We
arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica on Sunday afternoon, and as we
entered the Prince Rupert Bay anchorage, we were greeted (or more
accurately, we were bombarded) by several boat boys on their wooden
dingys who were soliciting their services as tour guides,
fruit/veggie/ice delivery, flag sales, etc. The boat boys continued
to approach us as we anchored and for a couple hours after we had
anchored. We ended up getting some ice and fruit from one of them
which we discovered was a huge mistake since the charge was really
high. One of the guys that approached us was driving around to all
of the boats to invite us to the “Sunday cruisers BBQ”. He was
more official looking than most of the other boat boys, and he had
the “PAYS” symbol on the side of his dingy, so we hailed him down
a couple hours later and purchased tickets to the BBQ, figuring it
would be a good place to meet some other cruisers.
Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth, Dominica
The
Sunday cruisers BBQ is a weekly event held by the PAYS association to
promote and help fund PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security)
during which they collect money to support their efforts. The PAYS
association is a group of 5 or 6 yacht service/tour guide companies
that recently started the association to encourage cruisers to anchor
in the Prince Rupert Bay as they offer security to all cruisers in
the anchorage, patrolling the large bay day and night. They also have
official tour guides that are experienced and trained on all the
major hikes and attractions in Dominica. The association was started
a few years ago when crime was high in the Portsmouth area which had
a serious impact on the tourism in the area which is the main
industry and economic source for Dominica.
We
took the dingy over to the BBQ that evening which was held in the
PAYS event pavilion on the beach. The place was packed with
cruisers, probably 80 people, most of which spoke French or other
European languages. We took our rum punch, which they immediately
offered to us, and we found a spot at a table with 4 older couples
who were speaking English. The couple sitting next to us, Penny and
Dick, had been cruising for the past year on their catamaran. They
had spent a lot of time in Grenada and were heading north. One of
the other couples at the table were their friends that were visiting
from California. And the fourth couple was from Washington state,
also catamaran owners, and long-time cruisers. We enjoyed hearing
about everyone’s travels and picked up some good tips on cruising
around the windward islands (all of them were heading North, so they
had just come from the islands we were planning to hit). After
dinner, the PAYS guys cleared out the picnic tables, turned the
pavilion into a dance floor, and turned up the music. We spent the
rest of the night dancing with all the cruisers.
Sunset behind Kalalau our first night in Portsmouth
Sunday Night BBQ cruisers dancing in the sand
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