This trip I have been joined by two long time friends Jim and Greg. Jim has never been sailing before and Greg has been with me on many trips before Mile High Dream. This is his second time on MHD. Their wives were left at home and we have had a boys trip.
Fresh baguette and chocolate croissants started our early morning adventures while we were in the French countries. Now we are in the Dominica and things are mush different. The hurricane this last fall was devastating to say the least.
Our boat boy Titus shared his experience with us. “The winds started out around 7-8:00 in the evenings and just continued to howl. It lasted about eight hours. When I got up and looked out side, it looked like five nuclear bombs had exploded. Trees were on the ground, every leaf had been stripped from the standing tress, and debris stretched as far as you could see. I lost my roof. My neighbors home was no longer there. It was terrible.”
“How are you doing now?” Jim asks.
“Just taking it one day at a time. It is getting better. We finally got power after 10 days and water after two. The areas further east of us still do not have power.”
Hiking yesterday, we walked around downed trees, climbed over ones to big to move to be moved and looked at the regrowth just starting to happen. The parrots that live on citrus trees are starving. Only now some fo the trees are bearing fruit. The farmers are concerned that once the trees bear fruit they will be totally stripped by the hungry birds. It is a total domino effect with the wildlife, the people and the jungle.
The Indian river which is a huge tourist attraction took 29 days and 15 boat men to clear the debris out of it so they could start taking people up the river.
This part of the trip is an amazing eyeopener for all of us.
Now it is off to French islands 20 miles away that had very little damage.