Dominica, Caribbean without the tourists...

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This is the first entry of few more entries to come soon, spent on the seas in the Caribbean. I board for a week the Club Med 2, the biggest five masts sail boat in the world. I will speak a lot more in the coming entries about the cruise experience. But one thing for sure, due to the people I met, this week ended up being a wonderful one.



I had been on the Club Med 2 fifteen years ago to cruise Turkey and Greece. That was a pretty cool trip too, way prior to my time on Travelblog. I wanted to come back, but never found the opportunity. There are few islands I wanted to see in the Caribbean, but most of them are only great for a day or two, and going from one to the next can be really expensive. So a cruise, which at the end of the day is nothing else than a hotel on the move, is a great way to cover few of these new territories in just a week!



We board in Fort-de-France, Martinique, just before sunset...and sail at 11pm all the "short" way to Dominica. The Club Med 2 can take at full capacity 370 guests...for a total of 210 staffs. We were 280 guests this week....perfect ratio. A boat full of people to meet...but not full enough to have to endure any queue! Bear in mind, this is still a cruise ship, so average age is never young! This week wasn't that bad...we scored a 58 for the average age!



The sail to Dominica brought us to Portsmouth. The little port doesn't have any proper cruise ship berth. That's great news, meaning none of the massive cruise ships will ever land here. So to reach the shore, it's on the "beacher" for a 5 minutes ride. I took the first one as I had few things to do on my own. The pleasure of such a ship is the possibility to go out of the "resort" every morning...and to feel as if you were the only tourist around. Nice!



I had booked 2 dives with Peter from Cabrits Dive Center (and not dive Dominica as I mentioned earlier while first writing this blog). Well, that was the intention. No operator would go out with a single diver for the day, they would simply lose money by doing so. But 24 hours ahead, and after few phones calls, Peter told me, don't worry, whatever happens, we are going, be there at 8.30am. Good news for Peter...and me, Monica, a Swedish experienced diver already on the island joined at the last minute.



I love the way Peter is running Dive Dominica. No crap going around, he loves to dive, and share it with his guests. I had an amazing morning with him, Monica and Gina. The diving was nice...amazing visibility, spear fishing few lion fishes and some nice sponges and corals.



Portsmouth is a little town. Not much around. Not a single gorgeous beach. They have an international medical university attracting people from around the region and from the States, giving a little international touch to the place. Time was not on my side, I had to be back on the boat, ended up catching one of the last "beacher" back to the boat...for a fun evening.



Next stop....more tourists, amazing beaches, and some lobster on the go...oh yes, and Dominica, independent since 1978, was on my count, country number 125 visited....

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Diving
Great

[Maisondubonheur]

Should be lseeping more before writing a blog!
I made a big mistake on this blog. The dive center is call Cabrits Dive Center....I think I've been spending way too much time in planes the last few days...