St Pierre

One thing that I will say is boat boys say they can get you anything, a woman, ice, do your laundry whatever but I wonder, hmmmm………..I was buying veggies at the market and she wanted to sell me more but I told her it was only me to which she said you are a nice looking sailor man if you need some female company just let me know, so far the best offer I’ve had..ha ha.  Anyhow this single handing thing is nice, the captain never argues with the crew and the cook never has a problem with complaints. I do miss my partner Miss Dee back in Oklahoma.  As some of you know she had an accident and broke her wrist in three places and is now in PT after surgery and not feeling very well.  She’s a great mate and sailor and is sorely missed.  Maybe she will get to come later in March I hope.   I made great time from Rodney Bay to St Pierre Martinique 41 miles, I tried two different fishing lures that I have been dragging over a 100 miles but no bites, I don’t get it.

Average speed to St Pierre
 

Mount Pelee on the way in.

Around 1902 before eruption

I had the anchor down in 16ft of water by 2 PM, launched the dinghy and went ashore.  Single handing requires a slow thought out process to every task you do such as anchoring and winching up the dinghy to put it over board.  It taxes one brain and sometimes requires talking to one’s self.  The view coming in was amazing to see Mt Pelee rising up into the clouds.  I tried to clear in but they were closed I went around the side just to make sure and only found a toothless woman urinating telling me they were closed, damn Frenchy’s  .  Considering this entire place was blown to bits 110 years ago by the very volcano that’s still right here I don’t think the French are all that smart.  On that note I have been without almost any exception the only US flagged vessel in any port I have been in. French mostly but some Germans and Swiss, and they say the Euro market is down big time….hmmm.  May 8^th 1902 was the day Mt Pelee erupted and killed 30,000 people; even 12 ships at anchor were blown to pieces.  I am anchored just feet from one of the wrecks now. Only two survivors were found one a Cobbler and the other a convicted murder,  Cyparis who was saved by the thick walls of his cell, however he was horribly  burned.  Later Barnum and Bailey circus in the US hired him to exhibit his horrific scars in the circus, (see pic).   I have no idea what the nasty French do with this head artifact but I can only imagine, there were lots of them in the museum. Not many speak English here and only by asking the ticket lady at the museum in French if she understood English was I able to get any info. The museum was OK but most everything was in French and it was not well put together or very large for that matter. Most buildings share a wall or some part with the original buildings before the eruption.  I went to a sea side bar for a beer and Internet.  After placing my order I asked the password for the Internet and she threw down a note book with a password scrawled in bad French cursive with some letters and numbers but try as I might it was totally un legible and requesting help only resulted in her throwing up her hands and walking away……oh well….drank my 4.75 cent Euro beer and enjoyed the view and people watching.   ( sorry about no captions on some pics and some rotated google has a mind of it's own) On to Dominica in the morning!