Wow!

Hi Everyone! 'Sea Warrior' and crew is in Martinique at the moment and carnival has just finished. We were in Fort de France (the capital) last Sunday for the opening parade where the dress code was 'multicoloured'. In the morning there was a dance display and then in the afternoon the real fun began.... The music was mainly from live bands marching through the streets behind costumed dancers and paraders. Some though, had cars or trucks with enormous speakers on the back booming out over the dancing crowds. My friend Aluna (another liveaboard teenage girl) and I boogied away to the music, ate far too much candyfloss and generally enjoyed ourselves! When the parade came to an end we headed back out to our boats although ashore the music carried on, drifting across the water until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day my friend Aluna and her family left the rolly anchorage of Fort de France to head south down the Caribbean islands. Today everyone had to dress up as someone of the opposite sex so I cajoled Dad and Heiner (our friend from the boat 'La Buena Vida') into dressing up as women. Dad was particularly enthusiastic - even demanding makeup!! I organized their oufits and transformed them into beautiful damsels!! Mum,me and Marleyne (Heiner's wife) drew moustaches and goatees on each others faces and practiced our manly poses together!! The parade wasn't as big as the day before but we all had fun and it was a laugh to see Heiner and Dad dressed up!!

 

The next day Sea Warrior left Fort de France to go to St. Pierre, a bay further north in Martinique. Our friends Marleyne and Heiner knew I wanted to stay for some more carnival and invited me to stay with them on 'La Buena Vida'. So, Mum, Dad and Sam left me behind and sailed off into the sunset!! So that afternoon we went ashore to the carnival again. It was the busiest day yet and the streets were packed with lots of costumed paraders! We watched the parade and then joined in, dancing along with everyone else.

 

 

The next day, Wednesday, was the last day of the celebrations and they would burn the 'King of Carnival' and 'grieve' for him. Unfortuneatly the anchorage was getting rather rolly so we had to leave and go up to St. Pierre where 'Sea Warrior' was.

 

We spent the next few days in St Pierre enjoying the town and visiting the distillary and going on a walk along the canal walk. The canal was built by slaves to irrogate the plantation in the surrounding area. Unfortuneatly for me there were some scary heights and cliffs because the canal is built along the hillside!!