We checked into Portsmouth, Dominica on Monday morning. Elected to walk to the Customs office, which is 1.9 miles from the dinghy dock at the PAYs (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services) dock. You can dingy to the customs office directly, but it costs $10 EC to use their dock, and we decided to get some exercise and save money.
We checked in and out with a two-week stay at the same time, which is a great service Dominica offers.
After the check in, we walked another mile to find a grocery store that Kris had seen on Google Maps. We never found it. When we got back to the boat after our 6-mile walk, we looked on maps again, and must have been 100' short of the store when we gave up and turned around. Oh well - did not really want to carry groceries back the 3 miles anyway. Saw a cannon in a storefront on the way back - wonder what the story is on that?
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| Old cannon in abandoned store |
Tuesday was an exciting day - not! Rainy off and on, with gusty winds, so just hung out on the boat. There were at one time 4 large multi masted cruise ships in the harbor, shuttling people back and forth.
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| Large sailing cruise ships in harbor. |
Wednesday was another unexciting day. Rainy off and on, with gusty winds, so just hung out on the boat. Water tanks are full.
Thursday we went t town. Kris had gotten an ear infection, so we went into the doctor. $100 EC for the office visit ($37 USD) Doctor super nice, and took almost a full 20 minutes to inspect the ears and talk about causes and prevention. Then we went off to the pharmacy - a new one we had never seen before, quite large. Another $24 USD for the week of antibiotics if needed, and ear drops for the week as well.
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| Dean wandering the large pharmacy while waiting on prescription |
Stopped at a couple of stores on the way back, but found nothing to buy, but did see some chickens - a staple of any walk in the Caribbean. (Kris always loves seeing little chicks)
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| Momma chicken with two chicks |
We made plans to take a tour on Saturday, as Friday was rainy.
Friday - rainy day - hung out on boat. Kris cleaned and hung up Christmas decorations.
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| Christmas decorations up |
Saturday - tour day - pouring rain, the most of all week. Not forecasted. Cancelled the tour, as we don't think hiking the mountain streams to see a waterfall is a good idea in pouring rain. Oh well. It rained so much the blue water of the anchorage turned brown, and lots of floating wood, coconuts, leaves and such - water is brown, but not much trash at all which is good to see.
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| Rainy and cloudy |
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| You can kind of see the hills in the background through the clouds |
Had to fend off a couple of large logs that drifted out in the anchorage, washed off shore in the rain.
Disappointing not to take the tour, but we are OK with it. We spent a lot of time in Dominica with Derek 11 years ago and did quite a bit of touring. We would stay longer and wait out the weather, but our niece is coming to visit on Christmas, so we will head out today to Guadeloupe, as the winds are favorable for a sail. Guadeloupe has some nice spots we have never seen, so can hopefully make some good memories with our niece seeing those.
Well that sounded like a rather wet week for the most part! Sorry you didn't get to take your tour but sounds like it would have been dreadful in the rain. Wishing both of you a wonderful holiday!
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays to you both! Meryl & Walter🤗
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