Dominica - nica - nica……

Anyone remember that contagious song from the 70’s by the Singing Nun (I think she was Belgian) - “Dominica - nica - nica, s’en allait tout simplement…”? From the minute we arrived in Dominica (DomiNIca not to be confused with the DominiCAN Republic) I couldn’t get that stupid song out of my head.  It didn’t help that in Guadaloupe we had great internet and decided to sign up for the Amazon Prime series “American Horror”.  The second series is about an asylum run by nuns with all the terrible things that happened there, and they played the song incessantly on an old record player in the common room…

Enough of that, here we were in beautiful Dominica, another of the chain of volcanic islands in the eastern Caribbean, between Guadaloupe and Martinique.  We arrived in the major port of Portsmouth (named after the city in the UK where I was born) and anchored amongst a small number of other yachts and catamarans.  At this time of year it is low season throughout the Caribbean and the number of people and boats anywhere on our itinerary is much less than in high season.  Of course it is approaching the real start of hurricane season, so boats especially don’t hang around here unless they have a plan.  Dominica hasn’t been hit by a lot of major hurricanes but did host Maria in 2017, and only Hugo in 1989 before that, so they are definitely less common now we are progressing south, but a threat nevertheless. The bay in Portsmouth is called Prince Rupert bay, which we found cute and very British, but little did we know then that our third grandchild, to be born just a couple of weeks hence, would be named Rupert!!  It was a sign….

We stayed for five nights in Prince Rupert bay, where upon our arrival we were met by Albert - a local boat boy (well, man really) who would take care of anything we needed whilst there, supplies, tours, etc.  One of the first things we did was to book a short tour of the Indian River early the next morning.  Dominica has, we were told by Albert, 365 rivers. I guess that’s one for every day of the year, and Indian river is one of the more interesting ones - not least because of the cool name!!!  You are not allowed to use motors on the river, so after Albert picked us up on india, we switched to manual mode as we entered the river.  Albert, who incidentally only had one leg (we never did pluck up courage to ask him how he lost the other leg, but I am sure there was an incredible story behind it)  took out the oars and gently rowed us forth into the interior.  He was an encyclopaedia of knowledge about every plant, tree, crab, animal and bird we saw.  Very cool place, but the highlight was the jungle bar far inside where were able to have a delicious and refreshing fresh coconut and rum cocktail, at 10 in the morning…

On the way back, Albert introduced us to his friend - interestingly named Shadow, who was able to offer an island tour for the next day,  Dominica is a beautiful, mountainous land of rain forest, so we were keen to have a closer look around, and after some hard bargaining on the price, we signed up with Shadow for the tour.  Albert picked us up again at india, and dropped us a few minutes later at the fishing dock where Shadow awaited…. that sounds ominous - right? But Shadow was a really, really nice man, not dark and sinister at all.  We jumped into his vehicle for the six hour tour of the island and he tells us all.  Turns out that when Pirates of the Caribbean II was being filmed in Dominica back in 2005, the cast and crew spent six months on the island and Shadow was the personal driver for Johnny Depp’s Hairdresser. OK, so it wasn’t for Johnny Depp himself, but he did meet Depp several times, and got himself a fabulous hairdo.  Also turns out that Shadow was one of the few pure blood Amerinidians that were the original Indian settlers of these Caribbean islands hundreds of years ago.  They were also called Caribs by the French and English at the time, and Kalinago in their local language. These Indians came from the nearby mainlands of South America to inhabit these beautiful islands rich in natural resources.  We received the whole history lesson during the journey and really felt that we came to understand the history and the struggle of these original peoples, very few of whom are left today.  Another interesting fact we learnt was that the Chinese are heavily investing in the island.  They had, after hurricane Maria, sent construction crews over to rebuild bridges and roads, and we saw evidence of them in many places.  And a nice job they were doing too.  Shadow’s tour also took us to a local chocolate factory with a staff of three, and a lovely waterfall and pool high in the mountains where we could swim and jump into the icy cool, but greatly refreshing, water.  On the way back we had lunch at a local restaurant high up with incredible views over the bays.

After our stay in Portsmouth, we took a short 20 mile sail down the leeward (west) coast to the capital Roseau.  Here we anchored just south of the main part of town close to a local beach and local fishing area.  On our way back from a quick trip to the local supermarket there, we found a small stall selling fish caught locally , and saw a huge yellowfin tuna sitting there, barely yet butchered.  We had them cut a huge slice for us, only two pounds, but it turned out to be some of the best tuna we had eaten, and only $4 a pound.  Our local ‘boat boy’ here in Roseau was to be none other than Mr Bean.  Of course, not the real Mr Bean, but amusingly named to get more business no doubt.  He was able to help us have our European propane gas tanks filled finally, which meant that we again had the flexibility to cook on either gas or the induction plate.

Dominica was a short stay, but a very interesting island.  The terrain from offshore was stunning with soaring mountains, plunging ravines, and lush green vegetation everywhere, and on land the people were welcoming and friendly, and resourceful. And I was still hearing that stupid song as we left Roseau on our way to our next stop, Martinique. 

Dominica - nica - nica………

Rowing into the Indian river - only five legs on this boat!!

The witch Calypso's shack from Pirates of the Caribbean II

Beautiful flowers and plants abounded, the red ones are Ginger Lillies.

Guess where we are?

The Oasis that was the cocktail bar deep into Indian river serving breakfast Pina Coladas

The last client who argued with Shadow...

Wild flowers... this one is a Bird of Paradise.

The Pointe Baptiste chocolate factory, employing three people!

Real cocoa beans at the source

Waterfall high in the mountain

Dominica's lovely coastline