Dominica

We arrived in Dominica after a great sail across from Martinique, it was the reach that we were waiting for. Seas were less than two meters but if you asked Kelli it was the roughest thing she had ever been on. For you sailors, while we were sailing up the west side of Dominica, we experienced 30 knot blasts coming down the valleys and managed to hit 11 knots. During one of these bursts we broke our out haul line and took this as a message that it was time to reef. Kelli being an all-inclusive holiday’er is pushing her envelope, though at anchor she is right at home.
Dominica is the first of the Leeward Islands and has 7 active volcanoes and according to our guides there are 365 rivers. We had the most amazing day today with a tour up the Indian River & the Rain Forest. This river is in a park and motor boats are not allowed on it, so we had a handsome young guide with the nickname of Mosquito guide us in his rowboat. We were able to see an iguana sleeping in the tree top, fish and the most wonderful canopy of trees and ferns with tangles of roots lining the river bank. After leaving the river we headed off in a taxi-van to go up to the rain forest and a waterfall. Our guide’s name was Winston and he gave us the best tour by far. This guy seemed to know everything about the local agriculture, flora and fauna. We tasted and saw how sugar cane, white grapefruit, pink grapefruit, oranges, mandarins, and bananas. We smelled and saw growing pineapples, guava, avocado, mango, bread nuts, coffee, nutmeg, thyme, dasheen, lemon grass, citronella, cinnamon, patchouli, bay leaf, and many more that we can’t even remember the names of. We saw beautiful parrots called Jackos flying in the forest and a funny little hummingbird with a Mohawk along with many other birds.
We hiked through the rainforest and arrived at a magnificent waterfall of about 80 feet that cascaded into a pool. We went for a swim and we were even able to get behind the waterfalls. It was very refreshing.
We purchased a new Tohatsu 18 hp outboard (don’t ask) for our dinghy in Martinique and we are enjoying this new toy. After our wonderful land tour, Ron and I and Jamie (son-in law of Michael & Linda on the Gava from Salmon Arm) went snorkeling in the next bay over. I love snorkeling and this was a great location with turtles and a multitude of fish in a setting of a colourful corals and large vase sponges. On the way back we stopped off at a cliff and snorkeled the face. The colours were brilliant.
From here we head to Iles des Saintes apart of Guadeloupe. These are supposed to be irresistible islands with a stong link to the North of France.