Post 17    Pondering

Sunset at the very tranquil St Annes beach

Contents

I'll cover the following topics in this post:-

1. Exploring Martinique

2. Communication

3. Music here

4. My flat mate Zag

5. Answers to my moon question plus a further question.

Summary

Having taken on board some of your suggestions, I will start each post with a short summary for those of you short on time. Please note, there is no sailing mentioned in this one.

I hired a motorbike for three days to do some exploring and I wasn't disappointed with what I saw. On separate days, I rode up the western and eastern coastal rodes. The eastern windward side is very arid compared to the lush, green leeward side of this beautiful island.

I discuss the difficulty that I sometimes encounter when I'm talking with someone who's hiding behind a shield. For many reasons, some people just find it hard to lower their guard that I totally respect, but find a challenge for real communication.

Having spent more than 2 weeks sharing two different apartments with my Corsican skipper friend, I thoroughly enjoy his company and his amusing habits.

1. Exploring Martinique

I have just done three days on a motorbike, despite some red flags being waved in my face and mind. I hired an 850cc Suzuki in Pattaya, Thailand back in 1982 where the roads were seriously bad. People warned me about the drivers here and the state of the roads but travelling across the two lane highway through Fort-de-France, the capital, was not dissimilar to driving on the Peripherique in Paris. The drivers are no different and the quality of the main roads are just fine.

A quick pitstop on my way up to San Pierre

I made the mistake of returning from San Pierre on the northern tip of Martinique, during rush hour. It took me over an hour to cross Fort-de-France because I never ride between lanes, unlike all the locals. So I ended up doing about 170 clicks and I loved the freedom of my own space and the warm air rushing past my face. The following day I went up the arid eastern side and ended up on a beach, just took some sun, swimming, then cruised home at dusk. Quite a contrast between the arid eastern side and the really lush green vegetation on the windward eastern side.

The bike I hired was a Honda NC700, the same bike as in Cascais, Portugal last year. This one was older but was still torquey, low revving and reasonably quick, but in truth, it was a bit of a tractor. 

I was feeling a little down when I had to hand the bike back but within an hour I received this picture from my eldest son Loz. It cheered me up immediately, just to be reminded of his cheeky little face as a two year old. They were blissfully happy days too.

Laurence when he was about two and a half

The countryside is very lush and green because it typically rains hard for about 20 minutes every day, usually around dusk. Difficult to be sure, but I'd guess that 50% of the fertile land is producing nothing here. This little part of France is totally geared towards tourism from France and Belgium. The island is not full of skyscaping hotels spoiling its natural beauty, it's far more subtle. The towns and villages are old and very appealing, at least to me.

Only one American and maybe six Brits have entered into conversation with me so far. Because it's France, the inhabitants are more inclined to speak Spanish as their second language. English is definitely a poor third but it's usually better than my pigeon French. I have started to learn French yesterday actually, with an App called DuoLingo. Speaking reasonable French is a must if I'm going to stay here.

2. Communicating

I guess my career in high value B2B sales taught me how to communicate with people. I was typically meeting two or three new customers a day, so I'm well practised at gaining empathy.

I've only been here about three weeks and I've made many  new acquaintances (~50+) and two proper friends, so I'm never stuck for an interesting conversation during the daytime or evenings. As you may have gathered, I'm open when talking about myself, my views and my life. Small talk doesn't do much for me, so I'll usually try to move on quickly. I like to know why people have a particular view and if they ask me about mine, I'm able to tell them why and how I tick.

But I've found that many people who claim to be good communicators can only talk about themselves or their life on their own terms. They struggle to speak openly because their guard is usually raised. I'm very different from the rest of my family in this regard. My parents never talked openly about their views and opinions which disappointed me. But my Dad was always a great listener for me. 

Last year you may remember I volunteered to crew on a tall ship (TS Pelican of London) for 5 days. My father spoke to me while I was alone on the helm under a clear, moonlit sky. It was something I'd never experienced before, he simply said to me, 'son get on and live your life, live your dreams, life is not a rehearsal.' He died in June 2018. God I miss him so much... 

Aboard the good tall ship Pelican of London

3. Music here

My spotify collection includes many of the artists that I discovered in Tobago. Strangely I haven't heard them being played here. So I thought ok, it was seven years ago, they're probably not popular anymore...? Several of the bars I've been frequenting, have allowed me to Bluetooth with Spotify to their sound systems. When I've played 'my reggae', the locals seem to love it, they come over and speak with me, some even started dancing with me.

Frank has been getting fed up with me because his regulars now tell him to let me play 'my artists' on his system. I've become their English DJ, yes it's really true! I've completely backed off though because these bar owners all fancy themselves as DJs and I don't want to upset the locals or my new friends. I just take my little Bluetooth speaker everywhere so I've always got my own music if I want it.

Duane Stevenson - one of my favorite artists 

The reggae here is unfamiliar to me as is the other stuff they play. I like it but it's different, a mix of reggae, calipso, jazz and cariboo. It wafts out of car windows, bars and balconies (including ours) as I wander the streets. I think their reggae mainly comes from the larger, neighbouring island of Guadeloupe, the vocals are usually in French, unlike my preferences, which are in English. It's growing on me but it's not as good as my favourite reggae artists. And yes, the locals absolutely loved UB40, my favourite English reggae band that I proudly played to them all. lol!

4. My flatmate Zag

I met Zag on Christmas day in L'Annexe bar on the marina. After chatting for a while, he invited me to join him at a party that night on Victorious, a pirate ship anchored in the mangroves. We've since become good friends and his moody Corsican antics amuse me. His father was a professional skipper too so like me, he's been sailing since he was five. I think it must get under your skin...? 

Zag used to own two restaurants and a nightclub in Ibiza back in the 1990s. He's told me some very interesting stories about that different life style. He was mixing with some big stars back then and became good friends with Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and actors Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn who were all close and had several combined business interests. Mick Hucknall stayed in Zag's secluded villa in Ibiza and wrote several of his sadder numbers (but still brilliant) by Zag's swimming pool. He was in a 'bad place mentally' back in '96. Zag took care of him, arranging bodyguards, catering and parties etc. for him. Quite a friendship...

Zag in action on a very troublesome bike

Zag made some bad business decisions and subsequently lost all of his wealth. So he returned to being a professional skipper based from his home in Corsica. He's a very private person and never talks about his past life, except to me, in the wee small hours. He's showed me many photos of him during that era with some of the world's top supermodels and stars, he was obviously a real cool dude. And although he's very unassuming and modest, he's still is one coolest dudes in le Marin.

Zag's sailed here before, in fact his first arrival 12 years ago was quite memorable. He managed to put the yacht up on the beach at St Annes while trying to anchor at night. He claims to have mistaken a red light from a local brothel for a channel marker!

I don't believe him but whenever we walk on that beach, past the vessel, I can't resist the urge to tease him mercilessly.

5. Answer to the moon question...

Kerry and Nick had a go at the question as I'd hoped, which was 'Why do we only ever see the light side of the moon?'

It's been orbiting the earth for many millions of years, but it never, ever shows us a glimpse of its dark side. Well not until Neil Armstrong et al took some sneaky peaks during the Apollo era.

I haven't Googled my theory, but I believe it's because of the following...

Like the earth, the moon has a core made from iron ore. However unlike earth, its core has cooled and is now solid. I believe that when the moon's core was still molten, it took a massive impact from a meteor that caused it's core to become off-centre. Due to the earth's stronger magnetic field, this prevents the moon from rotating on all three axis, only on one. 

That's why the light side rotates like a clock face, we see it's dark crater at the bottom some nights and others, it's at the top. But the image of the moon's face from earth, never ever changes because of its off-centre magnetic attraction to earth. 

What do you think? I have no idea what's the official reason, I've just pondered this while doing countless night watches at sea, staring up at our beautiful moon.

Next question...

True magnetic north is constantly changing. Going back 30 years, mariners still had to allow for this whenever they were plotting a course to use with their compass. They also had to allow for tidal flows caused by the moon's orbit. We know that our planet pivots slightly on its central magnetic axis but why does it move backwards and forwards like a pendulum? What makes this happen? 

There are a few real mariners reading my blog, so this one should be easier and perhaps less controversial. I'd liked to hear from Andy, Zag, Richard, Kenn, Dr. Ed, Adrian and Simon from TS Pelican, Audrey, Paul and Stick, to name just a few of the Brits and the other good English speakers (Zag can barely speak any language lol). Please guys, take a few minutes to ponder this and then post your answer below, I'm genuinely interested to know the answer, merci beaucoup...

Next post will include...

Another new mate, Richard and his lovely wife Shona.

Mine and Zag's future plans are now becoming clearer. You'll may be surprised by mine...

An unforgettable cooking disaster, so embarrassing for me.

Apologies for still not finishing my moonlight sketch of those two mysterious boats, plus the limited communication I still have here until I find a place to buy a local SIM card.

Thanks again for reading my blog. Stay safe and God bless you and your families! x

ps. Please remember, anything written on here in italics, is probably just my silly imagination running wild.