May 17-18, 2001 -- Fort de France

We got up this morning, and headed in to clear in. On the way, we stopped by Sojourner to see if they wanted a lift, of if they wanted to accompany us in. They were still getting ready so we met them at the dinghy dock 10 minutes later. We walked up and over the hill, then down to the ferry dock to ride from Anse Mitan to Point du Bout in Fort de France. The cost was $6.00 per person round trip or a long wet ride in our dink. We wandered a bit, and ran into the folks from Crystalee in front of McDonalds. They had just finished clearing in and pointed out Customs to us. We headed over to the cruise ship dock. After a bit of looking, we found Customs. Dan and I went in to check us in while Mike and Jan waited outside. As we were working on our paperwork, Mike from Just Desserts arrived to clear in as well. Clearing in in Martinique is easy. They give you a form to fill out, and then they look at it, your passports, and your ship's documentation. That's it. All three of us were cleared in quickly. We did introductions since Sojourner had not met Just Desserts, and then chatted about our respective trips. Mike and Dawn needed to find somewhere to dock since they were having power issues and needed to plug in. Dan, Jan, Mike and I then set out to wander the city checking hardware and marine stores. After locating all of them, we then wandered in search of a grocery store and a wine store. Finally, we headed back for Anse Mitan where we stopped for pizza for lunch. We arrived back at the boat and promptly napped! We spent the rest of the day quietly. On May 18, Mike and I headed into Anse Mitan to get some Croissants and bread. After we got back to the boat, we started doing some boat maintenance. Somewhere along the way I discovered that I had wrenched my back, so I spent most of the day lying on the floor. Mind you, a wrenched back did not stop us from going to Mutual Fun for cocktails that night! We had a fun evening with Bob and Mona as well as Dan and Jan from Sojourner. By the end of the evening, I was feeling no pain and quite blurred or was it everyone else was blurry.