25 - What a life!

As I type this we are driving back to Ft. Lauderdale to catch a plane back to Guadalupe where our girl is waiting (we hope patiently) for us in Marina Bas de Fort in Pointe-‘a-Pietre.  We’re listening to a song called “Best Day of My Life”.  How apropos!!!!   

We’ve just spent a few days back in Florida where we were able to spend time with many of our amazing Florida family and few of our special ones from Kentucky too.  While it certainly seems like every day these days is the best day, it’s impossible to pick one day much less even one place that's our favorite.  It seems infeasible but each day seems to bring something new - some fabulous, some interesting, and yes, some not so great - that allows us to grow and really appreciate this wonderful life we’ve been given.  I was talking with our very good friend Polya this weekend about change.  Polya read recently that one should be in a different place at a minimum every year (emotionally, intellectually, etc.)…......  Well, we’re certainly working on that!

We left Martinique and sailed north back to Dominica for a reunion of sailors we sailed with from Virginia.  It was so great to see people we hadn’t seen in months.  I guess the theme of this post is again that it’s the people you meet along your life’s journey that are what it’s all about.  The Salty Dawg group arranged a week with the perfect combination of both charity events and parties.  We loved it all.  Dominica is filled with such natural beauty and is (so far) mostly unspoiled.  In the 5 days we were there, we helped a local orphanage, toured the islands rainforests and coastlines, emerged in a gorgeous and really powerful waterfall, had a great scuba dive, toured a chocolate factory (with free tastings), went hunting for both lion fish and Cuban tree frogs – both of which are invasive species to the natural habitat of this wonderful island - and still found time to catch up with our boating friends. 

We’ll add our pictures here but go to www.sailmates.org to see Alison’s account of our week.

Deciding that we decided that we needed to fly back to Florida for business and fun, we arranged dockage for the boat and flights for us out of Guadalupe.   During our week in Dominica, we participated in a daily VHF radio net where everyone tunes in with announcements about the daily plans and if anyone needs help.  Well, on our last morning, someone announced that they had “two lovely girls” who needed a ride to Guadalupe. While Pedro, said he wanted to see how lovely before we committed, MaryAnn hailed them and offered a ride.   Who could have known how lovely (inside and out) these two girls were.  They are Nici and Lena aged 24 from Ulm, Germany who are backpacking through the Caribbean, Miami Beach, Mexico and Peru for a couple of months.   We had planned to just give them a ride to Les Saints - an island that is part of Guadalupe- where they would catch a ferry to the mainland and then catch their plane to Miami in a couple of days.   By the time we arrived in Les Saints and hooked up with Equus (Dan and Alison) and Free At Last (Yves and Lou Lou), MaryAnn decided that we were adopting the girls - hey, they’re already finished with university and have jobs.

Les Saints was charming and quintessentially France!  The colorful little houses, the quaint cathedral, the farmer’s market and everyone riding around on their Vespa scooters with a baguette of french bread under their arm.  The town was friendly and just plain adorable.  We decided, rather than a stuffy restaurant – although they looked amazing – we would get groceries and bar-b-que on a nearby nature reserve island.  We still had some lion fish  (no, we didn't get to keep any of the tree frogs) from our diving excursion so we bought chicken wings and some veggies to grill. We had most of the island to ourselves - we didn't mind sharing with the goats - so we hiked a bit before taking over the picnic area. Again, another fabulous dinner.

The girls ended up staying with us 2 more days and riding into Guadalupe where they were very helpful as we med moored for the very first time.   This involves tying off the bow of the boat to a mooring ball and backing towards the dock all the while fending off the boats on both sides.  Happily, we did made it into the spot with no incidences.  Celebratory beers all around!!

The next morning, we tearfully bid the girls au revior , auf wiedersehen , adieu with promises that we would get together in the next few months when we get to Europe.  We even made tentative plans to attend Oktoberfest in either Munich or Stuttgart.   

We had a couple of days to get the boat cleaned and settled in her new  temporary home, get laundry done and decide what we needed to pack before we too were on a plane for Florida. While in FL, MaryAnn’s main objective (Pedro said something about work) was to arrange a long overdue party with Janice, Rick, Larry and Michelle.  A little over a year ago, they bought a gift package that included our friend Roberto Barba – he's the owner and head chef of Caffe Positano in Apopka, FL – coming over to one or both of their houses to cook for a party of up 20 people.  We finally had a date when all involved were available, so a party was planned.  Many of our wonderful Cocoa Beach people were able to attend and as usual Roberto dazzled everyone with the food.   We were able to again raise money – the gift package was the result of a charity auction - for Tabitha’s House, a girl’s orphanage in Haiti that our friends' Pery and Suzanne (along with their Merritt Island church) support.   A completely fabulous evening!

We were also able to meet up with Joel and Jamie – the founders of this wonderful Cocoa Beach group of friends we love so much – as well as our friend Doug whom we hadn’t seen since we left Connecticut.  We spent time with Sam, Betty and Booser as well as Bill and Terri who happened to be in town from Kentucky.  While we did miss seeing a few of our dearest friends, for the short amount time we had, we managed to utilize it to the fullest.

We’re heading back to Guadalupe where we have a few boat repairs to contend with and then another island to explore. We’ll fill you in on that next time!

Until next post!

24 - On aime la Martinique!!

We love Martinique!!!!  After a month or so of sailing from harbor to harbor, spending a little over a week in one place seemed like it would a little boring!  Au contraire!!!!  We found a front row anchorage right our in front of the town of Fort de France, Martinique. 

We spent the first couple of days, touring and relaxing in Les Trois Ilets area which was an easy ferry ride from Fort de France.  The hotel Fred and Beth rented had a fabulous pool with a bar nearby so we spent their last days soaking and relaxing.

Fort de France turned out to be ground zero for Carnaval (the annual pre-Lenten festival).   No sooner than we kissed our crew good-bye, then we geared up for the festivities.  For 5 days straight the people of Martinique (yes, I think the entire island showed up each day) partied hard!  Saturday afternoon started with The Queen’s parade (quite appropriate we thought that they would celebrate our arrival).  This was a combination of former and current queens of the various provinces as well as many wanna-be and drag queens!!!!  The costumes were absolutely across the board.   Some were just adorable and some were not so much but all were entertaining.

 Sunday morning, we were jarred awake about 4am by the sounds of extremely loud drums, horns and what Pedro described as “a monkey on a motorcycle with a gun.”  By the time we got out of bed and looked as our Carnaval schedule, we realized that we’d missed the pajama party in the streets (yes, it started at 4 am).  We got into town about 7am to find several of the partiers still wondering around and from the (lack of) dress code could only imagine what we missed.  Later that day was another parade as there was each afternoon through Wednesday.  Each day there was a new theme and the parade goers and attendees all participated appropriately (or inappropriately as was really the case)!  All seemed to have fun – we certainly did - and no harm seemed to be done.  

One of the things that amazed us the most was that after the partiers celebrated well into the night, when we arrived in town each morning just after sunrise, the streets were all clean – or at least in the process of being cleaned - and garbage disappeared.    Such was the condition of most of island.  We saw more affluent areas and significantly less so, but all seemed to be relatively maintained.

In addition to the daily parades along with numerous food and drink vendors, another draw of Carnaval was this handmade carousel.  It was man powered – 2 men when they wanted to go really fast – and the music was provided by a live band.  MaryAnn was excited that she finally didn’t exceed the, uh, height limit as was the case with the other carousel’s we’d seen in the past few months.  It was an amazingly engineered machine and we loved the music!

After 5 days of partying, the city of Fort de France returned to its normalcy and we decided to venture to other parts of the island.  As we were unable to find a car rental locally, we decided to take the bus to the airport to pick up a car there.  While waiting in line at the grocery store, we were lucky enough to find a lady in line front of us who spoke English.  We asked her about the logistics of the bus system.  She was unsure, but walked us over to the depot and translated for us as we purchased our tickets.   While standing at the stop we assumed was the one we needed, a young man come up to us and said that woman who sold us our ticket (that’s what we assume he said) made a mistake and to follow him.  I admit we were a little nervous following him through some back streets but we came upon another bus stop and discovered that the bus we wanted, would not have stopped where we had been standing. This seemed to be the norm in Martinique.   While very few people we encountered were fluent in English and our French practically non-existent (and our creole completely non-existent), we found people who were willing to help us communicate in various different ways.   I just cannot say enough about how welcoming and kind practically everyone we met was.

Once we had our rental car, we spent the better part of the day, exploring various towns, agricultural areas, gorgeous mountain tops and adorable seaside villages.  MaryAnn thought that driving on the switchback mountain roads was as much fun as the carousel!!!!  We also saw several rhum distilleries.  In Martinique, they produce rhum agricole which our research taught us means that it’s made from pure sugar cane juice as opposed to the other 90% or so of rum which is produced with molasses. 

Finally it was time to move on.  We spent our last day shopping (most of the stores had been closed during Carnaval) and stocking up on the great – and cheap – French wines and chocolate (yes, we bought some fresh produce too) for a next passage.  

As I type this we are sailing north back to Dominica for a reunion of the fellow Salty Dawg sailors we sailed with from Virginia.  It’s another gorgeous day in paradise and while we loved the land, it feels great to be sailing again - even if it’s just a short 10 hour sail!!!

Until next post!