Roseau
We got some greatest sailing this day! There was a broad reach at around 15 knots of wind and a smooth sea so we sailed at around 7-8 knots with hardly any heel! Soon, we spotted the outline of the island of Dominica.
After that, it took us no time to get from Saint Pierre in Martinique to Roseau, the capital city.
There’s no marina around the coast of Dominica, and Roseau is no exception. However, some places there have local companies or organizations that run moorings and provide a slew of other services like help with immigration and customs clearance, provision, water and fuel delivery or island tour set up. We got some outstanding help from an outfit called Sea Cat that provided us with a mooring buoy, took us to the immigration and customs offices and was always helpful to taxi us to the shore whenever we needed it – like getting to a local restaurant to get dinner.
The Roseau town is a maze of narrow streets and small and colorful buildings. From our mooring, we had a view of the Southern part of town which stretches along the coastal road just behind those buildings. This part of town also includes our favorite haunt, Ocean Edge Restaurant & Bar.
Evening come, we had a great and expansive view towards the West and more of those amazing Caribbean sunsets.
Next day, the plan was an island tour with a local guide. We, along with a bunch of boaties from our Roseau anchorage, piled into a van driven by our guide. First he took us up the hill that dominates the Dominica capital to get us a great view of the city.
Further inland, Dominica is covered with a lush, evergreen tropical rain forest. We got there by driving up some narrow and treacherous roads. Once we reached our destination, Morne Trois Piton National Park, we were sure that this ride was worth it! The vistas were stunning! We parked at the Freshwater Lake, and from there we took a long and strenuous hike along a trail which goes around it. It required lots of climbing in pretty rough and heavy terrain, and all the while, the air was hot and very humid.
The whole trek to complete a loop around the lake took us about 2 hours and after we finished it, everyone was exhausted. Still this effort was worthwhile for all the spectacular views we could enjoy.
Portsmouth
Finally, on January 27, we left Roseau and made a short and pleasant sail to Portsmouth at the Dominica North tip. As the weather was nice and the winds were fair, we reached our destination in no time.
On approach to Portsmouth Bay
Portsmouth Bay is very popular among cruisers due to the very active group of locals that does a great job of running the bay mooring site with multiple buoys which can be rented at a very reasonable price. They will help you schedule a number of different guided tours and trips, get you to shore to do your shopping or just to get you to a local eating establishment.
View on the Portsmouth Bay shore
One of those guided trips is a cruise up the Indian River. It has to be done without the use of an outboard; only muscle power is allowed in order to protect the fragile environment of the river.
Our tour guy made a great job of getting us up the river and showing us around.
The trip is like visiting an Amazon’s ‘mini-me’! There are trees growing densely on both shores with a thick canopy of branches overhead and mangrove roots jutting into the river.
Indian River was actually the location for some scenes in the ‘Pirate of the Caribbean’ franchise. There are still some remains of the set there with ‘Calypso’s house’ being one of the most visited by tourists.
‘Calypso’s house’ movie set on the Indian River.
This filming set house has been rebuilt for the sake of visitors, as the original one was destroyed on 18 September 2017 by the Category 5 hurricane Maria, which devastated the whole island.
Enjoying great local food at a Portsmouth diner.
Rain and T-storms marred our last day at Portsmouth bay
On the morning of January 30, 2020 we let go of our mooring and set sail toward Guadeloupe!