Fort de France, Martinique

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 16 Jan 2008 15:05
14:35.926N  61:04.183W
 
On Friday (1/11) we motored the short 13 miles from St. Pierre to Fort de France on Martinique.  It was a beautiful day, but there was no wind (very unusual for the Caribbean).  It was the first time we've had to motor for any distance since we arrived in St. Thomas.  Thankfully, we have not been supporting the oil and gas industry to the degree we were back when we were traveling down the coast of Nova Scotia.  This is a good thing as we have not had to buy fuel since Norfolk, but understand from the scraps of news we hear now and then that the cost of oil continues to rise.  One more thing to add to the list of reasons why it is quite excellent to live on a sailboat in the tropics - no need to buy gas for a car and very little need to buy diesel for the boat.
 
Fort de France is the capitol of Martinique, and the biggest city we've seen since arriving in the Caribbean.  We were surprised at how odd all of the noise of the city seemed to us.  When walking around we had to dodge cars and people and listen to the noise of construction.  All things we haven't had to deal with since November.  Picture 1 is our view of Fort de France from where we were anchored in the bay.  Picture 2 is Fort St. Louis (also as seen from our anchorage), which is an old fort built by the French to keep an eye on (and take pot shots at) the Brits as they passed by on the way to their strongholds in St. Lucia (south) or Antigua (north).
 
We didn't spend much time in Fort de France sightseeing, but we did seek and find extremely cheap (inexpensive) French wine.  $80 for a case plus two liters of vodka.  Not bad, eh?  We would have bought more, but the duty free store was about out of stock due to the presence of a French navy ship in the harbor (the French sailors apparently like to drink).  By the time the duty free store owner transported us back to the dinghy dock with our stash (very nice of him to give us ride as the walk to the store was pretty hefty - he claimed he had nothing better to do), the rest of Fort de France was buttoned up for the weekend.  Almost everything closes down at 1pm on Saturday.  After dumping the wine and liquor off at the boat, we went back to the city and found a nice place that was open for lunch.  The French really know how to do food - everything we've had in Martinique has been excellent.
 
We spent Saturday night on the boat and were entertained by this quite marvelous sunset (picture 3).  On Sunday, before we left Fort de France for a small bay further down the coast of Martinique, we had a surprise visit from three Martinique customs agents.  They came alongside our boat at anchor, tied up and boarded.  After a few minutes it became clear that their visit was strictly a customs 'spot' check, and they weren't going to arrest us for not paying duty on the wine we bought or anything like that.  While one guy filled out paperwork, the other two conversed with us in a strange mix of French and broken English.  They were intrigued with our boat because it was built in France, and they were especially amazed at the fake teak deck.  They really thought it was real teak, and asked us several times if it was really plastic.  After we told them yes, they wanted to know what kind of plastic, and how would they research such a plastic if they wanted to know more about it?  Once they found out Don was a Plastics Engineer, they just wouldn't let go of the topic.  The conversation went something like this,
'How you research plastic?' they asked. 
Don and I looked at each other, not sure how to answer such a broad question.  We went for the easiest answer, 'Research on the internet.' 
'Internet?' they asked?
'Yes, in-ter-net.' we said.
They were still confused.
Don brightened, 'Google!' he said.
'Ah! Google!' they said.  Thank goodness for the international language of Google.
They went on to ask us where we were going, so we showed them the world map with our route marked on it.  This was followed by lots of discussion in French.  Then the one guy finished the paperwork, and the three of them sat for a little longer admiring the spaciousness of our cockpit.  'Comfortable!' they said.  One of them bounced up and down a little bit on the cushion he was sitting on, 'Nice!' he said.  Then it was time for them to go.  They all got up, climbed back into their boat and pushed off, waving as they went. 
 
Wow.  Don't we wish all customs visits were that pleasant.
Anne

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