It couldn’t have been more of a contrast - the last 2 weeks we experienced the ‘tropical Eurozone’ of the two French overseas Departments of Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north and wedged in between the wonderful and still wild island of Dominica.
The crew this time were Cristine and Juergen from Germany and Dani, on the ‘last leg’ of his 3 months trip on PasoDoble.
Both Martinique and Guadeloupe don’t really cater to the yachting or cruising life, but focus more on the all-inclusive tourism coming from France … and perhaps elsewhere. What strikes most is the completely different atmosphere to the other Caribbean islands. Yes – the two French dependencies are still Caribbean, but clearly on the French ‘drip’. With unemployment of more than 30% both islands recently rejected with overwhelming majority the offer by the French government to re-address their status of being equal to any province in France. If you see the standard of living in all the other ‘independent’ Caribbean islands you know why the people voted for ‘no change’.
Apart from the fact, that there are countless bakeries offering decent bread and croissants of course, to keep up with French standards the offer of other market produce was also more varied. Hence, shopping or provisioning was good and better value. So we stocked up on brie, camembert, olive oils, mustard, Bordeaux vines and you name it ……
The capitol Fort-de-France had a feel similar to any mid-size French town, the only difference was the percentage of the black population. The next destination however, St.Pierre in the north of the island is quite different. Still very French, it felt much more like the Caribbean again. A great little town with the islands biggest rum distillery at the foothills of the volcano Mt.Pelee.
The second day of our stopover there the weather was superb. The peak of Mt. Pelee was almost visible and together with the crew from the previous leg, Ann-Christine and Christian [on land holiday] we decided to attack the summit. A rather impressive 1342m high it took us 5 hours in total and while we were on the top clouds pulled in and created a mysterious atmosphere. The temperature dropped and we had to put on raincoats while eating our baguettes.
Next on the itinerary was Dominica. This island has the fascinating attraction of being the only one of the Caribbean islands Columbus would still recognize would he return today. And it definitely lived up to the expected beauty and untamed nature.
Lush green slopes are backed by high mountaintops. They say there are 365 waterfalls on the island, one for each day. From the capitol Roseau we organized a taxi tour and visited a few of them, some spectacular gorges and also some hot springs.
Next stop was Prince Rupert Bay at the northern end of the island, another place made famous by the Pirates of the Caribbean - good on you, Johnny D. They surely picked the best places for their back drops, the Indian River being one of them. We also wanted to explore the Carib territory on the rough eastern Atlantic coast, apparently the only place left in the whole Caribbean where you can still find the indigenous Carib Indians. We didn’t quite get there, but the trip on the local buses around the northern tip of Dominica to Pagua Bay was still worth it.
We left Dominica feeling it very much lived up to its reputation of being the wild frontier of the Caribbean. Next was a passage to the Iles des Saintes, a group of islands to the south of Guadeloupe. After a good sail in moderate winds and more opportune wind angle we were back in French territory. We celebrated Cristina’s birthday in style with croissants and pain de chocolate delivered to the boat in the morning. Never mind the rum punches ....
After beating into the wind for 5 hours we arrived inPointe a Pitre, the capitol of Guadeloupe. On first sight is a rough and ready place, but it also has character. Strolling through the streets you could find some interesting houses and people were gearing up for the annual carnival. Unfortunately we will miss out on these noisy and colourful celebrations.
Time had also come for Dani to say good bye. He has been a very valuable crew member since he joined us in Barcelona for the big trip across ‘the ditch’. He contributed so much to PasoDoble’s boat life and it’s hard to imagine he won’t be there any more … but he promised to be back.
