SCUBA Diving Cabrits Point, Dominica

Yesterday it rained for most of the day. It was a good reason to stay home and do much needed chores. Dominica has a ton of activities to offer, but almost all of them are outdoors, and most involving hiking. In the morning and early afternoon we worked on the bottom and water line. When Christi hopped in, she was horrified. It was the worst she has ever seen it. The grass was thick and long, and there were barnacles galore. She worked on the bottom for 45 minutes, until her tank was empty (the tank wasn’t full when she started). When she came up, Eric decided to give it a go. He hooked up a tank and jumped in. He was in the water a total of an hour. Like Christi, he worked on the bottom until he ran out of air (he also was not on a full tank), then worked on the waterline. The bottom looks a heck of a lot better, but we still have a long way to go. Sigh. The good news is that the water in the bay is amazingly clear. And we are amused to report that we have some fish living under our boat. Check out the beautiful rainbow.

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There are three restaurants that have dinghy docks for the cruisers to use, so we went to one of them for dinner. We both got a conch plate, which was served with an absolutely delicious sauce. The conch was perfectly tender, and not at all rubbery. It was served with mixed veggies, including christophene. It also came with a cooked banana or plantain (delicious), a piece of plain yam and a couple pieces of plain taro (both quite tasteless), lightly seasoned rice, and beans that had a little zest (quite good). It was nice to see such a full plate of food with so many little side dishes. It is almost a Guadeloupe style meal, except in Guadalupe all the sides would have been more elaborate.

 

Check out the pretty sunset from the resturant:

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While on shore, we booked a dive trip for this morning. We grilled the poor owner, asking her dozens and dozens of questions before we committed to diving. She must think we are freaks, but after being so unhappy with our last two dive companies, we figured we were being prudent. The fee was Continue reading

Syndicate Trail, Dominican Foods, and Milton Waterfall

Continued from yesterday”¦ We just kept going up, into the misty heights of the mountain tops. At one point, we passed a sign for the start of the trail to the top of the Morne Diablotin summit with a warning that it was a strenuous and dangerous 3 hour hike up. Morne Diablotin is Dominica’s highest mountain at 4747 feet tall.

Finally, we came to a point where Continue reading

Indian River Nature Preserve

Today we arranged to do two sightseeing tours with Arielle. The morning excursion was up Indian River, the second was a trip to the Syndicate Trails rain forest hike. Andrew picked us up at our respective boats and took us to the dock at the mouth of Indian River. Dominica boasts 365 rivers, but Indian River is one of the few that are navigable. He directed us to the gas station/mini market to buy tickets into the wildlife preserves. Both Syndicate and Indian Rivers are in preserves, and we asked for a day pass for both parks. The clerk sold us the tickets, and assured us it was a day pass good for both parks, and sent us back to the boat. We picked a great day for sightseeing. It was clear, sunny and warm out. Actually, it was a little on the hot side.

Beyond the dock, it is forbidden to Continue reading

Hoisting the Smoke Stack Back Up

Eric went right to work as soon as he got up. He took down the rest of the mountings from the mast. The second shot is of one of the broken mountings. You can see it used to be a perfect square with 4 holes.

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Eric had agonized yesterday over how to fix the problem, until he remembered that in his cache of spare parts there is a rubber hose intended for exhaust, so it could stand to get really hot. He dug out the hose and cut it into squares, then made holes for the screws. It was a total pain in the rear to get the shape and holes just right. He is becoming a pro at fabricating spare parts these days.

Eric went outside and mounted the rubber pieces to the mast. Originally, there had been Continue reading

Welcome to Portsmouth, Dominica

At midnight we heard a loud crash on the top deck. It was windy and rainy and very dark out from the lack of stars and moon. We turned on the lights and looked out the back windows. Everything looked fine. The kayaks, dinghy and dock boxes were all secure. Eric went outside briefly and glanced at the top deck. All looked fine. We couldn’t figure out for the life of us what caused the crashing sound.

About the same time as the crash, the wind calmed down some and the seas started to improve a little. By 0100, we were in the lee of Guadalupe and the ride became smooth and nice. The wind was blocked by the big mountains on Basse Terre, so it died down to 3 5 knots. There are definitely a lot more lights at night on Guadeloupe than on Antigua, but it is no surprise since Guadeloupe has 450,000 people and Antigua only has 72,000.

We left the shelter of Guadalupe at about 0400 and it was instantly back to not being a fun ride. At sunrise, Dominica was visible, but the big mountains were mostly enshrouded in clouds. As morning progressed Continue reading