got inspired to first attend Carnival in
Trinidad. Finally, we met avid hikers Maggie and Dean (Rain),
who told us about their hike to the Boiling Lake, and got us inspired to do the
same when we later returned to Roseau.
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Kosmos in Prince Rupert Bay
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As I have indicated, while still up north we
did a lot of walking.
We bought a week
pass to the National Parks. Consequently, we would climb the hills around
Fort Shirley in Cabrits Park on most days. We have been there many times
before, but continue to be fascinated by the interesting sights and vistas.
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Found in the woods at the site of the military hospital -- can you see the lizard?
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Here it is!
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Gathered for a walk at the fort: Wendy, Peter, Christi, Eric, and YT.
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On the ascent to the west battery
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Tree of hope?
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Views ...
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... in ...
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... the northern battery
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Closeup of tree along path in the park
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View from eastern battery of Prince Rupert Bay
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View from SE battery of restored portion of Ft. Shirley
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One day as we arrived at the Park shortly after 1 PM, we were
told by the Park Warden at the entrance that we would be seeing up at the fort
flowers and decorations, since there was a wedding on site. "What
time?", Chuck asked. "Supposed to start at 1 o'clock, so it is going
on right now", was the answer. Curious and anxious to see a local
wedding, we hurried up to the restored fort, where we found folks in the process
of moving decorations from an outdoor setting into one of the main buildings, on
account of the threat of rain. They were nowhere near ready, and
there didn't seem to be many guests about. One of the decorators said that
the wedding had been delayed a bit. So we took a long walk up to the
ruins on the west end of the park, doing some bushwhacking off the path at the
top to find the ruins of the military hospital that had once stood there. When we returned to the fort at about 2:45 PM, we found that the decorations and
chairs had been reinstalled on the outside, and that more guests had arrived. We decided to discretely hang around and witness the wedding. So we
hung. And hung. Guests kept arriving, by foot and by
auto and by taxi up the steep road to the fort. Men in bright shiny
suits with colorful ties. Ladies dressed to the nines in high heels,
struggling to ascend up the cobble stone road. To pass the time, Chuck
suggested a bet as to when the wedding would actually start. Barb
chose 4:15, and Chuck countered with 4:16. Barb suggested that there
should be a minimum of 15 minutes between the bets. Chuck chose
4:30. Barb won. The wedding that had been scheduled for
1 PM finally began shortly after 4:08 when the bride arrived in a gaily
decorated automobile. The arrival was announced to the
now-sizable crowd by two young ladies who rang hand bells continuously
from the time the auto appeared until the bride stepped out a number of minutes
later. We watched the start of the wedding, peeking over a stone
wall. When the park manager climbed atop the wall to take photos,
Chuck joined him. After several prayers and several poems apparently
composed by bridesmaids, and several different groups singing American love
songs, some of which were of a distinctively Country Western flavor. we left
when we realized that the entire eastern section of the seating was composed of
would-be performers, and that we had so far heard from only the first few rows.
The Wedding
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The outdoor decorations after a partial restoration
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The attendees gather and wait patiently
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Finally the bride arrives ...
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... and the bridesmaids do their thing
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The chairs quickly fill, and the rest look down from above
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Can you find Barb?
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There she is!
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A poem or a solo song
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An interminable song by a group
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Dad came up on the wall w/ me and then had Mom hand up the girls
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They are going to be heartbreakers
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When it began to look like this entire section would be performing, we left
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In and Around Portsmouth
On another day we took a long walk along
the road north of Portsmouth, and discovered a guest house/restaurant called
"Heaven's Best". We returned one night with Rain and had a lovely
meal. The owner/chef is quite good. Speaking of food, we had rotis
for lunch a number of time at Ray's Roti Shack in Portsmouth, just south of the
Police station. They were good -- but not as
good as those in Trini.
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Pause on walk along road to the north
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Northern walk
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Scene along northern road
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Wild flowers along the road
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Looking south: first Douglas Bay, then Cabrits Park on right and Portsmouth on the left, and then Prince Rupert Bay
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Our favorite lunch spot in Portsmouth
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Portsmouth fishermen w/ some of their catch
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Nice day's work
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Lunch (goat) at the Purple Turtle
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Barb's prawn lunch ...
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... and the plate of provisions that came with it
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Private home in Portsmouth decorated w/ shells
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Variety store in Portsmouth
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Bizarre mannequin beside the road on the rocky shore leading to Ft. Shirley
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On a steep and muddy hike up an ancient roadbed to the east
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Mushrooms at her feet
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Looking down toward Portsmouth and the Bay -- can you see Tusen Takk II?
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Ground lizard
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How a coconut palm tree begins its life
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Roseau
Barb called down to the main boat boy (Sea Cat) in Roseau several times about when a
mooring would be available for us. He told us that on Friday, January
30th, one would be available about noon. So we headed to Roseau early
Friday
morning and arrived about the time a large catamaran was leaving the mooring.
Turned out that they live there all the time, and Sea Cat had put in the mooring
for them. They were leaving for a month cruise, so we got the big strong
mooring that was additionally far enough away from other moorings as to not not
cause concern about
crashing into other vessels when the wind got fluky (which happened to us there last
year). On Saturday we spent the day hiking in/out to/from the
Boiling Lake. (Click here for that account.) Had a great trip but when we
returned to Sea Cat's our boat was in a different place. Called Sea Cat and
learned that the mooring had failed and our boat had drifted off. Learned
later that the shackle pin had not been wired on, so the bolt on it
worked loose and the line, chain, and mooring ball all came free along with our
boat. Fortunately, Desmond , who works for Sea Cat, helping boats get on
moorings, running folks to shore, and watching things when Sea Cat is off taking
tours, noticed the boat floating north. He called another boat boy
(Poncho) and
between the two of them they were able to tie us onto another mooring about 300
yards away. We saw the mooring line and ball at the dock when we came back
from the hike, but never suspected it was the one we had been tied to for the
day and a half. We always set an anchor alarm when we are at anchor, so if we start dragging
we will know it. But we had never set the alarm when on a mooring
since we are usually pretty picky about which mooring we use and only moor when
anchoring is not very feasible. We will be setting an alarm in the future.
The scary thing is that even if one had dove on the mooring, it would have
looked pretty solid. Very strong line, chain and shackle. One would
have to go to the bottom at 150' to examine the pin to ensure that it was on tight.
Not very feasible. When we returned to the boat we immediately moved
from the (temporary) light mooring we were on to a stronger one owned by Poncho. Wifi
was pretty weak there, but at least we didn't break loose. But we
were again in deep water and so the shackle was once again an unknown factor.
Later, 2/2/09: the painter -- attached to the mooring buoy, to which the
boat was so be tied -- was so long that, as the winds and currents shifted, when
the boat ended up near the buoy the painter drooped down and got caught in a
stabilizer fin. Not good. So we ran our own (much shorter)
painter to the metal loop at the top of the buoy, but stupidly left our yoke
attached to the buoy's painter. Barb was already in bed when before
retiring I did a last check and discovered that the our new painter had gotten
hopelessly entangled with our yoke and the long painter on the buoy. Well, not totally "hopelessly", but after rousing Barb it took us about an hour
of leaning over the bow and slowly unthreading the yoke before the mess was
untangled. We ended up dispensing with our yoke entirely and
attaching their long painter directly to one of the bow hawse'ls and leaving our
not-nearly-so-long painter on the other. Another cruising lesson
learned the hard way.
Sunday (Feb. 2) we had a nice (but pricey at $108 each) 2-tank dive with Anchorage Dive --
but wished we had held out for going with Nature Island Dive, whose dive shop is
on the extreme south end of the island. That would have been logistically
much more complicated, but we know from our experience last year (with Joy Reed)
that they are much more focused on ensuring one has good dives
and sees lots of interesting things. On our dives on Sunday, the dive master was pretty much
just putting in his 50 minutes or so
by coasting along with us.
On Monday, California cousin Keith and his wife Linda arrived on
a huge cruise ship. They went off on an official tour of the Sky Tram up
very near to where we had started our trek to the
Boiling Lake, but were back
by noon. We dinghied over, treated them to lunch at a local restaurant,
and then took them back to show them our floating home. Their ship left at
5 PM, so it was a frustratingly short visit -- we are about the same age and
share many interests, but as residents of opposite coasts for most of our lives,
have spent very little time together.
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Cousin Keith and wife Linda on pier next to their cruise ship
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On the fore deck of Tusen Takk II
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YT and Keith
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See the family resemblance?
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In the cockpit (their ship in the background)
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