The next morning I left the anchorage at Fort Saint Louis and went to a place called Californie in the Cohé du Lamentin only a few miles away. This place wasn’t particularly pretty (there was a huge oil refinery in the background) but it was unbelievably quiet and had access to some good stores. I needed to repair my dinghy again and bought a wooden pole, some groceries, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Shlepping my bags back to the beach (3km) was no easy task and I was very happy when a lady in a car stopped and asked if the monsieur would still have to walk far.
She drove me all the way to the dinghy and I was very relieved since it was early afternoon and the sun was boiling again.
For the next couple of days I recorded guitar parts for the new Thärichens Tentett album, repaired my oarlock with the wooden pole which I had bought one size too small and then got on my way to St. Pierre in the north of the island where I was to meet Andi and Kudi again.
St. Pierre was totally destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Pelée in 1902 but the picturesque village had been rebuilt with some beautiful old colonial style houses on the beach.
The three of us climbed said Mt. Pelée and we had fantastic views although going up there wasn’t very much to see because we were in the rainclouds. The climb and descent was very exhausting and we were happy when we finally got to a road and were given a ride on a motorcycle (me) and in a car (Andi and Kudi).
I cleaned Amy’s underwater hull again. This seems to be necessary almost once a week now. The bottom paint has no seems to be totally ineffective by now.
Very early the next morning we set sail for Dominica.