This
missive will explain some of the pictures we sent in the last batch.
After a couple of typical (yawn) breathtaking sunsets, we have
a picture of our neighbors in Marigot bay abeam "Eaux Vives";
this is why we feel ours is a middle class yacht.
Wednesday was market day, so we decided
to spend the day as tourists. We spent Tuesday trying to repair
things and had the usual frustrations of some things refusing
to be repaired, and requiring more trips to the store. Anyway,
we deserved a day off. We dinghied to shore, looked at a few
of the colorful stalls, and then found our way to the Boulangerie
Parisienne, where we could have our cafe au lait and some of
us could have our pain au chocolat. After sufficient cafe enjoyment,
we wandered back to the market place where we bought a few souvenirs
and some fruit and fish. This required us to return to the boat
and put the food away, but we turned right around and returned
to shore.
We walked up the hill to the fort ruins and took
lots of pictures of our scenic surroundings. Some of the pictures are of the
fort from below or from the fort looking down on the market and harbor. The fort
was built to defend the honest islanders from the evil English pirates. There
were some high school kids making a music video, but the boys were being lame
although the girls had their dance routine all worked out. We walked back into
town and enjoyed some galleries and other scenic spots. We took a bunch of pictures
of the colorful buildings and gardens. We hope any gardeners amoung our readers
will appreciate the lack of bouganvilla which have been carefully edited from
the set. One picture is meant to illustrate why the alternate name for the West
Indies is "Spice Islands". Many of the pictures from above are of Marigot
bay with many boats (including Eaux Vives), and in some views you can see into
the lagoon which has even more boats. |
The border between the French and Dutch sides runs right down the
middle of the lagoon. The pictures are included for the interest
of our favorite structural engineer. The lagoon can be entered via
the bridge on the French side from Marigot bay (the French bridge)
which opens several times a day, and has a single bridge lifting
device. On the Dutch side, the bridge is wider to let mega yachts
in and it has bridge lifters on both sides of the road (the Dutch
bridge). This side also opens about 4 times a day on schedule. Despite
their names, they are both built by the same Canadian firm. The Dutch
bridge was recently widened (you can actually make out the welded
in sections to the arm and counter weight). The pelican walks up
over the arm as it lifts. They managed to keep traffic running while
doing the widening as the road provides the only access to a large
chunk of the island and without the bridge, the yachts can't get
in to spend money. The strange mountain in the last picture is quite
a local landmark and is known as "witches tit" for obvious
reasons.
Most of the boat services are on the
Dutch side which is a long way by dinghy but with two of us, we can
get our dinghy up on plane and race around like local teens. We had
zipped across four or five times getting parts and so on, and were
just on our way back from sending you the pictures, coming under
the French bridge, when we ran out of gas. Lance picked up the can
and shook it and a local resident who was swimming nearby called
out "pas d'essence?" and we had to admit that it was true.
He laughed heartily. The current was taking us along, and a good
thing too, because we hadn't put the oars back in after the passage.
Fortunately, there is a gas station right there, and we paddled with
our hands and pulled ourselves along until we got there. One adventure
a day, that's all we ask. |
