Dominica!
01 January 2014 | Portsmouth, Dominica
Connie Rosenthal
Left The Saintes with the intention of making it all the way down Dominica to Roseau. Seems we are just trying WAY too hard to go somewhere fast. After a brief three and-a-half hours of stiff winds, super big and close-together rollers and generally taking a pounding - we ducked in to Portsmouth. Enough of THAT! In addition, to be filed under the category "What Went Wrong aboard Gitanos Today?" is that the cheek block (holding the reefing line down to the boom) broke with a loud bang - scaring the living daylights out of us AND causing the sail to start billowing around.
This is the mainsail, which, as you may recall, got torn in our Friday the 13th fun off of Montserrat. We had it completely restitched in Antigua, so, the thought that it was going to be beaten around in 25-30 knot winds was making us heart-sick. Again - valiant Bruce to the rescue.
And, in the "Boy are We Stupid" category, Bruce goes out in crashing seas with no PFD, no jacklines, nothing. Yeah - we know. Anyway - he manages to tie down the sail somewhat which was another good reason to go ahead and duck into Portsmouth.
Ahhh...Dominica. What a GIFT! The first gift is that this harbor is FLAT calm, even when the wind pipes us (and it does). Secondly, Dominica is beautiful and friendly and just plain terrific! It is healing our psyches just being here...and providing restful sleep!
Joined Randy on a tour of the island with a local gypsy taxi guy named Ellison. It was Ellison's birthday so he was feeling generous and gave us a great deal on the trip. We didn't do the typical tourist stops...he took us to the true local stops and we met wonderful people, saw fabulous sites and had a creole lunch. Anytime we wanted to see something, he just pulled over. We met a Carib Indian who had hand-hewn a boat from a large gum tree. It was beautiful! We saw where the lake had sprung a leak and breached the dam, causing the river to flow down through a village (no one killed) devastating livestock and buildings and completely re-routing the river. New roads (not yet fully paved) had to be created and we drove right through this. Very cool tour. Drove through the rain forest, the Carib Indian Reserve, lovely little villages on the Atlantic side and back through the Caribbean side. Ate cassava bread (delish!), drank local juices and ate small, perfectly sweet bananas.
Staying in Dominica til the winds truly and sincerely pipe down!