Sights of Martinique
Although the squally weather obscures the colors a bit, this really is a pretty little town.
Fort St. Louis guards over the anchorage.
Right in front of where we are anchored is a new 100′ dinghy dock. Right by that is a cool park. Rebecca and I are jealous that they didn’t have cool swings like this when we were kids!
Our pirate ship neighbors (far right). Not quite sure what the deal is with this boat.
There were plenty of narrow streets to explore in Fort de France.
Rebecca seems strangely color coordinated with this building.
Hunting for Wi-Fi, unsuccessfully I should add. The signal I am using from the boat only appeared AFTER we had searched the town for open connections.
This is perhaps one of the prettiest libraries that I have seen. It appears to be closed for construction though. And so is the museum, and the post office. Not sure what’s up with that.
John Travolta (in Pulp Fiction) was right, you can’t get a Quarter Pounder in France, or here either.
After wandering around, we looked up to see these ominous clouds approaching. We rushed back to the boat just in time to prepare for a rain squall with 30 knot winds. Glad we weren’t out sailing. While this was going on, there were numerous adrenaline junkies out there in little boats, sailing around. We saw at least one of them get knocked down. Fortunately he was able to right himself in short order.
It’s pretty hard to take a long-exposure night photo on a moving boat.
This is about the best I could manage. 🙂
Anchorage: Fort de France, Martinique
Internet on boat with Alfa: Yes. Free. Only one open signal is available though.
Internet on boat without Alfa: No.
Internet on shore: Apparently there is but we found it difficult to locate.
Wow! What a beautiful place! I really hope that one day I get to do what you guys are doing. It’s amazing really. But for now, I continue to live vicariously through you. Thanks for such great pictures.
Wife and I were in Paris about 6 years ago, and popped in to the McDonald’s on the Champs Elyesses(sp?). I went to get a video of their menu board for the same “Pulp Fiction” reason, and was planning to eat at Royal with Cheese while there.
When I pointed the camera a manager came out from the back and started yelling at me in French that pictures weren’t allowed in the McDonald’s there.
I filmed the whole encounter, pretending not to know what she was saying, and then we left without our Royal Cheese.
Glad to know Martinique is not as protective about their fast food establishments.
That looks lovely, thanks for the news and pics.
It always looks as though you anchor a long way from shore. Is this a harbour requirement, or is the water too shallow closer in? Certainly rowing ashore would be a real chore!
Mike
Depths obviously play a factor. In some cases we could get closer but we always need to take into account the possibility of a 360 degree shift in wind. Although the trades typically blow from a relatively consistent direction, we could always have a squall like we did yesterday which resulted in a big wind shift. If we were really close to shore, that could cause problems. As for rowing… LOL. That is why you need a big outboard engine, that works!
Great pictures! Love the squall picture and the night picture … looks like you did a great job to me.
I’m glad I was taking that squall picture while at anchor.