Dominica, day 1 – Roseau

Thursday 5-April: 7:45am we are woken to “hello, good morning ….. good morning ….!” It’s Macus, who owns the mooring, he has bought out the taxi driver, Yankee, to discuss what tour we want to do today. We’d already told him we would call once we were up, so this intrusion is getting a bit annoying. Apologetically, they leave.
After breakfast, Glen launches the dinghy and yet again Marcus and Yankee turn up in their boat. Full marks for persistence. This time we are firm that today we will walk (ourselves) into the town to check-in and see what is what before we decide on any excursions. Again they courteously retreat. For some reason (dinghy is less likely to be stolen w/o engine on) we decide to just row the dinghy in, leaving the outboard motor locked on CB. We get there, but Glen could do with some more rowing practice! Once at the dock with the dinghy, Marcus insists that we don’t lock it, as he will be watching. So reluctantly we don’t.
The walk into the town is about 20 minutes along a street that is clearly pretty poor. It’s quickly noticeable that many of the buildings either have no roof or have plastic sheeting over them. And throughout the day we see many roofs being repaired. Immediately on the shoreline most properties and jetties are severely damaged or totally destroyed by the huge tidal surge from hurricane Maria. And everywhere in the streets and between buildings there are still piles of debris.
After 20 minutes walk we find the customs next to the ferry terminal. The check-in is thorough but efficient and the officials very friendly once we show how interested we are to explore their island. And uniquely they also complete our check-out at the same time, which is valid for 2 weeks, plus no need to have passports stamped. Brilliant.
Then we head into the main part of the town. We are very taken with the authentic architecture. At least half the buildings are still the old colonial style, some wooden, some from stone and all with wooden balustrades on the first floor. There is an extremely quaint feel to the place – definitely our best town yet. And the people all seem very pleasant and non-threatening. Quite a contrast to St.Vincent’s main town, Kingstown. They say the island is still struggling after hurricane Maria, but you would not believe so looking at the abundance of fresh fruit and veg in the markets and shops with shelves full. We did note however there were no bananas or plantains for sale, as these crops were wiped out.
We wander through all the streets, each one with yet more colourful quaint buildings. We also search for hair salon for Oana’s hair. The first salon wants 120EC$ (US$45). Clearly a white people price, so we leave. 2 others have more realistic price of 40EC, so an appointment is booked for the afternoon. Oddly, all the hairsalons seem to have Spanish speaking ladies ….. which is no problem for Oana who is happy to converse with them in their own language.
Lunch is a rather unhealthy pizza and a roti in a fast food place, which is very busy. We muse that if this is their diet, it’s no wonder there are a lot of large people here.
Armed with a very good map given to us at the customs office, we have decided we will do our usual and drive ourselves to the sites of interest, so we find a car rental office and book one for the next morning. Maybe a guide would be preferable, but they charge over US$100 for a 4 hour tour. We can get 2 days car hire for that. Plus, there are some good reports of being with a tour guide, but there are also lots of not so good experiences too. Anyway, we always prefer self sufficiency.
Oana gets her hair done, which takes the usual 1-2 hours. The hairdresser is from Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic (not to be confused with Dominica where we are now). She came here 10 years ago because of all the blatant crime and corruption in her country, that she could no longer stand. While we are in there, several other Spanish speakers come in and chat. Clearly there is quite a population of them here.
Back at CLoudy Bay, we are very hot and sticky after our day in town. It’s nice to shower and be in the fresh breeze. This is one great advantage of a yacht, there is always a breeze to cool us off. Cooling in the sea Glen notes that underwater at the bow looks like we have a hairy carpet of weed. Growth on the hull is going to be challenging to keep on top of. Then there is some polishing done on the hull while the sea is quiet enough do it from the dinghy. There were several spots where we had stains running from the various outlets. Glen doesn’t tolerate any mark on the hull so these are dealt with while we are still able to remove them. He also notes, sadly, that we have some chips in the gelcoat near to the bow. It can only have been done but a mooring buoy. A downside of not anchoring 🙁
As we sit sipping our tea (yes we are getting quite British about our tea-time!) we watch an amazing sunset. It’s the first time since the Atlantic crossing that we actually see the sun go down into the sea …… normally a big rain cloud on the horizon shields it just before it sets. Then the sky turns beautiful colours which reflect in the water.
After dark we hear several large splashes in the water nearby. So out comes our powerful torch to see what it is. As we shine the beam into the water, we see several flying fish, then all of a sudden 3 or 4 come flying towards the light …. and “thud” into the hull! Bet they won’t do that again in a hurry. With the light pointed into the water we are amazed at the amount of life we see. Hundreds of small fish having a feeding frenzy on other smaller things swimming in the thousands. Then all of a sudden there is a “plop” and Oana jumps up and screams! “Something jumped on me!”. Sure enough, lying on the deck where she had been crouching was a small squid. That must have been a 2 meter jump it made. Glen throws it back in and it’s soon swimming around joining in the the feast in our torch light. Quite an entertainment we had. Ashore there is a bar playing nice music for once which makes nice background sound for the rest of our evening aboard.