St Lucia ... Martinique

St Lucia at a Glance

Market Haul

Anchorage at Rodney Bay St Lucia

    We came in to St Lucia to watch the Old Year’s Night fireworks and were not disappointed. Once recovered from the rough sail up and a bit of maintenance on Celebration, we were off exploring. One of the first things for us is always a trip to the local market and St Lucia didn’t let us down. Lynn already mentioned the local food and we found ourselves getting a plate there every Saturday after.

Pitons and Soufriere

Volcano  at Soufriere

Always interesting to us is how many folks travel but fail to see or experience beyond the “touristy” spots. In this way our weekly food plate at the market turned into some great fun. While many tourist types and cruise ship passengers walked through, some even bought crafts and trinkets, we were among the few non-locals buying fruits, vegetables, and eating street food there. In every case we’d be sitting at our favorite vender with people walking by staring at our giant plates while we ate away. Sooner or later one would stop and inquire “Is it good?” or “have you eaten here before?” Our answers of “great” and “yes we eat here every week” would inevitably bring on the “and you feel OK after?” line of questions or the “you’re not from a cruise ship, are you” comments. Not many minutes later the vendor’s tables would be full of non-locals with the food and beer overflowing. Slowly we’d head on our way looking for the bus back or the next street over for another discovery.

Off to Martinique

Wine Tasting

Looking toward Martinique

    Almost a week ago now we left St Lucia and headed north about 25 miles to Martinique. The sail was sporty and the wind from the direction we wanted to go but the trip short so we tacked and tacked, eventually sailing up to the anchorage. We are anchored off of the southeast corner in front of Ste Annes.  The area is beautiful, shopping for wine, cheese and bread is exemplary. Of course as we arrived we saw old friends from other anchorages and we were soon over at s/v Jammin’ (Dave & Helen) for a small wine tasting. All the couples had gone into town and found several low prices bottles/boxes. So that night we each arrived with our new found bargain beverages and proceeded to taste them around the cockpit, compare thoughts, prices, and take thumbs up/down photo’s so we could remember which ones we liked. One of our favorites turned out to be the Grands Prelats Janfort…made even more favored with the $2.01 Euro price.

Anchorage at Ste Annes

So for around $2.67 (US) a nice red for cooking as well as the table. Sure went well with the seafood chowder and great company (Rod & Mary, s/v Sheer Tanacity) last night. So far we are loving Martinique; clean, friendly, great food shopping, beautiful beaches, and the US Dollar/Euro exchange rate is much better than our last visit. If there is a negative it is a distinct lack of free internet. But a coffee at a local shop will allow a connection as part of the bargain. Throw in a couple Pain du Chocolate pastries and it’s just about perfect. Now to get to work on my (currently lack of) French. We could be here a while…