St. Anne, Martinique
14.26.186N
60.53.141W

We hoisted anchor at 8 am after a good night’s rest. I say that because the inner harbor of Rodney Bay is so protected, there’s hardly a ripple unless someone is zinging through in their dinghy to the grocery store on the far side. So we might as well have been sleeping in a bed on the hard.

We unfurled our main sail and motored from the inner harbor, to the main harbor, out the cut and finally through to the outside harbor. I guess you could say these harbors are like a lopsided snow man connected by narrow cuts between each one. We turned north, unfurled our jib, turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way to Martinique.

It was a great sail! In fact, it was such a good direction to the wind that we were able to sail all the way to Martinique and into the anchorage at St. Anne on a single tack. As compared to when we were here in the spring, the anchorage is relatively empty. So we scooted up as close as we could to the shore without violating the ClubMed water space and dropped our hook. It took two attempts because this close to shore, we missed the sandy patches further out and were into the gravel, shell and broken coral area. No matter, once the hook caught, we let out plenty of chain as the forecast for the next few days is for high winds and choppy seas.

We lowered the dinghy, mounted the outboard and headed into Le Marin the town further in. Like Rodney Bay that had 3 harbors connected by two narrow channels, St. Anne and Marin are two harbors connected by a channel. We were in search of a Mercury Outboard dealer or repair facility to see if we could find someone to take a look at the outboard. Dale still wasn’t satisfied with it. The outboard doesn’t sound right. If it were a car, you’d say that it needed a tune up.

We asked around and as luck would have it, the person we were directed to was in the same store ordering parts but he only spoke French. The person who had suggested him, translated what we needed and what the problem was; oui, he would take a look at it and asked us to meet him where he worked in 20 minutes. We were directed to continue further around the harbor to the main boatyard. So we motored our little dinghy over to the main boatyard and tied it to a barge that was anchored next to the maintenance building.

Oliver, our outboard ‘professional’, the one part we did understand went to work. Dale stopped him, how much? Oliver didn’t understand. I rubbed my fingers together in the universal sign for money, he nodded and wrote out 50 Eruo. OK. Oliver took off the engine cover and proceeded to clean everything with a cloth. He took off the carburetor that Dale had rebuilt a week ago and pointed to some bubbles. Then he proceeded to tear it apart piece by piece and clean it with his cloth. Periodically, he show us and everyone walking by all of the water that was in the carburetor. He wasn’t very impressed with the gasket that Dale had fabricated from gasket making material in the reserve bowl and took Dale over to a store to purchase the correct o-ring type of gasket. Of course, they didn’t have one in stock but would order it to be delivered on Saturday. Back they came. Oliver went into his shop and took two smaller o-rings to fabricate a larger one to use until the new one came in.

Then Oliver and Dale proceeded to dump out the gasoline we had filled the tank with after Dale rebuilt the carburetor. Sure enough, there was probably a cup of water in the bottom of the can. Oliver put the outboard back together and directed us to take the dinghy over to the gas station. Thank heavens it was only on the other side of the barge. We rowed the dink over and Oliver met us there. I climbed out and Oliver climbed back in. They filled the tank with a generous amount of 2-stroke oil and fresh gasoline, then fired her up. Clouds of blue smoke billowed out. Oliver took the cover off again and adjusted a couple of screws. He put the outboard in gear; it strained at the painter and small rope we had secured the dink to the fuel dock with; more blue clouds billowed out . He tinkered with the screws some more. Then he put the top back on and off he and Dale went around the harbor.I’d see them stop every once in a while and Oliver would take the top off and tinker with the screws again.

After about a dozen of these stops and starts with much tinkering of screws in between, Oliver gave us back the dink and we handed over the 50 Euro. It had taken him a little over 2 hours but at least the outboard sounded better, not great, but definitely better.

We made a bee line for the Palace so that we would be home before dark. Dale immediately started pulling out his gasket material again because tomorrow, he says, he’s fabricating another gasket to make dang sure water isn’t leaking into the tank around the fill valve.
But what happens if the gasoline came with the water?