Dominica revisited

We had a few days in Dominica on our way south. It was a last chance to see Joy and Steve on Ocean Angel who arrived the day before us. We had all had difficult passages as the seas were up and the winds was pretty brisk too. Steve and Joy remarked it was one of their more difficult passages ever in the Caribbean when they came up from Martinique. Ours was pretty bouncy from Antigua to Guadalupe and very confused seas from there to Dominica, so that pleasant either.

As it was Devin's birthday we all got together on Ocean Angel to celebrate.

Joy, Jo and John

Devin, Liz and Steve

We fancied a walk to Chaudier falls and noticing Jim and Sharna on Second Spray were in the harbor we invited them too, so Jim joined us while Sharna watched their new kitten. 

We took a local bus across to the eastern shore to Upper Bense, to the start of the 40 minute walk to the waterfall. We were amazed at how much damage hurricane Maria did to the valley and the properties we passed on the way, almost every building had damage and most roofs were being or had been repaired.

Chaudier Falls

The hurricane damage is fairly visible but recovering already

Yes we got in

Some jumped in

Some made a splash

Others were just as eager

On our return from Chaudier falls we stopped in Madibas restaurant for a drink before returning to our boats. While we were there we got talking to some of the crew of Pacific Hope about their volunteer work in Dominica. They have been here only a short while and were the only one of several relief boats to try to cross the pacific that made it. Their mission is to aid Dominica with an on board hospital and a crew of 50+ volunteers to work on the island daily. At the end of the talk they invited us to tour their ship, how could we refuse.

Welcome aboard Pacific Hope

On the forecastle

On the bridge

The engine room

Crew lounge, well half of it.

A talk with the Captain.

The captain told us about the Christian charity that runs Pacific Hope ( 140 foot) as well as a few other relief ships. He believes there is 3 years work for the ship here in Dominica, he has plans for that anyway and a plan for avoiding hurricanes if they come again this year.

On Saturday we joined the locals for our provisioning run of fresh vegetables and fresh bread.

Devin buying fresh juice from Levi

Waiting by the bakery for fresh bread

A huge moth we found in the dinghy that morning

Well its a short stop and time to be moving down the islands to make our deadline for hurricane season. Our insurance dictates we be south of 12d 40m by June 30th so off we go to Martinique and the big stores to provision Moosetracks for the summer.

We hope everyone is still enjoying their spring time.