The Dawgs do Carnival

On Friday, Feb. 17th, we had a nice sail from St. Pierre to Fort de France to meet up with a bunch of Salty Dawgs planning to attend Carnival, the annual (except during pandemics) celebration of European heritage that lasts over 4 days. We decided to pick up a mooring at a nearby marina instead of getting into the fray of boats anchoring and dragging on top of each other in the main bay of Fort de France. Many Dawgs successfully defended their territory in the mayhem and held their anchors without drifting, but we got there too late to be one of them. 

When we arrived at our mooring, we discovered our generator wasn’t pumping water, so once again (it happened in 2020 as well), we had a boat issue to trouble shoot during Carnival, when most shops & businesses aren’t open. Through our Texas friends that we met in St. Pierre, we were introduced to Antoine, a handsome, grey haired Italian man with a handle bar mustache that spoke fluent Italian and French, but not a word of English. With my bits & pieces of French (and a little help from Google Translate), we established that he could pick us up in his utility van the next morning and take us to the nearest marine store to see what we might do about the problem.

Sure enough, Antoine arrived ‘a huit heure’ the next day and showed us to our luxury ride. It was a former mini ambulance converted into a tool truck with two seats up front and a tiny EMT bench in the back. Guess where I rode!

Antoine spent 45 minutes in the store with us discussing the possible options with the proprietor, looking at parts online and making phone calls to other stores before we established that a replacement pump could be had in Le Marin, our next port of call. When he dropped us back off at the Marina he wouldn’t accept payment for his trouble (until I explained that it was beer money, with our great appreciation!)

That evening, we had a nice meal at one of the two marina restaurants and met a friendly Frenchman, who recommended to Andrew the Ti-punch (a shot of Caribbean rum served with a glass of sugar and a lot of lime) and a selection of very old whiskeys. 

The next day, Andrew had a cold and wasn’t feeling too well (I wonder why!), so I decided to go to carnival with John and Lisa (s/v No Mahala) and someone they had met in the marina that had a car. My pics probably tell all you need to know about my carnival experience this year, but suffice it to say 1) it wasn’t as exotic as in 2020, 2) it was very disorganized (with paraders coming and going from all directions), and 3) the Salty Dawg costumes were the highlight.

These are the Salty Dawgs:

These are the locals:

Clearly, some of those Dawgs are contenders for best dressed!!