Gosh , what an eventful few days it has been. 
The rain I was talking about previously was followed by very strong winds, much too high for the season, 
but we have no choice. 
We have to continue our journey. 
However the strain on crew and material starts showing. 

We were off Guadeloupe in winds of BF 8 with gusts up to BF 9, 
when the reefing system of the main sail broke down. 
We have a so called in-mast furling system, meaning we furl the main sail into the mast and by doing so can reduce it in strong winds  to whatever size we like . 
When the system broke, the whole main came out ! 
Great. We took the jib sail ( front of boat ) away, and started the engine, limping into the bay of Pointe-a-Pietre, the largest town on the island with a marina that can cater for up to 500 boats. 
A rigger I had called earlier was expecting us already, so after staying at anchor, we finally took the whole main sail down, 
and then went into the marina. 

This repair will be tricky and needs to be done with patience.
 It is essential that the 
system will not fail us again during our return trip to Europe, 
otherwise we will be in great trouble ! 
But for now we are stuck. 
One week at least !!!!!!

So we are back in France now, Guadeloupe that is .
 But it is France, nevertheless, an Overseas Department and as such again part of the EU. 
The parked Rolls Royce in the marina and the passing BMW's on the sometimes 3 lane motorway give you the feeling like driving in the "Hinterland" between Cannes and Nice, 
and again to me it has nothing to do with the Caribbean.

But no, it has nothing to do with female logic, but with the language : 
FRENCH !!!!!!!

Here is MY point : 


IN FRENCH YOU CAN SAY SOMETHING AND MEAN THE OPPOSITE !

Which brings me back to Guadeloupe. 
"Basse Terre" actually means "below", 
so the left wing of the butterfly is slightly below the right wing of the butterfly.
 Finally : Male Logic !!!!!!!!! 

The 'French capital' of the island is actually Basse Terre, on the SW side of the island,
 with a population half the size of 'Pieter's Point'  
The difference however lies in the seemingly architecturally unconnected "State Buildings", 
 almost like "White Elephants" towering over the residents and their small dwellings in this small town. 
Big Brother seems to be big, white, and therefore pure : 
La Grande Nation ! 

Besides all this I feel Guadeloupe is nicer, more pleasant than Martinique. 
It still depends on it's sugar cane plantations to produce the Rum that is so highly valued in France. 
Previously it was produced on slave plantations by white colonists, 
of whom most were killed during the "Reign of Terror" by the 
revolutionary commissar of the new Republic, 
Victor Hugues ( 1762 - 1826 ). 

Although Napoleon re-instated slavery in 1802 due to the "headache" of his wife, 
 it did not bring back the surviving exiled Creole families of plantation owners, but slavery continued nevertheless until 1848.
 Land ownership thereafter was consolidated by large companies from metropolitan France, 
and that's the way it is until today.  

Do you remember him  ? Anchor man for the news he finished every program with this phrase : 
And that's the way it is, Walter Cronkite, CBS News , New York !
( 1916 – 2009 )

When I returned from my trip with the car and came back to the marina, I said to myself : 
Dear DHL, pls bring the spare parts quickly, I want to move on.

And that's the way it is, 
Master Mike, 
reporting from Guadeloupe,
 nothing new ! 
Just FRANCE !

We are on Les Saintes, a small but very charming little island south of Guadeloupe. 
Colourful houses in blue , red and yellow, clean streets, for the size of the island an amazing number of seemingly good restaurants and other shops and boutiques. 
Although the rain has been following us for almost 5 days now, it is still fun walking through the little streets and off to the beaches.

The other interesting fact is that 
the biggest naval battle ever fought by the French and the English 
was just off Les Saintes, where on 12th April 1782 
Admiral Rodney defeated heavily the French squadron under the command of Comte de Grasse , 
and as a result laid
 foundation to the era of British maritime supremacy. 
It also gave most of the islands to the English ( 1783 , remember ! ). 
Nevertheless, Les Saintes always stayed French.

That all said, 
my thoughts are still with the 
Island of Dominica. 
Wow, and what an island that is !!!! 
Columbus saw it later in the month of November in 1493, and because it was a Sunday, 
he called it Dominica, the latin word for that special day. 
Today there are 70,000 inhabitants on 751 sq km, an average of $400 USD income per capita per month, 
7 volcanos instead of one like in the other islands , a lot of rain-showers and therefore 
rainforest, rivers, waterfalls, and a very lush vegetation.
Columbus described this place to the Court of Spain by crumbling sheets of paper together. 
Nature can be amazing , and here is the untouched place !!!!! 

Take the few cars and the streets ( some built by the Chinese ! ) away, 
and you have an island that has not changed since its discovery. 
This is probably the reason why "The Pirates of the Caribbean" had seven 'shooting locations' here. 
And I am truly impressed after the disappointment from Martinique. 
Dominica is poor but pure ! 
And the people here are nice as well ! 
What a relief.

I took a boat up the "Indian RIver" that used to be part of a 200 acres estate but is now 
looked after by the Government. 
The rainforest is dense and quiet, and of course what else happens in the rain-forest than
......raining. 
Almost no animals in sight, in fact Domenica has no wild animals with the exception of the 
Boa Constrictor and the Iguana, the first on the ground, the second in the trees. 
Difficult to see both anyway, so no bother. 
I hate snakes !

But the true reasons to come to Dominica lie in the fact that here, 
in all the beauty of nature, with its tremendous amount of various and beautiful flowers, 
the range of spices, vegetables and fruits including wild Coffee, Cacao, Cinnamon, Mango, Melon, Pineapple, 

you will find the 
last remaining true 
Caribs in the Caribbean. 
Dominica is home to the last remaining former fearsome people of Kalinagos , originating from the Orinoco river ,  pushing the ( north-american) tribes of Arawacs out of this region, 

and fighting heavily the incoming european settlers. 

And Dominica's history is full of battles between these factions , 
of treachery between brother and brother ( one white, one half Carib , the Warner brothers ), 
and of resulting massacres on both sides, 
where today only the name of villages and beaches remind us of the sad events. 

I am always surprised by our ( past ???? ) western arrogance, 
when it comes to invading other people's countries and then deciding to either
"wipe them out" or "pacify them" ,
 depending on whether they resist or not.

What is worse is that we often mean with pacifying 
" putting them into reservations ",
 and I have seen some in New Mexico, Arizona, and Australia. 
The encountered apathy and lethargy , the unemployment, alcoholism, and often "unlawful relations" ie incest,
 will stay in the memory of any visitor for ever. 
So I was somehow reluctant but also curious to visit 
the " Carib Reserve",  an area of roughly 2000 hectares. 
And to my surprise it was a beautiful experience. 

There are roughly 3500 Kalinagos left, but only about 300 of "true Carib stock". 
Although that indicates to me some "unlawful relations", I did not see any evidence of it .
 In fact the Caribs like the rest of Dominica's population, is of a healthy and gentle kind, very open to visitors, almost curious, 
and they are 'beautiful' people. 

The interesting thing is their olive/yellow skin and their 'asian eyes', 
and when you have travelled the world, you will understand when I say that the people you see make you believe you are either on Hawaii, Vanuatu or even Japan. 
It is fantastic. 
And they are not isolated in this 'reserve'. 
They just live here, in small dwellings, select a 'Chief', but are also represented in Parliament. 
They are farmers, lawyers and accountants, ie they have the opportunity to get well educated, and go about it like anybody else. 
But they are seemingly " at peace with nature" . 

AND FINALLY, AS IF I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR IT, I ALSO MEET 'MY LONDONERS' !!!!!!!!

 After some rum punches, we started singing
 "GLORIA",
 a song performed by Eric Burden and the Animals. 
Remember ? 
By the way , I used to meet him around Notting Hill and Portobello Road, surprise surprise. 
Why ? 
Because half of London "lives" in Notting Hill ! 
And 'the other half' in the Caribbean !
You should really know by now !

So if YOU, city dwellers and other ignorant people out there, 
want to know 
how the pineapple grows, 
how cinnamon can help you getting over your ligament, 
if you want to see how coffee beans look like, 
how the mango grows, 
and the lemon grass smells when you rub it in your hand, 
in fact you people,
 if you want to experience true nature, positive, non violent nature that is, 
and want to give something to your children that they will never forget, 
then there is only one solution :

VISIT THE ISLAND THAT COLUMBUS CALLED "SUNDAY"  
BUT 
I CALL "PARADISE".

....and it is still raining.

YOURS, 
Master Mike

We arrived on Martinique , 
the last of the Windward Islands as we go north , 
at the very south-westerly point, where there is a large natural bay called 'Cul-De-Sac du Marin' , home to one of the largest Marinas in the Caribbean, and we are here for repairs to the boat. 

Martinique is a French department : Department d'Outre Mer 
(Overseas Department) or DOM since 1946, 
and as such part of the EU where the Euro reigns.

 And one immediately realises that we are in France !

It is not so much because of its good infrastructure and the standard of living which is way above that of the neighbouring islands we visited so far. Neither because of the closure of the shops on Saturdays at 14h and their reopening again only on Monday.


Not even due to the fact that  - as George W Bush put it - they have no word for
 "Entrepreneur" , 
which they don't really need because they have the 
35h / week labour regime and a 75% tax rule. 
No , it is because they all speak french here. 
You think this is a logical consequence , but that is exactly my point : 
They ONLY speak french here, nothing else. 
Or to put it bluntly :
 They don't want to speak english.

Now there is a silly way around this challenge, and it goes like this :

YOU : Good afternoon Madam
French Shop Sales Person ( in short FSSP ) : Bonjour, Monsieur. J'arrive tout de suite.
YOU : Sorry Madam, I DO NOT SPEAK FRENCH, but I would like to hire a car.
FSSP: Je ne comprends pas, I DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH !
YOU : OK, that is a pity, because I wanted to rent a car for the whole week. But then I just go next door, they speak english !
FSSP: OH yes, I do speak little english. Drivers licence, Passport and Credit Card please.

So here you are. They all speak english....you just have to give them an incentive. 
But it does not make them happy, I tell you.
 In fact I believe french people have no concept of "Happiness" anyway. 
That is one reason why Disney World France will never work. 

But let's not talk about that now, let's talk about Martinique.

Originally Columbus , who discovered this place, called the island Madinina, surely of 
Carib origin, meaning 'The Island of Flowers.  
It took until 1635 before some Frenchmen arrived, founding Fort St Pierre and the island finally became a part of the Kingdom of France in 1676. This was mainly due to 
Madame de Maintenon,  who had been brought up at Le Pecheur in the north of the island. 
and , if I interpret the history books well who speak of the ''feminine charm' she applied, 
gave bluntly speaking some sexual favours to Louis XIV  in return for his economical and political support.
She also became his second wife !

Otherwise who would have wanted an island so far away with no obvious natural resources. Although the British conquered Martinique thereafter, the French got their beloved Island of Flowers back in 1763 ( remember Treaty of Versailles), however not without loss. 
They traded it against Canada !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Against Canada ???????? 
Well they called it a 'few acres of snow', 
and those who travel to the "Cote d'Azure" in the summer, and see Madame and Monsieur day in day out lying at the beach, will understand why this deal was "excellent' for them.....and excellent for the British.

In the year of the treaty 
Josephine Tacher de la Pagerie, 
the future Empress and wife of Napoleon was born , actually not far away from where we are, 
on a 200-acre , 150-slave estate in Trois Islet. 
Some months earlier, and she would have been born English !!!!!!!
Now that would have been interesting. 
May be, but only may be, the Aristocracy in Paris would have started to speak english, and history would have taken a totally different direction..
Who knows ?
And then of course Napoleon's famous letter on his return from the Egyptian campaign in 1799 might have been written in english : 
"Don't wash, I am coming home" ( Ne te lave pas, j'arrive ! ), 
but of course I find the sentence in French much more romantic than in brutal english !  
Anyway, I can only assume that as a result of these frequent wash habits the French gave us all these fantastic "toiletries" like 
"Deodorant" or "Perfume". 

 
Josephine spoke of course french, and so Napoleon understood that she wanted the island back that had been chanigng hands again in the process of the French Revolution and other war expeditions by her husband. 
Here is another so called 'feminine charm' approach as stated in the history books, 
but I am tired of this political correctness, 
so I put it into the simple human, husband and wife context : 
She couldn't stand that her home was occupied by the British , so she started nagging him. 
But the Emperor of Europe obviously had other concerns at that time, specifically about the 
naval blockade put in place by Lord Nelson.
  Frustrated about her husbands indifference she retorted to more 'charming measures' meaning,
 to put it bluntly, 
he "didn't get it any more ",  she had a 'headache". 
End of story ! 
Ghee, let's talk proper english here !

I can see the situation clearly in my head :
 For a couple of days, he probably mulled about it , sleeping on the couch in the living room .
Have you ever tried to sleep on a french couch ? 
You see, here we are, men suffer all the time from "feminine charm" . 
And when he finally had enough , and she still had a "headache",
 he called for his
 Admiral Villeneuve in order to brake the blockade, sail to and liberate Martinique, 
and on his return to defeat Nelson's fleet entirely !
 EASY ! 
Hey this is good Management stuff.  
Well, Villeneuve did what he was told except for ending the blockade. 
In disgrace, he had to leave again, wanting to die in honour, so he chose to 
make a stand against Nelson at Trafalgar, and he survived....
whilst 
Nelson died from a single shot by a french sharp-shooter. 
WELL, THAT'S LIFE !
( go back to "Monkey Business" and read what happened next )

Finaly in 1814 by a second Treaty of Versailles, 
Martinique became once and for all french territory.
 Whilst I travel the island,
on the motorway. with "Club Med" on one side, and industrial estates on the other, I ask myself : 
WHY ?
I mean it is like another Cote d'Azur place, except that it is warm here during the european winter. 
So Monsieur and Madam can come, speak their own language, retire here, pay less taxes, eat the same food,
 and visit their Carrefour supermarket as they would do in Lille or Marseille. 
But Caribbean authenticity is hard to find. 
I question whether it actually still exists.
 So why paying all the subsidies, only to have a "warm winter holiday package" ?
Unless you are French, I find Martinique boring.

However today is Carnival, and things are slightly different. 
'Mardi Gras',  
('Fat Tuesday') 
as you can eat rich, fat food before the fasting starts on Ash Wednesday. 
But  here the festivities run over 3 days, and even on Ash Wednesday they continue to have fun. 
Fair enough. I have no idea whether this activity is better on the other islands or not, some like Grenada have actually changed it to July , may be as a homage to London, where the 
Notting Hill Carnival is at the end of August. 
But as I said before:

The Caribbean is like half of London ! Do you believe me by now ?

When one travels into the North of the island , there is a place of interest : 
St.Pierre, known in past times as the "Paris of the Caribbean",
 at the foot of the vulcano Mt Pelee. 
It is said that when the last Caribs on the island were butchered in 1658, 
they swore curses against the Europeans invoking 
the mountain to revenge them.. 
That seemed to have worked somehow, as in 1902  the volcano erupted and 
wiped out an estimated 30,000 people, with only two survivors of the city. 
One of which was the famous Cyparis, 
a convicted murderer who was protected by the thick stone walls of his cell and survived the otherwise deadly gas cloud that burnt everybody else to death. 
From that day the ethnical and social structure of the island was changed forever,
 as most of the dead were Europeans. 
Today St Pierre is nothing more than a large village, with some ruins telling the story of better times.

POSITION : PIRATE'S BAR
SOMEWHERE ON MARTINIQUE
SUNDAY EVENING
MOOD : DREAMING !

Dear Reader, 
as you might remember, the 
rise of the Buccaneers 
was basically the result of the 
oversight by the Spanish to protect their 'back door'. 
Actually some Frenchmen , 
driven from the island of Hispaniola and fleeing to Tortuga (on Haiti, 1640) were joined by many other French, English and Dutch and latest by the middle of the 16th century,  they had established themselves in the smaller islands and started to 
intercept the slow moving treasure fleets on their return to Spain. 
English setlers in Jamaica began to spread the name "Buccaneers" and it stuck to the point that first books written about their activity were published like the one from 
Alexandre Exquemelin in 1684 : "The Buccaneers of America".

 
In between of all this mess were some more 'private Privateers', not flying the national flags, and therefore they were definitely  'illegal pirates' , or shall we say 
" Bad Pirates " . 
As their risk was higher than the 'legal pirates' or the 'illegal legal pirates, they were even more brutal, more vicious, more daring.

Got it 
???????

The funny thing - if I am allowed to call it that way - though was that 
the 'legal pirates' went about their business 
even in times of peace between the nations they 'seemingly represented' . 
So was the obviously illegal 'legal piracy'  still legal ? 
You bet it was, as long as the kings got their share. 
Simples !!! 
And their 'legal' fun lasted almost 40 years !
( 1650-1690 ) .

When the Spanish realised their strategic mistake, 
they started some in todays military language 
 'mop-up' operation, 
but it was too late. 
Although they drove most of the buccaneers out
 -
who then retreated 'officially' to  
Port Royal ( on Jamaica, 1655 ) 
being invited by the English Governor Thomas Modyford 
and making the city the most prosperous ( and wildest ! ) in the Caribbean
 -
 the French and English royal fleets had already joined in the pillage. There were even 
Royal Navy and French officers sent to lead the buccaneers
 ( and keep them more and more under control, I guess ). 
Spain's disastrous defeat of its invincible Armada off the English coast was the last straw that saw 
Spain giving up its monopoly over the West-Indies, 
and by latest the 17th century definitely abandoned all claims on the Lesser Antilles. 

However now it was between the French and the English navies to sort things out. 
And with it came also the occupation and colonialisation of the islands by settlers, farmers and plantation owners, importing 'cheap labour' in the form of slaves from West Africa. 
And suddenly the Buccaneers were out of favour ! 
Why sharing the plunder, when you now have a fleet ( financed I guess by the first wave of plunder ), 
that is good enough to deal with the enemy directly, and you just pay the crew a pittance. 
And even trade between the nations started to emerge and needed to be protected rather than destroyed. 
So no new 'Letters of Marque' were signed, and 
as a result 
roughly  40000 " Privateers and Buccaneers"  became un-employed. 

The 'Brotherhood of the Seas' became finally illegal, 
latest after the 'Treaty of Utrecht" in 1713 
(  actually it consists of many treaties, one of which cedes Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain ! ). 

And what do you think that a navy or say army (like in Iraq ) does when you dismantle them. 
Well they continue what they know best, but now without the 'Letter' , now truly just for themselves. 
They went, as we say, "undergroud". All-out-war on the seas erupted , and everybody started to fight against his former friend or foe. 
The True Pirate was created ! 
THE UGLY PIRATE !
Who cares, the spoils were still good. 
In fact the time between 1690-1730 is called the "Golden Age of Piracy". 
And against all public belief, only now was the 
"Jolly Roger", the pirate flag, 
created and hissed !
The flag came in various colours and formats, but the black one with the cross bones was intended to play on the 'fear-factor", 
ie when you see it you are already lost. 
And in most cases it worked.

 Of course there are plenty of stories about individual pirates, privateers, buccaneers, etc. 
May be you find at home in your loft an old crate, full with children books of your past. 
Treasure Island, The Pirates of the Caribbean, you name it, it is all the same good stuff. 
Read it. 
Start dreaming again ! 
Gosh, when was it the last time you dreamt about Pirates and Treasures. 
Do it , and tell your children about it, and be happy ! 
So no reason to repeat all these stories here.

Nevertheless besides fictional tales 
about gold and gem stones hidden on small unrecognisable islands surrounded by reefs and palm trees,  
some historical figures stand out and seem to be worthwhile mentioning.

 Well, here you have it. 
Crime seems to pay off as long as you declare it to be legal . 

Or others like :
Stede Bonnet , who came from a very rich family
( hanged 1718 )  
Sir Christopher Chapman , former Privateer turned Pirate , 
(executed 1777)
but all of them ended on the gallows or were killed in battle. 
With one exception, actually with two : 
Anne Bonny (1698 -1782 ) and Mary Read (1690-1721), 
two of the very few female Pirates of renown. 
Both became pregnant 
( in prison ????? ) 
and were spared from the gallows, however Mary died regardless, of a fever before her release. 

In the many years after 1730 Piracy in the Caribbean steadily declined.
Some retreated and continued as "Merchants" in the slave trade, which flourished at that time to 
"feed the labour market" of the colonies. 
SURELY AN UGLY BUSINESS !
Finally, as late as 1827, Britain declared that "business" illegal and an act of piracy, a crime punishable by death.
As a result the Atlantic slave trade , with the Royal Navy's power put to good use, was only eradicated by the middle of the 19th century.


So that's that.
From all those involved,
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY,
only legends have survived!

But I have to go now, 
some bloke in a bar last night sold me for a rum punch an 
old chart with a hidden treasure marked on one of the reefs off a larger island, 
saying it was the best kept secret in the Caribbean .
 Of course I believed him !

Aye aye, 
yours 
Whitebeard Master Mike
 "Privateer" due to graceful retirement from all businesses and sins, 
except.....
for the rum punch !

We left Bequia for Saint Lucia on 3. February, early in the morning. 
Hard at the wind we made quick progress - sometimes with more than 10 Knots ( one Knot = 1852m / hour ),
 and stayed close to the lee coast of St Vincent. 

St Vincent as the "capital island" of the State 'St Vincent  and the Grenadines'  was spotted by Columbus on St.Vincent Day during his third voyage in 1498. 
I don't know whether he set actually foot on the island that was called in the 
Carib language 'Hairoun' = "home of the blessed" , 
but seemingly both parties put a religious touch to it.
By accident ?????? 
As you might have heard the phrase : 
 " The way of the Lord is unpredictable... " .
 In any case if he - Columbus that is  - would have put a foot on the island, I am sure he wouldn't have lasted long.

The indigenous people, the Caribs, defended their home fiercely untill the middle of the 18th century . They were 'supported'  and finally overtaken by a new race though, the "Black Caribs", a mix from former slaves that had escaped or ship-wrecked on the shores off Bequia and intermarried with the locals.  
Whilst again the island was disputed between the French and English over many years , 
finally in the late 18th century a British force
 put an end to both 
French dominance and Carib dreams of independence. 
The only trace left from the first are names for some villages and coastal features. . Most of the latter were deported to Honduras, but their genetic legacy is said to be still there.

But the island looks definitely interesting. 
I promise: 

If I should return to this area ever, I will visit you, 
St Vincent !

We continued to Saint Lucia, 
where we had started our Caribbean adventure, and after 
passing the island's landmark , the two 'Pitons' ,and a short stop for dinner in Marigot Bay, 
with its famous Doolittle restaurant ( film set for the movie Dr.Doolittle),
 we arrived again in Rodney Bay Marina.

Whilst discovered during Columbus' fourth voyage in 1502, 
I bet by now you can guess already the history of the island. 
Yes, I can confirm, all of what you think of, is true !!!!!!!!  
and more, because it 
changed hands more than 14 times ! 
But as the island was linked to Martinique, it only finally became British after the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 . 
And again, the French left a lot of names and the input for 
the locals's language, patois, which is very much like creole.
In "Old french" patois means " incomprehensible speech", 
and Parisians say that all natives of France outside Paris of course speak some kind of 'patois' !! 
 which is good news, so none of the locals here feels offended ! 
Gosh, Parisians are an arrogant lot !

Talking about french names, you will find on many islands 
villages or mountains called "Soufriere" ( ie on St Vincent, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe) . 
In my ignorance I related it to "souffrir = suffering", and I assumed it was a reflection of the suffering and hardship by both the former slaves and colonists to make the steep mountains fertile. But it has nothing to do with it ! Surprise, Surprise.

The name comes from sulphur springs, 
a result of the often still active vulcanos that exist on these islands. 
Now I wonder whether in case I would live next to one at home ,  I would consider paying $ 8 USD for visiting these places. stinking "like rotten eggs", or be paying the "guides" an additional $ 4 USD for telling me someyhing that one should have learnt in school in chemistry classes. 
Anyway, here you feel "you have to" as part of your island experience,
 but my eyes are still weeping from the exhausting gases, and I will not do it again. 
But by all means, do it when you 
come and visit. 
Chat up the guides, they are all lovely ladies , 
and share the experience, especially 
when you want to reduce your cholesterin levels and don't want to eat eggs no more for at least 4 weeks.  
Gosh,  
People of Basle/ Switzerland, 
depending on the wind direction, 
YOU must have a low cholesterol level !!!!!!!!

It is a beautiful island. this Saint Lucia, 
originally in spanish : Santa Alousie. 
Thick rain-forests, 
where the Iguana freely roams,
 banana plantations that have replaced the old sugar cane ones, a functioning tourism, 
even traffic jams at "rush hour", visits by big cruise ships as much as smaller sailing vessels, 
it is an intersting island to visit. 
But stay away from the tourist trails, because only then will you meet real people :

 ......not like me though......remember : 
Happiness is smoking a cigar called Hamlet !
( an old british advertisement slogan from the 80's )

The last point that strikes me is this : 
Saint  Lucia is now the the third independent country I have been visiting that has the same currency : 
The EC Dollar, the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. 
And there are in total 6 independent Caribbean nations
 (hear hear !! ) 
plus 2 British overseas territories (Anguilla and Montserrat) ,
HEAR HEAR !!!!!!! ) 
that, 
under the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank located in St Kitts, have this
 "Single Currency ". 
RIngs a bell ????? 

And they all have their different economies, developments, challenges, etc etc etc. 
Now what strikes me to the point of feeling hilarious is that it seems to work. 
You might even have a fit if you knew that it is a British invention !!!!!!!!

Do you remember the British tabloid press reporting on the imminent 
death of the Euro in December 2011, 
again in 2012, 
because they believe , or better don't want to believe it might ever work. 
Do they know that their Queen's head is printed on this 'Single Currency" , 
and that it is actually printed in London ? 
Now Brussels take note : 
The Euro might work if you came over here and learnt from the islands ! 
I know, I know, it's so much smaller, 
but then remember the "Flight of the Phenix".
It's the principle that matters !
Or you talk directly to Mr Cameron's chancellor , 
Mr Osborne. 
He will probably be most embarrassed if he had to admit to his Tory backbenchers that he knows a lot about how to run a "Single Currency" successfully.

Life is a bitch !

Yours, Master Mike

POSITION : 13°00'•0 N and 061°14'•6 W
DATE/TIME : 31.01.2013 , 17:30 UTC
MOOD : PRICKLY

We had left Grenada on the 21. January and headed for the Grenadines, a collection of islands and reefs that stretch over 2 States and some 25 nautical miles in a slightly SW to NE direction. 
Their history, 
mainly Carriacou ( Grenada), Union Island ,  Mayreau , Canouan, Mystique and Bequia ( all St Vincent ), and finally St Vincent itself, 
 is very much tied to the "almost eternal" struggle between the English and French 
in these waters, 
changing ownership between them like others change their shirts. 
But in 1783 with 'The Treaty of Versailles'
 ( does anybody know the number of Treaties of Versailles ????? )  they all became definitely English. 
Whilst today some of them are pure resorts having been bought out by Hotel chains ( like PSV : Petit Saint Vincent ), or almost entirely private ( like Mystique ), the rest has a local culture with a mix of local businesses, a small number of foreign ex-patriates, and visiting tourists of all sort. 
Some are doing relatively well, others are struggling, others are discontent to the point of rebellious.

In its centre lies 
Tobago Cays, 
the epicentre and mother of all beautiful postcard islands and reefs, 
the cover of tourist and real estate brochures and any other book trying to entice the World Traveller to come here : Heaven, Paradise, Antilia !!!!! 
So my best advice for you is to look for these postcard pictures elsewhere as they are much nicer than any shot taken with my old camera. 
What is interesting though from a sailor's persepective is that you anchor behind Horseshoe Reef, you sway in the wind, and you are at a relatively safe anchorage whilst except for that 'little' reef , 
you have 3000 nautical miles of ocean and their huge waves just in front of you. 
I can't describe that feeling, but it is awesome.

What strikes me about the other mostly inhabited islands  is that at a first glance they almost all look the same , difficult to cultivate with sometimes steep slopes and occupied by small communities of 
descendants mostly from former slaves 
and some white English or French colonist and fishermen,
 the latter though mainly Scottish. 
But underneath there are some issues that come to the surface only when you observe and stay a little bit longer than just the cruise ship vacationer or the
 'Resort happy-hour alcohol induced living in isolation type of sun-seeker'.
Wow, what a wording. 
I'm lovin it !

Besides the 'funky feeling' some more business oriented inhabitants try to bring over 
via little shops combined with a lot of colours - purple and pink are the favourite - 

The women try to sell "junk of bric-brac" at high prices to the unwary tourist, 
whilst the men, 
if not working in hotels or resorts, 
either focus on selling lobster or other services to the passing sailor, 
or alternatively
 "smoking grass" as a recreational endevour 
and devoting their past time-of which they seem to have plenty- on games similar to Dominos. 
Unemployment is high, and taxi drivers are in abundance. 
Most of the times it is all in a good natured spirit, so trouble is rare. 

Some shops abandoned, the rest selling basically all the same stuff. 
The only difference ? 
Well at maximum the mentality of the Sales person.
 Prices seem to be non-negotiable, and "fixed", so no distinction here either. 
The "Competition Commissioners" in Brussels would have a field day here. 

Nevertheless there are indeed examples of hard work and craftsmanship.  

Religion is also strongly present.
 I haven't figured out yet whether it is because of "smoking grass" or despite of that, 
but both men and women are attending almost feverishly Bible classes and congregation meetings.
The variety of churches is beyond belief . 
You have as many evangelist churches in the islands as there are 'cabbies' in London, 
you have anglican, presbyterian, Jehova's Witness, you name it , it is here. 
Sometimes you hear the chanting and preaching well into the evening, and sometimes, when the more fanatic get involved, the sound, the screaming and shouting, 
can scare the hell out of you. 
There are only two catholic churches though I came about, and that was on the top of a hill on the island of Mayreau where the majority of the 300 or so population is of that religion, and the other one being on Bequia.

It almost seems to be something of an 
anachronism against the Protestantism of the other islands, 
but it is a last reminder of the slaves of French colonists who tried to cultivate these places.
 Elsewhere, like on Curriacou , it is even rumoured that 
some old Voodoo practices from Haiti still exist.
 It wouldn't surprise me, as it does 
exist in London as well...
as the case of a dismembered child body found in the river Thames two years ago has proven. 

As said before, the Caribbean is like London, no doubt !
The last proof of that statement is the fact that even Mick Jagger lives in this area. 
At least it is rumoured that he has not been a tax resident in the UK for the last 30 years, so he must live here somewhere.  

When Colin Christopher Paget Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner (1926 – 2010),
 a rich british entrepreneur,  
had the idea of leasing the island from the St Vincent Government 
with a contract of 99 years, 
the few locals and others were excited. 
Jobs and income seemed to be coming, business should have been flourishing, and self-esteem given to the locals for providing for themselves.  
Due to Tennant's good connections with the British Royals, Princess Margaret was the first investor and soon got others interested to build or buy houses there, 
and the legend of Mystique was created. 
I still wonder what is so attractive to live next to Royalty, 
but I guess it is mostly new, not old money.

Now I don't know when and where it got wrong, at least in the eyes of the locals.
 Because since then all the house-owners have now a share in the Mystique Company, and participate in their fortunes and expenses. In their capacity as "owners of the island"  they seemingly have decided 
to keep the place extremely private. 
In fact over Christmas and New Year the island shuts down, even as a passing boat visitor you can only walk the 50m from the jetty to Basil's Bar, and the taxi drivers and other locals are being payed for doing nothing, as movement is restricted everywhere. 
Security makes sure of that.  
Even without that the whole island gives the impression of an 
"Old Peoples Nursing Home", 
just the nurses are missing. 
At least one can't see them wearing uniforms. 
As a result,
 resentment against the Company and its shareholders by the locals and 
those coming over from St Vincent for work, is growing. 
They regard themselves as the 'New Slaves', 
living on the welfare of a few very rich people, and they don't like it. 
They are angry with the owners, 
with their Government in St Vincent - who has no influence on the direction of the island - and 
probably they are angry with themselves.
 
AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY ?

Life goes on elsewhere REGARDLESS: