No problem, man!

After a speedy crossing from Saint-Pierre with gusty wind, a few showers, and a wild wave ride accompanied by boobies that catch fish off of our bow wave, we reach the main city of Dominica, Roseau. Marcus gives us a warm welcome. He has operated the set of buoys at the northern end of the bay for quite a few years. The water is very deep, and the drop-off is steep, so anchoring is not a great option. It is Marcus who tells us the first time, ‘No problem, man!’ and we will hear this numerous times during our stay on this island. It does actually seem to be that way: nothing is a problem that cannot be solved with a bit of good humour and some ganja.

Our Danish friends told us to definitely book a land-based trip in the south of the island, so we book that right away with one of Marcus’ friends for the next day.

Yankee is our driver the next day and immediately tells us, ‘To me, nothing is a problem!’. On a steep incline uphill and then downhill through dense forest, he brings us to ‘Freshwater Lake’, where we start an equally steep hike.

As we return to the mini-bus with the two girls, two tourists that were on the same tour with us are quite astonished that Chloé and Joséphine hiked the entire distance of steep uphill and downhill climbs over slippery stairs. The surroundings are an incredibly green jungle, and every few metres, we discover plants that we put in our living rooms in pots. Here, they just grow wild in the deepest of green forests.

Next, we visit ‘Titou Gorge’ where apparently a scene from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ was filmed. We swim all the way upstream to the waterfall, which lets us float down again in the cold water.

After a quick lunch, we continue to the ‘Trafalgar Falls, which are quite impressive. Later, we visit a stinking, hot sulphur source, but after Joséphine and Chloé only wanted to see the place with their noses pinched, we decide against a swim in one of the many ‘spas’ of the region; they all use stinky, sulphuric thermal water.

Happy and with lots of impressions we return to MIRABELLA that evening and are happy that our friends on ZOOK and ELLA have made their way to Roseau.

The next morning we all take our dingies to the ‘Champagne Reef’, where one can observe bubbles, again thermal, emerge from the sea floor. It is also a really nice snorkelling and diving spot, and there is a great diversity of fish and corals. We find a beautiful, secluded beach just around the corner and eagerly go ashore to discover things together with the kids.

The next day, we make our way north and anchor as the sole boat off Mero at a really nice beach that, apparently formed after a hurricane.

We are drawn northward of the island. In Portsmouth, we spend a few days on a mooring ball. We explore the town and ‘Indian River’, where, again, some scenes of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ were shot. We see iguanas, different herons, and crabs, and land (as everyone else on this tour does) in the bush bar, where they serve a mean rum punch and planteur. It’s a nice change of pace to be in a rowing boat for once, since using motors is not allowed on the ‘Indian River’.

We return to the beach and have a drink in the bar close to the dinghy dock, where we meet Alex and his son, Manuk, from Switzerland. They sail on the two-master TARZAN and the next day Joséphine is invited to play on the beach over the radio. So we spend the day on the beach and go on a tour together with Boudah, who is a botanist. We putter through the steep landscape, stop at a few sulfuric springs, and again and again to look at the many plants that grow on the island that all have a place in the traditional culture of the inhabitants of Dominica.

We hike to the ‘Bwa Nef Falls’ and take a swim under the water fall. After a stopover at Boudhas house, we arrive at the beach, fully packed with bananas, cocoa nuts, papayas, passion fruit, lemon grass, ginger, and much more.

What we hear repeatedly is that people put events in relation to hurricanes that struck the island, especially Maria, which in 2017 devastated a large part of the buildings, roads, and forests on the island. Where there is, again, lush greenery, there was mainly brown in the previous years.

One day later, ELLA and ZOOK also arrive in Portsmouth, and we spend the afternoon at the beach and race our dinghies (the kids in the ‘kids dinghy’) to the ‘Cherry Reggae Bar’ and dance to loud live music while we wait for our dinner.

The next day, Joséphine goes horseback riding with Mom along the beach of the ‘Cabrits National Park’. How proud she is to be sitting on the back of a horse for the first time in her life. As a special highlight, the ride even continues in the waves of the ocean.

After the horseback ride, we weigh anchor and head north for Guadeloupe. We have definitely not visited Dominica for the last time; what a beautiful place! We embrace the sentiment that nothing is a problem if you have the right mindset.