Dominica – two more weeks!

March 17, 2020

News about COVID-19 are everywhere. Here in Dominica no cases have been detected, but things are changing rapidly. Some measures have been put in place.
We heard all Cruise ships have been stoped. Normally, they have Cruise ships arriving in Roseau almost everyday this time of the year; we saw two different ones the two days we were there. But they have been cancelled. Restaurants are closing and big gatherings are also being discouraged.

Our plan is to continue to Guadaloupe, this week. However, they have entered in a full confinement same as France. So we have decided, to stay in Dominica for a few more days and monitor the situation before we take a decision. We went to customs and they told us, there is no need to do extra papers, just go to let them know before we are leaving.

Unfortunately, the “Sailing Week in Antigua for 2020” has been cancelled. And our visitors coming to see us there had to canceled too. They will not be permitted to go out of France. This is the third visit that has cancelled to come sailing with us.

Well, so what can we do now? Taking the bus to go places doesn’t look like a safe option to continue traveling, you get 17 people in a small minivan with bags, packages and anything you can imagine. That is not really good for social distancing. Renting a car to go around the island? They are all booked or they don’t pick up the phone.

From the anchorage, we can see kind of a fortress. It is actually the Fort Shirley in the Cabrits National Park. It is not one of the most famous spots in the island but it is nice to go for a walk. The Fort is really well maintained, now converted into a museum with different room telling the story of the island and also a place for groups to stay. As it is all set up for big room with places to sleep, salons for entertainment and big tables for meals. It also makes for a nice hike as there are couple of paths to go up the mountain for a great vie of the bay.

One more thing we could still do is diving. The restrictions are not yet stopping the diving. I love diving but with the current situation I was a bit reluctant to do it, we talked to one of the dive operators and he gave me no confidence in his professionalism, we haven’t dove in a while and our equipment needs check and maintenance. Cédric didn’t gave up on the idea and kept looking for options. He found some info on another place on the other side of the bay. Finally, we were so fortunate to find Remi and Virginie. A french couple passionate about diving who have been in the island since 2017 and they run the Cabrits Dive Center. They are very professional, knowledgeable and friendly. They are also conscious of the situation and are taking precautions in that regard. They help us to do the maintenance on our equipment and then shared with us few spots in the island.

Spilt rock, Toucari North, Tube Reef, Shark Mouth, Coral Garden are some of the nice places we had the opportunity to see. Lots of different reef fish, coral gardens, shrimps, lobsters, fire worms, eel, lion fish and lots more. The water was 27 deg C. Good visibility, excellent to be back diving!

My underwater camera doesn’t go that deep so no pictures, sorry, but on the facebook page for Cabrits dive, they have lots of pictures form what we saw.

We also had a great surprise, all the time while we were diving we hear noises and Virginie and Remi told had told us there were noises of whales. I was a bit skeptical, as I didn’t think they will get so close to shore, until one day between dives we saw them. We went following them for a while and saw them few times, I think they stay underwater like 15min before we could see them again. (Whale’s video)

Unfortunately, we are not exempt of what is happening around the globe. And on March 22 they announced the first confirmed cased of COVID-19. Therefore, Dominica has now entered in a 14-day quarantine.

We went out to get some supplies before things start getting more difficult and now there is a lot of people on the streets wearing masks, supermarkets have now lines outside with people waiting 1.5m form each other and finding antibacterial soap or a mask was impossible.

Our planned itinerary has to change, we were thinking to go to Antigua even though the “Sail Antigua Week 2020” is cancelled but they are still open. However, new rules are being imposed and changing rapidly. So because we were in Martinique before if we go Antigua now we will be confined to the boat as soon as we arrive. Therefore, we will stay here.

Our diving friends told us, we could go to the next bay Toucari and take the buoy there. So one day we left the Portsmouth bay and went to Toucari. It was an excellent day for sailing, nice sun and also some dolphins playing with the bow of the boat on the way. (Video Dolphings) The bay was empty, it is a nice feeling to be alone. It reminded me of the times we were in the pacific with Thira. The caribbean is well more populated and is tiny in size in comparison. Therefore, so far all the bays we had been had always been full of boats.

The following day we went for another couple of dives with Remi and Virginie and in the afternoon just enjoyed the solitude of the bay. I did try to go look for the sea horse Remi told me that lives on the rocks but I couldn’t him. I thought we would have more opportunities to go look for him but we had a surprise visit on the afternoon.

With a bay to ourselves I wanted to go and take pictures of Happy Days in the sunset, alone in the bay. So we packed the camera, Cedric took the fishing line in case we had any luck and of we went for small stroll with “Happy Nights” (remember this is how we called our dinghty).

Halfway to the fishing and photoshop we saw the customs boat approaching and quickly we notice they came straight to Happy Days. A bit strange, as on the day before as soon as we anchored Cedric got in the water for a swim and got called to shore were the police made few questions and registered we were going to be there for a couple of days.

We went back to talk to them, couple of officers wearing masks and gloves. After some questions they asked us to go back to Portsmouth anchorage, the island is closing all borders and no cruising will be allowed. We ask for permission to stay overnight and go in the morning as it was already getting dark and might not be safe to arrived in the dark to Portsmouth. They were very understanding and told us going in the morning would be ok and that they will be doing more checks the following day.

Back to our Portsmouth anchorage where we will stay, not really knows until when. Looking at the map from the WHO, this is going to take long.

Dominica has already 11 cases. Therefore, these will be or new rules:

CURFEW

Night time – 6pm to 6am – lock down

Daytime – 6am to 6pm – stay home unless accessing or providing essential services

Weekend – 6pm Friday to 6am Monday – lock down – unless you have written permission or are a stated exception.

There is an extended curfew over the Easter weekend from 6:00 pm Thursday through 6:00 am Tuesday – no movement outside your boat or property.

We will see how it goes with all this now, we have enough food, water and we are healthy which is the most important part. Of course, we will need to figure out what to do with the time “at home”. But remember a boat always have a running “to do list” now, there will be no excuse to start working on them. We will have time.

Take care of yourselves where ever you are and I will update you in April!.