We are in St-Anne Martinique at the southern end of the island, where we arrived a few days ago.  It’s a lovely spot, a charming little town with long sandy beaches and more cruising boats than you can count.  And, nearby is La Marin, home of the largest, if not the largest, marina in the Caribbean, with access to most anything that you might need for the boat.

It’s quite quiet, St-Anne, a welcome break from the craziness of Forte de France, the constant ferry traffic and the noise of Carnival.

We stayed for much of Carnival but decided to skip the last day even though we likely missed the biggest parade of the four day celebration.  However, the third day of celebration, “the day of the devil” was crazy enough with thousands participating in the parade and perhaps even more spectators, nearly all dressed in red.Each day had a different theme and some participating in the parade showed up with a different costume on each time.  This guy was one of the most elaborate and was clearly enjoying himself, mugging it up for the crowd. This was him the day before.  And yes, he knew then that he was fabulous then as well.Not to be outdone, this was also quite the get-up. And, from the back, making his best impression on the day of the devil.  Oh, you devil, you!

A high point for many participating in the parade was to coat themselves from head to tow with cane syrup, mixed with ashes, a slimy gooey mixture.  You could smell them coming.  I can only imagine how nasty they must have felt in the heat and humidity.  Earlier in the afternoon, near the beach coating each other from buckets and liberal use of paintbrushes.  If it were me, I’d have hightailed it to the beach to wash off after only a few minutes. The parades, and each day had it’s own theme, was louder and louder with huge crowds lining the route.  The procession of revelers went on and on for hours with some groups coming by time and time again.  I doubt that this car has much use outside of Carnival. This rolling “boom box” was just one of many vehicles piled high with speakers,  all louder than the last.  And where there is noise, responsible parents do their best to protect the little ones. “Mommy?  Is that man hurt?  No honey, he’s just channeling the devil.” Amazingly, in spite of the throngs, there is very little police presence and unlike the good old USofA where there would be ambulances and firetrucks along with heavily armed troops everywhere, here it was just thousands of people having fun with a minimum of mayhem.

And the fun they were having,  drink in hand.  Of course, you do have to stay hydrated. No getting face cramps for trying to smile for hours.
There was also an endless “parade” of spectators dressed for the occasion.  I asked if I could take a photo of them. They where thrilled and agreed provided that I took a photo of them with their camera as well.   For my money he was a more convincing as a woman than she was as a guy.  Perhaps it was her glasses that gave it away.  Or was it the vinyl bikini top?  Hard to say.  Funny how both women and guys want to dress up as a woman and yet, not generally the other way around.  “Honey can I wear your jeans?  You know, the ones that you wear half falling down below your waist?”  Not likely. “OMG dad, did you see that?”Again and again the “cane sugar crowd” would pass by.  You could always smell them coming.  “Hugs, anyone?  Hugs? “And speaking of hot and sticky, I wonder how it feels to be inside this.Or this. Real wigs?  Only their hairdressers know for sure. “Does this dress make me look fat Charles?”  Only when you aren’t smiling so just shut up and have another beer.”  Do you think they talked that morning before they got dressed?  What to wear?  What indeed!
Love the hat. Here kitty, kitty, and a matching purse.  Perfect. Some political statements about pesticide use. “Yes Mom, I’ll be home soon, I promise.  Just out picking up a few groceries.”
This woman would move along a few meters with others in her group and then stop to strike a pose.  Something about clay.Daddy,  can I march in the parade next year?I just love face painting.  There were a lot of elaborate costumes, day after day.  It’s amazing what you can do with a bit of chiffon and devil horns. Colors from every part of the rainbow. And pink, red and pink. And, of course, what’s better than a guy in drag with horns.What is a parade without stilts.  I’ll bet that the view from up there was terrific. Loved her headdress.  However, nobody had quite the “stage presence” as this woman.  Let’s call her the “Budwiser girl of Martinique”.  That’s a LOT, LOT of bottle caps and pull tops.
These guys were into the moment and came by multiple times.  If it’s worth parading once, it’s worth doing it again.  Besides, wasn’t it once said that “these  boots were made for walking…”I liked this little guy the best.  However, I doubt that he will wear this costume when he’s a teenager.  Perhaps then he will be in drag just like the rest of his friends and probably his dad.   Bumble bee or not, I’ll bet he’s a bit of a devil himself. Yes, he was having a blast, just like everyone else at this most amazing party.

Carnival,  Martinique.

After a few days in St Pierre in the shadow of Mt Pele, our first stop in Martinique, we moved down to Fort de France, the capital.  This is one of our favorite stops where we anchor in a historic harbor sandwiched between a Napoleonic era fort to one side…And a modern city on the other.  Big city or not, the view in the distance is a constant reminder that we are still in the tropics with distant mountains shrouded in clouds and mist. The harbor is busy and very rolly during the day with a constant stream of ferry boats leaving big wakes and cruise ships, sometimes 5 a day, coming and going. Yesterday was the first day of carnival, a four day festival of parades and fun that runs though next Wednesday.  The fun begins each afternoon at 4:00 and continues well into the we hours with near constant drumming and firecracker detonations late into the night.

The parade, which passed us three times, began with what looked like, I guess,  some sort of nod to native Americans. This lady was clearly not a newcomer to such events and knew that she was indeed “looking marvelous”. Not sure what this costume was all about, very elaborate and festooned with  with coconuts. This one was, well, I’m not sure but it was, but it was very elaborate. And an enthusiastic group with REALLY LOUD drumming. Many of the children in the group sported these hats.  What were they all about?  I have no idea. This young woman was clearly having a great time. Spectators, many decorated with face paint, lined the route.
But this guy was perhaps the winner.   Of course, he, like everyone else, had his smartphone.  No pockets I guess. There was something about going in drag was a common theme.  What is it about guys and bikinis?  I’ll have to ask Brenda what she thinks.  A g-string and feather boa?  Is it me?

Not sure where the stuffed giraffe fit in.  I guess you had to be there to see the connection, such as it was. Umbrellas were clearly a theme for this large and LOUD group. The noise of this VERY enthusiastic drummer set off Brenda’s Apple watch alert that she was being exposed to damaging noise in excess of 90db.Clearly feeling the beat, this particularly well put together lady was clearly enjoying herself and posed every few feet for photographers. This young lady seemed a bit insecure in her costume.  Her “get-up”, like many of the others, was so heavy that it had wheels to help her along as well as an “escort” to give her a shove when she was hung up on rough pavement.  Her costume looked vaguely sinister.  Perhaps a rain forest queen?This young woman carried herself in style, never letting her radiant smile fade for even an instant, well perhaps not until she passed us for the third time. This photo of a mother and daughter pretty much sums up what it was like to be there.  I can’t wait till tonight to see what is in store.
And, with all the fun in town the harbor is getting crowded as more cruisers arrive each day.    This is what I woke up to this morning after the wind shifted direction over night.  And yes, they were as close as that.   They were a nice couple from Denmark, taking time off from work to cruise with their two children.   Can I borrow a bit of Grey Poupon?  It’s great sport, watching newcomers look for a spot to anchor and it seems that there is always, sort of, room for one more.

“Dad, I see a spot, over there!”It’s pretty clear that the people of Martinique really know how to put on a party. Brenda and I can’t wait to see what tonight will bring.

It is, after all, party time and the folks in Martinique really know how to put on a party!

When we first arrived in Dominica I took a walk along the main road in town to visit the market and spied this guy with an alarmingly large snake wrapped around his neck.

Separately, I had heard that there was someone living on the beach that salvaged wood in the rain forest from trees that had been knocked down during hurricane Maria that had so decimated the island.

It turned out to be the same guy and his name is Humty.  I’m not positive about the spelling but it is pronounced (Hum-tee).  He told me that he had found the snake in the bush while working.    I wanted to learn more. I had gotten a taste of some of the exotic hardwoods available on the island when we visited the chocolate factory and now wanted to see for myself, how the wood was salvaged.   When I asked about how he cut logs into boards he told me that he just used his chainsaw and free-handed the log into boards.  Now that I had to see…

We agreed to meet the following morning, Sunday at 09:00 and head out.  I had somehow assumed that he had a truck or at least access to one and I was surprised to see him hoist his saw, an alarming one with a blade of some 30″ long, up onto his shoulder and off we walked down the road.  Along the way, and the walk on the road was about two miles,  a friend of his stopped with a pickup truck and gave us a lift.

Before we headed into the forest we stopped at a small general store for something to drink if we became thirsty.  I got a bottle of water and Humty, a beer.  So off we walked into the bush, Humty with this huge saw on his shoulder and beer in the other hand.  Oh yeah, and he had a ganja cigarette in his lips.   And, don’t forget that it was still early on a Sunday morning, a sort of double fisted hair of the dog, I guess.

I can’t say that I had ever thought of beer, “local herbs” and a chainsaw were a great combination, especially first thing on a Sunday morning.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot, he also had a long and quite menacing looking machete. Over the years, I had seen portable sawmills that can turn a log into boards using a really long chainsaw that was guided by rails and other equipment that made the cuts quite precise but the idea of someone cutting logs into boards by eye and a steady hand was something I found hard to imagine.

We didn’t have to go very far into the bush but after perhaps a half mile we crossed a small stream and found our way into a clearing with huge downed trees scattered here and there.  In the clearing some locals had planted a large number of what I learned were coffee tree seedlings along with banana plants.    Humty selected a promising log, some 20″ in diameter and sat down to sharpen his saw, one tooth at a time with a round file.  30 minutes later he was ready to make his first cut. Then he marked the log to a bit over 5′ and removed a section.   His newly sharpened saw went through it like soft balsa.  After rolling the newly cut log onto a base of smaller logs and bracing it up against a small tree, he proceeded to carefully run his saw down the length of the log, marking it for the individual boards he planned to cut, each about 1 1/4″ thick.   The  cuts were more precise than this photo suggests.  He began at the end of the log closest to him and progressively drew the saw from end to end, each cut only a fraction of an inch deeper than the last.    Beginning on the left, after marking all of the boards, he slowly cut deeper and deeper until the board was only supported at the far end by a small uncut wedge of wood.  The process of cutting all the way through the log, end to end, took more than two hours and in the end he had three boards.  He paused once to resharpen his saw, a few gulps of beer and puffs.

All the time the noise of the saw was deafening but no hearing protection needed.   I suppose that to someone who uses a huge chainsaw with shorts and open toe sandals isn’t all that concerned about hearing loss.  However, after twenty years of this sort of work, he still has all of his fingers and toes.

Meanwhile a small lizard watched from a distance as Humty did his work. He paused from time to time to check his measurements. As one cut was mostly finished he moved onto the next, from left to right.
Once the four cuts were complete with only a small sliver of uncut wood on the end of each board he made the final cut, beginning on the left and the boards fell away. These finished cuts were remarkably consistent and all done by eye. What was left of the log could have yielded a few more boards but I had asked for three so that’s what he cut.  The boards have beautiful figuring. The dark markings are not water staining or rot, it’s the way the trees grow.  Notice how smooth the cuts are.  You would never know that he had just held the saw and cut them freehand.  I have no idea what I will make these boards into but they are remarkable and I’ve never seen anything like it.   The wood is very dense and HEAVY.Even though the wood had fallen nearly three years ago, there was not rot but OMG, they are heavy, perhaps 70lbs each.

Humty, in spite of their weight, hoisted each board and held it over his head, with the saw in the other hand and carried them out.   He enlisted a friend to help carry the final board out. He didn’t miss a beat as he forded down into the stream and up the other side. As I write this we are now in Martinique and for the time being, the boards are still at Humty’s home on the beach.  I am hoping that they will dry out a bit so that they aren’t quite so heavy and I’ll need time to think about how I am going to secure a few hundred pounds of boards down below the cockpit.  I sure don’t want them to come loose along the way as I can only imagine what sort of damage they would do if they started crashing around making a mess of my autopilot and who knows what else when the going gets rough on the trip home,  which it always does.

So there you have it, a guy named Humty, his snake, an alarming saw and don’t forget a beer to get in the mood along with a bit of ganja.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Well, here we are, still in Dominca after a week, the longest we have stayed during our three visits to the island.  The last time we were here was for a short visit following hurricane Maria that devastated the island, stripping nearly everything green and leaving the mountains looking more like New England in February than the lush tropical island that it is.

So, here we are again, two years later, and what a transformation there has been.   While the forest, that covers 75% of the island still has many dead trees poking up above the new growth, the island forests have substantially recovered from the horrible damage that Maria, the category 5 hurricane, wrought.

A few days ago, Brenda and I, along with a dozen of our closest cruisers friends, hired a driver to take us around the island.  Our destinations included, a tiny family run chocolate factory, a beautiful waterfall with a perfect swimming hole in the heart of the mountain rainforest, a dip in a family run hot spring and a terrific lunch overlooking a river and yet another waterfall.

It’s not hard to find waterfalls in Dominica as we were told that the island boasts some 365 rivers, one for every day of the year.   Funny, how that magic “365” number works, Antigua supposedly has the same number of beaches.  A coincidence?

Whatever the number of rivers, the island is beautiful and what a day it was.

Our first stop, after about an hour in the bus from Falmouth, winding our way around switchback to switchback high up into the rain forest, finally arriving at this tiny “factory” tucked in among the trees with a beautiful view of the ocean in the distance. This little family run business makes terrific chocolate, all of which is sold here on the island. a total of 2,000 lbs per year, in many creative flavors.

Interestingly, the higher percentage of cocoa that is in the bars, the less sweet it is with the balance of ingredients primarily cane sugar making up the difference.  So, chocolate labeled 100% cocoa is bitter and not sweet at all and milk chocolate having the largest percentage of sugar. They grow cocoa beans and coffee on the property.  This is what a raw cocoa seed pod looks like.  The white soft material is sweet and covers the cocoa beans, each pod has a cluster of beans inside. The wet raw beans are put into these wooden bins, covered with banana leaves where they are left to ferment for a several days.  The beans are then separated from any liquid from the fermentation and spread to dry on open racks. The dry but still raw beans are about 1/2″ long and already smell like chocolate. Then the beans are roasted in a special oven at, I think, 250 degrees F. While the process is fairly primitive, it is carefully controlled by modern equipment.  I wonder if the “emergency stop” button sets off an alarm meant to keep someone from eating too much chocolate?  Hmm…After roasting the beans are roughly cracked to separate the outer hull from the meat of the bean. Then they are put into this machine, where air is blown into the pipe, the force of air carrying the lighter husks up and away, separating, as you might say, “The wheat from the chaff”.  It’s simple and ingenious and effective.   The “good” stuff, which is heavier, falls into the black bin and the “chaff” goes up the tube and down into the white bucket. Next the “cleaned” beans are ground into a rough paste by rollers that turn around in the bucket.  At this point, they really smell like chocolate.An additional step puts the chocolate into an even finer grinder/roller that smooths things out into a very smooth paste.   Finally, depending on the particular flavor that is planned, they mix in the appropriate amount of cane sugar and any flavoring that might be needed, like ginger or hot pepper, two examples.   Then the mixture is poured into molds to harden, prior to packaging and labeling.  They produce many flavors and we tried nearly all of them.  Hungry for more? Unless you are in Dominca, or good friends with Brenda, your’e out of luck as their product is only available on the island.   Of course, you too can take a tour as they happily welcome visitors. This chocolate is very much “home made” as the father/daughter owners have actually built a home above the “factory” where she lives with her boyfriend.    I was quite taken by the design of the house and tropical woods used in the construction, wood that was cut from trees knocked down during the hurricane.

The wood, and I understand that it goes by it’s local name of the Galba Tree, and looks a lot like mahogany, if a bit heavier.  While he didn’t mention it to me, it seems that this tree is fairly rare.  I purchased two 4′ long boards from him.  It’s not quite enough to make a table from but perhaps I can make some cutting boards out of the pieces.  It’s a beautiful wood. After hearing of my interest in the wood and how he built his home, I was invited up to take a look inside.   It was like visiting an enchanted tree house in the forest. A very nice functional kitchen.  And a spectacular view of the ocean in the distance.  What a wonderful spot.  If you ever get an opportunity to visit, I recommend you  do.  A small business living off of the land and yet respectful of the forest which sort of sums up things here in Dominca, the nature island.

But wait, there’s more!

From there we headed deeper into the rain forest, winding our way, switchback to switchback, to visit what is locally known as The Emerald Pool, a swimming hole deep in the wilderness and yet still accessible with a short walk on a well groomed path.  I am always struck by the lush plants of all kinds.  This tree ern “fiddle head” is much larger than it looks, the thickness of a broom handle.  The path to the pool meanders a short distance past rapids to an observation area and then you are there. The water, while not “martini” cold, will make you catch your breath when you dip in, is a lot cooler than the surrounding air as it thunders down into the pool.

You have to be careful not to get to close to the falling water as it packs quite a punch during it’s 40′ drop and will drive you under.  Here I am, close but just far out into the pool.  The noise was deafening. Maureen, can you hear me now?  What?My friend Bill, looked like he was thinking about auditioning for a part in Pirates of the Caribbean, much of which was filmed on the island.  Unlike many of the cruisers on the French boats, Bill is wearing a bathing suit.  At least I think he is.  Bill?  Hard to tell…As you would expect, where there are mountains and lots of water, there is hydro power.  This setup, with a large pipe running vertically down a cliff, powers a small turbine generator.  And, with some 300″ of rainfall each year, there is a constant supply of water to run the turbines.
Unfortunately, in spite of the abundant sunshine, wind and water, only about 1/4 of the energy produced on Dominica is renewable.  Hopefully, this will increase in the coming years.

Our stop for lunch was a remarkable spot perched on the side of a ravine, just down the hill a bit from the Pool.  The food was quite good and the view even better. In the distance you can see the double exit spouts from the hydro generator.  Ok, so our last stop of the day, and by this time we had driven around 3/4 of the island, was a natural hot spring.   The charming spot was run by a local family and tapped into naturally hot springs.  The island has a number of active volcanoes and what they call “boiling lakes” where the water coming out of the ground is so hot, it boils.

The water was muddy and warm, but fortunately, not boiling. There were three pools, each progressively smaller, and each with water that was a bit hotter but still a good temperature for a tropical mountain soak.   As we were up in the mountains, where the air was cooler, it felt good to be in the warm water.   You can see the spout that is pouring warm/hot water into the pool.  The water was almost to hot to touch and quite murky.   I didn’t want to think to hard about what sort of “bugs” might be growing in the pool.  However, the pools were not crowded and had a good amount of water flowing into them so I guess it was ok.   No odd skin lesions yet…  Bill, Maureen?  Any boils breaking out?  Brenda?All and all, we had a wonderful day and even though we were visiting some of the most popular spots on the islands, they weren’t crowded.  No surprise on an island with only about 600 hotel rooms.

We won’t be heading south to Martinique for a few more days, still hoping for a break in the strong winds.  In the mean time, we will be spending time with our cruising buddies and in a day or two will visit a reservation where the descendants of the once mighty Carib Indians live.

These people, once known as fierce warriors, are now known for their beautiful baskets and other hand crafts and it will be fun to see how they practice these skills.  Brenda purchased a particularly exquisite example of one of these baskets a few days ago and wrote about that and other observations about the cruising lifestyle and our visit to Dominica.  It’s worth reading so click here.

I expect that we will both have plenty more to say after we spend another day touring Dominica, where the love of nature is indeed King and Queen.

 

It’s a beautiful day here in Dominica with bright sun that just peeked out following a parade of rain squalls beginning overnight.  This view, and it is impressive, to say the least, was completely obscured by rain and fog until a few moments ago.

As this illustrates, In Dominica, with some parts of the island getting 300″ of ran each year, we are securely within the “islands that kiss the clouds”.  This harbor, Portsmouth Dominica, is on the very north west part of the island and while it is wide open to the west, like most harbors in the Windwards, it is wonderfully protected from the strong trade winds and waves and as the wind comes out of the east for about 99% of the time.

Dominica isn’t highly developed like so many islands with only a small tourist trade.  With the exception of cruiser ships that visit, the island only has about 600 hotel rooms as so many were wiped out in the hurricane a few years ago.

For those who visit however, the island has beautiful rain forests and we were told 365 rivers.  There are also many miles of well maintained hiking trails to explore.  It’s a beautiful country.

While this island is not on the radar of your general tourist, it is very popular with cruisers and here in Portsmouth harbor there are dozens of boats visiting at any point during the season.

I will say that the locals are very focused on cruisers and do a lot to encourage them to visit.  Years ago this was not a spot that many visited but a group of locals got together and formed PAYS, the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security and now the harbor is one of the safest in the Caribbean.   They organize tours and twice a week host barbecue parties with all you can eat chicken and rum punch.  They also host a week long event Yachtie Appreciation Week.

Our run from Les Saintes was a VERY bumpy 25 mile run on a very close reach, with with plenty of spray flying over the decks.  Not Brenda’s favorite!

We had decided to leave come to Portsmouth as we learned that the trade winds would be peaking near 30kts for perhaps a week or longer and we, along with a half dozen other boats that we are “buddy boating” with decided that it was time to move on, so here we are.

Yesterday we spent the day ashore with a dozen of our cruiser buddies to go on a tour of the island, something that we had not done before.  It included a visit to a tiny family run chocolate factory, a hot spring as well as a swim at the bottom of a waterfall, aptly named The Emerald Pool.  I’ll be writing about all that in the next day or two.  It was a great day.  I even was able to purchase a few tropical hardwood boards cut from trees that came down in the hurricane from the owner of the chocolate factory.

We have also enjoyed time at a local restaurant run by a couple that split their time between Texas and here in Dominica.  Co-owner, Toni makes terrific rotis, a sort of Caribbean burrito with chicken and potatoes wrapped in a tortilla.  The actual recipe can vary a lot and sometimes the chicken inside includes bones and all.  I’m here to say that they were great.  No bones.

The day before we headed here a bunch of our cruiser friends met on the beach in Les Saintes for a pot luck cookout.  Everyone brought something to share.  Our contribution, purchased at one of the terrific groceries on the island, were delicate little lamb tenderloins.   Brenda made a wonderful marinade for them and they were quite a hit hot off the grill.

This is the group of cruisers that we are traveling with.  It does seem that cruisers tend to move around as a sort of flock. And, speaking of “flocks”, I spied this growing family when I visited the local bakery to pick up come baguettes the other day.  I can’t imagine chickens wandering around a restaurant in the US.  And, of course, where there a chicks, there are roosters.  The views along the beach are very colorful  with homes and boats are painted bright, happy colors.
Nearly every morning, beautiful sunrises.  
We see flags from many countries.  Do you know where this one is from?  Flags that are black and white are very rare.   I believe that only two countries have flags that are this color.   Double gold stars if you know the name of both countries or, and this is a hint, the flag of a region of a particular country. A few days ago, I went ashore to check out the tiny town here in Dominica and was impressed with the locally made baskets.  In the interest of full disclosure, I was also looking for ice cream.  Success on both counts.  Brenda and I returned to the shop the next day.  She ended up buying an exquisitely made one at another store.  Along with all that she does, Brenda is also a very accomplished basket maker.

Brenda liked this tiny shop on the beach.  That makes at least three Brenda’s in Dominica as I ran into a fellow cruiser a few days ago also named Brenda. Anyway, I expect that we will be here in Dominica for at least a week the trades are up and it’s even rougher in the ocean than it was when we arrived here from Les Saintes, with seas running at nearly 10′.  When the weather router, Chris Parker, describes conditions as “very salty”, Brenda, in particular, feel that it’s best to stay put.

I guess that’s about it for now so stay tuned for more scintillating details from Pandora and her crew as we make the best of things while we are pinned down by the trades.

And, yes, it’s a beautiful day here in Dominica.