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The Windward Islands, February 2004
February saw us working our way up the remaining Windward Islands. Leaving Grenada we visited Union, the Tobago Cays, Canouan, Bequia, St. Vincent (where we bumped into a couple of yachts we had not seen since we were in Malta at the beginning of 2003), St. Lucia, Martinique and Dominica.
The Tobago Cays (part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, not anything to do with Tobago itself) are a yachtsman's paradise - a huge horseshoe reef faces the endless Atlantic, with just a couple of little palm-fringed islands for company... and, of course, a hundred other boats. The snorkelling is justly famous, but then in so much of the Caribbean you only have to go over the side of the boat to discover beautiful jewel-like fish or wonderful basket sponges you could almost climb inside.
The islands are all much the same (lush, tropical, warm, breezy, showery) but also all very different, depending mostly on their topography and history. Canouan and Bequia are small and relatively low, so the people are laid back and the climate is drier. Dominica has much more of the feel of 'heart of darkness' with dramatic mountains and inaccessible valleys. It is said that when King Ferdinand asked Columbus to describe Dominica he scrumpled up a sheet of parchment and threw it on the table. Not a bad analogy.
In Dominica we got a local guide to take us up the Indian River into the rainforest which was a wonderful experience. Huge bloodwood trees send down massive buttressed roots into the river bank, kingfishers darted about and an iguana sunbathed at the top of a palm tree. Dominica is not as 'developed' as the other islands and lacks glitzy beaches, so is working harder at promoting the interior and our guide Martin was one of a number who have been trained to talk knowledgably about the flora and fauna of the place. It was a magical experience gliding through the forest with just the occasional splash of the paddles. We were lucky too to have as company on this trip Rod Heikell and his partner Lou. Rod writes pilot books, mostly for the Med (and they're the best too in my view), so it was good to meet him.
In fact we bumped into Rod and Lou the next day when we were having some coffee in Portsmouth, the second largest town in Dominica. We had been importuned in by one of the locals to whom we were chatting and we ended up asking if he could get us some crayfish. "Yes, no problem" came the answer but as we left, having paid in advance, we all wondered whether we would ever see the fish. Sure enough when Leonie and I went back later there was no sign of our contact and a chap I was chatting to on the dock said "Oh, he took US$100 off someone last week for lobster, you'll never see that fish man". It turned out this fellow, a deckhand, was fresh out of the local penitentiary himself (some elaborate story of injustice regarding a skipper stealing his passport which I could not quite follow). I asked him what the experience was like. "I got my tobacco, I got my ganga, I got my head down, it was OK. But my family, they never come to see me once. When I got out they told me 'you is always going off to sea, so what difference if you is off in the penitentiary?'"! So no crayfish for supper that night, though Rod and Lou were kind enough to give us a very tasty pasta supper later.
The French islands are really rather strange when you have got used to the 'real' Caribbean. Unlike the Brits, the French hung on to some of their colonies, so Martinique and Guadeloupe (also St. Martin and St. Barts) are what they call DOMTOM - Departments Outre Mer and Territoires Outre Mer. Both Martinique and Guadeloupe are DOMS, so they are quite literally departments of France but overseas. Just like having Kent Caribbean. Same currency, same taxes, same government. The downside of this is that their islands lack the edginess and vitality of the independents and seem very white-dominated. The upside is that the supermarkets have everything you want, you can buy decent bread (generally it is not worth eating over here) and you can get proper cooking! You don't get hassled by boat boys in the same way (I suspect the standards of living are higher all round), the roads are good and you do feel that little bit safer. Also the chandleries are incredibly well-stocked and efficiently run.
The good news of the month is that I have finally devised the perfect rum punch. When you order a rum punch in these parts you can get anything from a lot of rum with a bit of lime juice to a sickly concoction you could stand a straw up in. A good rum punch should be long and strong, sweet and sour, refreshing and smoky all at the same time. Quite a complex drink in fact. So here's how you can fix yourself a
Zingano 1. Take a 15oz glass and fill it with ice. 2. Put in 60ml of white rum. This is the base. 3. Add 2 capfuls of brown rum. This gives it some smokiness and warmth (but too much and it dominates). 4. Add 25ml of fresh lime juice and 25ml of Falernum (or sugar syrup). This is the sweet and sour part. 5. Add 30ml of grapefruit juice for freshness and tanginess. 6. Add 30ml of cranberry juice to give it some richness. 7. Put in a good sprinkling of Angustura Bitters to get a bit of spice into it. 8. Add a good grating of nutmeg for that distinctive flavour.
Stir it all up so that the flavours combine. Turn up the temperature to at least 25C. Order a cool breeze and a stunning sunset. Face West, raise your glass and toast "fair winds".
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