Fort de France, Martinique
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 16 Jan 2008 15:05
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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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