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Tuesday, January 13, 2009, St. Pierre,
Martinique
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One month into our Caribbean adventure, life has
taken on a different tone from our
last two and a half years of Atlantic and
Mediterranean travel. Some of the
differences are obvious - climate, culture,
history - but others, especially the
similarities between the two, are taking me a
bit by surprise.
Winter in the Caribbean, also known as the West
Indies, is paradise for a
cruiser: sunshine, clear, warm
water, predictable wind. In the Med, you
could wake up one day to clear sunny 80 degree
weather and go to bed in cloudy, rainy, 60
degrees, and that is in the middle of the
summer. Of course it rains plenty here in
the Caribbean, but the showers are usually very
brief and refreshing, leaving the boat clean of
saltwater and dirt. Rain in the Med more
often than not left the boat even dirtier,
depositing a fine red Saharan dust or just plain
grime from the air into all available nooks and
crannies, of which there are plenty. But
that isn't the worst of it. The winds in
the Mediterranean Sea bedevil the eager sailor
with alarming regularity, either blowing too
hard for safe and comfortable sailing, or not
enough to even fill the sails, necessitating
more engine hours than I care to remember.
The reliable direction and force of the winds in
the Caribbean are a welcome change from the past
couple of years of battling with Poseidon and
his moods in the Med.
On the other hand, once you actually manage to
get somewhere in the Med, there is always a
wondrous wealth of history and culture to soak
up. It doesn't matter so much that you
have to wait out a
mistral
(one of the strongest of the myriad of named
winds that blow out of all directions) someplace
for a week because there is always something
interesting to do on shore. Even suffering
from cultural overload, resisting the thought of
yet another museum full of "old rocks" as the
girls used to call them, we always found good
parks, interesting shopping and fantastic
restaurants to keep us entertained. Life
on shore in the Caribbean is sadly lacking in
many of these aspects. The usual tourist
T-shirt and knick-knack shops all start to look
the same after the first two. History
doesn't penetrate every inch of shoreline the
way it does in the Med. There are
sprawling sugar and fruit plantations dating back to
colonial times, some old forts perched on the
odd hilltop, and the legacy of slavery that
colors all four to five hundred years of history
in the Caribbean, but that is nothing compared
to the thousands of years of civilization we
tried to learn about and absorb during our
travels throughout the Med.
In stark contrast to the majority of the
Mediterranean, most countries of the Caribbean
are poor. Public parks and playgrounds are
rare. Even much more rudimentary services
such as water, sewer and electricity are not
always reliable. Whereas tourism
undeniably contributes largely to most
Mediterranean economies, it constitutes the
primary source of income in all of the Caribbean
countries, at least for half of the year. This naturally influences the
nature of one's experiences here.
Restaurants, bars, hotels, dive shops and rental
facilities entice the vacationer to spend money.
Many of these vacationers charter sailboats and
the proliferation of "boat boys" who come out in
their wooden skiffs to greet you and to assist you
in tying up to a mooring or to sell you fruit or
ice or handcrafts proves that every potential
niche in the tourist market has been filled.
Actually, there are several places where the
boat boys aren't present. France still
holds several islands that remain officially
part of France. Martinique is one of them,
as well as Guadeloupe, St. Bart's and part of St.
Martin. The character of these islands
reflect the continued heavy influence of France.
With investment from the "motherland" they tend
to have a better developed infrastructure
and more sophisticated population. Yes,
you can still find a touch of the French
superiority complex here! Having only
visited three countries so far this trip, I
can't speak about the whole region with
authority, but one can certainly see and feel
the difference between Martinique and St. Lucia,
only 25 miles away. I suppose it is a
little like crossing the border between two
European countries, so close in proximity,
history and climate yet peppered with
innumerable cultural, political and economic
differences that dramatically change the feel of
the place.
The Caribbean people on all the islands are
usually more friendly than Europeans. As
we moved south in the Med, people tended to warm
a little to us, but friendliness is the rule
rather than the exception in the West Indies.
We have noticed that traveling with kids
anywhere makes it much easier to break the ice
with the locals. They find it easier to
relate to and identify with us as a family.
It opens up wonderful doors and makes us more
than just "walking wallets." Of course, in
both the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, we
have to be careful about theft. Violence
is comparatively rare. The closer you are
to a city, the higher the risk of crime.
Although we often left our dinghy unlocked in
small city anchorages in the Med, we always lock
it up here. Poverty breeds crime.
Thieves tend to be a bit bolder too, boarding
anchored yachts in the middle of the night and
stealing computers, electronics, and money.
It's worrisome to have to lock yourself inside
your boat at night; something we never did in
the Med. On the other hand, if you take
the necessary precautions, you don't have much
to worry about.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the
Mediterranean and the Caribbean lies in the
attributes of the two seas themselves.
Teaming with life, warm, clean and clear, the
Caribbean invites you to swim, snorkel, dive,
play. White and black sand beaches abound,
for the most part sparsely populated. Even
beaches in the middle of the "cities" are mostly
clean and welcoming. By contrast, you
really had to work hard to get good beach time
in the Med. It was easier on the islands;
the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.
Of course, Greece would be another exception,
but we didn't spend much time there.
During our time in the Med, we mostly sought out
the culture, history, and art that abounds
rather than the beaches that are a dim
comparison to the Caribbean and Bahamas
experiences we had on our initial visit here in
2005/2006. We found the fishing to be
quite bountiful, and saw lots of dolphins, but
otherwise lamented at the lack of sea life
around us. There was also an appalling
amount of garbage floating in the water.
But for all the differences, cruising life
retains many of the same characteristics in both
places. Connectivity remains a major
priority. Firstly, allowing us to keep on
top of the weather that affects us so
dramatically, but just as importantly, allowing
us to keep in touch with family and friends.
Our judgment of an anchorage suffers drastically
if we cannot get online.
Provisioning still requires careful thought and
planning. You can't count on finding
everything in one store either in the Med or in
the Caribbean. When I find one of those
often-used-but-hard-to-find staples like flour
tortillas, I stock up. I often will
remember and return to an anchorage based upon
the supplies available in the grocery stores and
markets.
Meeting other cruisers also continues to occupy
a prominent place in our lives. Although
we have more visitors scheduled during our time
in the Caribbean than we did in the Med, it is
still important for us to have the escape of
other, like-minded sailors with whom to
socialize. Twenty-four/seven is a lot of
together time and the added perspective of
others is a welcome change to the dynamic.
We see a lot more American and Canadian boats
here in the Caribbean, but since they are more
prolific, they also tend to be less friendly.
In the Med, since it was so rare, we
automatically greeted any other American boat we
saw, if they didn't beat us to it.
So, despite the differences in shore-side
activities and facilities, weather and people,
our cruising life still feels much the same as
always. I suppose you could compare the
changes in our lives in the Caribbean versus our
lives in the Mediterranean to a change in one's
place of residence (it seems so obvious).
The majority of our daily activities are the
same: school, meals, relaxation, but the overall
tone of life is colored by our surroundings.
What we do, where we go, how we get there are
all just a little different. Life is a
little easier here. Our biggest worry,
after the immense variety of culture and
activities in the Med, is that our days will
start to get too predictable and boring after
the honeymoon period wears off. But can
you really get sick of 80 degrees, sunshine and
swimming in the sea? We shall see!
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