The first day at Martinique we were all so tired from the
rough night so we just spend a lazy day on the boat sleeping and resting. We
also tried in Martinique to get a few supplies we needed, like filters, gas etc.
But we weren’t too successful... Ben of course decided to get better now (which
we were glad of course, as it really was just tonsillitis) but still got easily
exhausted. After another day of rest for him, we hired a car for two days to
explore the island. The first day we did the east of the island, which is a bit
rougher on the Atlantic side. We visited a rum distillery.
On the second day on our way to explore the west side of the island we finally picked up some water skies for Jack! This side of the island is very lush and has lots and lots of winding roads through the mountains and we saw the most beautiful gardens in Balata, a lovely waterfall and the nice little town called St Pierre, which was completely destroyed in 1803 by the local volcano. 29000 people died that day! Really nice day! (Oh, this last sentence was referring to our day, not St Pierre!)
Beautiful Hummingbirds
Back to the ocean again on the 9th in the afternoon... up to Dominica. As long as we were in the lee of Martinique we had a lovely sail with flat seas and about 20 knot winds. We were flying along with over 9 knots! As soon as we came in between the islands it started!! We put all the reefs in before we stuck our neck out to the open ocean and changed the headsail to the stay sail... now we had rough seas, and winds gusting up to 50 knots! It was not very nice. But again, the boat handled it well! Once we were again in the lee of Dominica this time, the winds dropped again and all was calm. We got to our anchorage in the north of the island, Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth at about 4:30 am. As soon as we tried with a torch to find an anchorage it of course started blowing and raining again heavily!!! By 5:30 Pete and I fell exhausted to bed and had a good sleep.
Lots of snorkelling, swimming and exploring the little town of Portsmouth and a game of Poker at night!
On the way to indian river we stopped for a while at the local markets.
Pete buying some fresh coconuts of a local, 'Ravioli'. they often come around with their colourful boats to offer fruit, veggies, fish or lobser.
On the 11th early Alexix came to pick us up for a tour of the Indian River. What a beautiful trip! A little river that is soon covered in vegetation, building a roof over the river. The blood trees (the local Indians used its red sap to paint their faces with it), coconut trees everywhere, wild hibiscus, lots of birds (hummingbirds and herons) and the local crabs on the riverbanks. And we followed again in the footsteps of Johnny! Here at the river is the hut of Lady Calipso from the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean! And then we had a juice and tea (and only a bit of rum) at a bar in the jungle, where Johnny and Orlando have been partying during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. (Hey Sandy, we are getting closer, we will find him!!!) This really was a great tour! And Alexis was a fantastic and nice tour guide with lots of local knowledge and stories about his childhood.
Alexis
The Indian river
Lady Calipso's hut from Pirates of the Caribbean
The jungle bar
The rest of the day Kate studied, as we had internet for 24 hours and Jack finally had his time on the skies! He came back with the biggest smile on his face!
Sightseeing again on the 12th, Chaudiere Pool and the red rocks with Jeff. It was another fantastic day. We had a nice drive in Jeff’s van around the lush green tropical island to get to Chaudiere Pool. It was a nice little muddy and slippery hike to the waterfall. As Dominica is so tropical and mountainous, it rains there every couple of hours and with this, the ground is always wet and slippery and muddy. The kids could have spent all day at the waterfall. Even though the fall wasn’t very high, it was lots of fun. A lot of water crashed down into a pool, which was like a whirl pool. But the best fun was that they could climb the rocks on either side of the fall and jump. They even made me jump! And I hated it!! But I did it! (Oh, the pressure of the family!! ‘You can do it mum!’)
Being on the red rocks, was a tiny bit like walking on Ayers Rock, except it being at the ocean! Beautiful views. On the way there, Jeff drove us through his village (lovely place to live on the beach), showed us his house and introduced us to his wife. Another fantastic day!
Dominica was for me the prettiest island we had seen so far. I just loved the lushness and jungle look of the island. But saying so, I liked all the islands we have seen, each one was so different from the one before and all had something we liked.
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