DOMINICA…

Dominica; Canyons, Waterfalls, Spices and a Drama in the Anchorage…

 

Before we even sailed into the anchorage at Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth, we were met by one of Dominica’s dreadlocked ‘boat boys’ who have developed a thriving business tending to the needs of visiting Yachties. They have formed an association (PAYS: Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) in response to high crime that resulted in less yachts visiting Dominica is past years. The boat boys help you tie up to a mooring (and manage fee payment)and are on-call water taxi’s, tour guides and personal shoppers. The can get you anything from fresh veggies, fruit, a reservation at a beach bar/restaurant, just-caught fish, propane refills and pretty much anything else you could want or need! We were even offered marijuana- in fact, this happens a lot and we are starting to wonder if we look like stoners   The P.A.Y.S sea dwelling personal assistants all have unique names (Seacat, Sugar Daddy and Lawrence of Arabia to name a few…) that are flamboyantly painted on the side of their dinghies. They must be doing a good job at maintaining security because there were a number of yachts in the bay and we certainly felt safe and looked after under the watchful and territorrial eyes of the P.A.Y members.

My memory of Prince Rupert Bay is one of reggae music pulsing across the water and smoke rising up into the dense thicket of tropical jungle that climbs high above the shanty town of Portsmouth.  Dominica is a poor country- no glam high rises, hotels or restaurants here. Rather beach shacks, rickety stores, tropical flowers, fruits, spices, humming insects, a palate of green canopies and happy go lucky locals. Dominica is a place where laundry is still often done in the river.

The island is home to 365 rivers, numerous, sparkling waterfalls, underwater champagne springs, gushing streams, simmering hot springs, river roots and rainforest canopies. Picture the spooky scene from Pirates of The Caribbean as the crew from the Black Pearl cautiously make their way to the river shack of the voodoo mystic Tia Dalma. It was filmed up the enchanting Indian River in Dominica.

After a couple of days at Prince Rupert Bay we moved down to Roseau, a cruise ship port on the south west coast of Dominica that is lined with colourful timber dwellings.

We were a little apprehensive about the anchorage because Roseau is not a protected bay and we had heard stories of swirling currents and a steep, declining sea bottom. We actually picked up a mooring ball in front of the Anchorage Hotel but dropped it again because the ropes looked threadbare and poorly maintained. Instead we anchored to the south of the hotel in about 10m of water. We laid our chain very carefully with lots of scope. We tugged on it with 2000 rpms. On our first night a wind popped up and we witnessed a large schooner drag out to sea and have to re-anchor in the middle of the night. We were quite happy that Tika had not budged and felt comfortable the next day leaving her as we headed inland for a day of canyoning, waterfall exploration and hot spring soaking in the tropical rainforest. We spent the day with Richard and Liz from ‘Extreme Dominica’ Richard and his assistant Biryani kitted us up, gave us the low down on the practice wall and took us straight up the canyon!

Canyoning involves following the crease of a deep canyon down-stream. You abseil down sheer cliff faces, rappel under, in, beside or through waterfalls and inevitably plunge into cold, deep, emerald green water holes. We traversed along boulders and jumped down into pooled crevasses and the hidden depths of grottos fringed by boulders lined with gem-coloured moss. Given Dominica is nestled in the sweaty centre of the tropics, it is surprisingly cold in the canyon. As Richard said before we started “we’re going where the sun don’t shine” and our GoPro footage was dark and blurry. The beams of light that did penetrate the dank folds of the canyon’s bowels were blinding shafts that highlighted tropical ferns, furry vines and glistening rock faces.

After canyoning Richard and Liz fed us lunch in their mini cocoa farm and we checked out their cocoa and other tropical spice and fruit plants/trees (vanilla bean, nutmeg, mace and calabash to name a few)

Below: Nutmeg and mace; a two in one spice (the mace is the red, strand-like surround of the nutmeg. The nutmeg itself needs to be dried out before it can be grated/shaved and used)

Below; a calabash; a fruit, edible when fresh and used to make gourds when dry.

Below; Liz showing us her small crop of cacao beans. They must be dried and shelled before going through the roasting process. We purchased some of Liz’s hand-made chocolate; sumptuous, smooth and made with love!

Below left; A Cocoa fruit at Coco farm and right; the anchorage at Roseau

We spent the afternoon exploring the Trafalgar waterfall and hiking up the rocks and pools to the piping hot spring showers and cool pools. Liz and Richard told us stories and descriped the effects of tropical storm Erica that devastated the island in August 2015. Liz told us that she could hardly recognise the area at the base of the falls as the landscape had been completely re-designed. The waterfall itself had ‘grown’ by about 4 meters since the storm.  It’s base had been washed down stream and a deeper, steeper path for the cascade had been created. Later, we wallowed in some hot springs drinking rum punch, chatting and sharing life stories. After a day with Liz and Richard we felt like old friends!

Ironically, after we had enjoyed an amazing day canyoning and visiting waterfalls in Dominica’s interior, we had our most stressful experience of the trip so far. It involved the heart-stopping experience of watching Tika disappear over the horizon without us… 

We arrived back on the coast after a full day inland and were relieved to get a visual of Tika- there she was, right where we had left her. Hadn’t moved an inch. “What a perfect day! it’s getting late, lets stay for dinner..” (at the rickety waterfront jetty restaurant where we had been dropped off ) We sat down overlooking the anchorage where Tika was nestled. It was dusk, the view was lovely, we were all contentedly tired and hungry and we settled down for an early evening meal, chatting about our adventurous day. …

We had just ordered our food when we saw flashlights in the vicinity of Tika. It was getting dark and I worried that someone was on board. In a flash we realised we were not in a good position. We had left Tika-Taka (our dinghy) on board Tika that morning because we had been unsure about leaving her all day on the dock- and had caught a water taxi. All of a sudden we felt we needed to get back in a hurry to see what was going on and we were stuck with no dinghy. It was Jaiya who first said it “she’s moving! she’s moving!” We watched and quickly realised she really was moving. She had no lights on and it was getting darker and darker. We think the torch lights were another yacht shining lights on her as she ghosted passed them. The small, orange light of our VHF was visible and getting further and further away.

Panic set in as we started desperately asking the restaurant to call us a water taxi “ahora!” (now). We called our canyoning friends and asked them to call anyone they knew with a boat. We even contemplated ‘borrowing’ a small dinghy that was tied to the dock but that didn’t work. It was locked. At one point Russ instinctively ripped his shirt off (err Russ, you can’t swim! ….by now Tika was heading out to sea) It was a horrible and helpless feeling.

We were pretty sure someone was on board as we thought we could see lights and a motor boat seemed to be staying with her but this offered little comfort as we really had no idea what was going on had no immediate way of getting out to her. One thing was sure- she had dragged anchor and was fast drifting away from the mainland and safety. 

Just then, the owners of the dinghy turned up- two young guys who are on a sailing trip with one of their dads. We begged for help and they immediately said yes. His outboard was small (8hp) and he told us it was unreliable but he did not hesitate when Russ told him he needed to get him out to Tika. They took off leaving me, the kids, the other young guy and a small crowd of locals watching on. It was the worst 45 minutes of my life. Apparently, I was later told that the waitress approached me as I was hyperventilating on the dock to ask if we still wanted our dinners and one of the locals ushered her away saying “maybe now is not a good time…”

The kids were amazing but we all started to wonder if we would see our home again. And it was the little things that the kids thought about “but, what about my ipad?”

Meanwhile in the dinghy, Russ and our young friend were about 2 miles out to sea. In a 8hp, unreliable dinghy with nothing but a head-torch. Their situation was not great. The Swiss dude decided they were not going to make it and went to turn around but Russ assessed the situation…” If the outboard conks out now we are too far away to row back in…we have no VHF. Greer and the kids are on the dock and Tika is out to sea. FAR OUT”. He urged Swiss dude to keep going- “at least Tika is down wind and we have a chance of getting to her even if the motor dies” They made it.

30 minutes later Tika came gliding back into the anchorage and one of the boat boys came to pick us up. He explained to me that he had seen Tika moving, jumped on and had pulled the anchor up by hand. He was getting advice from another skipper (the motor boat we had seen) on how to start the motors (we leave our keys in the ignition in the cockpit) when Russ arrived.

Dwayne, our boat boy and the Swiss dude were the heroes of the day. Dwayne wanted cash and a bottle of rum but the young Swiss just shook Russel’s hand and said “this” (the handshake) “is enough” An understanding and sailors camaraderie passed between us as we thanked him and said goodbye… We didn’t even get his name or the name of his boat but we are eternally grateful to him.

We will never know what happened although we agonised over it for days… we think another yacht had come in, anchored and re-anchored nearby dislodging our anchor. He left before dawn the following morning. The wind had not changed in velocity or direction and there was no obvious change in the current.  We had stayed put for 36 hrs prior to this incident and we had not dragged the previous night when a wind had sprung up and a large schooner had moved. It is possible that the swirling tides and steep sea bottom had just loosened our hold after 36 hours (?) We still don’t know and I guess we never will.

We have vowed never to leave our dinghy aboard Tika again. We never want to experience the feeling of not being able to get to her in an emergency again. We also have a new rule that we carry a VHF with us when we go to shore. And we ordered a new anchor. We have a delta, which is a middle of the range anchor that came with the boat. Given this is our second dragging incident (we also dragged in Cuba) we decided to order the mother of all anchors- a 40 kilo Rocna.

Somebody once said to keep upgrading your anchor until people laugh at it when they walk passed. Now we know why.

This was a traumatic end to a great day and I didn’t sleep well that night. I (being the pessimist of the family) started thinking “what are we thinking??…we can’t sail across the Pacific!! We’re just bloody amateurs…”  I felt better after having talked to other sailors who had also had dragging stories, including some seasoned sailors who told us “oh, don’t worry! we dragged all the time in the Med….” 

We learnt a lot and bounced back quickly but that seriously has been our most stressful moment yet. I am sure there will be many more challenges to come but hopefully not too many this serious. Still, I get to write a happy ending and I guess the blog would be boring without a bit of drama in the anchorage eh??

 

This entry was posted in The Sail.