Day 17 Dominica

Dominica sits midway between Guadeloupe at the tail end of the Leeward Islands and Martinique at the head of the Windward Islands.  Dominica is roughly 29 miles long, 16 miles wide and has a population of around 80,000.  Again, like most islands, the economy is becoming more dependent on tourism, although they still export bananas, coconut oil, cocoa and limes.  In 1930, the principal export was coffee, but diseases in the coffee trees all but finished off the crops.  Dominica was the principal supplier of limes to the Royal Navy, which gave rise to ending scurvy on HM ships.  As a result, it became the world’s largest producer of lime concentrates. This place is like one giant rain forest.  Very fertile and has the highest rainfall of any Caribbean Island.

We were alongside just before 08.00 this morning and the sun was blazing.  After breakfast, we decided not to take a tour as we have been here before and we think we have seen all the major attractions that are available in a tour lasting 3-4 hours.  Instead, we went ashore fairly early, before the sun got too hot and had a look round the relatively small capital town of Roseau as well as the dockside market stalls that popped up whilst we were at breakfast.

Dominica comes across as one of the poorer Caribbean islands and as a consequence, the goods on sale in the market were considerably cheaper than any of the other islands we have been to.  Buying in the dockside market was the only option today as all the shops were closed as it’s Sunday!  It was an opportunity to get a new sundress for Maureen and a new shirt for me, in anticipation of the forthcoming Caribbean dress code for dinner.  

After the shopping expedition, we returned to the ship and retired to the sundeck for the rest of the day, until we sailed for a return to Tortola, just after 5.00pm.

At 6.30pm we have travelled 9nm from Roseau, Dominica and have some 256 nm before arriving in Road Town Tortola.  The current air temperature is 29 deg C and the wind is a gentle 5 knots.  We will have a day at sea tomorrow so we are currently cruising at 10 knots arriving in Road Town on Tuesday.

We’re deeply concerned about Glyn, this is the second night running that he has missed the cheese course and if he doesn’t watch out he’ll be dropped from the Welsh Olympic eating team.  It could be that he’s passed the worms now and it’s just himself to feed.

After dinner we went to the Havana bar to watch a brilliant Freddie Mercury tribute act complete with moustache and protruding teeth.  He was a superb singer and piano player as well as being very witty.

Stop Press – It’s been reported that we have Linda Lucardi on board - not sure why, but I’ll be down to see FiFi le Snapper tomorrow and get signed up for whatever photographic courses are coming up, just in case Linda is featuring in any of them.  Apparently Lembit whatsit, the ex MP and he of Cheeky Girls fame is also on board.  Must remember to lookup what he’s on here for and avoid it.  We also think there is a secret film crew on board as a large number of stars from My Big Fat Gypsy wedding seem to have boarded in Barbados.