Martinique

May 18, 2011

Martinique is a large island. St. Pierre on it NW coast was quaint and looked typically French with two story buildings with tiny doors to access the upstairs living quarters. The Town Hall was pretty though in need of painting.It had a large clock which rang the hours. They actually had a computer driven self serve laundramat. If we had stayed, I would have used it. As you put the money into the machine you indicate which machine you are going to use. There is no way to put money or tokens into an individual machine. The dryers work the same way. since we could not check in we left the next day.

May 19, 2011

Fort du France is the largest city we have seen since leaving Charleston. All along the coast of Martinique one sees large and medium size apartment buildings. Fort du France is located on the NW side of Martinique. The bay is huge and there are several communities around it. Fort du France has the port and is the capital of Martinique. It is a bustling city

with all kinds of stores where the locals shop. There are many high rise apartment buildings. Fort du France has three ferry docks and a cruise

ship dock. They also have a huge dinghy dock all along the harbor all along a huge pretty waterfront park with kiosks and a large gazebo. We found the chandlery

where one checks in for Customs and shopped in the chandlery. Then we went down a block to a very clean air conditioned cyber cafe. Charlie saw the Norwegians from our tour in Dominica and had a beer with them while I was doing the blog. We also saw the couple from PA/Chesapeake in town and met them for a dinner in an outside sidewalk cafe which had delicious food. The French don't believe in rushing any meal so it was dark when we finished. We saw what we guessed was a dress rehearsal being held in the large park. There were costumed dancers and a band on the stage. We followed the PA couple back to the boat since they had a light and we had left ours on the boat. It rained off and on all afternoon and evening.

May 20, 2011

We explored more of Fort du France trying to

find a closer wifi cafe but the ones listed in the guide were no longer in business.We did see some nice squares, gardens, pedestrian malls. We stopped for a cool drink at one of the many kiosks in town along squares which abound throughout. There was even a large mall in the center of town with restaurants and a Carrefour supermarket

I went in to check it out while Charlie rested. I will have to go back later to shop before we go back in the dinghy. We need a few things as well as more beer, wine, liquor and cokes. There are many small food shops and small clothing stores. A number of shops have hundreds of pairs of shoes.

We walked back to the cybercafe we knew of especially since it is air conditioned. It was hot and muggy all day. I felt like I was walking around in a sauna. We decided to have lunch at The Crew which was recommended in the Cruising Guide. The guide said it was very popular with businessmen for lunch.

We went late hoping most would have finished lunch and had a great meal. The owner or manager collects models of Ford Mustangs and had a Route 66 sign up and a picture of himself and a Mustang on Route 66. Since he spoke good English, he helped wait on us. The interior was dark wood in the bar and throughout the restaurant they had ship models, paintings of lighthouses and sea captains, and fishing nets. I walked back to the large supermarket while Charlie read in the park and shopped for souveniers. I was disappointed in the supermarket. I only bought bread ( white ug), cokes and beer. They did not have the veggies I needed nor crackers. I guess the French just use French bagettes instead of

crackers. Charlie had met a young couple from France who were working in Fort du France earning money to continue sailing. Their boat was anchored where ours was, but their dinghy had disappeared recently. They did recover it and get it back to their boat but did not yet know if it was damaged as it had been deflated. We offered to take them to their boat in our dinghy so they could try to inflate it. Charlie would pick them up and take them to shore after they checked it out. This is typical cruiser behaviour of helping each other out.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Charlie took me to shore so I could go to the Vegetable Market which was a long walk from the dinghy dock. I was also going to try to buy ice. It had rained most of the night and was still raining. I was able to buy some little carrots, some lovely lettuce, tomatoes, and two small pineapples. I could not find ice anywhere. While I was shopping, Charlie visited the "Golden Hind", a recent arrival at the anchorage. It was built as a replica to Sir Francis Drake's boat in British Columbia, Canada. Somewhere along the line, they had lost two of the three masts. The crew were Czech Republic who could speak only a little English. Charlie was invited aboard and given a tour. One mate offered to draw a picture of our boat for $50. Charlie also changed the oil in our generator. It rained most of the day. I did watch some sailboat races

out in the bay. They went around a nearby red buoy so we had a good view. During a lull in the rain, we decided to try to find ice around the end of the Fort in the next inlet where fuel, water and ice were reported to be available. We were not totally sure of where this was. We only had a picture in the Cruising Guide. We did succeed in finding it and we bought ice at the fuel dock tucked away in the back. We had to wait until another shower dropped its rain before setting back to the boat. Charlie then picked up his drawing/watercolor of our boat in front of the Fort from the Golden Hind boat.