The First of the Windward Islands
4/15 - The open water portion of the trip from Roseau to Martinique is only 27 miles, but the passage is reported to be a rough one at almost all times because of the openness of the passage and the strength of the trades at this latitude. I don’t know if it is actually the case of not, but I think we have been seeing the strength of the trades increase as we have traveled South, even though it is getting later in the year. “Holy cannoli” the trip from Roseau to Martinique is by far the most “exhilirating” (you can read that any way you like) than we have had since we left St. Thomas. We leave the anchorage along with quite a few other boats headed in the same direction ahead of us. I reef the main when we hoist it and I put out about 25/30% of the jib and even before we are anywhere near the headland to leave Dominica for open water its gusting to 30 knts. and quite lumpy. Many of the other boats are changing their sail plans as they realize the nature of the conditions and I pass a number of them. I also learn another lesson. It’s a lot harder for me to maneuver the boat to avoid other boats when it is only under sail and when the wind’s blowing 30 knts. and we’re moving at 8.5/9 knts. Anyway, I do put the engine on briefly to outdistance a boat that’s too close for comfort and not seemingly under very good control. It appeared that we were outdistancing it anyway, but I couldn’t be sure whether we would get out in front without getting too close. Anyway, we leave everybody behind and I turn off the engine for the rest of the trip to Martinique. As it turns out, after we leave the headland (it seems like these really high gusts are produced around these headlands) the wind settles down to a steady 22-25 knts., the seas are not too considerable, and the boat settles into a very comfortable motion on a close reach. Only problem for me is that “disaster” could strike at any moment if something important breaks/lets go and I’m concerned that Kryss is not comfortable wearing her life vest/harness because it’s kind of heavy for her. (I wear mine most of the time when we’re at sea in case I have to go out of the cockpit quickly to deal with something) and on this trip I clip myself into the cockpit for the first time sime we left St. Thomas, so that should give you some idea of how I considered the conditions. Anyway, most of the trip is quite pleasant and uneventful, but as we approach the Martinique headland, the seas build instead of diminish as predicted and as one would expect the wind becomes very gusty (30 knts. for extended periods of time) and even the autopilot has a lot of trouble keeping us on course. Of course we have not had to deal with avoiding any other vessels while making the passage, but as we approach Martinique a number of vessels are leaving Martinique traveling North, so now there is the added concern to make sure we avoid them in these challenging conditions (thank goodness for AIS). None comes terribly close and finally we are in the lee of Martinique and out of the swells as the wind subsides “somewhat”). Anyway, all of a sudden it gets calm, then it gusts, then the wind swings to the West, then it gets calm again, typical conditions when rounding a headland into the island’s lee in our travels down here. We take in the sails and motor into a small fishing village called St. Pierre. The wind blows like the dickens all the way in and I question whether we will have any lee at anchor here. St. Pierre is known, among other things, for the fact that it is very “steep to” with no moorings, and a very small anchorage right in front of the town. When we come in we see many boats anchored seemingly “just off the beach” where the water goes from 60 ft. to 10 ft. and then to 4 ft. in a hearbeat. We traverse the entire harbor looking for a place to put down the hook but either we’d be too close to other boats, or it’s too deep, or I’m afraid that we’ll wind up in 4 ft. of water because the plotter does not give me adequate guidance in these very tight spaces. Anyway, we head off to the recommended anchorage off Anse LaTouche. Only problem is that it’s quite a distance from the dinghy dock, but it’s right off a lovely litte beach. When we get there we see Volare at anchor and we anchor a bit behind her. When we’re settled in a see an e-mail from Lori Bound saying they were having lunch in town and saw us come in. We’re exhausted, but later in the afternoon we launch the dinghy and go into town to check in with customs. Turns out the restaurant that has a customs computer is closed until dinner time even though the cruising guide says it should be open and the Tourist Center where you can also check in closes at 2:00 (it’s 3:30), so we amble around, check out the supermarket and menus outside some restaurants and go back to the boat for dinner. The town is cobblestoned and looks very old and very European. It’s principle claim to fame is that it is adjacent to Mount Pelee, which erupted as a major volcano in 1902 and killed all but one of the occupants of St. Pierre and most of the surrounding countryside. More about the survivor in a later post. Most of the businesses are closed for the afternoon “siesta”, and some look like they are no longer in operation.
4/16 - We get an intended late start because we’re going to stay in town for dinner out tonight at Tamaya, highly recommended French restaurant in Cruising Guide. As we are anchored in Anse LaTouch, quite a ways from Town, we don’t want to have to dinghy back and forth more than once a day. We check in with customs by computer in a restaurant called Alsace A Kay, and have a delightful light lunch there. No customs office as such, just a computer on which to enter your entry information and an authorized person to stamp it once printed, just like in Deshaie. It’s that time of day so we have a light but delicious lunch of Tartine a L’Onion and salad and set out to go to the Museum. Well, the Museum is being renovated and closed, so we visit the ruins of a famous theater which are right in the middle of town. The walls of the theatre butted up against the walls of a prison which is famous because when the Mt. Pelee volcano erupted in 1902 (it’s just to the North of the town and looms over it), the only person in the entire town and vicinity reported to survive was a single prisoner who was saved by the thick walls of his cell and the fact that it faced Southwest, the opposite direction from Mt. Pelee. It’s interesting and the view of Mt. Pelee are dramatic. Nonetheless, the day is still young and we have to stay around town for dinner, so we decide to walk to the Depaz rhum distillery in the mountains overlooking the town. French rum, made from cane sugar is spelled rhum while other rums made from molasses are spelled rum. The French rhum is generally more “brittle” and less sweet, and the aged ones are like cognac. We are warned by everyone who we ask directions from that the walk is too long and hard uphill and that we should take a car, but we start walking and it turns out it’s not too bad. The hill up is not nearly as steep as the hills in Terre De Haut and the views of the ocean as we climb above town are exquisite. Anyway the walk is entirely worthwhile. The entire distillary which covers a number of acres is laid out in such a way that you can walk through all of the components following a red painted path and a written description of the making of Depaz Rhum. The views of the ocean and surrounding countryside are equally exquisite and above it all is this enormous mansion, which you can visit, but which we did not. At the end of the walk we are provided with the opportunity to try the various rhums and rhum drinks made by the distillery and we wind up buying a veille (old) VSOP rhum for sipping and a planters punch for “guzzling”. (Just joking). We we walk back to town (much easier walk down) and we kill time having a drink before it’s time for dinner. The only place open for our drink is a little totally “local” bar because none of the restaurants open for dinner until at least 6:30. I’m looking for Campari and soda, to no avail, and Kryss is looking for gin or vodka for a martini, equally to no avail. I finally agree with the “bartender” on Ricard (a classic French anise based aperatif much like Pernod) and soda (which turns out to be grenadine based very sweet soda), but pickins are slim and it turns out not to go too badly with the Ricard. The same bartender finally says he has no gin or vodka, but when Kryss persists he goes next door to the supermarket and comes back with a bottle of Gin called “Old Lady”. You can’t make this stuff up. Anyway, he finds tonic water for her and gives Kryss the bottle of gin for her to pour her own drink. We’re hoping we didn’t inadvertantly buy the whole bottle. Turns out we didn’t and that Kryss’ tonic is just right, so we both enjoy our drinks and go to Tamaya for dinner. Turns out Tamaya is the name of a large sailing vessel that sunk in the harbor when Mt. Pelee erupted. Food is good and reasonable. There’s a large swell running when we get back to the dinghy and the wharf where it’s tied up (the only place to tie up) is high and it’s very difficult to unlock the boat (need two sets of hands, one to unlock the boat and one to shine the light on the tumblers while the boat is being “dashed” against the wharf, so the help of another sailor on the wharf was very much appreciated. Finally we’re free of the wharf and we dinghy back to the boat for the night.
4/17 - We get off to a slow start (planned) and walk to the combination zoo and botanical garden a short way out of town. We were warned about walking to it because you have to walk along a windy hilly stretch of highway with no real shoulder, but it really wasn’t too bad and the walk was not long. The entrance is actually near to where we are anchored, but I didn’t feel good about leaving the dinghy beached and unattended on shore. The facility is set amongst the ruins of a 17th Century Country Villa maintained by William of Orange and is beautifully designed to flow as a unit. The zoo portions are not that interesting (a lot of animals sleeping off the noonday heat in the shade where they are hard to see and some of the glass enclosures so dirty you can’t see well through them), but the grounds are magnificent and the way in which the zoo is integrated with the gardens and the ruins is exceptional. Admission is a little pricey, but worth it. We bought a combination ticket which will get us into the botanical gardens outside of Fort De France (our next stop) as well. Have a light lunch at the snack bar in the park and go back to the boat for the rest of the afternoon.
4/18-Just hang out, do chores, swim, read, play Scrabble. I think we need more days like this, but Kryss is of another mind.
4/19 - It’s a short trip to Fort De France the Capital of Martinique and a large harbor. It started blowing a bit in the early morning so I anticipate that we may ge t some serious wind at some point. When we start out it’s fluky as it usually is along the shore, but we do have some periods of strong gusts. Fort De France is at the base of a large bay and as we approach the bay the wind starts to howl and wind driven whitecaps are the norm. We’re under main alone as I didn’t put the jib up when the wind was fluky and turned on the iron jenny when the wind started to howl because our course into Fort De France was quite hard on the wind. Apparent wind reaches 30 a couple of times and wind is generally 22-26 true as we beat towards the entrance to the harbor itself. I was afraid that our course would put us in irons, but that turns out not to be the case so we motor sail into the bay towards the harbor luffing a bit to keep the boat upright. It’s a bit of a slog and I have to dodge one sailboat that is coming out of the harbor and seems to keep changing direction towards me as I change direction to avoid him. I really have to “swerve” at the last minute and would like to give him/her a piece of my mind. Anyway, the anchorage is just behind the walls of an old fort, off of a beach, a large dinghy dock and the right by the main part of town. Ferry docks and cruise ship dock are just to port. There are a lot of boats in the anchorage and the wind is still howling, but we manage to find a suitable place to drop the hook. I would like to have had more room to put down more scope but that seems to be my mantra these days. We settle down to do some chores around the boat. I wash Isenglass and tighten a shroud, and later in the afternoon there’s a good rain shower that gives the boat a much needed hosing down. We put the dinghy in the water and start to plan our stay here. As it turns out, today is Good Friday and Martinique considers not only Easter Sunday but also the following Monday a holiday, so we’re not sure what’s going to be open. Turns out tradition here is to eat crab on Easter and particularly on Easter Monday, so we start looking for a place to partake of that tradition. At least I do. Kryss is not sanguine about picking crab out of its shell. We eat dinner on the boat as the wind starts to settle down and plan to leave for town in the morning. The ferries are constant and do make a wake, but it’s not nearly as bad as in some other places, and otherwise the anchorage is relatively calm as it is situated right behind the high fort.
4/20 - We dinghy to the town dinghy dock which is large and modern and close to where we are anchored and we walk around town. Fort De France is much larger and more modern than any of the towns we have been in since we have begun this trip. It has it’s share of old buildings, but it’s a real city with highrise buildings, some of them quite modern, and a much more extensive infrastructure than anything else we’ve experienced. The streets are crowded with locals shopping. I guess because it’s the day before Easter, or maybe just because it’s Saturday. There are many, many stores of all sorts as well as small eateries. Again, I can’t emphasize enough how much more of a city it is than anyplace else we’ve been. In addition, it was not affected by 2017's hurricanes, so there’s no damage. There’s a very extensive covered market (very much like some of the others we’ve seen, particularly in St. Pierre, but much larger) and there’s a meat market adjacent to it. We haven’t seen anything like that anywhere else. There’s also a substantial mall in the center of town with all of the kinds of stores you’d expect to find in a mall anywhere. There’s also a very helpful little Tourist Kiosk by the park (the Savanne) just opposite the dinghy dock where we get a map and some info from an English speaking young man. Since most other things (museums and stuff) are closed for the holiday we decide to walk around the fort. Turns out that it houses an active Navy facility and that signs on the Fort say that we are not permitted to enter. We find that strange because the gentleman at the tourist kiosk said we could see it, so we return there to ask him about that. He explains that you can see it with a guided tour which he leads and which is next scheduled to begin in about 10 minutes, so we sign up and in a little while eave the kiosk for the fort a very short distance away for the tour. We were prepared to muddle through a tour in French, but there are other English speaking people on the tour and he gives it in English. His English is superb, but he speaks very, very quickly. Anyway, he is a real history buff and he not only shows us around the fort but he uses the tour to give us a very detailed history of Martinique and Fort De France particularly. Interestingly enough, even though Fort De France is reputed in the history texts to be the birthplace of Josephine, wife of Napolean, it turns out that she was born in neighboring St. Lucia and that for political reasons Napolean “bent history” to have it recorded that she was born in Martinique. Anyway, the fort sits at the end of a peninsula overlooking all of the very extensive harbor and the tour is interesting. After the tour we go to a little sandwhich shop which is recommended by the Guide Book and it’s good. Then we walk around a bit more and wind up at the CarreFour (which is a large supermarket chain in the Caribbean) to buy a few staples that we need. I have one funny experience. I’m looking for half and half which I cannot find. I question a young woman working there describing it as “demi creme, demi lait” which is a literal translation of half creme and half milk. She keeps leading me to the shelves where there is non-refrigerated milk and milk substitutes in plastic bottles and cartons, but nothing like half and half. Finally I say to her that what I am looking for is usually “froid” (cold) and then the lighb0ulb comes on and she takes me right to the half and half. I guess if I had known the correct current word(s) in French for half and half she would have taken me there first. (My bad, not hers). Food is generally inexpensive here, unlike in many of the other islands and selections aren’t bad. I buy a huge piece of swiss for very little money, as well as the last Ciabatta. It’s funny, breakfast for me on this trip has become butter and jam on fresh bread, reminiscent of when I was visiting my French cousins in Paris when I was a teenager. Anway, after CarreFour it’s back to the boat for a little rest and dinner. There is one truism about this cruising life that is borne out every day. All the boats in the same area of the ocean are on more or less the same “circuit”. In addition to Volare (Andy and Lori Bound) who I have already written about, we keep seeing the same boats in every anchorage, sooner or later. For example, there was a boat named Minuet that was part of a large number of us (not organized, just traveling to and from the same place at the same time) leaving Antigua for St. Kitts or other adjacent islands that was experiencing trouble with water entering the boat, so they go on the radio to let those around them know that they were having trouble and might need help. Turns out they solved their problem and we saw them again in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Now they are anchored next to us in Fort De France. It’s kind of cool.
4/21 - It’s Easter Sunday and another beautiful sunny day with moderate breezes. We get to the Fort De France Church by 9:30, just in time for the benediction and the public announcements, which is fine. We get a chance to experience the church as a functioning entity as well as an architectural structure; we get to listen to some singing; and the service ends before too long. We walk up to the alter area after people have left to get a better look. It’s quite large and the church is simple but attractive. Outside it looks a little like the Eiffel Tower with a post-modern spire. Local vendors have set up shop on the small plaza just opposite the entrance for hungry worshipers. Kryss buys a pain au chocolat and I buy a couple of different small pastries stuffed with meat and fish. We walk around town some more looking at the cultural center (theater), municipal offices, Appeals Court (super modern) and other buildings, but of course everything is closed. We decide to visit the new and very modern high-end Simon Hotel on the waterfront that we can see from our boat, but it doesn’t appear to be functioning yet. Then it’s off to take the short ferry ride to Anse Mitan across the harbor. Anse means “bight” in French and is used prolifically to describe many of the harbors in the French West Indies. Anse Mitan is a real beach town. Reminds me a little of Seaside Heights actually. The water is full of kids and grownups swimming (most seem like locals) and there are a few smaller hotels around the harbor. The quide says that Anse Mitan used to be a high-end destination but quieted down when a large hotel that was being built failed. Anyway, we walk around the harbor checking out the many restaurants and wind up at “Creole Village”, which is a very large, very modern, and very nicely laid out “village” of shops, restaurants, etc. on the peninsula which forms one of the horns of the bight. We stop at the Bamboo hotel on our walk home for a drink on the veranda. It’s comprised of many small one story “cabins” and is very attractive with plantings everywhere. Yes, you can pick the bananas right off the trees. When we ferry back we find the local kids jumping off the slightly higher dock next to the dinghy dock and using our dinghy to go from the water to the ladder. Funny, because we tied the dinghy up there because the cruising guide said that the local kids from the beach on the other side of the harbor play on them and that if we tied up by the higher dock they wouldn’t be likely to be bothering our dinghy. Guess times change. Anyway, no harm done expect that the seat and pontoons are wet so we get a little wet on our dinghy ride back to the boat. Huge catamaran named Meshugga that we had seen earlier on our travels is now moored next to us.
4/22 - The air is pretty still this morning. Far more still than I remember it being here in past days and generally more still than we have experienced throughout the trip. The rest of the day is kind of a “bust”. Monday after Easter Sunday is a holiday here, so we knew that pretty much nothing would be open. Nonetheless, we had been told by a number of people when we asked, that the best place to try crabe matoutou, the traditional Easter crab dish in Martinique was in the waterfront restaurants in Trois Islets (three little islands), the small village on the other side of the bay from Fort De France and next to Anse Mitan and Anse L’Ann. The guide describes the village as quiet and idyllic and we take the ferry from Fort De France to see for ourselves and eat some crabe matoutou. Turns out the village is quiet, dead more like it, nothing at all is open, but far from idyllic. It’s very small, generally run down and there’s just nothing to do or see, except to walk up the hill to the tiny village square and look inside the equally small and very simple village church. Nothing else is really in walking distance although we give it a try, so we take the first ferry back. As for crabe matoutou and all of the seaside restaurants, we figure out that Trois Islets (identified by the ferry as Bourg Trois Islets) is just around the bend from Pointe de Bout (where the Creole Village is) and Anse Mitan, and that the whole area is referred to by the locals as Trois Islets, so the people we spoke to about eating crabe matoutou in small seaside restaurants on the Monday after Easter must have meant them when they said Trois Islets. When we get back to Fort de France it’s lunch time and we know already that there is only one restaurant in the whole center city that is open. It’s called Basilic and we know this because we passed it a number of times while we were touring the center city and we spoke with one of the wait staff and looked at the signage. Both made it clear that it was open 7 days a week, every day. It’s a somewhat high end French restaurant, very cozy and attractive inside, and so lunch there becomes the major activity of the day. Turns out chef is from Montreal and a character. Food is good and we have a nice bottle of wine, and then it’s back to the boat to veg out as best as possible while the local DJ blares local music, if you want to call it that, from giant speakers on the beach. It’s a lot like what we experienced the first day when we were anchored in Christiansted harbor in St. Croix, and enough to make you bonkers if you don’t find a way to inure yourself to it.
4/23 - It’s another still morning. We rent a car at a small hotel just opposite the dinghy dock. Very convenient. We drive high into the mountains to Balata Gardens, which are absolutely exquisite. They are designed by a botanist/landscape architect who built them around the creole home of his grandparents over the last 50 years and they are something not to be missed if you get to Martinique. In a way they are like Bob Dash’s garden in that they are not only designed to show off the flora, but they are designed with a real artist’s eye to show off the location, landscape, views of Fort De France Bay, etc. Kryss and I were both very impressed. After the visit to Balata we got on one of the main highways and drove South to Cul De Sac Marin, a huge harbor with a huge marina at the South end of the Island. I wanted to go there to see it (we’ll be leaving from there to Curacao with the boat) and to talk with the marina staff about arrangements since my exchanges of e-mails with them were not as clear as I had hoped they might be. It’s an amazing facility; huge, well organized, with many, many restaurants, chandleries, marine service businesses, etc. We eat lunch at one of the waterfront restaurants (huge portions as usual). The drive back is easy and we drop off the car and go back to the boat for the evening.
4/24 - For the first time that I can remember on this trip the sky is overcast everywhere when I wake up. All quadrants of huge Fort De France Bay are covered with ominous clouds and it seems quite certain that it will rain for real (meaning heavily and for a substantial time rather than lighly for a few minutes or so as has been the norm). My prediction is borne out and our departure from Fort De France harbor is delayed until 11:00 a.m. Before we leave I fire up the instruments and find that the main anemometer screen will only show apparent wind direction and speed and not true wind direction and speed and that the “repeater” at the helm will show neither, so a repair is necessary. After all, “it’s a boat”. As long as the instrument on the combing will show apparent wind direction and speed, I can function, so it’s not the end of the world, but it does need to be attended to. When the rain does stop we head the 2.5 miles or so to Z’Abricot Marina to top off our fuel and water. For the first time on this entire trip we decide to tow the dinghy as the trip is inside the Bay and not long. I don’t really need to top off the water, but we have been out two weeks on our last fill and I prefer not to have to worry about running out, since it will still be another two weeks or so before we are scheduled to be at a dock. I don’t need to top off the fuel either, but I’m embarrassed to pull up just for water, so we top off the fuel too. We have a little trouble finding the fuel dock and they only speak French at the marina so are not as much of a help as would be the case otherwise, but between my poor French and their limited English we find it and take on water and diesel. Diesel is called Gazole in Martinique, so I’m very insistent with the dock attendant to insure what we are getting is indeed diesel. It is now raining intermittently again, so that’s a pain while docking and topping off, but it’s done and we’re on our way the next 2nm or so to Anse Mitan to anchor for a few days. That’s the same Anse Mitan that we visited a few days ago by ferry. Well, the anchorage looks a little different from our boat; it’s much more crowded than it looked from the ferry and in contrast to the Cruising Guide that says that there’s lots of room in which to anchor. Most boats are on moorings and the Cruising Guide doesn’t say anything about moorings and we get pretty frustrated in the rain trying to find a reasonable place in which to anchor. I put the anchor down and then raise it a number of times as we either fail to hold, get too far into the ferry channel, or too close to other boats. Finally I bite the bullet and we anchor on the other side of the ferry channel a longer distance from town and where there is somewhat more of a fetch. It continues to rain on and off and we’re both more than a little frustrated as dinner time rolls around.
4/25 - It’s not nearly as sunny as predicted, but the winds are light and it’s not raining. The dinghy is full of water from yesterday’s rain and I take it to the beach to drain the water. The surf pushing the dinghy up onto the sand actually helps me and with some effort the task is completed. Then, after a bunch of frustrating housekeeping on our computers and Ipads, and the fact that my phone does not seem to be allowing me to make a call to the US, we take the dinghy in to buy some food, explore more of the area and investigate the clothes laundry facility that we saw when we visited by ferry. There is no dinghy dock as such, which is also frustrating. We have to tie up to the inside of the ferry dock which is near a swimming area, quite high, and doesn’t have a lot of room near the rings which can be used to lock your boat to the dock. Before we do that we take the dinghy to the next little Anse, Anse DeBout where there is a hotel and number of little protected coves with nice beaches, but not a single dinghy dock. It’s pretty frustrating and surprising to me, but it is what it is as they say. It doesn’t seem safe to just beach the dinghy as there’s no place to lock it that way, and we both have “town” shoes and clothes on, so I return to the town dock and we do tie up. We identify a small grocery store where we can buy most the of the things we want, including fresh bread of which we are totally out, and then we continue to the Creole Village to see the rest of it and to see if perhaps there is a dinghy dock that we missed. We decide that the laundry service is too far away for us to lug our laundry from the town dock and we find no other dinghy dock, so we decide to have lunch and to leave for Anse D’Arlet the next morning where there is a woman who provides laundry service, a real dinghy dock, and a more serene location. Lunch as always in the French West Indies is very good and reasonable. We both have raw fish dishes which come with salads and bread (they’re billed as “starters” but plenty enough for us for lunch) and I have a very nice glass of French wine for 6EU and Kryss has a beer. We buy fresh bread at a Boulangerie with the intention of buying the other groceries we need at the little grocery store on the way back to town. Whoops, it’s after 2:00 p.m. so it’s closed and won’t open again until 6:00 if it opens again today. Now that we have the bread we can do without the rest of what we were going to buy for a few more days, so we go back to the boat for the rest of the afternoon. We could dinghy in or even swim into the beach, which is attractive, but it’s full of kids, and neither of us is seemingly in the mood. We’ve had it with the rocking from the ferries and we’ve done all that we can do in Anse Mitan, so we decide to leave for Grand Anse the next morning. It’s about 5.2 nm from where we are and is on the way South to Cul De Sac Marin, where we will wind up. The Guidebook and the Bounds tell us there is a woman who provides a laundry service there, so that’s definitely on our agenda.
4/26 - It’s still more overcast in the morning than we have become used to, but it’s not raining and we set off under power towing the dinghy to Grand Anse. Winds are light and trip is simple and we anchor in Grand Anse in a nice spot off the beach.
Grand Anse is “deeper” than I thought it would be and very pretty. The fringing mountains are green and come right up to the beach and the beach covers the entire “base” of the harbor in a wide semi-circle. We dinghy in to inquire about the laundry and find that we can leave it off today (Friday) and get it Sunday evening, so it’s back to the boat to get the laundry. After we drop it off we return to the boat and then dinghy in again at 5:00 because that’s when the litte “Supermarche” (supermarket) opens for the “afternoon”. It is indeed very little and has very little to offer, so we buy some beer and some sweets and learn we have to walk about 2km to Anses D’Arlets (the next Anse South) to find a larger superette. No ferries, but still some rocking, not sure why, and we go to bed to the full throated music of the beach bar to our port (after all it’s Friday night).
4/27 - Well, the wind swung to the South this morning which meant that we suffered through southerly swells all day. Not quite what we expected. Wind also blew pretty strongly all day to the point where swimming off the boat was a challenge to one degree or another. Oh well, if you have to have problems, I guess those are the kinds of problems to have. We don’t do much. Kryss puts on a mask and snorkel (everyone around us is snorkeling all day) and sees, as she puts it, “one starfish and two turtles, but no fish”. I guess we’re pretty jaded when it comes to snorkeling, and maybe diving for that matter. I start to swim to the beach (a decent distance away but well within my usual range) but there seems to be a somewhat strong current running against me, or maybe it’s just the wind and waves, or maybe I’m just tired, so I abandon the effort and swim back to the boat out of perhaps an excess of caution. When we go to “town” we learn that the superette in the neighboring town is no larger or better stocked than the one here, so we abandon the idea of walking there. Kryss mails her postcards and we dinghy back to the boat to endure the swells. They do finally ease by evening. We might otherwise have thought about continuing to St. Anne tomorrow, but we have to pick up our laundry tomorrow evening, so we’re definitely here to Monday morning.
4/28 - It’s another sunny and windy day in paradise. We hang out, do some swimming, pick up our laundry and buy some groceries and decide to spend Monday here as well and then go to St. Anne on Tuesday, weather cooperating.
4/29 - It’s more overcast with the wind somewhat still. We go into town again to try to get a taxi to go to buy some gas for the dinghy but are unsuccessful, so we buy some more groceries, eat lunch at one of the beachfront restaurants (not disappointing) and retire to the boat to take the dinghy out of the water to hang on the davits for our trip tomorrow to St. Anne in Cul De Sac Marin.
4/30 - The weather threatens rain, but it seems to be over the mountains and not extending out to sea so we leave for St. Anne under power. I was intending to put the sails up but the wind is flukey in the beginning along the lee of Martinique as we travel South and by the time that we would be putting them up it is right on our nose out of the East for the 10 mile “beat” to St. Anne past Diamond Rock - during our tour of Fort Louis in Fort De France we learned that this little island, shaped somewhat like a diamond, was commissioned by the British as a British Warship during one of Britain’s skirmishes with France so as to have a British “naval” presence in Martinique at a time when Britain had no warships here. Anyway, as I suspected would be the case, when we round the last promontory before the long open water easterly stretch to St. Anne we face the full force of the ocean waves driven by brisk Easterly trades (20 plus kts.) and we slog along at 5 knts. and occasionally less under power until we get into the lee of Cul De Sac Marin and the seas abate. While we make the passage we see St. Lucia off in the distance to the South. It is a notoriously boistrous passage from Martinique to St. Lucia, but it would be a nice broad reach today and a lot better than beating into 20 knt. winds and tradewind driven seas. The St. Anne anchorage is huge, really huge and relatively shallow making anchoring easy, so we find a spot not too far from the town dinghy dock. It’s also prettier than I thought as the anchorage is a large semi-circle with palm fringed beaches on either side of the town itself. We hold off launching the dinghy because I am tired and because we suffer a few strong rains, and Kryss and I decide that after we check out the town and buy what we need tomorrow that we will move closer to one of the beaches for our remaining days in St. Anne before moving to Marin Marina. Of course, just before dark a sailboat comes in and anchors right in front of us, over where I think I have laid my anchor down. What else is new? This has become so commonplace that I decide pretty much not to worry about it, or at least as much as I am able to do that at all.
5/1 - It’s a nice morning and the air is really warm early. Not what we have been used to. We get a slower start on the day than expected but the dinghy is in the water and we motor into town, which is again, a little different from all of the other towns we’ve been in. Most all of the restaurants and stores are on the beachfront road and there is a small town square. It’s larger and better kept than many of the other towns we’ve been in, but of course not nearly as large as Fort De France, which is really a city. We walk to a gas station to fill my gallon jug for the dinghy and then we explore the waterfront restaurants, bakery and supermarkets. The 8 a huite supermarket is supposed to be open 8 to 8, but on this day, just our luck, it closes at 1:00 so it’s not open by the time we walk back from the gas station. Not a big deal, there is a little outdoor market and a small “superette” that is open so we buy a few things, have lunch and go back to the boat, planning to dinghy over to the very large beach that covers one side of the harbor and ends in a Club Med facility. Alas it gets quite rainy, so we postpone our dinghy trip until tomorrow. Although I was hoping that we could just anchor our dinghy just off the beach rather than beaching it, there is a no anchor zone off of the beach and there are no other dinghys there, so maybe that just isn’t permitted. Anyway, that’s for tomorrow.
5/2 - Well of course it never turns out the way we planned. While I am running the generator in the morning I notice that it is running hot. I shut it down, check the strainer even though I had just checked it last night, wait for it to cool enough to check the coolant and find that the strainer is clear and there’s plenty of coolant, so now we have a generator problem. I run the engine just enough to bring the batteries back up to a reasonable charge after they have been discharing all night and I go about trying to figure out how I can get someone to service/repair the generator. I won’t bore you with all of the machinations I go through or all of the calls I make, but I finally find a mechanic who is available if I go to Marin Marina which is where he is based. Since we intended to wind up there anyway in a few days and since it’s very close, we up the anchor (turns out boat in front was not over it, although quite close), and we motor into Cul De Sac Marin. There’s no slip or mooring available to us (although we are told there might be a slip around Noon, so I start trying to find a place to anchor. The harbor is huge, but it’s chocked full of boats (over 800 I think, many on moorings and anchors and it’s full of shoals as well. Run aground right next to a boat on a mooring where my plotter says I should hav 16 ft. of water, but manage to get afloat again with the assistance of a young man in a power boat who throws up a wake to rock us off. Call the marina again and they’ll have an alongside berth for us in about 20 minutes, so we kill some time and are finally tied up where the mechanic can meet us.
Generator problem is two-fold, one that I anticipated as possible and the other just a wakeup call. The impeller is broken so it has to be replaced and the broken pieces of it removed from the generator cooling system. Mechanic is named Didier and is nice and efficient, and does the work in under an hour. Generator still runs hot though, which is a mystery to me, but one he solves readily. Turns out strainer is clear, but that hose running to strainer is plugged with Sargasso weed. Now I know it’s not enough to check the strainer, I have to check the intake hose as well. Anyway, generator is running again, but I learn of a new and somewhat far more troubling problem that I totally did not anticipate. This is the first time that we have come to a dock in Martinique. Turns out Martinique has European electrical service and outlets and runs on 50 phase power rather than the 60 phase power we use in the US so I cannot hook up to their power outlets on the dock. It’s a pain, but I can run my generator to create AC power for the boat. Worse, I learn after a little research that Bonaire and Curacao also run on European 50 phase electrical service, so I am in a quandry about how to keep my batteries topped up while on the hard in Curacao. It’s been quite a day, so I drink a little more than I am supposed to and Kryss and I go off to have dinner in a restaurant. Tomorrow is another day.
5/3 - We don’t do much today because we can’t do much. We’re basically “on hold” waiting for service technicians and crew arrival. We do discover that there is a major supermarket right by the end of the marina, so at least food shopping will be easy, and we otherwise while away the time as best as we can. It rains frequently today, so we’re contantly opening and closing hatches and the front Isenglas window. Also see that there is a system that is forecast to produce unacceptably high seas and winds near Bonaire/Curacao just around the time we are scheduled to leave for there, so now there is an additional worry and situation to be “worked around”.
5/4 - Well as I said yesterday, we’re stuck in port to await servicing of the engine, repair of the anemometer, Kryss’ departure and the arrival of the two crew members I have enlisted for the trip to Bonaire/Curacao so not much to report. Seems like there is no end to my mechanical difficulties at this point. I get ready to change the filter material in the head vent filter and before I do I engage the overboard pump out switch just to test that it is functioning as I have not been able to hear it functioning over the sounds of the engine when it has been engaged over the last few weeks. Long story short, the pump doesn’t engage, so either the pump or the switch is shot and we can’t pump our waste overboard. It’s Saturday and no one works here on the weekend, (even the chandlery closed at 12:30) so I call Didier, the fellow who fixed the generator and wait for a call back. In the meantime I decide that I had better use the marina’s pumpout facilities which are on the dock I am on, because the head is already pretty full. Can’t catch a break today. The hose ends that they have are not compatible with my deck fitting, but I vowed not to be denied and jury rigged an adaptation that allowed me to have the holding tank pumped out. One real disaster averted for the moment. Didier calls back in the early evening and I arrange for him to come by on Monday morning. It’s mainly to get someone to locate a replacement. Actually replacing the pump is something that I can do. Kryss is going bonkers with little or nothing to do, but there’s not a lot I can do to help. I offer a dinghy ride and Scrabble but both are rejected. Tomorrow can’t be worse can it?
5/5 - I trouble shoot the head pump and ascertain that it’s the pump that is the problem and not the switch and I reach out to Tim Allen to express one to me if Didier can’t locate one. I do other kinds of chores to prepare for the trip to Bonaire/Curaao like putting the batteries in the hand-held Garmin plotter that I bought as a backup and putting the waypoint in for Bonaire if our main plotters fail us. I also write all of the waypoints down for Bonaire and Curacao in the event that our principal plotter fails. At the rate things are going, no malfunction will be entirely unexpected any more. Anyway, waiting in general is hard, but it’s part of what we have to do to undertake the next leg of the trip and the marina which is so vast is a constant hive of activity with boats coming and going that keep our interest to some extent. 90% of the boats at least are catamarans, many of them owned by charter companies.
5/6 - Finally a bunch of positives. When I wake up and go to WRI’s SeaWeather page I find that it’s starting to look like we may have a decent weather window to go to Bonaire starting on the 16th. I then locate a head discharge pump at the local Chandlery and Didier, the mechanic who helped us with the generator installs it. The Diginav tech comes and fixes the problem with the anonometer. The network backbone piece that serves to transform signals between the older network types and the newer network types (both of which we have) became inoperative and he had to replace it. Simple when you know what to look for and where to look for it. Anyway, that problem solved as well, and then I hear back from Tim Allen that I can use my Xantrex battery charger with the 50hz current I will find in Curacao, so that’s another potential problem averted. We also finally meet up with the rigger that I have been trying to track down to have the standing rigging adjusted (we’ve put over 1,800nm on it since it was installed just before our trip began, so it’s overdue for an adjustment) and we now have an appointment for him to do that Thursday morning. All in all, a far more positive day than we’ve had for a while.
5/7 - I sleep later than usual and SeaWeather is continuing to show a good weather window to Bonaire beginning the 15th/16th when I check it after I get up in the morning, so we’re off to a good start. Oh, I forgot to mention this, but in the harbor in particular, but generally in each of the French Islands we have visited, everywhere we go there are multiple boulangeries (bakery stores specializing in bread-type products, as opposed to Patisserie’s specializing in desserts baked products) and it seems that almost everyone on the street is carrying a baguette. Spend a lazy day buying a few groceries, reading and playing Scrabble.
5/8 - Nothing much going on as I wait for rigger and crew member Justin Watts to come on the 9th and engine maintenance crew to come on the 10th. Get a forecast from WRI for a 16th departure which is surprising and does not encourage a 16th departure as conditions for the last day of transit are discouraging. Begin to go back and forth with WRI about other departure day options.
5/9 - Rigger was supposed to come at 8:30 a.m. and fails to show, after a lot of back and forth and excuses he finally appears around 3:00 p.m., concludes rigging is very loose (not a surprise after putting over 1,850 nm on new rigging) and he wants me to come to his dock for a total readjustment. He wants me to come for tomorrow, but I have much too much going on tomorrow so I arrange to do that for Monday morning the 13th. Justin arrives and after going back and forth with WRI a number of times, it now appears that we should leave on the 14th to minimize adverse conditions for the third day as we near Bonaire. It’s a little dicey and all of a sudden our time-frame to get all of the remaining departure chores has shrunken, but that’s cruising I guess.
5/10 - Mechanic to do maintenance on main engine and generator is supposed to come at 9:00; when he doesn’t show we’re told 10:30; when he doesn’t show we’re told 2:00; when he doesn’t show we’re told he’s putting his stuff togerther and will be here shortly; when he doesn’t show, we’re told he can’t come today and they promise he will be at the boat at 7:30 on Monday. This creates all kinds of logistical problems, but “you can’t fight city hall” and he we have no leverage whatsoever, so I wasted the whole day waiting around for the mechanic who didn’t show. Show Justin around the boat and generally fume.
5/11 - It’s Saturday so no one is working. Patrick is due to arrive at the end of the day. Justin and I do a big provisioning shopping trip, put the dinghy engine back on the boat and put the dinghy on the dock for cleaning, seam repair and preparation for deflation and stowage in it’s “suitcase” on the aft deck for our trip to Bonaire. Kryss leaves for the airport at 1:30, so it’s kind of weird now not to have her around on the boat anymore. Patrick arrives without incident, seems very nice and suitable, and I make a big spaghetti and meatball dinner which comes out better than I had hoped. I used packaged frozen meatballs from the supermarket and they were better than the ones I had been making with the frozen chopped meat that I was buying in the supermarkets on the other islands.
5/12 - 5/13 - We do boat maintenance chores and shop for provisions. Late on Sunday, after having to wait for a boat that was where we were supposed to go, we move the boat to the rigger’s dock for the rigging to be adjusted and the engine and generator maintenance to be done on Monday. At the end of the day on Monday we move the boat back to our Marin Marina dock space for departure the next morning for Bonaire, top off our water, and check out at Martinique customs/immigration.
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