Our trip from The Saints to Dominica was like all the days before, after it finally stopped raining, there was no wind and it was hot. It was a very weird experience to sail in the Caribbean where usually the trade winds always blow to make an open sea crossing without any wind. But like we said in our previous blog we arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica and enjoyed the most beautiful view of the mountains covered with dense jungle vegetation and all the other things this island has to offer.

If you do not like the color of green in all different shades you will not like Dominica. Dominica is green and not just green it is beautiful green. The very rugged mountains are covered with dense jungle type of vegetation with every type of plant and fruit you can imagine. During our tours over the island the tour guide stopped the bus at many places that had a specific type of plant, tree, brush or fruit and we recognized it from any of the other countries Dorothy and I have lived in or visited. Dorothy recognized many of the species from Indonesia and the environment is also very much the same. We have considered Indonesia as the most beautiful country in the world and we have now found on one island many of the treasures you find on the 30,000 islands of Indonesia. Dominica has 7 volcanos and although there is currently no threat of a major eruption they are active which is evident in the hot water springs, hot mud and the release of hot gas. Dominica is also the land of rivers (365 of them); although in most cases these are mountain creeks that flow into the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. Only one of them, the Indian River is accessible by boat. The Atlantic wet weather is pushed up by the Dominican mountains that gives an abundance of rain on the east side of the island but also the west side, although drier has a lot of rain. The month of May is supposed to be the driest month of the year, but not this year. This year Dominica has a record rainfall in the month of May. The amount of rain makes the vegetation even more beautiful, but we have also seen the incredible problems that this can cause in a mountainous area; mud and/or rock slides. The worst one caused part of a road to disappear into a large ravine and 2 people died who were on their way to the airport early in the morning when their car drove over the edge. We have seen rocks the size of mining dump trucks either on or alongside the road. The good part was that on all the locations road crews were working to fix the problems and in many cases with temporary detours around the hole. Dominicans told us they like the rain because that will keep the ocean cooler and reduce the chance for hurricanes.

The security in Prince Rupert Bay is excellent. A group of Tour Guides started an organization to patrol the bay and offer all kinds of services to visiting yachts. This organization is called PAYS, Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security. They installed and maintain 30 mooring buoys in the bay and as soon you enter the bay one of their members approaches your boat to guide you to a buoy if you wish and offer you the services of their organization. The members rotate on each vessel coming in so that each member has always a chance to have customers. The name of our PAYS member was simply Albert, but you have other more colorful names like “Lawrence of Arabia”. To raise funds PAYS also organizes a BBQ on the beach in the PAYS Event House every Sunday night. Nearly every member attends and it also gives you the opportunity to meet fellow cruisers while enjoying the Rum Punch that is included in the price.

Over the long weekend starting Thursday a group of sailors arrived from Guadeloupe for a regatta. This gave a lot of activities in the bay with the start and finish and the evening parties going on until 5 in the morning.

We did three tours and explored the surroundings of Portsmouth on foot. The first tour was “a must do”: Exploring the Indian River close to Portsmouth done by our assigned tour guide Albert. To visit all the National Parks you have to buy a daily or weekly pass, the proceeds of which funds the maintenance of the parks. The maintenance is excellent and the country wide trails are the best you have ever seen. You can cross Dominica from south to north and east to west on trails over steep mountainous terrain and visit all the volcanos, waterfalls and parks. After paying for our weekly permit we rowed onto the Indian River. The use of outboards or other engines is not allowed. And I was back in Suriname, traveling through a coastal river running first through a swamp with mangroves that quickly turns into a narrow creek completely overhung by huge bloodwood trees on both sides. Part of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” was filmed here and one of the huts that was built for the movie set is still intact.

We took an island tour and basically drove over the entire island except for the south side and visited the Emerald Falls that has a nice pool partly covered by rocks. I cannot describe this tour in detail; the impressions are too overwhelming for me to explain in words. Think of any tropical plant, fruit and/or tree and we saw them, tasted the fruit. The landscape along the Atlantic coast is very rugged, with large swells that are pounding the cliffs and little bays. The interior of the island is dominated by the 7 volcanos and steep terrain. The main roads have two way lanes, but all the others are narrow and steep; these are the improved trails built hundreds of years ago.

The tour we took from Roseau with the world famous tour guide “Sea Cat” (official name Octavius Luguy) was the most exciting thing Dorothy and I have ever done. Mr. Sea Cat does not only have superior knowledge of the island, the flora and fauna, but he also has the most exciting way of presenting this information. He stops everywhere on the narrow roads to pick a fruit or plant, comes back in the car and let everyone taste, smell and touch and asks questions like a quiz. The funniest one was when he let us taste roasted cocoa beans mixed with sugar and called the mix “organic chocolate”. We went to Titou Gorge where we swam in a pool with very cold water that goes into a cave and to the Trafalgar Falls that are two waterfalls that fall down the side of a mountain with a spread 90 deg. wall completely covered with vegetation (see pictures). We saw for the first time a wooden pipeline that transfers water to the hydraulic electric generators. Trafalgar Falls we swam in a warm water creek that comes out of a hot spring. Mr. Sea Cat put a stick in the ground and put the mud on my leg and I had a feeling that I burned my leg. The mud is very hot and it is next to a hot water spring that allows you to boil eggs, which people did. Just to give an understanding how we enjoyed this trip: It rained the entire day so hard it was like streams of water came down on us but we had fun.

After two nights of rolling in the bay of Roseau we left Dominica for Martinique with pain in our hearts. Nature cried with us as it was raining. We made the crossing with a completely gray sky and one squall after another with 25 kn. wind and 8 to 10 feet of swells and waves. About 15 times the waves washed completely over Island Girl, but luckily our side covers kept us reasonably dry. Arriving in St. Pierre, Martinique on 05/15/13 and the sun is shining!