DOMINICA

I am crouching down near the Catholic church beside a white house in Plymouth Dominica with the lappie on my knees. Post hurricane Maria this is the only spot in Plymouth that has a wifi connection. I suspect that I will not be able to add any pictures. Hurricane Maria really did an number on the poorest of the East Caribbean states and while the recovery has started things are still a mess.

We left St Pierre in Martinique to the sight of a magnificent double rainbow and we arrived in Prince Rupert bay Dominica to the sight of another magnificent double rainbow. Did we have rain on the way up Yes we did but as Jan says “ NO RAIN NO RAINBOWS. “

It was an eventful trip.

We saw more flying fish on this one inter island passage than I saw in the last 12 months.

We solved the burning question of what a tropic bird does with its long tail feathers when it is floating in the sea. Answer; it holds them up in a beautiful arc.

Gaye, who has sharp eyes, spotted a minke whale off Roseau, it stayed on the surface and blew every 10 seconds or so. Maybe 25 ft long.

Whales are difficult to photograph unless you get lucky with a lobtail so you will have to take my word that the little black blob is the dorsal fin of a minke.

Our last event was the starter motor which we had repaired in Martinique failed us again. This time on passage. Gaye got a quick lesson on anchoring under sail while I worked Elephants Child round the headland and into a good spot in the anchorage. I was thankful that she tacks easily under main alone even when ghosting along at 1 knot and even more thankful that Gaye took it in her stride.

Just to cap a difficult day we found out that our second water tank is dry. Instead of lasting us 3 weeks we are getting about ten days so we have a leak somewhere.

As Captain Fatty Goodlander says “ Cruising is just boat maintenance in exotic locations. “

We have a new starter motor on order from the USA and it is coming priority shipping. The Fedex lady said maybe Monday. When I get back to Grenada I will see if Al Bernadine can fix the old one to give us a spare. Or Perhaps just get a spare off EBAY.

I will jug some water out the boat so that we can see where the leak is. I suspect that it may be the accumulator tank. It is mild steel I think. Plastic for the next one.

We cleared in and then had a walk around the Plymouth sea front taking in the damage that was done by hurricane Maria. Despite it being 4 months since the hurricanes passage many of the buildings that had lost their roofs are still open to the elements. Many of the others are covered by temporary tarpaulins.

Even some of the vehicles sport a blue plastic roof. Others are displaying all manner of dents, owies and broken glass. Some have no windows left at all.

Most of the country needs to be rewired and they need a shedload of new electricity poles. The electricity grid is limping along with many still waiting to be reconnected. A glance at the mess left behind suggests that phone lines and cable TV connections need serious attention as well.

I tried to get my Digicel data dongle connected but the expert lady at the Digicel shop just shook her head. However Gaye was able to get her smart phone to work its smart magic and we have data again courtesy of Digicel. I hate being without access to weather information.

I will finish with some of the pictures taken while we enjoyed our sundowner G&Ts.

Pictures to come when I get a better connection probably in the Saintes