Finally Dominica

 We left the dive spot mooring and motorsailed on past Isle de Saints and on into a  confused sea with 25 gusting to 32  winds and 8 - 10 ft seas.

same village in next shot

Village on Isle de Saints, why?

Isle de Saints

first houses we saw in Dominica

  The wind and waves settled by Isles de Saints but the swells were so bad I had to steer 30 degrees off course to cut down a little on the rolling so we would have a few things left intact inside the boat.  We almost got past the northern point of Dominica before I was able to set a course to Portsmouth.  A brightly painted skiff with Lawrence of Arabia painted on the side hailed us with both arms flailing the air. He was a boat boy working the outside of the bay trying to rent us a mooring ball, which we finally agreed on $10/night so he led us to a ball.  We told him we really wanted Providence (one of his friendly competitors) so once Providence came by we switched boys.  Because cruisers stopped coming here due to the aggressive boat boys, the good ones realized they were losing money so they formed PAYS, an organization of boat boys that provide security and licensed tours.  The next morning Martin (Providence) came along side our boat with a bouquet of fresh flowers for Sally. 

Martin delivering his welcome to Dominica boque

 We then went to the Saturday farmers market and bought fresh off the tree fruit and wandered the streets till we found the Catholic Church.  I had a couple of prints made of pictures I had taken of locals at the market and went back to give the pics to them.  It was a tremendous hit, and the pineapple girl ran up and down the street showing the other vendors her picture which caused them to ask me for give them their picture.

our first trip in to the Saturday farmers fresh market

Saturday market

Sally knows her name but for me she is forever Pineapple Lady

typical street scene

market from the other direction

Went to Catholic Church Sunday morning and I sat through most of the service with Sally but when they started drinking wine, I bailed.  I figured they were planning on drinking all day and I had work to do on the boat.  But instead, Martin & his wife came by to take us on the Indian river tour which consisted of Martin rowing us up what we would call a creek in AL.  It was too narrow in spots for both oars to be out at once.  About half way up I said, I know it is not but those leaves hanging from the vines looks just like a skeleton.  Martin laughed and said my distance vision is good, it is a skeleton that was in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”.  The old river shack and skeleton were left there to promote tourism.  Martin is a botanist and showed us many medicinal herbs and remedies.  It was a very good tour, we saw many birds, crabs, lizards & flowers,  I recommend it and Martin to all that are lucky enough to visit here. 

          Indian River

Witch doctors house from Pirates movie

I could have picked him up, his only interest is the crab on the right!

skeleton from movie

Indian River

just for you flower lovers, was like this everywhere and they are growing outside!

the elusive blue tailed hummingbird

Martin and his lovely wife Florian