Martinique

Hi everyone from Fort de France Harbour in Martinique. This island is French and large. Only Dave is going ashore to check us into the country. We arrived Sunday at 2:30pm but everything is pretty much closed on Sundays here. We are anchored about 3.5 miles from where we have to check in so Dave took a ferry over as it is too rough to take our little tender. Dave needs a few boat parts and where we “check in” is actually in a Chandlery, run by a Canadian woman. We will head up to St. Pierre this afternoon and hope to provision. We read about St. Pierre and it looks quite nice with French wines, French bread, French cooking and French men! In France it is common to go topless or nude when sunbathing. It is quite evident where we are anchored. The man showered nude next to us on his sailboat (in broad daylight) and I can tell you he sunbathes with no clothes on. But of course that was only with a quick glance! I spoke to my parents on our Skype hookup and also spoke to home. So it was nice hearing everyone again, James is bringing some things we need down. Just after I hung up from my mom Traci screamed so loud, I didn't understand what happened. It turns out there was a bat lost here on our back cockpit. This poor bat heard Traci (she frightens easily anyway) that the bat flew off scared to death. This morning there was a turtle about 20inches diameter swimming around the boat down below, he would come up for air every five minutes or so, but not long enough for a picture. There must have been something good to eat at the bottom somewhere.

On our journey here yesterday, Paul put the fishing line out and lo and behold I yelled “fish” and Dave is looking around the boat thinking there is a fish jumping somewhere beside us in the water... Paul grabs the rod but we lost the pink girlie lure we were using. It had to be large. Now the story is what could've, would've or should've done to bring that large fish in safely. We had homemade chicken pizza instead of fish, no one complained one bit.

We are in St. Pierre right now, and enjoyed going into town and got a few more groceries. It is not too expensive (Euros) but selection is limited in the grocery store for fruits and vegetables. We were not able to do laundry as the laundromat is in French and some master machine controls all machines... in other words, too high tech and language barrier. Paul bought himself some excellent French wines at a super price. We are heading into St. Pierre again this morning as there is a “market” set up with fruits and vegetables. We will then head to Rousseau, Dominica this afternoon. About 30 miles so will contact everyone there. There is a quite a large marina there catering to the tourists. We will be there Wed. too. Goodbye for now.