We sailed north from Cabritz point Dominica to the Iles des Saintes (“The Saints”) and dropped anchor at 7a.m. in the lovely picturesque harbor of the main city in the Iles des Saintes, simply called “Bourg,” or in English the “City.” It is so petit that it hardly qualifies for the name “hamlet,” but it is picturesque in a remarkably continental French way. The town’s two most imposing buildings are a lovely Catholic Church and a town hall, proclaiming “Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité”—those ideals emerging from the French Revolution.
The archipelago consists of seven volcanic islands, but only two have all year residents. These seven islands along with the much larger island of Guadeloupe comprise the French Départment of d’Outré Mer and are a part of France. They have approximately the same relationship to France as the Hawaiian Islands have to the continental United States. The inhabitants are French citizens, vote in all elections, and have all the perquisites of being French citizen and a member of the European Union. The official currency is the Euro. And the shops are not inexpensive as those of us who flocked to the beautiful batique shop Mahogany can testify.
The original 18th century French settlers were indentured servants, chiefly from Brittany. After having secured their freedom from their indenture they became fishermen and boat builders. Today the primary industry is tourism from the larger island of Guadalupe. The cost of living is high as one might expect for most goods are brought in by air and ship. I purchased an ice cream cone this morning for 4 Euros or approximately $4.25.
We disembarked after breakfast at 8:30 and went with Tom Heffernan to the top of the closest mountain to visit the Fort Napoleon, built between 1841 and 1867 by Napoleon III. Some of the hardy in the group chose to walk up to the fort and while it is not far—it takes about 30 minutes—and is mostly uphill. However, the faint of heart, yours truly among them, took the taxis. Once I negotiated our visit in French with the fort authorities, we were able to begin our visit. The fort is today chiefly a botanical garden with all the representative species of flowering trees on the Lesser Antilles. In addition to the trees there are wonderful cacti, euphorbia, and aloes. We also visited the nesting areas of the very large land Iguanas. Today we spotted about four of these wonderful beasties, the largest of which was about three feet.
Fort Napoleon contains an ethnographic museum detailing the pre-Columbian history of the islands and a number of rooms devoted to the local craft of shipbuilding. Of particular interest is the illustrated “diorama” of the very important Battle of the Saints (April 12, 1782), where Admiral George Rodney (1718-92) of his Majesty’s Government defeated Admiral Comte de Grasse, the leader of the opposing French forces. The battle took place in these waters, just north of Dominica, and was a rout for the Franco-Spanish fleet that was seeking to capture the British island of Jamaica. After our visit to the fort we took taxis down to the city and spent the rest of the morning freely wandering in and out of the colorful shops shopping. Some of our group went snorkeling at an adjoining island and from what I heard the fish were colorful and abundant. Lunch was on board and the sails went up at approximately 2:30 and we were sailing along at almost 6.8 knots at 3 p.m. with a nice fresh wind. Max gave a fine illustrated lecture on the ecology of the coral reef. We took in the sails at 5 p.m. and at 6 p.m. Tom O’Brien gave a very informative and lively talk on the pre-history and history of the Sea Cloud.
Tonight was a special night as it was our opportunity to visit the original cabins of the Post-Hutton era. It really is a misnomer to refer to them as “cabins” since they have functioning fireplaces as well as massive marble bathtubs and gold fixtures. Since tonight is the Super Bowl, Tom O’Brien has arranged for those who wish to watch it to have the game televised on the lido accompanied by good solid game fare of fabulous burgers made by our gifted chef Maik Albrecht and beer! With Carolina against Denver and Peyton Manning—a University of Tennessee alumnus—quarterbacking for Denver, I suspect you will know who I am rooting for. Yes, Denver won—Broncos 24, Panthers 10.
Three cheers for the winner and for Tom for having arranged this.
Sleep came easy after this fascinating day.
