POSITION 15:52.30N 61:35.11W LES SAINTES
Aurelia
Shirley and Michael Webb-Speight
Sat 27 Jan 2007 01:17
Our low point was Jamie's unfortunate encounter with a sea urchin (kina) - ended up with 38 spines in her foot and in great pain. Father did a running tour of the town looking for medical advice and ended up meeting a lovely fire person called Cecile. Her colleagues phoned a medical centre and after much too and fro in French and English it was determined that the urchin was of a non-dangerous variety and we should treat it with hot water and vinegar. Jamie was incredibly brave throughout, and though the foot is still sore there is no indication of infection so far.
Yesterday we visited the museum dedicated to the eruption. St Pierre is at the foot of a large volcano that did a major pyroclastic blow job in 1902, killing all 28,000 in town, except for a single prisoner who's cell had very thick walls! There are 8 or so wrecks indicated on the chart - all of which burned to the waterline in the same event. Every building was flattened and burned within the space of 3 minutes - the photos of the aftermath looked like a nuclear bomb site.
Jamie and her right foot spent the afternoon with Alan and Joyce on Sojouner - playing duets on her recorder with Alan on flute, reading and exploring their boat.
We left St Pierre at 0630 this morning after a lovely farewell dinner on the beach in front of the Pizza place. All back on board Aurelia for a great game of Cranium (MWS as Miss Piggy!!??) and a relatively early and more sober night.
Motor-sailed up past Dominica and finally found some breeze in flat seas for the last 20 miles. Anchor down in charmingly simply fishing village of Bourg des Saintes at 1730hrs - 72 miles.
Our next hook up is Richard and Sam from D'Accord who we met in Cephalonia. They are still stuck in Antigua with on going boat repairs, but hoping to move any time soon. We are in touch most days.
After that we had to the BVI's to meet up with Georgie Farinacci, (Shirley's AFS Mum) Doc, Anne and Lauren. We couldn't get visas for the USVirgins, or Puerto Rico, or USA. You can still fly in there and be on visa waver scheme, but you can not take your private boat in there without a visa. The visa was to be applied for in Barbados, but we didn't know that. This all came into being on 12 Dec when we were crossing the Atlantic. We heard nothing about it when we were in Barbados. Anyway you have to apply, have an interview, produce bank account details etc, and then they will think about it for 3 weeks. So much drama.