We sailed from Cabritz Point Dominica to the Iles des Saintes (in Taino Airi Nagan) and anchored about 7:30 a.m. in the lovely picturesque harbor of the main city in the Iles des Saintes (“The Saints”), named by Columbus on his second voyage in November 1493. Cloud cover marked the early morning over Terre Haut (the main island in this small archipelago) and a slight misty rain fell intermittently. The capital of “The Saints” is simply called “Bourg,” or in English the “City.” 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 year-round residents. These seven islands along with the much larger island of Guadeloupe comprise the French “Départment d’Outré Mer.” These islands are a part of France and have approximately the same relationship to the mother country 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. As such the official currency here is the Euro. And the shops are not inexpensive.
The original 18th century French sellers were indentured servants, largely of Breton stock. After having secured their freedom from debt they did what they did in Brittany and became fisherman and boat builders. Today the primary industry is tourism from the larger island of Guadalupe. The cost of living is also high as one might expect. For example, a medium-size serving of ice cream this afternoon cost me four Euros or approximately $4.50. Most goods are brought in by air and ship.
We disembarked after breakfast and went with Tom Heffernan up to the top of the closest mountain to visit the Fort Napoleon, built by Napoleon III to honor his uncle Napoleon I. The fort was built between 1841 and 1867. Some of the hardy members of the group chose to walk up to the fort and while it is not far—it takes about 30 minutes—it is mostly uphill. However, the faint of heart, yours truly among them, took the available taxis. Once I negotiated the visit in French with the fort personnel we were able to begin our visit. The fort is today chiefly a museum of ethnography and a botanical garden with all the representative species of flowering trees on the Lesser Antilles represented. In addition to the trees there are wonderful cacti, euphorbia, and aloes. We also visited the nesting areas of the very large marine iguanas. Today we spotted about four of these wonderful beasties, the largest of which was about three feet long.
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 Rodney of his Majesty’s Government defeated Admiral De Grasse, the leader of the opposing French forces. The battle took place in these waters and was a rout for the French fleet that were seeking to capture the British island of Jamaica. It is reputedly the largest naval battle in the Americas. 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.
Lunch on board and the sails went up and we were sailing along with a nice fresh wind. Max gave a fine illustrated lecture on the ecology of the coral reef, and at 6:30 p.m. Tom O’Brien gave a very informative and lively talk on the pre-history and history of Sea Cloud.
After Tom’s talk we were invited to visit the original cabins accompanied by delectable canapés and champagne. All of this abundance was followed by what can only be described as a most scrumptious dinner. Tomorrow we sail to the magical island of St. Lucia. Off to bed after a wonderfully rich day.
