Blown Away in Dominica

The weather over the last ten days at Portsmouth, Dominica has been rather ... blustery - to say the least.  Winds howling through the anchorage at over 30 knots have had us keeping a careful eye on our anchor and tackle but ever true, our Rocna held it's ground beautifully and we stayed put, just like we should.

Knowing we'd be in Dominica for a while (definitely not a bad thing) we have certainly been enjoying much of what it has to offer, also knowing that there is so much more for us to do on a return visit.  I have a long list of places to see next time round.  With our guided tours early on in our stay, we discussed renting a car for a day but decided to keep our expenses a little curtailed and used the local bus instead.

Destination:  Roseau, capital of Dominica, at the southern end of the island.

We picked up a bus in Portsmouth to make the 31km trip down to Roseau.  Boarding the bus in Portsmouth is a bit as I would imagine it is like with the guys on the Tokyo subway system who are responsible for pushing people into the subway cars - maximum bodies inside, no arms or legs outside.  The hustle begins as you make your way to the intersection where the buses hang out with many exhortations to take this bus or that.  The trick is to find one that will be leaving shortly (its super hot to sit and wait too long inside the van), but hopefully one where you can sit on a real seat and not the little fold-down seat at the side.  This also means that you won't have to get up every time the bus makes a stop.  The layout is typically four rows with two main seats and a fold-down seat on each row, plus a passenger in the front seat, making a total count of 13.  Add multiple children sitting on laps and sharing seats and there are often 15-18 people plus the driver in the little Toyota and Nissan van.  Now mix in the heat, the raucious music, and the 'lively' conversations and you've got the full picture.

Waiting for the bus to fill up - this one took about five minutes.

Uh-oh - haven't even made it to the street yet and there's a traffic jam!

Our drive down the west coast of Dominica was full of stunning ocean views, windy hilly climbs and only a few off-the chart, scary, car-passes at full tilt.  These guys make judicious use of their horns on all the corners so we made it in one piece down to Roseau.

We wandered around the waterfront a bit and got our bearings, checked out the anchorage and then went in hunt of lunch.

We have been, most definitely!

Looking south towards the anchorage where we'll pick up a mooring later in the week.

Old and new sit close together on the busy streets.

Time for lunch with a street-view.

 For the afternoon, we explored the Botanical Gardens that have been in place since the late 1800s.

We hiked up "Jack's Trail" above the Botanical Gardens for a bird's eye view of Roseau.  At the top were a number of canon and this cross, that actually made me think of the prow of a ship when I saw it later from sea.

Alas no cricket today, but the stadium takes centre-stage in the town layout.

Roseau, laid out looking west across the Caribbean.

Sorry - Flamboyant Trees are still in flower and when they mix yellow and orange I can't resist.

A restful stop at the top of the hill.

Back down in the gardens where this Banyan tree was blown down on a school bus in a hurricane in 1979.  Thankfully no one was hurt here.

This Banyan is still standing in the middle of the gardens.

If we thought the ride to Roseau was a little hair-raising, we certainly didn't know what was in store for the return trip.  The best way to get through it was to forget that you are on a public road and just imagine a fast-paced roller-coaster... enjoy the thrill!!

Grab a fresh mango for the ride home - careful, they're ultra juicy, better just take it back to the boat.

Open highway ... for the moment.

Must be getting close to dinnertime, the fried and grilled chicken is ready to go!

Roseau was a bustling little town with super-friendly folks we met along the way.  The anchorage however, is pretty open to wind and swell so we stayed put in Portsmouth while the last of the heavy weather (for this week) blew itself through.

Even with the high winds, the boat-boys (definitely grown men) still come out to the boat to peddle their selection of fresh fruit and to pick up your garbage.  Along with the river guides in the bigger boats there are a smattering of guys on banged up kayaks and paddle boards, often with just one short paddle.  I wasn't sure how they didn't get blown out of the anchorage on the weekend.

Picking up the trash from our neighbour.

Back in Portsmouth, we heard of a short hike just out of town that would lead us to a hot spring that you are pretty much guaranteed to have to yourself, not being on any of the advertised trails.

The instructions we had were to walk past the Chinese Restaurant, but not past the Jehovah's Witnesses, turn down the gravel road to the bridge, turn up the path, cross the stream and a few trees along the way and you would arrive at a hot-tub-sized pool of just the perfect temperature.

Sure enough, over the stream.

Across the log.

Past the really crazy, awesome Bloodroots.

And there's our pool!

Ahhhhh - believe it or not, a hot-tub is actually quite refreshing in the heat.  This one was probably about 105 degrees F.

Finally, time to leave Portsmouth.  It's now Monday and the winds have acquiesced to settle down a bit, and it looks like we might have some really good sailing weather to head further south.  Dominica has blown us away in more ways than just the wind.  We've just scratched the surface of what this amazing island has to offer and will definitely be back for more.

Our first step is to head down to Roseau again, but this time with Mowzer, all ready to make the passage to Martinique tomorrow.

Back to a French island we go ... bread and cheese anyone??!

Nutmeg and Mace

Did you know that the nutmeg fruit produces not one but two spices?

We all know the nutmeg that we like to grind up and sprinkle on the top of our painkillers, but back in the day when the spice trade drove the discovery of the West Indies, the spice of mace ruled big-time.  For some reason mace has declined so that few people use it today, but based on a little bit of reading, I am primed to try some in my next batch of baking.

When we were out with Winston the other day, I was lucky enough to score my first fresh-from-the-tree nutmeg.  He told me it was "amateur" so I didn't expect to get much out of the fruit, but curiosity reigned so I cut into it.  I'm totally thrilled to report that I found a beautiful nutmeg, covered in it's lacy outer skin of mace, both of which I will dry for use in our galley.

Here's what it looked like...

I cut open the woody fruit to find the mace covered nutmeg inside.

Removed the nutmeg and mace from the fruit.

Peeled the 'blades' of mace from the nutmeg.  I'd also picked up a dried nutmeg from the ground - the seed inside rattles so hopefully it is good too.

I cracked open the dried nutmeg and there was a beautiful ready-to-use nutmeg seed inside.

And there we have it - the wonders of nutmeg.

In follow up, if you have never used fresh ground nutmeg it is completely different to the spice you buy in jars in the grocery store.  This goes for most herbs and spices, but the lightness (almost fluffiness) and aroma of fresh-ground nutmeg just can't be beat.

Just How Much Hiking Can Two People Do??

My feet were definitely asking that question this morning, and my hips, and my knees.  So, today is a day of rest and I am taking advantage of the great quick wifi we have at the moment (it's a paid-for service but at $50/month with unlimited access that is working pretty good in this anchorage, I'm a happy sailor.)

The last few days have been a time of intense exploration all around the Portsmouth area so I'll warn you now - this is quite a long post (really two in one), but enjoy the walk with us!

We started with the Indian River and the Waitukubuli Trail and then on Tuesday and Wednesday we went off in other directions.

Tuesday - south and up into the Morne Diabloton foothills to the Syndicate Trail:

We engaged the services of a guide for this one.  As it turned out the hiking was very straight forward, but having a guide with a vehicle and knowing the windy turning mountain roads, along with his wealth of knowledge about the plant and animal life made for a truly educational (and bountiful) day.

Winston picked us up at 8am from the river guides dock and we headed up into the hills southeast of Portsmouth.  Immediately off the highway, we climbed up through lush plantations of banana, plantain, cassava, dasheen, grapefruit, oranges, limes, corn, coffee, cocoa, coconut, mangos, papaya, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger ... and many more that I've forgotten.

Winston picking Guava for us to sample.

At the edge of a mixed plantation - citrus trees, but all the fruit is currently green so I can't tell if it's orange, lime or grapefruit, but Winston could tell me.

Planting plantain to replace crops wiped out by disease.

Very few fences here, but hedgerows of flowering bushes add a riot of colour to the scene.

Unripe nutmeg, from which comes the well-known spice, but also the lesser known mace - a red, lacy-like covering over the nut that is dried and also used in baking.

A tea made with these flowers will help ease the common cold.

We then made our way into the old-growth rain forest where we learned the names of many different trees, very few of which I can remember.  What was most interesting was that most of the names are French Creole and if you listen carefully you can figure out the characteristics of the tree:  Bwa Blan (bois blanc - white wood), Gommier (gum), Bwa Ti Fey (bois petit feuille - small leaf wood).

Lots of good interpretive signs along the way.

The grand gommier, originally used by the Caribs to build dugout canoes.

Budding ferns, like fiddleheads on steroids, but not eaten here.

The old growth kept the undergrowth at bay making for a very open walk.

Along the cliff's edge we searched the canopy for the elusive parrots (Sissero and Jacco) that we could hear but never see.

We finished up our half-day excursion with a walk up to Syndicate Falls.  The most amazing part of this hike is that due to a curve in the stream, you don't really have an inkling of the fall's existence until you round the corner and they are laid out right there in front of you - quite an awing experience.

Winston led us over and around the rocks in the river - can you see his fancy 'hiking shoes'?

Quite stunning as you come round the corner.

And there we were, at the Syndicate Falls.

We gathered up our bounty and said our goodbye's to Winston and once back at the boat it felt like market day as we spread out our wares.  Some were for eating and some just curiosity, but all fresh from the tree that morning.

Mangos of different varieties on the left, Cocoa at the top sitting on Lemon Grass, Guava, unripe Nutmeg and Ginger at the bottom.

Wednesday - north from Portsmouth walking along the coast to Capuchin:

This time self-guided and with map in hand we headed north, but not before a little Canada Day decorating and lunch at the Purple Turtle.  As an aside, the island of Dominica is also know as Waitukubuli which is the native word for "Tall Is Her Body".  The local lager brew is call Kubuli sold in small bottles, so the running joke is, "Waitukubuli? - Because one is never enough!"

Mowzer all dressed up in her Canada Day bunting.

Lunch at The Purple Turtle - we are anchored just off the beach where this restaurant is located and have thought about their fried chicken and mahimahi for the last few days.

Testing the "why 2 Kubuli" theory.

Once full from our delicious lunch, we set off along the trail from the Cabrits, heading north to Douglas Bay.  We ended up on the road and in fact this part of the Waitukubuli Trail follows the road for its entire segment; very much a rural exploration through many small villages and plantations.

Looking down into Toucari Bay with its little church at the north end.

The road down to the village was cut into this amazing wall of sandstone.

Flowering flamboyant trees framed our view through the village.

Everyone we met was so friendly and would stop us to chat - ask us how our day was going, where we were heading and where we were from.  This one just stood and bleated at us.

Part of the new road going in on the hillside.  This guy was working super hard to push the pounding compactor up the grade.  Once again, notice his footwear!

Toucari is a working fishing village - we watched the fishermen hauling in their nets and the locals congregated at the end of the day to purchase the catch.

North of Toucari we hiked up and down the hills - at the top of each was a village with colourful houses, children playing in yards and the odd little bar or shop for minimal supplies.  Between each village we plunged back down to river-beds tumbling down to the ocean and found the occasional place to cool off in the afternoon heat.

The villages of Cottage, Cocoyer, Clifton and Capuchin were friendly busy little places varying in size from a handful to perhaps 100 inhabitants, but everywhere we were greeted and smiled upon.

Colour in the trees and on the houses.

Such a welcome and refreshing dip - I for one did not want to leave this idyllic spot.

Community pride.

Walking up the hill to Clifton, where old cannon still guard the approach from Guadeloupe.

More beautiful flowers - this one reminded me of daddy-long-legs.

Many years ago one of the first cruising books I read was called, "An Embarrassment of Mangos".  Now I know what Anne, the author meant.  The smell of fermenting fruit in the gutter is now embedded in my scent memory.

After three and a half hours and about 10 km, we reached the village of Capuchin, almost at the northern end of Dominica.  We could feel the wind starting to rise off the Atlantic and one person we passed warned Henry to hang onto me so I wouldn't get blown away.  However, time was marching on faster than us and with three hours to get back to Mowzer (we knew we'd walk faster on the return journey), we decided we really should turn around.  Although it's a full moon, our feet were growing weary and we didn't have a great desire to complete our walk in the dark.

We found a spur trail that took us along the "beach", but this was pretty hard walking for any great distance.  Those are the Cabrits in the distance and our final destination on the other side of them.

We made it back as the light was fading and found the dinghy just where we had left her, tied up to the best dock at our end of the bay!

Dominica has now shown us river, forest, plantation, bustling town, quiet village, and an almost incomprehensible abundance of fruit and friendliness.  This is the perfect place to have to wait out the next few days of rough weather!

Movie Revisit - Indian River & Hiking Above Portsmouth

Since I actually took some video on our explorations in the last few days, I thought I would play around a bit and put a montage together from the video and pictures I captured.  Some of this you will have seen on a previous post, but if you listen closely on the video sections you can hear the incredible lushness of the bird and frog songs and get a feel for the tranquility and majesty of this place.

And Here We Sit

We've been thoroughly enjoying Dominica and will continue to do so, but in case you've been wondering why we've stalled here so long rather than making tracks south towards Grenada, two words:  tropical wave.  In fact two of these waves are coming through over the next few days so the best place for us to sit is this nice secure harbour at Portsmouth.

Here's the Windguru forecast for Portsmouth:

See all that red stuff building from today out to Sunday?  That's what we're waiting to clear out of the area and carefully picking our anchorage where we know we have very good holding and our anchor is well dug in.

Even if we were to consider moving before the weekend, here's the forecast for St. Lucia where we would be heading, and it just looks the same or a little bit worse, so here we sit until next week.

And then, hallelujah!!  Just look at all that lovely green in the forecast.  This is the first time in weeks that we have seen more than a few hours or blips of green, especially on the wind gusts line.  Typically we experience winds at 5 knots above the forecast values, so being able to sail with a forecast under 15 knots is a real treasure.  Cross your fingers it holds.

The good news in all this according to Chris Parker (a highly valued Caribbean weather forecaster among the cruising set) is that all this strong trade wind activity is preventing the formation of anything nastier.  Guess we're a fan of trade winds?

Just for fun, I pulled down the weather forecast for Ottawa where we used to sail on the river.  Ah... I remember those swirly fluky winds...