Saturday, January 11 - Roseau, Dominica

 I forgot to mention that we had an afternoon lecture yesterday by James Grant-Peterkin titled "The History of the Bermuda Triangle" which he thought was safe to give since we had already passed through the area.  He told us about some of the famous ship and plane disappearances and gave us possible explanations.  I believe the last one was in the 1960s.  I didn't know that there is an area directly opposite on the globe near Japan that has a similar phenomena.  One possible explanation for the disappearances is the shifting of the magnetic north of the planet which could have interfered with navigating before the days of reliable GPS.  At least, that's what I think he said.

No lecture this morning, but they did have Trivia.  Bo and Bob weren't there, but another couple (whose names I never got) joined Roger and us and we did our usual 10/15.  We docked at Roseau (pronounced Ro-So) at 1 pm and our tour to the Sulphur Hot Springs left at 2:15.  We rode in one of 3 8-passenger busses up into the hills for 20 minutes or so, to the springs location.  It was pretty basic, but the hot pools were very relaxing.  They were hot enough that we only spent about 20 minutes in it.  We were provided with a liquid refreshment and the local beer was most welcome.

Downtown Roseau, the capital



Dominica got its independence in 1978 from Great Britain.  It was controlled by both the British and the French over the years and there are influences everywhere.  English is the national language and they drive on the left.  The population of around 70,000 is 60% Roman Catholic.

Before dinner, we were having a cocktail at the Mariner Lounge.  Bill Lee (one of the speakers) and his wife wandered in looking for seats, so we invited them to join us.  After a bit, we went in to dinner together.  They live in Toronto and he worked for IBM for many years in programming and data analysis and she worked for a bank.  I've mentioned that sometimes his lectures are a bit over my head (my eyes cross when he talks about quantum mechanics or physics), but dinner was a lot of fun.  We talked about a wide range of subjects, only some of which were in his field, so it was nice to see that he is a regular guy.  It turns out that he did give a lecture this morning on the Hubble Telescope, which I had intended to attend, but it slipped my mind.  Oops.  Sorry, Bill.


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