Lovely fish

Saxon Blue's Blog
Harvey Jones and Andrea Stokes
Thu 13 Jan 2011 03:13
Wednesday night

We had breakfast on the boat for a change, then went to the cafe for a quick coffee and to check our emails. Andrea and I then set off in a taxi to Grand Case, a French town slightly North of Marigot. It's renowned for its many restaurants which are arranged along the beachfront. We walked the length of the shore on the perfect golden sand getting wet occasionally from the waves. The whole place was pretty scruffy but looked picturesque with the palm trees and turquoise water.

It didn't take long to get to the other end of town so we turned around and Andrea investigated some boutiques looking for a top to wear in the sun. She found a lovely white one so that was a success. From there, we had to decide whether to go for a French lunch or choose a more Caribbean one. As we were in a French town, we decided to go for that and found a good-looking place specialising in fish. As it turned out, we got on personal terms with the fish before we got to eat them. The waiter brought a tray of different species for us to look at. Some looked pretty normal but there was what we'd call a Cow Fish among them and a crustacean which looked like a giant wood-louse.

We decided to have the Cow Fish and another one which I can't remember the name of. The Cow Fish is cooked and then its outer shell-like skin is removed so Andrea actually ended up with two naked, cooked fish sitting on her plate. It was lovely to eat, really succulent and cooked simply. We enjoyed just eating and talking, looking out over the water of the bay. Our plans are starting to come together at last. We're going to concentrate on visiting the places that we positively want to see rather than worry about visiting too many of the islands. At the moment, Andrea likes the sound of Saba and we fancy Barbuda as well. With Antigua offering us some British colonial history, that will get us going for now.

We returned to Saxon Blue and were discussing all that with Kali when we got a phone call from James at the sail loft. They'd nearly finished our mainsail so we can pick that up tomorrow morning allowing us to get underway on Friday. Andrea and I then went up to Fort Louis on the hill overlooking our marina. It was built by the French citizens of Marigot to protect themselves from the English who raided them almost every year. It was a lovely afternoon and the view from up there is superb - we could see right over the lagoon to the airport and the ships anchored off the other side of the island.

By the time we returned to Saxon Blue, it was almost dark and our dinner guest arrived soon after we did. Alden and Sam arrived here on a large catamaran from Italy which is now parked just opposite us in the marina. They're both from New Zealand and told us about their trip and about Alden's childhood, spent on a boat built by his father going around the world. It was a great story. They've just left and we're knackered again so I'm off to bed.

Harvey

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