Le Marin,
Martinique
14.27.688N
60.52.108W


Thank heavens this morning I was able to sleep in. At 8 am, Dale started the genset and took off for the town to check us into customs with Gerry. Then they were off shopping for guy things.

While they were gone I was in charge of running the refrigerator and making water, which of course I did. I was also able to take a leisurely shower and wash my hair. Then I brought out the guide books and figured out where the botanical gardens were that Nicky and I wanted to go see.

When the guys came back, they had the usual assortment of oil, wire and various metal things but Gerry came back with a bright yellow dinghy as well. It seems, he’s tired of getting wet on his dinghy rides and decided to buy another one with a higher bow. Nicky immediately dubbed it the Custard Bullet.

So we left the men behind playing with their new toys while we went in search of a rental car and map. After 3 tries, we found one that was fairly reasonable and off we went. I had asked Nicky to drive figuring that on a French island they would drive on the left hand side of the road but when we picked up the car we discovered that no, they drove on the right hand side of the road. It didn’t matter, we were off on our own and having a blast. There were several round abouts along the way and the car couldn’t get out of its own way if it had to but the hardest part was getting onto the freeway from all of the little one way roads. Once found, it was rather simple to make our way to the Jardin de Balata.

We took a leisurely stroll through the gardens, starting with the hummingbird feeders that lined the porch of the reception area. Then through the gardens filled with bromeliads, palm trees, ferns, water gardens, gingers, haliconias and orchids. We should have picked up some lunch before hand but ended up having some ice cream to tide us over until dinner time.

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at the Eglise de Balata, the twin to the famous Basilica de Sacre Cour located in Paris. Nicky had been to the original church and said that this one was just like it only smaller. A wedding was being prepared for and we caught a glimpse of the bride before we left.

On the way back, we noticed that there was a pottery village that was just a little off our route on the way back to the boats, so . . . Of course, we sought it out. It ended up being down a dirt road but was a great find. True to it’s name, it was a collection of artisians in separate little shops all located in the same area. We wandered through each one and found a couple of little pieces that caught our eye.

Back at LeMarin, we found the guys patiently waiting for us at the local pub. We teased Dale for the better part of the evening that I was having a delivery made to the marina tomorrow with all of my purchases from the pottery village. He went along with it but I don’t think that he actually believed that I’d order something that had to be delivered by a truck.

Earlier in the day Nicky had loaned me her washing machine (a diaper pail that sits on a motorized agitator) so that I could do all of my delicates. While we were gone, Dale had been kind enough to wash them for me (I think that he just wanted to play with a new machine) and they were soaking in rinse water when I got back to the boat this evening. So in the dark of the night, I hung up all of my delicates to greet the morning’s sun. Nothing like a 21 panty salute first thing in the morning.

Tomorrow we’re off for St. Lucia after we drop off the rental car and make a quick stop at the local grocery. If the Cooper factor is in effect tomorrow, we’ll have to do something drastic like offer a rum drink to King Neptune or something. These nasty transits are for the birds.

Le Marin,

Martinique
14.27.688N
60.52.108W

I am pleased to tell you that I did not break the microwave but I did learn that I can not use it continuously for half an hour. Dale believes that there is an overheat switch that shuts down the appliance until it cools and that is what happened last evening. As a result, this morning, it miraculously worked without further fiddling around with it.

About 7:45am, we lifted our anchors and made our way south again towards Cul-de-sac du Marin on the south coast of Martinique. It proved to be a really nasty transit.

We essentially motored the entire way due to the rain showers predicted in the morning hours. The rain showers did arrive, were fairly short lived and certainly nothing to write about. However the 20+ kt winds that may have been embedded within them proved to be something else. They were on the backside of the showers and continued for the remainder of the day. We had one gust to 30 kts but generally they stayed in the 23-28 kts range. Both of our boats can sail in winds such as these and at one point we did turn off the engines for a short time. However, for some crazy reason, which we have dubbed the “Cooper factor” the winds never died down and even shifted to be directly on the nose where they stayed for the rest of our journey.

Of course, after a couple of hours of 20+kt winds, the seas whipped up and ended up being our nemesis. As we rounded the southern coast, the waves were wicked. Four to six foot and close. Near HMS Diamond Rock, the depths came up from over 1000’ to about 200’, so that added to the mix and made those particular seas confused. We tried to tack to get the best possible ride but it was rough no matter what route we tried.

What seemed like forever to achieve, we finally entered the channel, made our way past the Club Med at the point and entered into the bay at Le Marin. Normally, we’ve anchored in St. Anne in the past and dinghied into Marin but Gerry & Nicky preferred not to dinghy the 2+ miles, as they would be soaked to the bone by the time they arrived.

We wiggled our way through the reefs in the anchorage, saw Foreclosure (no one was on deck) picked a couple of anchor spots, changed our mind, moved into shallower water, circled around a few times and eventually settled into about 12’ and dropped the hook. Orpailleur was aft and slightly to our port.

We sat in the cockpit for about an hour to make sure that we were secure, then lowered the dink and made our way into the marinas to show Gerry & Nicky around. Dale was excited to show Gerry the Yanmar engines dangling in a nearby window which, of course, they both oo’d and ah’d. For sure, Gerry would be able to find any parts he needed there.

We walked up the nearby hill to a restaurant that Dale & I had gone to back in December. We had a great dinner, then returned to our respective boats where Dale & I discovered that our starting battery was not holding a charge. I told Dale that this is the first time something has gone bad in a place where we could actually do something about it. Guess what we’ll be doing tomorrow. Well sort of. It was also a unanimous vote that the guys will putter around on the boat doing their thing while Nicky and I will rent a car and go see the Botanical Gardens to the north of here. Should be a fun day.

Photo: Orpailleur making their way to Le Marin

St. Pierre,

Martinique
14.45.555N
61.10.660W

Our sail started off slow but ended up rather exhilarating.

We hoisted our anchors at 7 am and made our way out of Portsmouth, Dominica. It was a long open harbor and took almost a half hour just to leave. We turned and either hoisted or unfurled our main sails and then returned to our course for leaving.

We motored out a ways and then slowed to see what the wind was doing. Then we continued our motoring for the next couple of hours. Once, before we reached the end of the island, the winds teased us and we unfurled our jib and shut off the engine. We sailed along briskly for about a half hour and then it was back to motoring as the on shore breeze was stronger than the trades and made for a stalemate where we were located.

We saw a couple of dolphins, the first for quite some time now and we had a stowaway for a short time hiding on one of our back seats protected by a fender.

Near the southern end of Dominica, we could see wind on the water. The rest of our sail was between 6-8kts all the way to Martinique. Of course, Orpailleur left us in their wake. We used the autopilot for most of the way but towards the end we each took a turn at hand steering and made some noticeable headway on Gerry/Nicky. For the briefest of times, we played who goes where with another boat approaching on a collision course with us. Dale was on the wheel but I saw the boat under our jib. The other guy was on a starboard tack, so Dale turned up wind. The other boat must not have thought that we were going to turn in time so he turned in the same direction, then we all did it again in the opposite direction. Then one more time just for the sheer terror of it. Finally, we passed starboard to starboard and with a respectable amount of space between us.

As we approached the harbor in St. Pierre, a large black cloud passed over the town and out to where we were. We slowed our speed and waited for the rain to pass. On our previous trip down island, I had placed a waypoint near where we needed to go. Today, it was easy to just turn on the autopilot and plug in the waypoint and slowly make our way into the anchorage while keeping a sharp lookout for any other boats doing the same thing.

We reached our waypoint as the rain subsided. We still had about another half mile to travel but at least the rain was gone. We entered the anchorage and remembered that you were practically on the beach before you ever reached anchoring depths. Our first attempt Dale wasn’t comfortable with. Our second left me anxious about being too close to another boat, we finally circled around and dropped a 3rd time just a little behind where our second attempt was so that we settled behind the boat I was concerned about. Gerry & Nicky anchored somewhere near where we tried the first time. They didn’t drag but Gerry said that he wasn’t real comfortable about the feel of it either and that they would stay where they were.

We finished our day with a quick dinner of stuffed baked potatoes. I had already finished cooking when the microwave just turned off. At first I thought that because I had left the door open, the light turned off automatically after a period of time. When I saw that the whole oven had turned off, I thought of a circuit breaker tripping. When that wasn’t the case, I called my handy, dandy repair man who said that he’d try to fit me into his schedule tomorrow sometime.
Our biggest concern right now is: how do we get the dang thing out so that he can look at it. It’s definitely a project that needs the light of day to shed some light on the situation.

There’s always fun in the sun.