Dominica to Martinique

Scott was very impressed with Martin's prowess with the machete and decided to get one for himself. He looked at several in the small town and thinking the larger one looked rather immense, he indicated the smaller version. The woman looked at him like he was completely nuts and informed us that a real man would only have the big one. Well of course we have
a very large machete on board! The town is rather charming but simple as you can see here; the men gather to chat, drink or play dominos while the women shop, clean, cook and mind the children. Actually no one seems to work very hard here. The beaches belong to the people. Their homes have the best views not the resort and tourists. Martin described lots of parties, barbeques
and get togethers as a regular occurence. Ecologically sound developement is their hope for the island - very low rise. We're crossing our fingers for them.
One sign of the country's lack of funds is the wrecks from long past storms that remain on the beaches. This one here is right in the center of the town.
Late the next afternoon we heard familiar voices on the VHF radio.
"Casa del Mar", "Nereia" and "M'Lady Kathleen" were sailing south near us. We called and invited them for dinner. We hadn't seen the first two since Rum Cay in the Bahamas. They were a part of our small group that left Georgetown together but they got caught in the Turks and Caicos by bad weather and had remained behind us the whole way south. "M'Lady Kathleen" we got to know in Annapolis, MD and hadn't seen since! Email kept us all in touch.
By the time they arrived it was dark and we put all our lights on and talked them in on the radio. "M'Lady Kathleen" was having problems with her engine and had to ghost in on a very light breeze. In the Caribbean the winds die with the sun.
It was a terrific reunion and dinner aboard our boat and the next night we all went out for dinner at the Purple Turtle restaurant on the beach. When we stopped in the morning to tell them we were coming (10 people eating dinner in this location is an unusual occurance), we weren't sure what to expect, but they served a great meal.
Those are lobster tails, grilled, shown here and they tasted as good as they looked. Jaime took the group shot at the top of this page so that's Scott, Heather and Dan on top and Linda & Mike from "Casa" with Kathleen and Roland from "M'Lady" on the bottom. Jaime is then showed with Dan and Linda. Paul and Cheryl had dinner with us but were missing when we took this photo.
The next morning at 6 AM we were all off to sail down the coast to Roseau, the capital. Another boat boy, Rudy, showed us all to moorings, $10 a boat for the night. The town was very lovely and we walked all around and enjoyed some cold beers. It was a quiet night for all and an early start again in the morning for Martinique. It was a rough crossing with 15 - 20 knots of wind and 6 - 8 foot waves, but a good point of sail - beam reach - so it was fun. Once in the lee of the island it all calms down and we enjoyed the scenery down to Anse Mitan, our next anchorage. Que Rico and ourselves managed to squeeze into the crowded bay but the others continued on down the coast aways. They were anxious to get into the marina