The German Caribbean..........what if?

We read a really sad article in the local paper yesterday. A German couple (long-time live-aboards) were peacefully anchored near a restaurant. A French tri-maran anchors too close, hits the German boat at midnight as the tide shifts, and all hell breaks loose. The French refuse to move, they hit again (this time doing damage), then in the process of re-anchoring the French pull up the German's anchor as well. The French leave the bay and shout derisively "Auf Wiedersehen". It gets worse..........the German guy is really upset......in fact, he feels light-headed. He passes out and dies of a heart attack before his wife can get help.

Now there are assholes in every country, and at first when I read this article I failed to see why the fact that they were French was relevant. Until I started thinking about our own experience. Just about every case of anchoring too close........poor seamanship..........being discourteous............it's almost always the French. 

The fact that there is a "French Caribbean" is just an accident of colonialism and war. Imagine if things had turned out differently? Slow shopkeepers in Martinique? I don't think so. Boats anchoring too close? There would be heavily armed patrol boats everywhere (kind of like the Dutch side of St. Maarten today). Sie haf 15 secondz to re-anchor diz boot or ju veel suffer sie consequences.

I'm not sayin............I'm just sayin.