Saturday 17th March

La Marin
Martinique

14 27.737 N
60 52.127 W

The day dawned bright and sunny, Dale came over to our boat and collected Gerry so that the 2 of them could go and clear customs and do “boy shopping”. After they had taken off I did some cleaning and polished the woodwork – I just can’t believe how dusty and dirty the inside of the boat gets considering that we aren’t near land most of the time. Any way after finishing the chores I radioed Lorie to make arrangements for the day, we were going to hire a car and take a drive to see the botanic gardens and anything else that took our fancy. I then took my book p into the cockpit to wait for the guys to return. I’d only been there for a few minutes when I heard the put-put of Dale’s dink heading back. When I caught sight of them I had to hide a grin, they were towing a bright yellow dinghy behind Dale’s dinghy. Now as only Rose will be able to appreciate, our dinghy can be a little wet when the waves hit it (Rose and I always got soaked sitting in the front whilst Mark and Gerry stayed dry by hiding behind us!). Without the extra bodies in our dinghy Gerry and I sit on opposite sides to balance it and he has been getting wet as well, poor thing! Anyway the previous day had apparently been the last straw – he had gotten wet just one time too many so he went out and bought a new dinghy with a curved bow in the hopes of making the ride a bit drier. This bright yellow dink was his latest proud possession. You’ll all be surprised to know that I didn’t say a thing! I just tied it up when they threw the line to me and took the bags of other purchases down below – these were things that we had decided that we needed to replace stuff we had either lost or used, like filters. Gerry very quickly transferred the outboard and other essential stuff to the new dinghy and then set off around the harbour to test it out – boy with a new toy! I can only say that I was surprised that he didn’t buy an even bigger new dinghy than the one he came back with. Shortly after this Lorie came and picked me up in their dinghy and the two of us made our way into the dock having arranged to meet the guys later in the afternoon / early evening, calling them by radio when we returned. Once ashore we enquired at 3 places for a hire car, they were not cheap here but we eventually settled on one and handed over the plastic card. I was to be the driver as Lorie somehow had it in mind that the cars drove on the left hand side of the road (they didn’t) so I began the drive whilst Lorie navigated. We had a pleasant drive and made our way directly to Le Jardin de Balata, a botanical garden which was privately established in 1982. By the time we arrived there it was lunchtime but we decided to go straight into the gardens and then have lunch afterwards. We paid out entry fee and began to tour the gardens, it was completely different to the one that Gerry and I toured in Deshaies, this one was very much more geared towards trees, ferns and bromeliads. There were several lily ponds and some breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside. Near the entrance / exit they had set up several hummingbird feeders and there was a continuous flurry of little birds feeding from them. We took lots of photos but many of them didn’t come out as the birds are just so fast but we did get one or two that were reasonable. The garden had numbered the plants and we were given a “cheat sheet” so that we could identify the plants as we went – very useful for noting plants that we might want in our gardens at a later stage. It appeared that the garden was set amongst rainforest, and a lot of the dead tree stumps had been utilized to attach (I don’t think they were grafted on) various plants to, it was very effective and made for a terrific garden. As we wandered around we came across a group of people engrossed in something on one of the palm trees, when we got to the tree we found that they had been photographing a huge spider, which of course we took pictures of too. By the time we had finished our tour of the garden and headed out to the café just outside it was almost 15.00hrs and to our disappointment the café was closed – we were starving and had to make do with a bottle of coke and an ice cream – good but not really very satisfying. We returned to the car and tried to decide what else we could see, preferably on the way back home. We made a stop at the replica of Sacre Coeur – it was a smaller version of the famous church in Paris with equally stunning views, unfortunately it was a little cloudy and not good for photos. As we finished our viewing of the church a wedding party arrived and we were lucky enough to see the bride who looked beautiful. We hastily left so as not to be intruding on the wedding itself and headed down the mountainous road back towards the freeway and La Marin. We had noticed an advertisement for “Potterie Village” and decided that we had just enough time to make a detour there before returning home. It was a short drive off the freeway and then down an unpaved road, we were beginning to think that we were wrong in our expectations of the place when suddenly we came into the village and there were several small shops. We stopped and spent the next hour or so browsing around this small craft center which was just the sort of place that the guys would have had to find a bar to fortify themselves whilst Lorie and I foraged for “things”. We each made a couple of purchases, admired the work of the artists and when we had seen all the shops we returned to the car. We drove back to La Marin and parked, I radioed the guys but got no reply so we did the only thing you could do – went to the bar nearest the dock and sure enough there they were, downing a beer ( they claimed it was their first!?). We chastised them for not answering the radio, tormented them with “stories” of things that were going to be delivered to our boats in the morning, joined them for a drink and listened to the tales of what they had been fixing whilst we were out enjoying ourselves. Dale had located the source of the water leak on his water maker and had changed out the pump whilst Gerry had changed the engine oil on our boat; I think Lorie and I had the better day! We chose to eat at the restaurant attached to the bar; the food was OK but nothing special. Eventually we took our dinks back to the boats for the night; much discussion had taken place about a name for our new dink – custard bullet, OP banana, banana fender (a variation on Queenslander nick name of banana bender), yellow peril etc. I don’t think it matters too much as we still get a bit wet and I’m sure that Gerry will want a bigger and better one if that continues.

Friday 16th March

La Marin
Martinique

14 27.737 N
60 52.127 W

A bit of an easier start to the day, we were going to be leaving at 08.00hrs but as we were ready to go we left about 15 minutes earlier. Dale and Lorie began heading out of the anchorage whilst we were hauling up the last of our anchor. I was motoring slowly forward whilst Gerry hauled it in when suddenly he yelled into the headphones to stop and back up very slowly. I did as asked and he told me that we had a cable coming up with the anchor, this could have been a major problem but it appeared to be an old cable which wasn’t attached at either end. Gerry managed to hook it back off the anchor and dropped it back into the water and we were able to then haul the rest of the anchor back in and motor out of the anchorage. As we reached the outside Gerry hoisted the main sail with its usual first reef in place. The weather forecast for the day said that we should expect squalls with winds in the range of 20 – 25 knots but relatively small seas. Our journey for the day was to be 35 miles to the anchorage at La Marin at the southern end of Martinique. As we left St. Pierre the squalls began and it began to rain almost straight away though it didn’t last long and we were soon complaining about the humidity in the cockpit. Once the first squall cleared we unfurled the jib in the hope of being able to sail at least some of the way. The wind was just off the nose and we fiddled around trying to sail but in the end we motor sailed for the first part of the trip. Eventually though the wind clocked around just enough to allow us to turn off the motor and sail for a while which was quite pleasant. We weren’t able to get the speed up to the dizzy heights of yesterday but managed a respectable 6 knots for most of the time. I decided to try out the fishing gear again and threw the line in the water at 09.00hrs and spent the next 5 hrs watching it drag in the water behind us teasing the fish but not luring them close enough. As we got closer to the southern end of the country we had to make a turn towards the East – guess where the wind was coming from? So we furled the jib away and began to make our turn in order to cut between Diamond rock and the mainland. With the wind now directly on our nose and the swell hitting us from every direction it was time to reel in the fishing line and stow it away for another day. The seas between the rock and the mainland were pretty fierce and we were bashing into them at an alarming rate. The waves were coming over the bow and spray coming into the cockpit it was very uncomfortable and forced our speed down to about 3 knots – it was almost like we were going backwards at times. Gerry changed course again and headed us further away from our destination and closer to Diamond rock in the hope of making it a smoother run in the end. At we got closer it was time to tack again and steering as close as we dared to the rock we transited through the gap and out the other side where we were glad to find that the sea was a little calmer but still hitting us head on. With only a couple of miles left to go we continued to motor towards St Anne and La Marin. We got to about a mile away and a stupid man in a sailboat suddenly tacked across in front of us for no obvious reason and then yelled at us that he had fishing lines in the water! Gerry was less than impressed as we had to alter course and slow down to avoid getting this idiot’s fishing lines wrapped around our propeller, I bet you can imagine what the language was like! If this man had tacked 2 minutes later he would have gone behind us and there would have been no problem. Dale who was traveling behind us at the time saw it happen and was as astonished as we were that the man had tacked when he did, it was so unnecessary, still you can’t anticipate what every idiot will do. Shortly after this we were at the entrance to St Anne and La Marin, as Dale and Lorie had been here before they overtook us near the entrance and led the way into the vast harbour. La Marin is the largest yachting center we have seen for a while, there were boats everywhere. We managed to find a decent space to stop and dropped the anchor. It was then time to have a very late lunch and tidy away the transit gear. We had just one small mishap this trip, one of the blocks on the main sheet traveler was going to need replacing as one of the inner wheels had broken – as its made of plastic we suspect that it has been made brittle by the sun and just cracked under pressure. It was no big deal as we could still use it but as there are a few chandlers here it’s the ideal place to get the spares and replace lost and broken gear. We hoisted our Q flag and discussed going into town to clear in, as it was getting on for 16.00hrs by this time the customs were closed for the day so that was the end of clearing in for the day, it would have to wait until the morning. We all cleaned up and changed our clothes and then took the dinks into town to have a quick look around and then have drinks and dinner. Whilst the guys inspected the chandlers Lorie and I went and ordered the first round of drinks at the bar, by the time the guys joined us it was time for the second round. We asked about some sort of snack to tide us over until we had dinner, well we needed to soak up the alcohol with something, but to our surprise there was nothing available. Anything would have done, chips, nuts, fries, sandwiches but guess what we had to have in the end – ice cream! It was the only thing for sale. I have to say it was pretty good ice cream but it really didn’t do the trick and we were soon looking for somewhere to eat dinner. It’s quite difficult in the French countries to find anywhere that serves dinner before 19.00hrs but we found a decent place not too far from the dock, admittedly we were the first customers for the night but we were starving after all! We had a terrific dinner and then made our way back to the dinghy dock, collected our dinks and roared out to our boats, all agreeing that an early night was the order of the moment. Plans were made for the guys to go in and clear customs early in the morning and to do their “boat” shopping at the chandlers whilst Lorie and I had a sleep in.

Thursday 15th March

St. Pierre
Martinique

14 44.437 N
61 10.675 W

The alarm went off at 06.00hrs and we were up and dressed minutes later. We spent the hour until 07.00hrs getting ready to leave on the next part of our voyage of discovery. We were sailing further down the Caribbean chain to Martinique. Our trip was to be 50 Miles for the day and we had high hopes of being able to sail most of it. As we hauled our anchor up I radioed Gypsy Palace to make sure Dale and Lorie were up as we hadn’t seen them yet, they said they were ready and would be right behind us so we began our motoring out of the harbour. As we went we hoisted the main sail, with one reefing point in place. The wind was very light; not nearly enough to blow your hat off never mind fill the sails so we motor sailed for a while. Then we unfurled the jib and watched as it flapped about all over the place for a while until eventually it began to build up and we were finally able to sail. The motor was turned off and we had an excellent sail down the coast, reaching an average speed of 6.5 knots. At one point we even saw 8.1 knots which made Gerry ecstatic. I suggested that we throw the fishing line in the water as we were doing a good trolling speed, Gerry wasn’t keen but I did it anyway. For the first 2 hours we just watched the line do nothing, I then hauled it and changed the lure for the plain piece of cedar plug. It also had no effect for the next hour so I gave up on the idea of fresh fish for lunch and fixed us some cheese, pate and crackers. Just when we had finished lunch and given up all hope of ever catching a fish our advance warning system went off with a ping (this is a clothes peg holding part of the line to the safety line) and the remainder of the line shot out into the water. We were so excited; it was our first ever bite! Gerry continued to steer whilst I gently pulled at the line, it had a very definite resistance to it and as I began to pull it in suddenly the resistance eased and I knew that whatever was on the line had made its escape. It was very disappointing; I’d already planned how it was going to be cooked! I hauled the line in to check that the lure was still attached and found that whatever had taken the lure was now missing a tooth as one was firmly embedded in the cedar plug – I had proof that this one got away! I threw the line back in the water but there was to be no more strikes, just as well I had Turkey breast already out for dinner. About 5 miles from our anchoring spot the wind died on us and the rain clouds began to gather. We furled the sails away and closed everything up just as the rain began to descend on us. We motored around the harbour area for a while so that the boat got a fair soaking – free water is always good to wash the boat down with! Then finally when the rain clouds passed we motored into the anchorage, chose a spot, dropped our anchor and hoisted our Q flag – we weren’t going to check in here. I set about preparing dinner whilst Gerry anchor watched to make sure we weren’t going to drift. A quick look to see if there was an internet connection found us checking emails and phoning Abigail on the skype network phone. It was lovely to be able to chat with her and make sure she was OK. The only sad note was that she told us that she had been forced to put Charlie, our pet dog, down just the day before. We knew he was in failing health and that he wouldn’t be for this world much longer but I had hoped to get home in time to deal with this and relieve Abigail of the burden of having him put down. In the end Abigail did the right thing for Charlie and we are very glad that she looked after him so well for the years we haven’t been there. We know it was a hard decision to make and much as we will miss the stinky puppy we are glad he’s not suffering. After chatting with Abigail it was time to type up notes, make some water and settle in for an early night, we have a 35 mile trip ahead of us in the morning.