Isles de Saints to Dominica Subject: Log 03/24/00 Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 17:16:04 -0500 From: W2LSI@cho.win-net.org To: rudys03@ibm.net So far all of our passages since we left Guadeloupe have been in light and variable conditions.....no seas but also no wind. This wasn't any different. We had over 40 miles (8+hrs) to go with our engine one more time. The trades, Easterly winds, were supposed to start again sometime during the day. We left around 7:00 AM so that we might get to customs before they closed. The trip was uneventful...we did buck a slight current so we took a little longer than expected, but we did make customs before they closed. We have been fishing for the last few passages with no luck. Maybe one of these days we'll catch something. As we approached our intended anchorage we were met a couple of miles off shore by boat boys. On some of the islands there are people that make a living assisting/selling services to cruisers. We wanted to anchor off of a specific hotel and our guide suggested that we use a person from the hotel instead of the local boat boys. We communicated this to these two guys in what we would consider a poor looking row boat with a motor. They had a gas tank that was a plastic container in the middle of the boat....but it ran well. They understood , but also followed us to the hotel. We called the hotel and got no answer....we used the boat boys. They lead us to a mooring for $5 per night and provided us a taxi ride to and from customs for another $10. The "taxi" was in poor shape as were many cars we saw. There was a short in the radio which couldn't be turned off. There were holes in all the seats. No door handles or window handles, etc., etc. The boat boys are required are because 200' off shore the water is over 200' deep! This makes anchoring a challenge. We had two choices. We could take a mooring, which we did, or we could anchor with the help of our boat boys. To anchor we would let out about 100' of chain and start backing towards shore. The anchor will eventually catch and hold. Then you give a boat boy a long line with one end attached to your boat. He takes the other end to shore and ties it to a tree or other strong object. This then keeps the boat pointed directly off shore, into the waves. We did not have this benefit as we had a single line to a mooring. The waves weren't large or violent. They were rollers though. The boat would usually orient itself broadside to these rollers. As you can guess it was not very comfortable. The boat did roll quite a lot, but we had been in worse anchorages so we did get some sleep. If we had a stern line to shore we would have stayed perpendicular to these waves....much more comfortable. There are no real harbors on the island of Dominica. Therefore there are no anchorages that offer good protection and quiet nights. The rollers always seem to be there even on the leeward side of the island. It was a challenge for the boat boys to beach their boat and tie the lines on shore. The surge from these waves was significant. We would not have tried to anchor by ourselves. We did however, see another boat manage to do this. They had 5 people on board. Because of the anchorage we didn't want to spend more than two nights on Dominica. We reserved a rental car for early the next morning. This would be exciting....they drive on the left side of the road and the roads we had seen looked dangerous. Remembering to stay to the left was hard enough with many turns and traffic circles, but the roads are what really created a challenge. More than once we had to back up along a very steep drop off with no guard rail because the road wasn't wide enough for two cars to pass. They were also very poor with many holes, rocks, loose dirt, etc. Most roads also had a drainage ditch that was 2' deep with vertical sides. Since there was nothing between the road and this ditch, the penalty for cutting a corner or putting your tire over the edge of the road was severe. The roads were no wider with these ditches. The island is also very mountainous with rough ragged hills so there weren't many flat or straight roads. There also weren't any signs.....this was probably to force you into using a local tour operator instead of driving yourself. We did survive, but it was a hard day.....we thought we would have a chance to relax a bit! We made a wrong turn to our first destination and ended up following a lady driving a tour van. She eventually took us under her wing as she quickly figured out that we had no idea where we were going or what to see. We followed her to the hot sulfur springs...bubbling and smelly! Boiling water.....bubbling and smelly under water! Cascading water....a small water fall where a cattle path was full of other tourists and we had to fight off the tour guides who didn't want us to walk 1/4 mile without a guide. We said we were with our tour lady. She even stopped us on a road to point out a species of red bananas growing near the road....don't forget, she was doing this from her tour van full of paying customers! She was very nice to us! We left her and tried to make our own way to the Emerald Pool. We got lost, but eventually got there.... well behind our tour lady. We walked down another cattle path to view a small pond at the bottom of a small gorge with a small waterfall feeding it. There were people swimming but we decided to take a picture and leave. All of these attractions were well attended because there was a large cruise ship near where we anchored and there weren't many places for all these people to go! When we got lost people were very friendly and tried to help as best they could. Even our tour lady told us to be careful because the roads were very steep, with many turns and in bad condition. The island is poor but again the people were great! When we left the Emerald Pool we drove around the entire island. The coast had some incredible sights and the huts/houses/homes of the natives were very interesting. Although many didn't have much they cared about what they had. The flowers were gorgeous and the vegetation was lush. There are rain forests in the mountains as on most of the islands and the West coast is dry and brown and the East coast wet and green. Dominica was fun, but we probably won't stop on our way back.