Dominica and on

I am sending this blog through SSB radio so I will not be able to attach the beautiful pictures that I took of these areas that I am going to talk about until I get internet and I am not sure how long that will be.

We are currently motoring in CALM waters towards the BVI’s. We will anchor overnight at Norman Island, the setting for the book Treasure Island. It is said that the caves here held the Spanish treasures that the pirates looted. We however will not be looking for the loot as we will fly our quarantine flag and not get off the boat. This allows us to transit through a country without going to immigration and customs. Not that boaters don’t get off the boat anyways!

We arrived in Dominica late Friday night (after customs was closed) and left early Monday morning (before customs was open). Sat we washed the boat and Sun. we took a tour of ½ the island 9 hrs. total.

Shadow was our tour guide and was very informative.  Dominica is off the beaten tourist islands and for us it was a wonderful thing. It is as close as you will get in the Caribbean to what life should be; laid back, full of spirit, freedom and friendly.  Dominica is very mountainous with jungle covered foliage.  I couldn’t get over the tropical flowers that I paid big money for growing wild everywhere.

Dominica’s  original name was Kulbui meaning “Tall is her body “, for the mountains. The local grown beer carries this name. Columbas discovered Dominica on a Sunday in November 1493. Spanish for Sunday is Domingo hence the name Dominica.

The main source of income is in the banana crops. We learnt that a banana tree only produces 1 crop in its lifetime. It takes 9 mths to grow a tree and produce the bunch. Once the tree has been harvested they chop the tree down and let the seedlings continue to grow. This ensures there are bananas all year round. (This made the gift of bananas from our Panamanian family more special knowing they gave up a crop for Ken and I ).

Throughout the plantations you would see banana bunches with blue bags covering the bananas. This is to ensure that the insects and a special bird are not able to attack the fruit. The bananas in the blue bags go to Europe or the USA while ones without the blue bags traditionally stay on the island or boated to neighbouring islands. There are over 500 different species of bananas; sweet bananas and plantains (cooking bananas).

Dominica is the only island in the Caribbean that still has an indigenous presence. A reserve of 2000 hectares on the windward coast was set aside for the Caribs. There are still around 3000 surviving today however due to intermarriage with the import of slaves there are said to only be about 50 that are of pure breed. We could not see any difference between the indigenous and the non indigenous.

We continued to the town of Wesley where the population speaks its own language that is an African language and not Petois.

A highlight was hiking up to Spanny Falls. Deep in the rainforest water falls into an emerald pool that one can swim in. The other couple with us and Kenny decided to put on their birthday suits and take a dip. Since I am prudish (as Ken put it) I just took pictures and waded in the cool pool. Dominica has a total of 25 falls, many hot springs but its best nature wonder is the boiling Lake. The path takes you up through rain forest, then over a crest and down to the Trois Pitons River. You head further up the mountain then begin to descend into the Valley of Desolation. Steam comes out of the ground all around. You follow a hot river until you reach the boiling Lake. The total trip takes 9 hrs returned. SOOOOOOOOOOOO we didn’t go just heard about it. However I felt it worth mentioning in case someone wants to visit some day.

Continuing our voyage north our next destination was Deshaies Guadeloupe. The most northern anchorage in Guadelope .Deshaies is a picturesque fishing village. The only thing we saw being fished for was lobster. So far we have caught 1 fish. This anchorage is a deep, well protected bay, surrounded by hills and mountains.  I would like to say our journey was uneventful but I would have a nose a mile long. The seas again were 30-35 knots and confused. The right raw water again gave us grieve.  We were told to stay an extra day and head to Antigua instead of Montserrat. This would give us a more favourable angle for the rest of our trip with NE winds. So we took the advice and had but yet another horrid day in horrid conditions.

As there is a limit to the amount that can be sent through the SSB I will leave this blog at this point and will make a few entries this week unless I get internet and can update the whole week.

Stay tune.

Town Church

Looking out into the anchorage

Kenny Skinny Dipping