We pulled anchor and left St. Martin at 7:30 am. It was a nice 4 hour sail to Ile Fourchue. This is a park, you can't anchor so we grabbed one of 11 buoys. It is dry and rocky with several steep hills and peaks. For a long time this island was left to the goats. They ate all the vegetation, including the prickles, causing huge eroded gulleys. Eventually, they at themselves out of house and home and the population crashed. The remaining few were removed.

The French military followed us in this quiet anchorage. There was one other catamaran and they went to them first. There were three officers that boarded the catamaran. Then they came to us. After 4 years of sailing in many different countries, this is the first time we have been boarded. Two out of three spoke English. They smiled when I tried my French. They asked if we had drugs, guns, or over 10,000 euros. We said "no", then they asked if they could inspect. Denny went below with one of them while I helped the other guy fill out his form. Then he asked where Kokomo came from, so I started to sing the Kokomo song, he looked confused and asked his partner what I was saying, he asked me "after the Beach Boys song?", yes, then he explained to his partner in French and smiled at me. Now that I think about it, I think he was asking a location of where not where the Kokomo name came from - oh well (crazy American). Below with the military man, Denny said he was very complimentary in saying we had a very clean bilge and a nice new engine. He even looked in Denny's guitar case. Basically he was looking in the large spaces. The guy I was with called in our boat name and captain's name. The boat & Denny passed - Yeah!

Life is good on Kokomo

Becky