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Diane's Diary4/21 Saturday Glad to be back to the land of croissants, baguettes, wine & cheese! We are in Martinque. We were exhausted from our trip yesterday & didn't get a good nights' sllep last night either so we actually slept in this morning. We got the dinghy launched & went into town to find customs. Customs was not in so we just walked around town. St. Pierre was destroyed in 1902 when Mt. Pele erupted & killed all 30,000 townspeople except a criminal in jail. They have a fantastic museum about the eruption. There are lots of ruins around town but the one most interesting is the theater. We enjoyed waking around town. We were still tired from our trip so went back to the boat around 1 & relaxed for the rest of the day. 4/22 Sunday We walked around town for 1.5 hours today. All the stores were closed because it's Sunday but we enjoyed our walk. We came back to the boat & relaxed the rest of the day. We had rain last night & no wind- same thing this morning. But now the winds have picked up as the forecaster said they would. I wrote some emails & caught up on my logs. A nice quiet Sunday. 4/23 Monday We were at the customs office by 8:30 this morning but he still isn't here. We've stopped here several times & still haven't found him in. So, technically, we are illegal, as we haven't checked into the country yet. We took a long walk this morning up to the Depaz rum distillery. We left around 8:30 but it was still very hot. It took us about 40 minutes to walk up there. It was uphill the last 30 minutes. It was a nice walk but the heat can sure get to you! We didn't buy any rum as the supermarket in town has better prices & we would have had to carry it back. We enjoyed the tour & of course the free samples! So far, we are not impressed with French rum- their wine is much better! We went for a pizza lunch & then back to the boat to rest after that long walk. 4/24 Tuesday We left for Anse Mitan at 9 this morning. A late start but we only had to go a short distance. We wound up motoring the whole way as the batteries needed to be charged badly- we had no wind or sun in St. Pierre for a few days. That is very unusual in the Caribbean- usually we have one or the other or sometimes if we are lucky- both! Anyway, as we turned into Fort-de France Bay the wind was naturally on our nose so we had to continue to motor. We got into the anchorage around 12. We ate lunch, rested & launched the dinghy around 3 to go into town. We met other cruisers- Mark & Ann from s/v Cameron. Turns out lucky we met them & we gave them our boat card so they knew our boat name. We told them we were going into Fort-de-France tomorrow to clear in. See tomorrows log! We had drinks with Theresa & Patrick from Kanja- another American boat anchored near us. We have invited them over tomorrow night for drinks. 4/25 Wednesday We took the 8:30 ferry to Fort-de-France, which left at 8:20. Another cruiser told us the ferries never leave on time- early or late but never on time! We cleared into customs & then walked around town. We met Andy & Lodi from Cat House in a marine store. They were leaving the next day & gave us 90 minutes of computer time they had left! We are going to come back another day so Larry can update the website. We enjoyed walking around- it's the first "big" city we've been in since we left NY in Dec! We had lunch at Marie Saintes restaurant that 4 guidebooks recommended for Creole food. $10USD each for appetizer, main course & desert. I had red snapper- it was great except it was the whole fish & I hate bones. Good restaurant though. We wanted to take the 4:30 ferry back but somehow it never showed up so we had to wait till 5pm We walked back to the boat & from on top of the hill we saw that our boat was still there. Good! Except it looked far back in the anchorage- ok maybe the other boats left & we are now the last boat out. We got to the boat & things didn't look right. We saw a note from S/V Kanja- they had decided to leave. Then, we read another note from S/V Cameron- our boat had dragged & they reset it with the help of the boat next to us- s/v Nirvana!!!. Nirvana saw our boat drag into another unoccupied boat & called us on the VHF radio. Naturally, we didn't hear it as we were in FDF! Thankfully, we had met Cameron yesterday & had given them our boat card so they knew our boat name. They knew we had gone into FDF for the day. They helped Nirvana reset the anchor. I have been sailing with Larry almost 20 years now & that is only the second time we have ever dragged. We had been in our spot almost 24 hours before we dragged. When they tried to reset the anchor, it dragged a second time. Apparently, we must have been on coral or something . Or maybe someone went over our anchor line. Anyway, we were both extremely shaken up. If it had not been for those 2 boats we might have hit the small reef behind our boat or drifted into FDF bay. One of the best things about this trip is the other boaters we have met. Everyone is always willing to help other boaters out- at least this is true for the Americans & Canadians. We hardly knew the other two boats & yet they willingly helped us out .The French don't help out & anchor far too close to other boats. We were extremely grateful to both boats, & went over to thank them. We invited them to drinks tomorrow night as a thank you. We had a light dinner. I know I did not sleep well that night! 4/26 Thursday Laundry day. Laundry in the French islands is very expensive. I washed 3 loads & it cost $15USD. It would have been double that had I dried it also. So, I trucked it all back to the boat (I have discovered that wet laundry is EXTREMELY heavy) & hug it up to dry. Larry put up a clothesline for me since the boat was covered in salt. I made some sausage & peppers for dinner & food for our cocktail hour. We had s/v Cameron & s/v Nirvana over for cocktails & all had a great time. 4/27 Friday Larry's birthday! I had gotten him a cruising guidebook while we were in Guadeloupe so at least I had a present for him. I wasn't able to get him a card as they were all in French. I took a long walk around town this morning looking for another birthday present for him but really didn't find anything. We went to a really nice restaurant called Havana Café & had great fajitas. Afterwards we walked around a little (to walk off that huge meal) & met with Nirvana & Cameron. They were going for ice cream & invited us along. I was not hungry but Larry had ice cream in addition to the crepe he had at lunch! We walked around the town some more. Nirvana asked us all over for cocktails so off we went. I had put a really nice expensive bottle of wine into the refrig for Larry's birthday- guess it will have to wait! We all had a nice time. |