We left St Anne after a wonderful time with lots of friends to head out on our own for a while. The weather window was good so we took advantage of it. Our first stop was Fort de France because we wanted to visit some of the large stores and the mall for a few essentials like swim wear.
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| The park on the seafront at Fort de France |
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| The Cathedral is finally finished |
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| We got nice picture of the Iguanas this time |
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| Another beautiful and large Iguana |
After a bus ride to Decathlon to stock up on sports and swim wear we are ready to head out again. We check out here for 2 days time and do a last minute shop at Leader Price. We make a day sail to St Pierre as an intermediate stop at our usual spot off the beach just for the night.
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| We catch a nice Mahi-Mahi underway |
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| A nice sight of a pod of Dolphins underway |
The sail to Portmouth was wonderful with a nice breeze all the way. We put out a fishing line and were very happy when a nice size Mahi-mahi took the lure and we were even happier when it was in the freezer. We spotted a pod of dolphins as we motored past the south end of Dominica and they stayed and played with us for a while.
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| Arriving in Portsmouth, Dominica |
Martin came over to our boat the next day as we had asked after him at the PAYS dock. He updated us on the goings on on the island since hurricane Maria hit it so badly this summer. Martin himself lost his bus, his boat and the roof on his house. This unfortunately was typical of many and we were not surprised to see blue plastic still covering many roofs even after 6 months. The estimate from locals was that 70% of people had electric which means they had repaired roof and damaged windows to get the power switched back on.
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| Martin on Providence meets us |
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| Martin comes aboard for a beer and to catch up |
A walk around town shows the extent of repairs and just how much damage still exists. We also noticed that the sand beach was badly eroded and many bars were now totally gone or had no beach in front of them. There were only two serviceable docks as well, the PAYS dock and the large town dock. We walked up to customs and cleared in easily as usual, the dock there was busy as well accepted supplies for rebuilding. Most of the warehouses next to customs were roofless and some very badly damaged, its going to be a long recovery for sure.
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| New roofs going on houses all over |
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| A completely new building |
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| A total refurbished grocery store |
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| Sadly too many houses still have no roof |
We took a few more trips to town to find lunch and buy some hardware items we needed, the people were so friendly and welcoming, many just saying "thanks for coming".
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| The beach at dusk |
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| Sunset in the bay |
The mountains seem to be recovering their green color but the number of trees that were lost is very substantial and it was clearly evident from the anchorage. Locals do rely on quite a few crops from trees and the shortage of bananas for instance was very noticeable. A once very productive agricultural island, it seems a few seasons will be required to bring back the full variety of produce. Most of the ground crops were easily found though and farmers were plentiful at the local market.
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| Buying locally grown produce |
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| The local market is going strong |
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| The main town dock is next to the market |
Martin had recommended Madiba's for eating out so we went there for our lunch. Sandy had lots of photos of the damage to her restaurant from Maria. You have to give her credit for determination, she only opened last season and she basically had to rebuild her place after Maria hit.
The food was fabulous and we thoroughly recommend stopping here. We also met a nice dutch couple and shared our experiences walking around the island, unfortunately they were only here one night so they did a quick island tour with PAYS as a compromise.
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| The totally rebuilt Madiba cafe |
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| A great lunch at Madiba's on the beach |
We walked out to Douglas Bay and the trails we did last year here. Unfortunately all teh trails were blocked with fallen trees and the small still was destroyed so we were not able to do as much walking as we had hoped. We did walk to the Fort Shirely visitor center and talked with the park rangers and the local dive operator. All was open here which was great as the newly restored fort is wonderful. However the large dock that the the Tall Ships tie to was destroyed and had no decking, so that meant no sailing cruise ships were docking this year. A big hit for the local taxi drivers and local tourist economy.
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| One of our easier walks is gone |
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| The still build was destroyed |
Well it was great to visit even though there was a lot of damage and many of our favorite trails will have to wait until work crews reopen them. It was amazing to see so many locals making huge progress with reconstruction of their business and homes. The resilience and determination of many is awesome and with this attitude and a little financial help they will hopefully recover in time.
So on we go to Guadeloupe and Antigua.
