Hike to Fort Shirley and the Summit of West Cabrit

In a previous post we suggested that "Cabrit" means "hill", because the places on several islands called Cabrit were so hilly. This was error; cabrit is French for "goat".

After a morning of work on ILENE trying to fix the source of an occasional bilge smell, and then a visit to Volare where Roger whipped the ends of many of its lines and taught the Bound family how to do this, producing a more nautical and neat look than does the use of electrical tape to prevent fraying of the ends of ropes, we walked to the fort, which is in the valley between the two Cabrit hills, the western one taller than the eastern, which, with the separating valley, comprise the westward jutting peninsula that protects the north side of Prince Rupert Bay. Landward of the peninsula is swampland which formerly was a malaria source that resulted in Portsmouth not becoming the capital city of Dominica.

The fort is being seriously restored, providing a history lesson to us all. At its foot is a dock used for "adventure" cruise lines -- sailing ships.

The next photo shows the bay from the fort. ILENE is one of the boats out there.

And this photo shows the reciprocal view: the fort from our boat. The red roofed buildings are the fort and one can see that they are not at the summit.

The rest of our hike was more vertical but its top was disappointing because the gun placed there was overgrown with trees that cut off most of what would have been a commanding view. We sympathized with the slaves rented by the British to pull heavy cannon

up such steep hills. The next photo shows, left to right, Andy and Lori Bound and Ilene; the photo does not do justice to the steepness of the trail however.



Guadeloupe, from which we sailed here, is clearly in view in the background, below. Isles des Saintes are so small that they are lost against the big main island behind them.

Returning to the coastal road, we followed it south a mile past the point where we left our dinghy and it became the main commercial street in this very small rural and fishing town. We passed many shops and purchased vegetables, bread and coconut milk, before returning to our dink, our boat, a good home cooked meal and a viewing of the Bound's copy of a DVD of "Pirates of the Caribbean".