Roseau, Dominica

Overnight sail of 147 nautical miles.

Another great day, with better snorkelling than yesterday.  Woke at around 5am for me and 6am for R.

Tea on the balcony again, before breakfast and off on shore for our excursion.  Waited near a stinky diesel-fume bus so the tour guide moved us all closer to our where we boarded the catamaran.

The cat today was bigger than yesterday, but we only had about 25 people on board, compared to 50 yesterday, so there was lots of room.  Tootled along the coast about 20 mins, quite windy on the way so couldn’t wear hats.  I have sunburnt scalp from yesterday after having the same problem.  A shortened excursion blurb says:

Set sail southbound to the Soufriere/Scotts Head Marine Park, for our first snorkel site, Champagne, which is a large granite reef fed by underwater hot springs creating bubbles, hence the name.  Reef is approx 100m offshore starting at a depth of 3’ with the main dive reef drop off of 15’.  Then sail to the second snorkel site called L’abym (La Bim), a Creole word meaning “the deep”.  L’abym is one of the area’s most vertical wall sites running about 2 miles.

We saw barrel sponge coral, feather duster sponge (or was it a type of coral – can’t remember) which closes up when touched (our guide dived down to touch it), a sea slug, black and white moray eel, a turtle (which was big but a long way down in murky water – we saw it later on the surface for a few secs), and all sorts of coloured fish from blue to yellow to black and white spotted.  It was just fabulous.

When we walked to board the catamaran there were barriers up keeping the general public away from the proximity of the ship, about 100m.  There were police guarding these barriers.  When we came back from sailing we understood why as there were locals touting tours, and also begging.  We had an armless man (not sure if he was ‘armless though!), asking us if we needed a taxi.  We said no, then he asked if we had any spare change.

We had found a restaurant in the LPG which we wanted to go to for lunch but it was closed.  Turned out to be a good thing, as we found an upstairs hotel restaurant on the foreshore so we could sit and watch the waves crashing onto the rocks.  No beaches to speak of in Roseau, apparently very hard to find and well off the beaten track.

Back on the ship after lunch and time for a snooze.  Washed out our togs and one of R’s polos, glass of bubbly in our cabin while writing the blog.  Up to the café to publish the blog, then back to our room for sailaway.  Watched them untie the ship’s ropes from the docks – hadn’t seen that before.  Had a look through the shops on the way to dinner, then home to bed.