MARTINIQUE, VOILA .........

A quick run past the lee of DOMINICA and we reached the main centre of ROSEAU where the water drops from 10ft to 60ft to 600ft for every boat length off the beach ......... We picked up a mooring to be safe for the night before doing the crossing to Martinique ....... One of the very few times we have ever taken a mooring ........... A catamaran came in with one side of their lazy jacks broken and I offered to repair it by replacing their broken line with one of ours ........ Just a short ride up the mast ....... By morning we were away to cross the channel to MARTINIQUE and a whole new world of French vibrancy and colour ..... Anchored in the early afternoon in St. Pierre beneath the green volcano of MONT PELEE, now dormant but in 1902 it blew its head off and buried the town in ash ....... It's taken more than a hundred years to slowly rebuild it ......... But much of the ruins remain.....



The church that dominates the town of St. Pierre was built, or at least started, in 1665 and shortly thereafter became known as "The pirates' Church", for the pirates donated their 'booty' generously, but it wasn't until 1856 that it had become a Cathedral and the two towers were completed with the bells installed, only to have it all incapacitated by the eruption of 1902 ........ Killing over 30,000 people.





Much of the foreshore remains as it was before the eruption with perhaps minor changes here and there, including this new 'floating dock' for the fishermen made entirely of 'leggo' blocks ..........



Both of us having come recently from 'FLAT FLORIDA' are continuosly being taken by surprise to see dwellings and communities in little bays at the base of shadowy mountains and valleys, but what a pleasure to see the way the French do their intergrated re-cycling ...... Trash goes into the incinerators with the catalytic converters in the chimneys and the heat generated powers the electrical transformers and the desalination plant, while the residual metals are pelletised and sent away for extraction of the various metals ......... No trash mountains here ............ By midmorning on the next day the anchor is down in the bay in front FORT DE FRANCE, the Capital of MARTINIQUE with its eye-catching Cathedral that dominates the skyline ........



We are two days ahead of "CARNIVALE" and the town is already a riot of colour, style and noise (Though it could be music)............ You have to come and see the way these people dress up in their finery ..... (and you will) .... Such flair and glamour ........... They are all French of course, but even the normal French are not this 'grand' ...... Best of all is the huge dinghy dock, built of hardwood and stainless steel, and is the best we have ever seen and right there in the middle of town and as long as 'a sleepless night' ...... Even checking in with Customs and Immigration was completely free and done on-line in a marine store ....... We just have to get this procedure looked at by the TSA and 'Homeland Security' .........



Look at this magnificent building which is now the library in Fort de France ...... Originally it was built and put on exhibition in Paris in 1889 and then dis-assembled piecemeal, shipped to MARTINIQUE and re-erected, sort of STAUE OF LIBERTY style .......

But if you really want to see something extraordinary, then take a look at this young couple, Max and Gerda from Germany, who sailed their boat FIRA across the Atlantic Ocean in order to have a couple of months holiday in the Caribbean ....... That's three thousand miles of open ocean, with about eighteen inches of freeboard and an open cockpit ........... It took them twenty-seven days and you can see the marks on the hatch cover to prove it ..... Not sure if they were made with a knife or with fingernails ..... But that adventure takes 'BALLS' ......... Speaking of which, check out this item in the supermarket .......The Euro price is about $US 1.30 a lb..... Not a bad price really, though it going to take 'some' to eat 'some' .....



Meantime, we are getting ready to celebrate in style ........... This Carnival will be something else ............. The "Queen of Florida and the Bahamas" is ready already ...... And so are 'Les Deux Mademoiselles' ......