Martinique Potpourri

Sailboat | Voyages | Log

Exploring more of Marinique The first stop each morning We must have their priorites Using nets to catch ballyhoo Look like miniature swordfish Josephine Kegs of rhum at Distillery Clement Jym Renaut Jewelry maker & archeologist Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Today was mishmash of activities, though our priorities were of the highest order. We began with café-au-lait and croissants at our surf-side patisserie, after which time we dropped our laundry at a blanchisserie. The remainder of the morning was spent meandering in and out of tourist shops, managing to find some gifts for friends and family. Shopping is always easier on vacation, in strange countries, using strange money. Nothing seems real. It is a fantasy so the money doesn’t really count, until you get home, and we may never get home, so there you have it. I made acquaintance with Jym Renaut, a jewelry maker and avid amateur archaeologist. He proceeded to educate me on the differences between the Arawak and Carib Indians. Fundamentally, the Arawak were peaceful, while the Carib were warlike. The conversation was challenging with his broken English and my feeble French. Since, I have been reading Michener’s Caribbean, I had some fresh spice with which to season the conversation. He claims to have more artifacts, which he has personally found, in his home than any museum in the Caribbean. I hope to meet him again on Thursday, when he promises to show me a book he has written – a very interesting guy for an itinerant jewelry maker. This afternoon, we stepped back in history, to the time of Napoleon, and visited the birthplace of Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife. Josephine was born on a sugar plantation in Les Trois-Ilets, the town of three little islands, opposite Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. She was married before she met Napoleon. Her first marriage was an arranged marriage with the son of the Governor of Martinique. When she was just 16, she went to Paris to be married and remained in France the rest of her life. Her first marriage was cut short, so to speak, when her husband was beheaded by the guillotine during the French Revolution. At age 33, she met Napoleon at a soiree, where she was sufficiently charming to seduce him into marriage, quit a feat for a 33 year old widow with two children by her first marriage. Alas, this marriage was not to last either, but this time Napoleon divorced Josephine due to her inability to bear children. It is fascinating how history connects places and times. Too bad it wasn’t fascinating as child in school. There must be a way for teachers to make it so. We hit pay dirt this evening when we went to buy ice. We found a block of ice rather than the usual bag. The block lasts so much longer. Our last one, from Dominica, stills lingers in the bottom of fridge after a week. A bag barely makes it through the second day. Simple things seem to take on more importance living on a boat anchored half a mile from shore. We continue to run the engine morning and night to charge the batteries and cool the fridge. Water and electricity remain our scarcest resources. The conch shell continues to alert the towns and villages that the fishermen have returned with a fresh catch of Dorado, tuna, red snapper, Wahoo, or even the miniature swordfish called ballyhoo. How is it possible that thousands of fishermen can continue to harvest fish from the sea every day, day after day, week after week, century after century? Can the fish last? It doesn’t seem possible, but yet the conch shell continues to call. As big as the sea is, it is not infinite, yet we treat it as if it were. Voila, our satellite phone is now working. As I suspected, we had hit some magic code which put the phone into mute mode so that no one could hear us speak when we called. I was unable to find the magic “undo” code, but I did find out how to reset the phone to the default options. This was sufficient to appease the technology gods, and the phone now carries our voice to those whom we wish to speak. If you need to call us, you can reach us at 254-543-5134. We do not know how to retrieve voice mail so don’t bother leaving any. As always, the best way to reach us is via email, which we very much enjoy receiving. Tomorrow we head for Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. This is our last full day with the car. We are ready to leave St. Anne but will remain until 2 Feb so we can meet some friends who are sailing up from St. Lucia on the 31st. Dick and Liz gave us a ride on their boat several years ago from Guadeloupe to Antigua. We met them in a café, and within fifteen minutes, they offered to take us to Antigua. We have seen them several times since: twice in Annapolis, and once in St. John. It is always fun to reconnect and trade “life on the water” stories. They live on their boat in the Caribbean every winter. I am not sure we are ready for that. Previous | Next