So it is Christmas, and what have we done

It has been awhile since I have written, as (the) one avid reader pointed out to Karen in his Christmas email, but you must understand that it has been hurricane season in the Caribbean and that means just one thing – lots of parties with friends we may have only seen once or twice over the past twelve months. But I am probably jumping ahead of myself, there were a lot of miles covered between Guadaloupe and here so I will give a quick rundown on our trip before explaining Grenada in Hurricane season.

Suzy in action

Dominica

Dominica was beautiful as always with the added bonus of duty free fuel! We checked into Portsmouth and ordered fuel for Tuesday morning at the cruise ship terminal. They recommended taking the boat over but one look at the dock told us we were not going to do that. It had big black tractor tyres and I have a little white boat (at least compared to the size of the dock and the tractor tyres). We dinghied over to the dock with our 220l of Gerry cans at the allotted time and waited... and waited.... Thinking this was just island time, we weren’t too distressed but after half an hour we found the security guard and he called the fuel guy. The fuel guys was looking for our big boat and failed to see little Debbie from his pushed back chair at the main commercial dock on the other side of the bay (no wonder) so he would be there in an hour (as the clouds started to build over the island). It poured down as we waited for the fuel guy to arrive and fortunately it stopped while he filled the 10 gerries, but then it bucketed down while I ferried the 2 loads of gerrys (and Karen) the ½ mile back to the boat.

Once we were fuelled and stowed it was off to Roseau to snorkel Champagne, an underwater gas outlet for the local volcano. Unfortunately after three days waiting for clear weather to be able to see the bubbles we gave up and checked out to head for Martinique.

Martinique

We high-tailed it down to Grande Anse on the south west coast and found a nice spot to anchor. Dived the anchor and it looked set to hold so we hunkered down for a nice night and then to see if we could check in there the next day. The quiet night was not to be. A 54ft motor boat came and anchored in front of us (not to close so no problem), but at 4am I woke and looked up to see it’s stern swinging about 4ft from our starboard bow. Jocks on, yelling at Karen to help, I was up on the bow holding the boat off and we tried to wake the occupants. We managed to wake the crew but not the skipper before it had smashed into both bows and got its stern-drives caught inside our anchor bridle! By this stage I had climbed down onto the other boats swim platform to keep it off our boat so the crew could wake the skipper who was locked inside the boat!

By carefully driving forward with one stern drive and then stopping, we were able to take the tension off the bridle and let it drop before motoring away from our baby and re-anchoring the stink boat. At this stage it was too dark to see what damage the loud crack I heard was associated with so we agreed to meet the next morning to look at the damage. I then asked for a lift back to my boat as I was sure Karen might be a bit anxious on the boat alone with a possibly compromised anchor. The skipper, looked a bit put out by my request but acquiesced and told his crew to lower the dinghy and take me back. After checking the track I managed to get back to sleep to be awoken by Karen at 6am (yes I said Karen woke me at 6am) telling me that the motor boat had done a runner!

Well no getting back to sleep then, so p!£$€d off we had breakfast, checked the damage (which was only two small chips in the gel coat) and headed for Le Marin to see our favourite Lagoon Dealer, Hubert to pick up some parts and discuss some minor problems with the boat. Hubert as always was very helpful, had the parts ready and bought a technician out to the boat the next morning and we were ready to go. That is after we had been to Leader Price to stock up on French ham and cheese, red wine and beer!

Bequai

Stocked up, we did a two day (over-nighted in the Pitons in St Lucia as Australians still required US$50 Visas to enter St Lucia) sail to Bequai, one of our favourite islands. Of course Evergreen, our Canadian buddies met us in Bequai as they always do. This year we had however radioed them in Rodney Bay St Lucia and they sailed down to Bequai with us – so we now know they don’t just sail around Bequai. We got our dodger (windscreen) repaired here and were shocked by the timeliness of the repair – we took it into Grenadine Sails at 10am to get the zipper replaced and asked how long it would take. Expecting an “Island Time” response we were very pleasantly surprised by the “can you come back at 2” response. I almost let out the “which day are we talking about?” that was in my mind, but sure enough, at 2pm the windscreens were repaired at a reasonable cost and ready to go. I highly recommend these guys!

We ate rotis at the Green Boli and celebrated “Canadia Day” by playing Boules (petanque whatever) on Princess Margaret Beach with Evergreen and Quattico wearing Canadia stickers and a moose (Maximillian brought back by Jim and Dinah to travel the world on Where II) on my head! Unfortunately Max got pretty wet as the skies opened up and called the game short due to weather. (Either that or we lost again – can’t quite remember....)

Drinks with those guys and Cajun Diva, Daniel Story, Melvin (Aussie Lagoon 37’) and Puddle Jumper on the same beach were also interrupted due to rain – but funnily enough all my rum punch was gone by the end of it.

We also ran into a nice couple from Florida (or did they run into us???), once again Where II’s magnetic bows were active at about 0400 in the morning. The bazaar currents had us swinging in one direction and Dave and Colleen swinging in another. I must have had a feeling ‘cause once again I woke just to see their boat cross our bow. Colleen and I managed to keep the boats apart while Dave started the boat and moved to a new spot. We both checked our tracks and neither of us had dragged, but the current had bought us together. Next day, two more boats came and filled the spot Dave had vacated, leaving us with some stressful, sleepless nights.

Union Island

From Bequai, Evergreen and Where II sailed us to Chatham Bay in Union Island where we anchored smack bang in the middle of the bay, a little bit away from the resident moored charter boats (This charter company has taste – they are all Lagoons). Despite the offer of free moorings and water if we ate at the resort, we declined the free mooring. A couple of days later, Where II’s magnetism started to show again... The Lagoon 500 moored next to us seemed to be getting closer by Karen’s estimation. We checked our track and we did not seem to be moving, so I jumped in the dinghy and went and had a look  - but it was still tied to the mooring so we decided to up anchor and move to a safer distance. While we were doing this, the boat boy looking after the charter boats came and said we were dragging. I told him that I didn’t think we were, but were moving anyway and he should check his mooring. In quick time, he looked at it, shot into shore to get some help to move it to another mooring. He then came back to pick up the mooring line which was attached to nothing!

We spent a week in Chatham playing boules and drinking rum punch at Vanessa and Seekie’s beach bar before hauling anchor, checking out and heading to Hillsborough.

Carriacou

Once in Hillsborough, we decided to stay put until the Carriacou Regatta week and join in some of the festivities. We also, against common cruising wisdom decided to stay in Hillsborough anchorage as opposed to around the corner in Tyrrel Bay or our favourite, Sandy Island. This seemed fortuitous, as we ran into an Aussie bloke we met 3 years ago at the St Lucia Yacht Club, Edgar Roe. Edgar had taken me sailing on his J24 – Loose Cannon, which had now been sponsored by IGY Marinas – Rodney Bay and had a sparkling new paint job. Edgar asked me to crew for the races which I quickly agreed to.

The first race was an around the island 2 handed race, so it was just Edgar and I. I packed up my sailing gear (big floppy hat, sun screen and ½ case of beer – yep I forgot things like gloves deck shoes) and caught a bus round to Tyrrel. I hitched a ride out to Loose Cannon with Terry (Melvin) who had decided since there was only one other multihull in the race to enter his house in the race and at least get a place. Edgar supplied me with the Red team uniform and we did a couple of timing runs to the line and when we had it down pat waited for the hooter and we were away, the first across the line – and then the first beers were cracked!


Now you can see from the above photo, Edgar is a fairly experienced racing sailor – just by the way he holds his beer - but I should have reminded myself I as a cruiser (on a go-slow catamaran), not a racer as Edgar’s boat did tend to bounce around a bit and lean over making it difficult for a fat slow man to move around and hold his beer at the same time.

Photo courtesy of Dave Wiatt –SV Promise

Never the less, by following one of the locals to find the good water and riding Bloody Mary’s wake we were able to stay with the big boys right up until the windward side of the island, where they started to gain a bit on us, and despite the handicap Edgar had bundled himself with by inviting me along, the J24’s time adjustment meant we won the race by about a minute!

Photo courtesy of Dave Wiatt –SV Promise

As we were sailing through the anchorage (no motor on this boat) we were met by Stefan one of the other crew members who towed us back to his boat with his dinghy. Edgar meanwhile lost his hat (see above picture) and as it was so nice jumped overboard to reclaim it leaving me with a tiller and a dinghy on the hip driven by a German whose second language was English to conduct a man overboard manoeuvre in the anchorage without hitting Spirited Lady. It was a close call but I got Edgar and the hat back. After a bowl of peas soup and a few celebratory drinks ( the half case was gone about ¾ the way round the island) we headed off to the Yacht club for the annual Children’s auction.

After checking the weather that evening, Karen and I decided that we should head south on Sunday and needed to get the boat ready on Saturday, which meant missing the second race. But as Edgar pulled Loose Cannon up to Where II he convinced us that, and I quote “But I need the fat boy up the front!” so there was no option and I raced a second time. Unfortunately, the weed that got caught around the rudder negated the benefits of a fat boy up front and we failed to win the second race, narrowly missing out (I am sure). The race around the south of the island was exhilarating, often coming within meters of reefs and at one marker buoy, within millimetres of Bloody Mary and the Robin of Bequai’s boat. I am not sure if Edgar has nerves of steel or is short sighted but it convinced me that I will never take Where II in a race that he is in.

Sunday, we packed up and left for Grenada, in what was supposed to be the only wind for the next couple of days. Needless to say, that wasn’t the case and we ended up motoring all the way to St Georges.

Grenada
Back to Grenada, our hurricane home for the past two years. We had timed our arrival to coincide with Carnival and had booked in to Port Louis Marina for the carnival special for 5 days to allow our friends Graeme and Linda who were arriving from Aus via the States and Canada to get use to the boat and see as much of carnival easily before taking off back up the Grenadines for a sailing holiday.

The first part worked well, be berthed on the super yacht dock (because Where II is super and it gave me more space not to hit anything) and went to check out the pool and surrounds. This was our first relax in a marina since leaving the Canaries and I was looking forward to it. Grae and Linda arrived on schedule with the devastating news that our TimTams had melted on route and had to be thrown out (I still think  that the temptation may have been too great for them) but all else was good and they were ready to relax.

Linda immediately got into the spirit of things, enjoying the rum punches and the local wild life at Jouvet... what are those two young boys looking at?


Whilst I set Graeme to work on the boat...


That’s when it had all gone horribly wrong... While we were enjoying carnival, a small sore I had developed on my leg was deciding to have it’s own tropical experience and develop into a boil. So while I was hanging to use the pool and go sailing, my leg had other ideas. After carnival, a trip to the doctor confirmed my diagnosis and I was to be treated every two days for the next two months while this horrible thing grew, festered, was lanced and sucked out then healed. The doc said to keep it dry and stay out of the dinghy as if it gets wet with the warm salt water it will get re-infected. So we were dock-bound, with beautiful showers that I could not enjoy properly and a pool that I could not swim in and a leg with a hole in it the size of Calcutta! Karen wanted me to take some photos, but honestly when I saw what came out of my leg, I didn’t need any photos to remind me.

So Linda and Graeme’s sailing holiday turned into a holiday in a marina. Not all was lost, they did get to motor from the Super yacht dock to the main dock on Where II and John and Nancy on SV Silver Seas (a half boat) did take them sailing round to Prickly Bay.


Of course the holiday wasn’t a total loss, they did get to met some great people like the intrepid Carnival player Suzie, (See photo at beginning of blog)
Have barbeques on the beach (we let Heff the Irishman come because he could build a fire and cook the food)


...and general relax and explore Grenada. They said they had a great time even if we didn’t leave the dock – I hope they did.

A lot of the rest of the season was spent working on the boat and worrying about the results of the world cup. I was elated when England got on the bus to go home, but was devastated when Australia suffered the same fate.


I bought the Jersey off the back of an Englishman’s wife, who refused to wear it once they lost. It cost 50p at auction. Don’t worry Mal, I haven’t forgotten that I owe it to you.

Unfortunately the most famous Australian Rugby player in Grenada has a first name of Bloody and is entirely held accountable by everyone in the Port Louis Marina and Prickly Bay as the reason for this unfortunate outcome.

The work on the boat comprised finishing the projects that we had started (by purchasing the parts in St Maarten) and not finished on the way down, the major one being the solar hot water heater. Our prototype that we built in St Thomas, worked but only provided warm water and a failed pump, but the new improved one provides hot water and so far no leaks.


Of course living in the marina does have some advantages, the social life was rampart, with dock parties, pig roasts, movie nights and of course the Halloween party. Now being an Aussie and really not all that familiar with Halloween parties, Karen and I got costumes with a horror theme – Karen went as a witch (yes starting with a “W”) and I had a zombie mask. But apparently in North America, it is just a fancy dress party. Sunny from Texas was the most imaginative as a “Tropical Depression” (ie storm)


But Richard was just down-right disturbing


And then there was the Aussie Chicks – Karen, Lou and Suellen. They came as Aussie Chicks inclusive of stubbies!


Grenada would not be complete without Dominos and Cricket. Cricket was played again at Clarke’s court but we had only a smattering of Aussies so our season was not as successful as last year. Karen’s Domino season was in full swing though. Having beaten Kim at de Big Fish on a couple of occasions, Karen whipped Nahani River’s (Doug and Wendy) collective butt, so much so Wendy made Karen a Dominos tiara (seen on the witches hat in the above photo). But introducing Jon and Sam (Imagine of Falmouth) to Dominos took it to a new high with no-one leaving until 11pm at night.




I don’t know about you, but I can’t see any dominos and Karen’s tiara does seem to get around!

So once we blew the cruising budget by staying in a marina for 3 odd months it was time to head north again. We found out that St Lucia is now Aussie friendly and haul out rates were not too expensive, we high-tailed it to Rodney Bay, via Chatham Bay and Keartyon’s Bay in St Vincent. Jon and Sam had recommended the Rock Side Cafe there so we stopped for the night. We tied up to a mooring and organised to be picked up at 6pm for dinner. The message taker fell asleep and forgot to tell the Restaurateur about the arrangements so we got picked up but no food and just a little rum punch. I think we were a little early in the season but it was a nice place


St Lucia
We arrived in St Lucia on Friday evening and went into check in on Saturday morning and were pleasantly surprised by the friendly officials (this wasn’t the case 3 years ago). We then went and checked in with Edwin Chavas at the boat yard and tentatively arranged to haul and paint on Monday or Wednesday and then decided to relax, as Sunday was the ARC flotilla and we were crewing on Princess of Tides with Guy, Christine and Princess (and her boyfriend Bill).


The 0800 departure seemed early, but Guy and Christine got us there in time for delay in starting so we milled around in Castries Harbour while the rest caught us up.  There were 50 odd boats in the Flotilla which made an impressive site heading out of Castries.


We of course then joined in the celebrations for the start of the 2011 ARC and I met Adam Foster, the Aussie General Manager of IGY Rodney Bay who has been pushing for the removal of Aussie Visa requirements – Thanks Adam.

Monday morning at 0730 (after a few more drinks on Princess and a game of Dominos), Edwin called me and said there was a cancellation on the lift and could we come in now. “No Problems” I said thinking this gives me no time to panic about getting into the slip. Unfortunately, just as I was about to enter the slipway, I was told to turn around and come in backwards!!$%! Which I did with the calm air that did not reflect the inner turmoil I was facing – but I did it like a pro! We met Dave and Colleen who were being launched when we were out of the slings and then we were into it. 3.5 days to sand, paint, raise the waterline (it had always sloped forward since the new engines were installed) and change the sail drive seals (with the help of Alwin of Quick & Reliable Mechanical Services ph: 1-758-520-5544 e: alwinaugustinengineer@gmail.com who I would highly recommend). Alwin also instructed me on how to change the seals in the future.
Once the boat was back in the water we did the island tour with Dave and Colleen (Promise), Mark (Sea Life) and Al and Michelle (Tarantella). This was a full day road trip quickly seeing the sights such as the Pitons and the volcano as well as enjoying a nice local meal (chicken and ground provision or if you are Karen – ground provisions) in a local restaurant in Vieux Fort.

We also spent a day in the Pigeon Island National Park where Karen actually made it to the top of the Fort!



Evergreen arrived from Venezuela, so there was more than a bit of catching up to do before they headed south to pick up their daughter and grandson and we headed north to Martinique, supposedly on our way to St Martin for Christmas. We had said goodbye for the last time so many times over the last couple of years that this parting was a bit of an anti-climax.

Martinique
So here we sit in St Anne, just some 30 miles from Rodney Bay two weeks later and only a tick of the clock until Christmas. Santa Claus (yes he does exist Tina) is climbing our mast, our Christmas tree is up, decorated with presents from the Hully’s and Evergreen and it is laden with goodies



and we even have festive (solar) light hung in the cockpit.


We will be spending our 5th Christmas far from our family and friends and our old home, but you are not far from our thoughts. Nor are all the new friends we have made on our new home. Fear not, we will not be alone, some of those new friends will be on board on Saturday night and Sunday. So we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year.
Karen & Matt
SV Where II
Martinique FWI
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: It has been awhile since I have written, as (the) one avid reader pointed out to Karen in his Christmas email, but you must understand that it has been hurricane season in the Caribbean and that means just one thing – lots of parties with friends we may have only seen once or twice over the past twelve months. But I am probably jumping ahead of myself, there were a lot of miles covered between Guadaloupe and here so I will give a quick rundown on our trip before explaining Grenada in Hurricane season. ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Janette Boluch EMAIL: janetteboluch@gmail.com IP: 114.76.51.180 URL: DATE: 12/24/2011 8:54:18 PM Great Post. Have a wonderful Christmas enjoyed your Blog. Glad 2011 is over it's been a s£!+ of a year. Bring on 2012. Keep safe and healthy.
Janette xoxo PS I still owe you an email Karen. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Mum EMAIL: nmdonovan@bigpond.com IP: 124.185.149.245 URL: DATE: 1/11/2012 6:28:51 AM It's a bitlate to be reading this Matt butI really enjoyed it and the photos are great. Still getting back to normal here in Brisbane with a heat wave this week. Take care, happy sailing. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul and Barb EMAIL: queimarla@hotmail.com IP: 101.169.3.236 URL: DATE: 1/30/2012 4:45:25 AM yo ho ho!! good read guys!! ahh the itch is back. wouldn't take much to cut the rope and reach outa here!! Say hi to the puddle jumpers!! met them in Trini and Grenada too if I remember correctly. All good here, I O, I O, and off to work we go. Remember those days? Ah yes. close encounters of the anchoring kind. Maybe not so bad living in a house! We dream on. don't be so tardy with the posts! We need the motivation!!! Hugs from across the seas! Barb n Paul

Stuck in Martinique – There are worse places to be….

STATUS: publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 CATEGORY: Travel Diary DATE: 12/13/2010 5:11:00 AM ----- BODY:
Well we have been in Martinique a month and it started pretty much to plan as you saw in the last blog, but things have slowed down a bit since then. The weather has been doing crazy things with strong north easterly swells and some strong gusty winds, so we have pretty much decided to just stay put in Le Marin. Also the cable I bought for the VHF didn’t seem to solve the problem so I took it into Jacque at Diginav for him to have a look at it. Friday afternoon was when he said it would be ready, but we must keep in mind that this is “Island Time with French Attitude” and so…. it was not ready. “Tomorrow” they said, then rethinking it they said “Monday”. With this in mind we relaxed into the bay and hit the Beach Friday night in search of Pizzas and ended up at a restaurant with Evergreen eating the local curried Dorado which was very nice.

Saturday was the starboard engine service (sometimes I wish I had a monohull – one engine – one service, but this is rare) and Sunday wasn’t Dominos day as is the usual plan but we tried out the new bocce set and got our butts whipped 3-0 by Jim & Dinah – it must have been the lack of Sand Bar Rum Punches!

We gave Diginav until Tuesday morning before checking back and they had good news! They knew what the problem was – the cable they sold me was no good so I just needed to get another one! Fantastic… except they didn’t have one, but Jacques was heading to the Paris boat show and could get me one. The bad news was it was another 2 weeks away. We decided to bite the bullet and wait as Jacques is probably the most competent Raymarine technician we have dealt with – albeit a little slow. With this news Evergreen decided to get their mail sent to Le Marin and we settled into Le Marin for the wait.

Over the next two weeks we hired a car with Jim and Dinah twice for 2 days each time. The first time was for 1 day shopping and one day touring, and the second time was for touring Fort de France. Well it seems Karen can manipulate things such that we did shop on all four days…. I am wondering the wisdom of letting her read Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series! I am also wondering whether the French really want to share their island with the rest of the world as most of what we had decided to visit was closed (from parks to museums to rum distilleries) with the exception of Karen’s shops….

So anyway what did we see:  We started off with a tour around the south West peninsula taking in Les Anses d’arlet stopping at the pretty little bourg of Petit Anse d’Arlet for a snack at the patisserie

On to Anse Noire ….

… and up to Trois Ilets before Karen decided that it was enough touring and we had to shop. So it was off to Champion and Intersport in Dillon where Jim and Dinah bought a nice expensive set of shiny boules (apparently our kiddies set was not good enough to beat us with). Then we headed east to Francois and Le Vauclin looking for somewhere to have an early dinner or at least a drink. Whilst the scenery was nice, our quest was unsuccessful and we ended up back at the Mango  in La Marin where we all partook in the moulles et frites (mussels and fries in a white wine sauce). Delicious way to end the day.

Day two was supposed to be all shopping, but by consensus (can’t say which way Karen voted or whether or not she was pouting in the back seat of our Peugot 307) we decided to be Tommy Tourist again. We headed off past Fort de France to the north west of the island for our first stop if the day – the Museum of Gauguin at Carbet. This is where the disappointments started – after 20 minutes of looking, we realised that it no longer existed, so it was onto St Pierre at the base of Mt Pelle. The prior capital of Martinique was the victim of the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelle when only one resident out of the 130,000 survived (of course he was a drunk in jail for disorderly conduct – who says drinking is evil?) We started at the commercial centre,

visited the museum, toured the grand old theatre (a copy of one in Bordeaux) that was destroyed in the eruption)…

…and then had lunch at various outlets around town before heading further north.

Here the disappointments continued to mount. First stop was the Tomb of the Rebels where legend has it the last of the Carib Indians jumped from the cliffs above to avoid being enslaved or massacred by the pursuing French – couldn’t find it. Next it was onto Habitation Ceron - an old plantation with apparently beautiful gardens – shut. Always chipper we headed back to the DePaz Rum Distillery and we found the tomb of the Rebels !

The cacti were in flower there as well.

Then we hightailed it to DePaz because by now it was bucketing down. We dashed across the car park and sat outside the store to wait for the rain to abate to do the tour which is mostly outdoors.

Half an hour later we gave up and went into the store to sample the rum. After trying a couple of different rums we purchased a few of the specials (yes shopping) we checked the rain and gave up, thinking we might make it back to the Dillon distillery for a tour there. Wrong, this distillery is shutdown and it is now made at DePaz which we had just left! We did get the education video and bought some white rum, shrub rum punch for the girl and a bottle of very old rum for special occasions (more shopping – the girl was happy).

Day two did however end on a brighter note as we found the seaside bar restaurant in St Luce on the way home. Unfortunately our budget  extended only to a drink. Jim and I tried the Desperado Tequila beer – don’t bother!

The next week or so we relaxed around the boat, played dominos and boules (with Evergreen’s new boules and they still whipped our butt) and waited for mail and parts. We decided to do another couple of days with the rent-a-car when we found out it was almost as cheap as catching the bus to Fort de France.

The plan was to spend 2 days in Fort de France taking in the history and doing some shopping. We headed in with a plan to visit the fort, the library, a museum and the shops. So this is how it went down….
We lucked out and got a free park near the old post office and visited the fort to be told that it was not doing tours as it was a strategic defence location. No problem, plenty more to see like the park with the beheaded statue of Josephine…. Fenced off for renovations (as it was when we were there over a year ago). No problems lets do some shops and then the Library and the museum.

The shops didn’t take long (believe it or not) with the exception of a liquidation centre Karen wanted to find (but no longer existed). We grabbed lunch in a Gyros shop (as you do in a French Island) near the market and kept going. Next the Schoeller Library, a unique structure designed and built in Paris around the same time as the Eiffel Tower, dismantled, shipped and rebuilt in Martinique. We were concerned that it might be closed as it had scaffolding around the front (picture below from last year) but we found a side entrance and got some cultural experiences.

We were however not so lucky  with the museum and with time to spare we started heading back, but of course we had to hit the hardware on the way back (as close to a Bunnings as we are going to get south of the US Virgins) but alas it was closed. Karen, being the opportunistic shopping that she is took us across the freeway to Gallerie de Lafayette! Here we hit Hyper U, a shop not dissimilar to RG Maddens and a great sports store where Jim found shiny boules for a quarter of the price they paid – much to their horror! They finally told us and we were now the proud owner of grown up boules!

After shopping it was back to Marin and onto the boat for an early night.

Next day it was up and heading to the north-east, via InterSport to return Evergreen’s new boules. Luckily the guy in the store had been to Canada and chatted with Jim while he gave him his money back. On to the other store to get the cheaper boules and then up to Robert and places north to find somewhere for lunch. The scenery was idyllic

But alas nowhere that struck our fancy for lunch! So it was back to Le Marin  to have pizzas at a place we tried and liked last year but guess what – it was closed! We found another placed and enjoyed the pizzas while the skinny French woman next to us and her friend ordered the largest steak I have seen that wasn’t part of a cow! I assume it was to share…

So by now we were just waiting for Jacques (Diginav) to finish his olives – his choice not mine - and champagne at the Paris boat show and get us the cable so what did we do – play boules of course.

Guy (Princess of Tides) suggested we dinghy over to the beach past St Anne have a picnic – it was only 20 minutes away. Sounds good in theory, until we realise that 20 minutes is in a dinghy with a 15hp outboard… we have 6 and Evergreen 8, so even when we rode Evergreen’s wake it was slightly longer than 20 minutes

but it was a nice beach and we did enjoy both the picnic and the boules (although we got our butts whipped again)

Next with Christmas coming up it was time, for the first time since leaving Aus, to decorate the boat. We splashed out and bought a Santa on a rope ladder for the mast and a Christmas tree for our pressies. So we carefully decorated the tree with the 2 hand painted bells my sister had given us last Christmas out and only now had a tree to hang on!

Well Jacques finally returned but it didn’t appear that he had the part but he assured us if we came back early in the morning it would be there. Not only was it there, it was installed and he charged us no more than the second hand part we already paid for! Big thanks Jacques.

Now all we needed was Evergreen’s mail and some good weather and we were all off with my Christmas leg of Lamb in the freezer. Well the weather came but unfortunately the mail didn’t and we took off without our sailing buddies to St Pierre to wait to cross to Dominica, hoping they would catch up before we left.

After another day wandering round the town, dinner on Princess of Tides and it was time to go it alone – we are off to Dominica for Christmas!

Back in Martinique - Bread and Cheese!!!

The sail to Bequai was fantastic. We were prepared for light winds and left at 0820 in the morning (Monday 8/11). For those of you who know Karen – this is no mean feat! Mornings normally start at 0800-0900 for here so to be out of Chatham with the sail up at 0820 was excellent. The sail is only about 28 nautical miles so we knew we had heaps of time. Well it could not have been better – we had a perfect beam reach all the way until we reached West Cay and then turning east we even sailed into the Harbour (well almost, you know a fair way in but sails were dropped before we got anywhere near other boats). We anchored in our favourite spot just of Princess Margaret beach just before 1300 averaging 6knots for the trip reaching speeds of 7.8knots. We thought that was not bad for winds speeds anywhere between 7 and 18 knots.

Finally getting emails for the first time since leaving Frigate, we find that Jim and Dinah are on their way to Bequai and will be there within the next 24 hours. This seemed like déjà vu, as when we arrived, unplanned from St Thomas earlier in the year, they sailed in within 24 hours…… Do they really go anywhere or just sail round Bequai waiting for us to come in???

Bequai is just the same – easy slow and friendly. We left the boat and headed ashore to buy some fresh food, stopping by Zenna to say hi to Mark and Marion. We had last heard from them just after Tomas with a cryptic sms that we wanted clarified. They had been caught in Mayreau and did not have an fun time as the hurricane came through.

We never do a lot in Bequai and this time was no different – picking up a few groceries and fruit, exchanging our books, stopping at the sailors bar for a rum punch or two, and catching up with who was in the harbour. We had drinks a couple of nights at The New York Sports Bar (a nice little local bar in the main street) which we hadn’t been to before and had rotis at the Green Bolly Bar near Dive Bequai  which were fantastic!

We left Bequai last Saturday, with a forecast of no wind but a flotilla of boats including our friends Jim and Dinah of Evergreen, all of whom, like us, wanted to get north before the predicted NE winds that would prevent us from heading north comfortably and cheaply (ie sailing) for the next week or so. Due to the predicted light winds, we thought it was time to become grown-up sailors and fly the gennaker, which has been sitting in the forward hold begging to be used since Morocco when we used it with Tim. We had it hoisted on Friday night and left it furled and ready for action early Saturday morning for the 10hour sail to the Pitons.

The day started at 0500 when Karen leapt out of bed ready for action only to find it was too dark to see so she went back to bed for half an hour (I am not sure she was really awake at this time –but it was a really impressive start). We weighed anchor at 0545 and let me just say, this was a neat sail – even better than the one to Bequai. We rounded Admiral Point and had 12knots apparent – so at last the Gennaker was unfurled! We sailed across the channel and because of the light winds we had agreed to sail leeward up St Vincent which, given the winds speeds we actually was, was probably a mistake to stop dead as soon as we got into the lee of the island. We motored for 2hours past St Vincent, staying close to shore to have a good look in each of the bays as we plan to maybe visit St Vincent by boat on our way back down to Grenada next year.

When we came out of the lee of the island the winds shot up to 18 knots so we hoisted the genoa  but they soon calmed and we swapped the genoa for the gennaker (yes we actually changed sail plans – a first for us) so we were on our way. Again it was a fantastic sail reaching speed of 8.5knots – our fastest yet if you discount the 13knot surfing we had around Finisterre and on the Atlantic crossing. The gennaker performed well and we were so chuffed we called Evergreen and told them we were going to continue on to Rodney Bay as we still had 4 hours of light up our sleeves. Of course the wind died just after the Pitons and we motored the last 3 hours. Not bad though 70 miles in 11 hours!

We relaxed in Rodney Bay for the night and woke to find Bill on Demoi anchoring next to us who had sailed up from Bequai overnight. We called him and he asked where we were – which was a bit of a worry as we are a big white boat, there are no boats between us and he had just come in and anchored next to us – boy he must have been tired.

We spent Sunday morning waiting for rain to stop and clouds to dissipate and just before noon we motored out of Rodney Bay to Le Marin, Martinique for our French Adventure (here for adventure read shopping for Karen). We anchored next to Evergreen and had a quiet night.



Monday morning we checked in and then the adventure began! We did Caribe Greement (chandelry), Diginav (electronics), Corail Caribe (Lagoon dealer), The Return of the Mango (bar and internet) and Leader Prix (groceries) all before lunch! The afternoon was Clipper Ship (Onan dealer), the watermaker agent, hardware, plastics shop where we did find boules (although they seem to be a kiddies version but after being beaten by Merengue so often, maybe that is what we need) and Carrefore (groceries).Karen also fitted in time to make a hair appointment for Thursday!



Tuesday was port engine service day which kept us busy and sweaty all morning. We did shop for filters in the afternoon before the mango for the internet. Wednesday was “waiting for the rain to stop and sort of hoping it wouldn’t” so I could do the other engine but didn’t so played dominos with Evergreen instead. It looks like Thursday maybe the same (with a dash to the hairdresser in the middle) and once this trough passes we will start casually heading up the Leeward side of Martinique before heading to Dominica.


COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Mum
DATE: 11/20/2010 1:29:01 AM
Really enjoyed this blog Matt, now that I know what a gennaker and a genoa are. Really felt I was enjoying it all too. Seems as if you are really on holidays. Enjoy it all.

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Jim and Wendy
DATE: 11/29/2010 8:46:51 PM
Jim says that the customs officer in Union Island is right and that if Australia had a male Prime Minister, maybe you could play bocce ball like a man. It's in the bible? Wendy refuses to be a part of such a ridiculous comment and promptly punched Jim on Karen's behalf.

COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christina
DATE: 12/1/2010 7:49:59 PM
Just so you know - Tina Nick & the Hully Gang receive & read your blogs, but posting comments require consideration and other mental / physical capacities that may be being challenged in other ways. You are loved & not forgotten

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Tina
DATE: 12/1/2010 7:52:09 PM
On holidays? I thought this was a lifestyle choice - where does the work ethic fit here?