Dominica: The Nature Island!

On Feb. 3, 2023, we arrived in Prince Rupert Bay, off Portsmouth, Dominica. It is a large and protected bay that supports yachties with a unique organization called PAYS (Portsmouth Association for Yacht Services). This group of locals have organized to help boaters pick up moorings, check in with Customs, get provisions (including propane, fuel & water) and organize barbecues & island tours.

Our second day in Dominica, we got an island tour through Cobra, the president of PAYS. He hired Al to take Andrew & I, Edwin & Karen on s/v Frog’s Leap, Amy (our solo sailor friend on s/v Wahine) and a nice British couple we just met (Chris & Jane on s/v Iseult), to explore the northern end of the island. 

Al drove us (expeditiously, I might add) past the lush flowers & shrubs to the Atlantic Ocean on the western side of the island and then to the Red Rocks of Calibishie and the Pointe Baptiste chocolate factory. Andrew and I had done this part of the tour before but this time we got to see the wonderful gardens overlooking the ocean, behind the house where the grandmother of the chocolate factory owner lives.

We stopped for lunch by the beach in Marigot, where Andrew and I order the lobster, which was served on a giant plantain leaf with 3 lobster tails and a variety of delicious sides.

After lunch, we toured the Kalingo Territory, where native Caribs that predated Europeans by a couple hundred years, still live and maintain their traditions. We walked through the model village where handmade wooden canoes and statutes to the Kalingo chiefs were on display.

Next, we drove over Horseback Ridge to Spanny Falls, where we got soaked walking in the rain forest and swam in our skivvy’s.

The next few days were blustery and rainy. We walked through town, which is impoverished for the most part, but we still managed to find a Digicel store to top up our Wi-Fi booster and I was (sorta) tempted to buy the hairy looking root vegetables that they sell in the outdoor market and serve boiled with spices, as sides around here.

Our boat buddies Barb & Matt on Act III arrived in Portsmouth on Sunday, Feb 5th and the next day we went hiking with them to Fort Shirley, an old British fort that has been beautifully restored and provides well marked trails through this part of Cabrits National Park.

After hiking, we stopped at The Purple Turtle for lunch with a view of our boats in the bay. The chef didn’t show up for work until around 2pm (Caribbean time), so we had some beers until lunch arrived and Matt learned how to take his very first selfie!

The following day, Barb and I got lost trying to follow Chris Doyle’s instructions to The Indian River Spring, billed in his guide as the “best and most interesting hike nearby”. We looked for ‘the big aerial overhead’ and thought we had turned ‘right on the grassy road’ but never saw the ‘big shed by the fenced in work area’. Fortunately, we found a few locals at the bus stop, a little girl and a guide-in-training, named Terry, that helped us find our way to this truly magical trail through the haunting banyan tree roots that lead to the Indian River.

Meanwhile tall ships come and go, rain washes our boat every half hour as we run around closing hatches and more of our friends (including the crew on Nomad, Kalunamoo, Frolic, Lucky, Roxy, and Pandora, to name a few) continue to arrive for the upcoming Salty Dawg rendezvous.

P.S. It’s raining again!

Playing with Agility in Isles des Saintes

January 27, 2023 was our 33rd wedding anniversary which Andrew and I celebrated starting with breakfast at L’îlet Douceur, a wonderful creperie on the main street in Bourg de Saints. The decor of this little coffee shop is fun and inviting with signatures from its international visitors all over the walls. We had yummy lemon crepes with apricot juice & coffee. The service was friendly, even encouraging my attempts at speaking French and offering up their Wi-Fi without being asked.

After breakfast, in anticipation of the arrival of our friends Jeff & Krista on s/v Agility, we picked up our favorite baguette, cheese & pate from Robbe, a wonderful gourmet deli & butcher and Andrew bought a spear gun at the nearby hardware for the upcoming Lion fish hunt in Dominica. 

We hung out on the boat, made water and waited for Jeff & Krista to join us for cocktails on board and a dinner reservation at Au Bon Vivre. This restaurant offers excellent cuisine, prepared in the southern French style with fresh ingredients and presented in elegant fashion. Jeff & Krista ordered the chef’s surprise, which included an amuse bouche, an appetizer, a main course of local fish and dessert, all selected by the chef. I ordered tuna, Andrew ordered mahi. Everything was exquisite, and surprisingly cost less than $100 per person with wine… definitely the best meal in the islands so far!

The next day, we walked with Jeff & Krista around town to show them our favorite boulangerie, shops, the hardware store & spa, as well as the views from Marigot Bay. We had lunch at Couleuro du Monde, where Andrew & Krista sampled the Ti punch, apparently the best on the island, made with lime, ginger & mostly rum! That evening, we had a wonderful beef stew on board Agility and taught our friends what little we knew about how to play the game of dominos.

On Sunday, Krista and I walked thru town again, this time stopping in the local craft shops, watching the preparations for carnival, and then hiking to Plage de Pompiere, on the eastern coast of the main island in Les Saintes, only to discover that Andrew and I been there three years earlier. The area appeared to have been neglected since COVID, as I had taken the same photo (see below) years earlier with the sign fully intact.

2020

2023

Andrew and I made chili for dinner that evening and joined another Philadelphia couple on board Agility to watch the Eagles play San Francisco in the football playoffs. The Starlink and cable systems weren’t talking to each other so we did it the old fashioned way, listening to the game on the radio. The results were great: Eagles are in the Super Bowl!

The next day, we provisioned ham & cheese sandwiches on baguette for a picnic lunch and took the dinghy over to Ilet de Cabri, where Agility had moved to anchor. We hiked with Jeff & Krista to the fort for amazing views of the town and surrounding islands, and then came back to the boat for lunch. The plan was to meet up with Act III to snorkel but after a visit on board, some weather came in to change that part of the plan.

A squall with 35-40 knot winds blew thru the bay and Agility’s anchor was dragging. In trying to get the anchor up, the windless broke. We thought we might have snagged a cable so when we saw two divers going by in their dinghy, we hailed them for help. It was the nice British couple that we had seen on the hiking trail and the man gladly jumped in to check Jeff’s chain. When he came up, he reported a clear chain but the anchor had flipped over. The diver set it right and said everything looked good.

After about 20 minutes of trying to relax and at the same time, figure out where to get a windless fixed or replaced, we noticed the boat drifting again. This time Andrew and I helped Jeff & Krista pull the chain up manually and moved them over to where our boat was to give them our mooring. We had plans to head for Dominica and Jeff & Krista needed to figure out their next steps. Hopefully, they’ll be able to enjoy more of the islands as they work their way north, we thought, as we waved goodbye the following day.

Making new friends in Isles des Saints

After our buddy boats left Isles des Saints on Jan. 22nd, we kept entertained with new Salty Dawg friends, Doug & Marjorie on s/v Frolic, Karen & David on s/v Soulemate (mono), Jen & Adam on s/v Solemate (cat) and Scott & Amy on s/v Zephr. We hiked Le Chameau, the highest peak in Les Saints (requiring almost straight up rock climbing in sections) with a well-worth-it spectacular view of the main island, Terre d’en Haut (above).

I came down earlier than the others because Andrew and I had scheduled an unintentionally well timed massage. On my way to the spa, I saw some beautiful local flowers, a display of plastic bottle art and discovered the recycling facility (which is a huge operation that honorably attempts to separate every color of glass and type of recycle material and then shipped off island to be recycled, hopefully!

When I arrived at the spa, Andrew was getting his massage, so I stripped down to luxuriate in the pool, hot tub and lounge chairs, while I waited my turn. It was heaven!

The next evening, the Salty Dawg gang gathered with more Dawgs from s/v Highlander, s/v Innesfree and others for a potluck/dance party/sing-along on Solemate… another epic event, although my memory of it is as fuzzy as the picture!

Over the next few days, Andrew and I discovered the dinghy dock closest to the grocery store & hardware, found the best baguette and Crêperie in town, and ate really fresh fish for lunch (and sometimes dinner too). Other than the laundromat that wouldn’t let me dry my clothes because the dryer would not finish before his closing time, we thoroughly enjoyed living in paradise, while I tortured the locals with my attempts to speak french.

One evening, the benefits of being a Salty Dawg, in addition to meeting such great people, came to fruition, when Innisfree broke her mooring line and was drifting through the harbor. Doug & Marjorie on Frolic saw it happening and jumped in their dinghy to take command of the wayward boat. They put an emergency call out on the Salty Dawg What’s App group to which, Adam (from Solemate), responded by springing out of his dining chair at a restaurant in town, about the same time that Andrew & I jumped up to unlock our dinghy and figure out what we could do to help. On the way out to the dinghy dock, Adam found the owners of Innesfree rushing in to get assistance. Their dinghy motor had broken that day and there was no way they could row fast enough to catch up with their boat. Adam loaded them in his speedy dinghy and headed out to where the boat was last seen. By the time we got our dinghy unlocked, Adam was speeding by with the owners of Innisfree on board and shortly after delivered them to their boat. It had been cruising along in the steady breeze and was probably 1/2 mile from where they left it, but being steered by our other Salty Dawg hero and never hit anything in the busy harbor! 

It was quite fortunate to have so many alert and helpful Dawgs at hand and that’s why we love cruising with the Salty Dawgs!