The plan to leave Martinique at sunset to ensure a daylight arrival into Dominica was in place. The forecast wasn't perfect but the 4 slightly salty but well groomed sea dogs were prepared. We had eaten dinner, bought croissants for a midnight feast and had our pyjamas on! Once we left the protection of Martinique we found that the night was not as forecast and the 2meter swell was perfectly calm. We rarely do her justice and expected the worst, but once again 'slowey' powered ahead to the point where we had to slow her down to time our arrival into Portsmouth harbour as the sun rose.
Portsmouth harbour is the perfect cruiser ground with a group of locals who have clubbed together to create a group called PAYS. (Portsmouth association of yacht services) who offer tours, mooring buoys and most other things you could think of as well as keeping a security watch in the area to try and stop crime to cruising boats. We were greeted at 6am by one of the group, a helpful man called Titus who helped with our mooring buoy and promised to return in a few hours to take us to customs
After a sleepless night we decided to spend the day relaxing, snoozing, reading and leisurely paddleboarding around the harbour which without a puff of wind was glassy and clear as an aquarium. Throughout the day we were visited by various locals offering an array of services from a man who brought out an old windsurf board to offer us fruit, another to collect rubbish and a few boats that came to invite us to a street party that night. (Some of them I think visited us to check out our crew, four young women seemed to be something of a novelty to them).
That evening on a (unsuccessful) venture to find some wifi we stumbled across a beach bar. The music was loud and the rum & coke's were strong, it didn't take very long for the four of us to be up on the dance floor shared only by one other rasta who looked at us like we were crazy! This point wasn't helped by the fact that it was 6:30 in the evening and we were the only people in the bar!
By the time we giggled our way back into the tender rain had started to fall, it didn't relent all evening and built up through the night for a tempestuous thunderstorm at 3am, not much sleep was had.
"Laurence of Arabia" our guide had organised a tour for us around the island which is nicknamed the garden of Eden. Up bright and early we made sandwiches (Pippa was excited by her first meat meal of the trip and had found some ham for a sandwich!!) got packed up with a change of clothes and waterproof jackets and headed off in the rain!
Our tour took us around the island stopping off on the sides of the road to tell us about the local flora and Fauna. We saw and smelled lemon grass and cinnamon trees and soursop fruit. Our first stop was at the reservation of the local Carib tribe people. The Carib people were the indigenous population in the Caribbean before Christoher Columbus came through. Many were taken as slaves or killed and their land stolen from them by the British. Only after many years were they once again recognised as a minority population and given back a small portion of land to have as their own. We took a guided tour of the cultural centre set up to try and educate and preserve the heritage and traditions of the people. There are only around 3000 Carib people left.
Dominica has 365 waterfalls (one for everyday of the year) so we were excited to see some. Although we gave our guide a brief we're pretty sure he took us on the standard 'tourist route' however upon arrival to our first waterfall named 'Emerald pool' we were lucky that most other tourists must have been having lunch as we had the entire place to ourselves. We jumped around and felt the force of the water fall against our skin made even stronger and colder by the rainfall over the last 24hours. We climbed the rocks and explored the area before heading to the next waterfall. The Jacko waterfall slightly larger and MUCH colder. This time the water was dark and ominous looking and we didn't fancy getting in.
Our guide had one final treat for us as we stopped on one of Dominica's black sand beaches. Sipping on Rum'Tings as the sun dipped below the skyline was a perfect way to end our day before we headed home to Slowey. Our relaxation was short lived as there were points on this final drive where we did debate the contents of our drivers drink! There were a few white knuckles as he over took on blind bends!
The day ended with dinner and chats planning our route for the next stop, Isle de Saints!
