Commodore
April 29, 2021

The only PCR test site on the island

We were up early and checked out the hotel by 7am. Keith was driving us again and given strict instructions to help us negotiate our way through the Clinic procedure. We hit the suburbs of Roseau and the morning rush hour traffic, this is why we had to leave so early. Wonderful to be driven and not have to deal with some of the hair raising narrow passing places in the streets, which have huge culverts either side, with no protection whatsoever. These narrow streets, main roads now, were obviously built long before big cars arrived. We finally got to the clinic which is at the far end of the Botanical gardens. Keith cleverly managed to find a spot to park at the gates. There were a lot of people already waiting under Tents donated by Japan, we had the same donated tents in St Vincent. They made us queue up twice, first time to take our temperature and check id, then returned to the seats while everyone went through the process. Then finally called up again this time to get the swab. At least it was a lot gentler than we had at the quarantine dock! After two hours we were finally on our way. Keith stopped at the fresh produce market so we could do provisioning for our trip to St Barts (French island). We are thrilled we can get in with no quarantining, just a negative PCR as we have come from low risk Dominica.

Narrow roads with severe culverts, waiting like bear traps for unsuspecting vehicles!

I liked Mr Breedy’s sign at the Family Clinic.

We had tried to get a message to Elvis to say we were going to be a day late, but obviously unsuccessful. He was nowhere to be seen and we needed a lift to the boat. Luckily the Pays office was open and the receptionist finally managed to find someone to take us to the boat. All was good on PolePole, our laundry was returned, the only sadness was that Elvis did not water my herbs and both plants were frizzled.

In the afternoon we headed into Portsmouth town trying to get cash from the only two ATM’s in town, but both managed to block our cards. We needed a few provisions from the supermarket and headed on a long walk towards it, only to discover it had closed down, but there was another one nearby. We kept stopping people to get directions and invariably just told to get a bus or taxi, they can’t believe we will walk a mile or two in this heat. I began to think they were right when we returned with our heavy purchases, UHT milk being the biggest culprit.

Turkish Delight (the big catamaran) contacted us to see if we wanted to join them for supper, but we were already committed to eating at Madiba’s as we had been using their dinghy dock. So we made plans to do our trip down the Indian river with them tomorrow and then dinner on board their boat.