On Saturday morning, August 28th, Weston Moses and Kerry Alleyne paddled off of Soufriere’s waters as they had many times before. This time, however, would be different.
Moses and Alleyne, friends and business partners, were set to become the first people in modern history to circumnavigate Dominica in single sea touring kayaks.
Of course, they’re fully aware and humbled by the many natives such as the Kalinago and Arawaks who have paddled these waters before them. The Caribbean has a rich history of paddling. In the modern-day, however, the feat remains unrecorded.
Moses said the journey around the island was like being in a totally different country — a marine utopia any determined person can achieve by pushing their boundaries. And Day Three proved the most challenging of them all.
Rounding the northern end of the island, paddling into the Guadeloupe channel, the two men experientially understood the Dominican saying “to be behind God’s back.”
With the sun rising on the horizon, the steep windswept cliffs of Waitukubuli on their right, and with two waterfalls falling off the cliffs into the sea, the two felt humbled by the beauty of nature.
Soon, Moses and Alleyne were out of the Guadeloupe channel and headed to the northwest coast of Calibishie. In paddling south, an opposing current on one occasion almost matched the men’s best paddle speeds.
The men moved slowly, riding the waves refracting from the cliffs and unexpectedly making progress closer to the shore. Nearing Cailibishie, an unassuming riptide right in front of the guesthouse provided easy passage to land.
Moses and Alleyne later learned that several tourists had been swept away in that same location. That day they enjoyed lunch and dinner at the Verandah View Guesthouse. They had paddled 24 km in 3 hours and 43 minutes.
The guesthouse gave them a remarkable view of the sea’s foreboding rip current below which would provide their way through the surf the next morning.
This article is copyright © 2021 DOM767
