driving Dominica

0830 Martin came by to pick us, George & Jan Todd, Henry & Christine Gilbert, and Bruce up for a  road trip to the other side of the island.   We piled out of his skiff and into his van for a semi-harrowing drive around the island on the wrong side of roads just like the DR. He handled it well and no dents or dings.  We stopped every mile or two for him to go to the roadside and pick a plant or herb and describe all the uses for the fruit or leaves. He also picked mangos and coconut for us to eat.  I swear, there are so many medicinal plants here I don’t see how anyone dies!  We stopped at an old Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory except Willie was deserted by his rich family & investors so he has to make chocolate by hand.  We just about broke the springs in Martins van loading all our chocolate into it.  From there we went to a Caribe Indian building a dugout canoe from a single tree.  Any cracks or leaks were filled with  heated sap which smelled like pine rosin.  From the we drove down the scenic Atlantic coast to the Caribe Indian reservation where we bought loads of woven baskets.  And made it back by 1600 hrs. a very full day of nothing but amazement.

papaya ?

i forgot

typical mountain community

another

sweet sop?

growing everywhere 

passionfruit 

beach bar on Atlantic side

same spot

going to see days catch at a beach bar stop on the Atlantic side

also had about 30 fish & 10 more lobster 

first church in Dominica

dinosaur rocks  notice the lobster diver

coastal community

wild almonds

brand new

cocoa pods waiting to be processed

cocoa beans on drying table

star fruit

door of bolata wood so dense in has to be drilled before nailed

calabash that they use to make bowls, similar to our gourds but no handle

It's name is Red Rock but it is red clay

one of many wild cashew trees we saw.  the nut is beneath the red fruit.

Mississippi red clay gullies in Dominica

beauty and goofy, you have to guess who is who!

the blue plastic bagged bananas are for export to China, they don't like the yellow

 Caribe basket stand where George is in shock after paying for Jan's baskets

more unhappy Caribes

made from one tree using an adz for lower hull & chainsaw for upper

keel hand shaped with an adz

caribe boatbuilders proud of their project as they should be 

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banana & coconut plantation with Atlantic in background

Martin preparing midtrip snack

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

kitts to guadaloope

We    awoke before daylight and waiting for enough light to leave the illegal (for us)mooring.  Once free we headed SE for a close sailby the active volcano on Monsorant.  The mountain is still steaming even though the last eruption was 10 years ago we still had someawesome scenery.  

notice the village in the lower right corner

west side, I thought it was blowing from the top but actually the land is smoking it is so hot

southwest side shows some of the recent lava flow

my first vertical rainbow

closer than it looks

It is measured with a range finder, 27 yards to the rocks above water

We slid past it with no misshaps and on down to Guadalupe and thought we would anchor at Deshais Bay but changed our minds and decided to go farther south to bum Pigeon Cove, despite reservations about approaching nightfall and unknown anchorage.  It was full dark when we got there and the first to mooring balls we picked up were actually lobster traps so we decided to just do an overnight on down to Dominica.  On the way out of the bay, we spotted some reflections on mooring balls for dive boats at the Jacque castles international underwater park so we grabbed one for the night, again illegal.  The first one grabbed back and wrenched the boat hook out of Sally's hand almost breaking her arm.  The second try we made it, tied off securely and killed the engine.  The damn ball has us only 80 ft. from crashing into the rocks.  The waves were breaking on the rocks like a symphony orchestra which would usually lull us to sleep but 80 ft!  If the lines broke I could not get the engine started before being crushed on the rocks.  Remember this is pitch black dark.  We woke early to head out and the rocks were still right where  we left them, the water was crystal clear, could see the bottom clearly at 40 ft depth.

We motorsailed for a little while till the waves & wind clocked on our nose, then we just motored.  We passed Isle de Saints and vowed to not miss it on our return.  It is a  couple of small islands with a population of less than 4,000 residents

St Maarten

We had our normal rough motoring down to St. Maarten.  The island is divided between St. Maarten, the Dutch side and St. Martin, French.  I elected to sign in on the Dutch side and for the first time on this trip, had to relinquish my guns to customs until we depart.  The whole reason for choosing the dutch is I thought they would have more common sense.  The only part I got right was common, no sense at all   

While we were at anchor the bay was visited by Klingons but they had their space ship converted to a yacht and since it wasn't cloaked I got a pic.  

We dinghied over to the french side for pastries & walking, then dinghied to the dutch side for boat parts & stuff and failed to get on wi-fi, except at bars or restaurants.  

We are 300 yds from the yacht club and get to watch the kids practice 3 times a week in optis and lasars, was very interesting since one boy was 2 or 3 years younger than the rest in both years and experience.  He was dead last by 100 yards and he missed the marker, turned and went back four times to get around it correctly.  There was no one around to see what he did except Sally & me, but he did not cheat, so he is our favorite (I would have only made one pass & cheated).

my main man is on the left

When Cris said we had a good window to make it to St. Kitts we crossed under the bridge, called customs to bring our guns and anchored on the outside to wait.  I went in to check out with customs and immigration and they had opened the sealed box of weapons twice ruining the box for future use.  They explained they had to make sure my guns were what I said they were!  Little minds on little people with a little power makes for a volatile scenario so I just went back to the boat.  I’m sure if I had not taken the firing pins out before they took them I wouldn’t have any ammo left.

Cris lied,  we had our usual motoring into 6 - 8 waves with 15 to 20 knots wind on the nose.  

Charlestown on mooring

just another sunset