Portsmouth Dominica PAYS and The Salty Dawgs sailing association.

15.34.88N  61.27.8W

09 February 2023

5236 miles since leaving Sandwich.

The run over to Portsmouth in Dominica was only 23 miles but it did prove to be a bit of a frustrating one. We started off well as I motored away from the mooring buoy and discovered that the damaged propeller was working pretty well. It has a very slight vibration due to cavitation on the bent bit, but it is not serious enough to warrant a lift out and can be added to the things to do next time we are lifted for antifouling etc. Actually, I am not sure when that will be, but we have an embryo of a plan forming around getting the boat lifted in September or October in Wilmington North Virginia for 6 weeks or so and coming home for a month of that while the boats is all secure and safe in the Wilmington hurricane hole. Anyway, that’s all for the future and the current story involves the frustrating part of our trip to Dominica. The wind of course stayed too far in front of the beam to make for comfortable sailing especially when combined with the short sharp seas encountered in the gap between the islands. We bounced along in fine style with lots of spray and a boat speed of 2 Knots until I gave up pointing directly where we needed to go and instead went where the boat wanted to go. The speed shot up to 6 knots and we headed to a point about 2 miles down wind of where the anchorage was (frustrating bit). Actually, as luck would have it the wind took a massive sheer in the last 20 minutes of the trip as we approached the cliffs of Dominica and without touching a control line we managed to alter course to port in order to steer right up to the cliff and castle at the entrance to Portsmouth (second frustrating bit as I spent an hour getting wound up by the boat not pointing well at the start of the day).

Choppy seas as we approach Dominica.

By far the best thing about this harbour is the PAYS organisation. I mentioned them on my last trip and the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services are still the best guides in the whole of the Caribbean. As we came into the bay a brightly painted open power boat sped out to us and the PAYS man on duty introduced himself and welcomed us to Dominica. Would you believe it, it was the same guy we had last time, Alexis. His smile was just as bright as 8 years ago and he soon showed us the way to our mooring buoy, $10 per night, and helped us get settled. The Pays organisation run several tours on the island and the last time we took advantage of this and did the Indian River tour. This time we elected to do an Island wide, Rainforest, Hot Springs, waterfalls, and Chocolate factory tour on the following day.  

On our way into the now much larger mooring field we noticed another Vagabond just like Spectra and called across, “Nice boat you’ve got there”, as we motored by. We got a friendly wave from the American owner as we passed and noting that he was flying the Salty Dawgs ensign decided to go over and introduce ourselves later. No sooner had we got Spectra settled on her buoy than Bill powered up in his rib and invited us over for sundowners with his wife Maureen at 1700 that night, result.  We did the usual round of checking in, paying for the mooring buoy, and getting some internet then completely ran out of time. At 1630 we were over a mile away from Spectra in the dinghy desperately trying to find the customs office before they closed at 1700. We were eventually pointed in the direction of the commercial dock and moored up next to a couple of small island freighters. While I held the dinghy against the big concrete pontoon under the bows of the commercial ships, Norma scrambled ashore and went in search of the illusive customs office. She found it but wasn’t allowed in until she had surrendered her cigarette lighter to the security guard, which was a bit strange as everyone inside the perimeter seemed to be smoking away quite happily but Ho Hum go with the flow. The customs was pain free and Dominica has the great idea that you can book in and out at the same time for a two week stay, how easy and pain free is that. Anyway, this made us late for our sundowner’s appointment with Bill and Maureen and I had to crank our little outboard up all the way for the journey back. With a put, put, put, we progressed across the bay, collected some beer and a bottle of wine from Spectra and finally got aboard ‘Kalunamoo’ at 1800 an hour late, which was a bit embarrassing to be honest. Long story short we had a very pleasant evening with this lovely couple from New York aboard their equally lovely Vagabond. As always with Vagabonds it is amazing how many differences there are below. ‘Kalunamoo’ was completely the opposite way around from Spectra with the dining table to port, no small seat in the saloon and no step down to the foreword area. They also had all stainless-steel windows which although not as traditional looking as Spectra’s bronze ones must be oh so much easier to maintain and keep looking nice. A perfect end to the day was our little outboard running out of fuel on the way back over to Spectra when we were definitely a bit on the merry side. Run out is actually a bit of an exaggeration, but it did cough and splutter all the way and only had just enough oomph to keep us moving at an even slower pace than normal.

View back down the mountain towards Portsmouth.

0900 the next morning and we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed waiting to get picked up by Alexis for our island tour. Right on time he turned up with two French couples aboard from another yacht who were also doing the tour. After introductions we were off to the Hot springs in a minibus for our first stop. Well that was the plan but Alexis stops every mile or so to collect interesting plants and herbs along the way and to give you a potted history of the houses and plantations along  the way. We saw the Presidents residence, longest serving president in the Caribbean and leader of the labour party also known as the shoe party, I kid you not. We then went to the source of a river and ate wild watercress along the way which was delicious. The hot springs were both hot and very smelly so no swimming there. Next stop was the waterfalls stopping to buy some Dasheen roots from a farmer on the way. We brought one and ate it later in a mash and then fried like potato cakes.

Dasheen is a variety of taro root with segments called corms and tubers. Natural sugars within this vegetable impart a sweet, nutty flavor profile. This must be cooked before eating and may be prepared in ways similar to a potato.

Dasheen - J&C Tropicals

https://www.jctropicals.us › products › dasheen

And now you know all you will ever need to know about Dasheens, and here is the farmer at the side of the road.

Along the way we passed through the village where the president was born, the church where the president was married and even Alexis’ sisters house which was covered in political slogans supporting the president, ‘Labour to de bone’ was a favourite slogan, I was getting the feeling that Alexis was a bit of a fan. I never actually made it to the waterfalls as I had a really dizzy episode and felt extremely nauseous. I waited on a rock half way up the trail while Norma and the others carried on to the falls. It seems that I missed a treat as they were very impressive, but I did have a different experience. Alexis was very concerned about me and came back down the trail having pointed the others in the right direction for the falls. He collected me and then took me in the minibus to his parents’ house in a village nearby to collect a root that would sort out my dizziness. What a great guy and his mother, called Norma, and father were very welcoming and pleased that I was enjoying Dominica. Alexis found the root in his store, he is a herbalist, and instructed me to chew on the fleshy part and get the juice out before spitting the rest away. It was quite bitter and apparently not only good for dizzy spells but also good for prostate cancer, obviously a bit of a wonder plant all round. I’m not sure about the prostrate cancer but my dizziness did indeed go away so credit to Alexis there.

Norma at the waterfall.

After collecting the travellers from the falls we went to several beaches, had lunch at a nice restaurant and had a tour of a chocolate factory where sampling was actively encouraged, as if I needed any encouragement. A very good day all round and we gave Alexis a handsome tip for his excellent guiding and medical administrations.

In case you haven’t guessed this is the Seabreeze beach bar.

The chocolate factory.

The following afternoon we hosted Bill and Maureen aboard Spectra and put the world to rights for an hour or two before agreeing to meet up at the Salty Dawgs beach BBQ that night.

The Salty Dawgs are an American cruising organisation that hold rendezvous in the Caribbean and on the east coast of the USA. There primary role is to help novice sailors make the journey south from mainland America and into the islands each season. A very friendly bunch they are to, and we will no doubt keep an eye on their website with a view to meeting up with them again next season when we are travelling south from Nova Scotia. Anyway, I digress. We had every intention of joining them for the BBQ and music thereby getting a feel for the crowd, but the Dominica weather intervened with a huge thunderstorm that washed out the gathering in its infancy. Oh well next time perhaps.

We had now run out of time and needed to be heading north to Antigua to pick up Tony but that’s another story……………..