Martinique

New Island = New Language = New Money = New Flag = New Beer

After a very pleasant three hour sail from St. Lucia, we anchored near the town of Sainte Anne on the island of Martinique. Our immediate need was ice since we had forgotten to get any before leaving Rodney Bay, so we launched the dinghy and went ashore even though it was too late to check in. Luckily, I had thirty euros that I had saved from a previous trip to Europe and the ice only cost two euros. My Campari and Grapefruit Juice had ice after all.

We are anchored at Le Marin on the South end of the island. It is a huge bay with hundreds of anchored boats and hundreds more docked at the marina. There is a constant parade of yachts up and down the channel every day.

Everyone speaks French here and when they speak it to me, my mind goes blank and I start formulating responses in Spanish. We have, after all, spent the last twelve months in Spanish speaking countries. Hopefully I will get the hang of French again real soon!

My old euros.

One of the first things we do when arriving at a new island is to check in with immigration and customs. Martinique is actually part of France, so we will be flying the French flag from our starboard spreader. And thanks to the progressive, computer savvy French government, we were able to check in on the computers in the Customs office. C'est trés facile!

And Malcolm says the beer is quite good, but I don't know because I'm drinking the wine! Thank goodness for good wine again.