Raining hard on and off again so after texting with Scott and Carol, we elect to cancel the river tour. Christy and I dinghy in to find Andrew – he doesn’t mind. We also buy tickets for tonight’s PAYS BBQ (it happens every Sunday). BTW PAYS stands for Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security – or something like that.
While we’re ashore and since it has stopped raining Christy and I wander towards the Cabrits park and peninsula. At the end of the beach is the massive, defunct Cabrits Hotel and Spa. It’s huge, seems to be well built but completely abandoned. We learn later what a fiasco this was – it was constructed around 2012 or so, nearly completed in 2015 but never opened. There are still notices online where the Dominican government is desperately looking for someone to operate it. It was built by the Moroccan government – we suspected as much as the styles of Morocco are all over it, including the restaurant which they call Medina. This was clearly a giant money-laundering scheme.
We head back to Milu and work on chores. It clears up in the afternoon and Scott and Carol suggest going on the river tour anyway but we decline. I can’t get too far on my attempt to get the chain counter working because every time I go outside it starts raining. I do get far enough to know I’m going to have to take apart the windlass a bit, perhaps dig into the wiring under the forward berth.
Around 6:30 pm we dinghy into PAYS and get settled in for the BBQ. It starts out very quiet but pretty soon the place is hopping. The unlimited rum punch starts flowing at 7 pm, I’m drinking the virgin variety. We’re sitting at a table with 2 Americans – Mike and Scott and a Swedish family of 3 – parents and their adult son.
It’s pretty loud with the DJ and I can’t hear the Swedes to my right so talk mostly with Mike and Scott. I’m betting Mike has about 10 of the 6 ounce rum punches. By the time dinner is done he’s pretty lit.
The BBQ chicken is good, we go back for seconds. Eventually people start dancing and Christy and I join in. Here we are, dancing barefoot in the sand in Dominica.
Head back to Milu about 10 pm.