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!

Italians really do say "Mamma Mia"…. And the world’s most expensive rum punch!

Okay, the sail from St Pierre was good, not great but good. We left Martinique in light winds after clearing out first thing in the morning, so out came our new favourite sail –the Gennaker, however once we got just north of the island, of course the wind picked up and I went forward to furl the sail in rough seas and winds gusting over 20 knots. Not too bad, but a little interesting for the first time. The furler kept slipping and in the end, it was in but messy and making a lot of noise against the now unfurled genoa – so it had to come down in those same conditions – interesting…. But do-able. After this struggle it was a calm sail into Dominica where we were met by Pancho the boat boy’s offsider Julian. He helped us tie up to the Marine Centre’s mooring buoy and we took in our surrounding in the bay just to the south of Roseau, Dominica. Julian was quite helpful, friendly and unlike some boat boys – did not hassle us at all so it was a nice intro to the country.

We relaxed on the boat for the afternoon then headed in to the dinghy docks the next morning – first we headed to the Marine Centre’s dock but it looked a bit high (too challenging with the swell that was running from the north west), so we turned round and headed to the Fort Young Hotel dinghy dock in town which turned out to be much lower and easier access, but we still had to tie off the stern of the dinghy due to the swell! There was a cruise ship in, so the town was pumping and we had tour guides galore telling us of the pleasures of the island. We just wanted to clear in and relax around town – which we were told was a waste of a day for us, but we had the time.

After a stroll round town we headed to the Botanical garden and viewed a famous cricket ground (what it was famous for I don’t know but it was smaller than most country grounds in Qld) and headed up Jack’s track to Morne Bruce, the cross overlooking the city and a panoramic view of the city. Notice how the city is dwarfed by the cruise ship. As a matter of interest in a week we saw 7 cruise ships arrive, with 2-3000 passengers each, so say 20,000 people, just under 1/3 of the population of Dominica transited Roseau in that 1 week!

We also saw the power of Cyclone David in our stroll through the Botanical Garden in the form of a fallen African Boabab tree – luckily the bus was empty!

We wandered round town and enjoyed a Kubuli beer (or at least I did) and went in search of the elusive lime. Another point of interest – Dominica used to be one of the world’s largest producers of limes in the world, but we struggled to find enough to flavour my rum, apparently the annual crop or limes has been replaced by bananas which produce year round.

The following day was to be relaxing, snorkelling or touring but the starboard engine had other ideas. Whilst charging the batteries that evening, the engine slowed and stopped. We tried to restart it but to no avail! So the next day was a work day!

Our first assumption (Karen is really starting to understand some of this stuff) was that the dirty fuel we got in Trini had fouled the filters, so I drained the pre-filter and changed it – it was dirty, but it was hard to say if it was clogged. I had to fill the pre-filter and filter with clean fuel so we took off in search of a small gerry can with which to buy some. This we thought would be easy but it was challenging enough just getting the stern anchor set on the dinghy (never done that before) and climbing onto the fuel dock at the marine centre, but then finding a small gerry was also challenging – a walk into town in my smelly work clothes got us a gasoline gerry, which the service station attendant was reluctant to fill with diesel!

Anyway with clean diesel we filled the filters and tried to bleed the system which seemed slow but the engine ran…. For 10 minutes before it stopped again…. Obviously used up all the fuel from the filter. So my assumption was that it was a fuel filter issue or I wasn’t bleeding it properly. I remembered a tip from Danny (Magnum in Grenada) to put a fuel bulb in line from the tank to prime quickly, so next morning I found one and cut it into the line and pumped away. The effect wasn’t how I imagined with still only a little fuel coming out when I tested it, but fuel was making it to the fuel filter so I gave it another go with the same result… A little frustrating but narrowed it down to the fuel pump or so it seemed to me – tomorrow’s job to try and find a pump.

As I agonised over the problem in my sleep (Karen by now was a sounding board only) I remembered John’s (Stevee Jean) problem with a split fuel pick up line on his 420, so at 6:00am I was up and pulling apart the starboard bed and fuel tank. Sure enough, the copper pick up line was split from a$%*hole to breakfast! Well that should be cheaper and easier to get than a fuel pump – one would think. However tomorrow was Sunday so it would have to wait a day….

So Sunday, we decided to take the snorkelling gear and grab a bus down to Champagne to snorkel the underwater volcano vent. Wrong! Sunday is dead, no cruise ship and no buses. So not to be put off we stroll down to the anchorage hotel to check out the whale watch centre. We had seen our first whale between St Vincent and St Lucia - we wanted to learn how to identify them and how we should sail the boat in their presence. When we arrived, we were told that there was a whale watching expedition that day and so as a Chrissie pressie to ourselves we booked ourselves on after checking the likelihood of seeing a whale (95+% and they had seen whales all of the last 11 days). So for US$57.50 each we would get served fruit juice, a rum punch and see thousands of whales.

We rushed back to the boat, got the big camera and rushed back to their dinghy dock for the briefing – which was very informative but we could not wait for our 3.5hours of dodging whales, identifying them, learning what their tails looked like, how to track them etc etc. We did learn how you can track them, had our US$57.50 rum punch and 3.5hours later we returned to dock to check out the pictures of whale tails. Little did we know that on the 12th day the Whales rest….so we saw nothing, not even a dolphin. We did see some nice rainbows though. (Sorry no photos of whales – check elsewhere on the internet)

Monday we went to the Yanmar dealer, who sent us to the chandlery, who sent us to the Yanmar dealer, who sent us to a hardware in Pottersville, who sent us to Valley Engineering, who sent us to a building supplies centre, who sent us to another hardware (we walked from Newtown to the docks) all to no avail. On the way Karen had spotted an agricultural supply store who had irrigation supplies so as a last resort before swapping the generator pickup for the engine pick up we tried there and I hate to admit Karen was right, but we were able to pick up 16mm HDPE garden irrigation pipe that looked like it would do a good temporary job, which it did that afternoon. So after 3 days we were back in action!

Tuesday, with a new cruise ship in dock we headed into town and bargained our way into a tour with a bunch of Italians and Slovenians from the ship (well all we did was wait until a driver told us he would give us a tour for US$10 and we were in- how bad  could it be for $10). This cruise started in the Med and 19 days later had seen most of the Caribbean – what are we doing wrong that that has taken us 3 years?

We headed off to the botanical gardens (and the squashed bus) and Morne Bruce (which I had to walk to) and then it got interesting.

We hit the highlights of the south as the Italians were saying “Mamma Mia” as we took the hills and corners at a reasonable pace…

Trafalgar Twin Falls (notice there are 2)

Wotten Waven Sulphur Springs

Freshwater Lake (very cold – yes cold and cloudy) and back to town.

We could have continued to Mero for a few extra bucks but we planned to sail there and do a distillery tour.
Next morning it was up and off to Salisbury for an overnight stop and a distillery tour.

We anchored south of the dive dock and were promptly told by the operator that he had moorings available if we wished to use them – he later told us they are free of charge as he is trying to discourage anchoring to re-establish the sea grass. We splashed off the back of the boat and enjoyed the cooling water. The water in Dominica is so clear it is really like swimming in a pool back home!

Next day, as it was still a few days before Christmas and he had some spare time on his way to Aus, we left Santa on watch and headed to Macoucherie Rum Distillery.

Unfortunately, after a bit of a hike we found out the tour guide was not there so a tour was out of the question. So we kept walking, thinking it was not far to Mero, but an hour later we realised it was.

However it was a lovely little beach and we stopped at the new Romance café for a refreshing grapefruit drink, before hiking back to Salisbury.

Having hiked all we were going to we packed up that afternoon Portsmouth, a quick 2 hour (after the Minnow, nothing is a 3 hour cruise on Where II just in case) sail north. We were met outside the harbour by Alexis – one of the Portsmouth boat boys, who introduced himself and then headed back in to harbour leaving us to find a spot and anchor. He visited later to say hello and we said we would talk to him over the coming days once we decided what we wanted to do.

Over the next couple of days we were quite busy, running into Aussies everywhere, and at one stage 50% of the boats in Portsmouth were Australian registered! Friday we took the Indian River tour with Alexis which included a tour of a plantation and 2 backpacks of fresh fruit and 218 different ways to make rum punch! The others on the tour were from another Melbourne registered yacht! Notice the entrance to Indian River where the swell is breaking just in front of the wreck! Alexis did a great job of rowing us up the river and explaining the wildlife and his links to Johnny Depp (Pirates 2).

Saturday was Christmas Day and I discovered how to get Karen out of bed before 8:00am. The night before Christmas, when all through the boat, not a creature was stirring except for me about 2:00am. I wrapped Karen’s presents and carefully placed them under the tree. (The good thing about a small tree is it makes the pressies look big!)

Karen got up at about 4:00am to steal orange juice and check the anchor track and saw Santa had been and from then on she had trouble staying asleep! (Who says I’m the big kid of the Family?) So we got up at 7:00am to open the presents and then have breakfast in true Donovan style followed by a feast (unfortunately as Evergreen could not make it, my lamb roast shrunk to shanks but it was delicious none the less)!

With the festivities over, we got onto the serious stuff, we went hiking (yes hiking) through the Cabrits and the ruins of Fort Shirley which was hot, tiring but very cool, especially when you got to the ruins of the old northern gun battery. This took us the best part of the day covering the west battery all the way back to town.

After this strenuous activity we decided we should probably start to make our way to The Saints, a small group of islands just south of Guadaloupe and as soon as we made that plan it changed. Alexis came by the boat and asked us if we wanted to do a tour of the north part of the island as he had another boat interested. We apologised and said we had planned to depart and that we would do it on the way back down the islands in May. He went off and explained to the other boat that it wasn’t going to happen. 5 minutes later our plans had changed and we called him back and said we would wait it out another day and do the tour…… So he had to go back and tell the other boat it was now on. You can see our quick decisive skills and planning capabilities are still there!

At 8:00 the next morning, Alexis picked us up and dropped us with Geoffrey who first took us to the bank and to customs for the other boat (Ascension Gordon and Ginny) to clear in  and we cleared out at the same time – not the fastest process – we were there for about an hour. While we were there Geoffrey realised he had lost his phone so when we came out we were in the hands of 62yo Winston. The tour started slowly with Winston never being at threat of breaking a speed limit, but he was very informative along the way. We headed east past Morne aux Diables through the town that was home to the world’s oldest lady (128yo) until she died.

From here we made for the beaches of the north east (Batibou Bay, Woodford Hill Bay, Marigot and Pagua), all the time with Winston giving us up to date political announcements from the Skerrit administration and trying to sell us real estate on the island! We stopped at one of his girlfriends’ place and the beach, which he said was available for the right price!

The scenery was fantastic and his local knowledge great. He showed us an old sugar mill and explained the construction (using molasses in the mortar to guard against hurricanes etc) rivers, plantations and even the old Methodist church where he went to school!

He gave us the option of doing the Carib Village – a model village on the only Carib Indian reserve in the Caribbean. This was something we were keen to do. On the way there we stopped on the side of the road at a Cassava bread bakery where we sampled the bread and bought some for the trip the next day. Winston had to buy four for another girlfriend he would see later on the tour! (no wives, just girlfriends – less trouble)

The village was interesting and well laid out, but I did expect to see some traditional costumes as you see in the brochures, but everyone there was in jeans (what was I thinking?) The tour was interesting, but not as interesting as I had hoped.

From the village we continued south in the reserve, stopping at a road stall to buy a woven basket from a young Indian girl.

The tour continued on through the centre of the island where we hiked up to Spanny Falls. Unfortunately, it was getting late, cold and it was raining, so none of us felt like going for a swim, although the water did look quite refreshing.

By the time we got back to the van we were wet and quite exhausted and we settled into the long trip back to the boat. We passed through Mero and Salisbury on the way and realised just how far we had walked the previous week – I don’t know what we were thinking!

By 8:00pm we were back on the boat (a 12 hour day) and ready to head off to the Saints tomorrow morning!

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: tina
DATE: 1/9/2011 9:25:35 PM
liked it

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Mum
DATE: 1/12/2011 5:04:16 AM
This was a great blog Matt and I enjoyed reading it but I did not get any pictures. Hope you can keep safe in Antigua until you get the anchor fixed. -----

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Mum
DATE: 1/12/2011 5:08:14 AM
Now I have the pictures. Great. Wonderful to see you had an almost traditional Christmas! -----

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Patrick and Silke
URL: http://www.la-palma-sailing.com
DATE: 1/13/2011 10:56:03 AM
Wow ... I think this is all we can say at the moment. Thanks a lot Matt and Karen to keep your blog running, we enjoy it so much! And next year around this time we are preparing Quetzal to cross the Atlantic and find you somewhere over there :o). Big hug and hope your family in Australia is fine (news here about the flooding are not nice...)

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Levin
DATE: 1/15/2011 2:38:47 PM
Hi Karen and Matt!
all your blogs have been so fine to read. Even as we are not close friends (yet) I feel close to what you do.
Look. I finally made it over the Atlantic.
Since Rubicon Lanzarote (where we found each other) my boat was damaged in big storm FEB 2010 year. After a lot repairings we arrived to Medregal and JeanMarc 2 Jan 2011. Jemilo is now standing on the hard. Its a big Swedish colony in Medregal but I tell everyone i got the info from Where2!!
All the best to you both.
Keep on mailing your blogs please.
Yngve Levin @ Jemilo

Just in Time for Christmas

STATUS: publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 ALLOW PINGS: 1 CATEGORY: Advertisement DATE: 12/11/2010 3:15:00 PM ----- BODY: Or New Year.... or early January....

Inspired by my friend Jim on Merengue, I decided it was time to share my talents with you all in the form of a 2011 Calender - Kids of Carnival.

We have now spent 2 years attending the Grenada Carnival and the kids are great - so I didn't need much talent to create this as the kids were so full of energy and fun... See what you think at http://www.cafepress.com.au/WhereII. You can use the calendar to plan your trip to visit us next year!

I should have one or two more posts before the year is out, but have a Merry Christmas (wouldn't the calendar make a great present, for yourself or others) and enjoy the New Years where ever you are

Cheers

Matt & Karen

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Jim and Wendy
URL: http://merengueundersail.blogspot.com
DATE: 12/12/2010 12:58:21 PM
Great photos! The kids are one of the best parts of carnival!
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Adrian Castagnini
DATE: 12/12/2010 11:23:26 PM
Hey Matt & Karen, great to you doing so well & hope you are practising your negotiation skills in case you bump into some of those pirates! Have a great xmas & Happy New year!
PS: Don't use calendars anymore, gone elctronic - that's what happens when you remain in the corporate world like a sucker.

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?

Union Island – rolly one day perfect the next

After spending another night on a Sandy Island mooring by ourselves, we checked out from Hillsborough where Karen had to have one more shop before realising there was nothing she needed (however she did find fetta cheese in the deli just south of the customs dock and so was very happy!)

The sail to Union was short and we anchored in Frigate Island as usual and thought we would easily catch a bus into Clifton. We were slightly wrong as no bus appeared for about 25 minutes, but we were saved by a friendly “Taxi to Clifton?” call from a passing Suzuki Jeep and after a quick confirmation of cost we jumped into the back seat (I remember when I use to own a car) and headed on in to Clifton. Our taxi drivers were Seakie and Vanessa who it turned out ran a bar in Chatham. As they dropped us off at customs office, we promised we would be round in Chatham in the next day or two and we would come into the bar (a bit of a break from our usual past-times).

The customs clearance was friendly and efficient and came with a free bible lesson from the officer. He also enquired about our new President, and when I explained I wasn’t American but we did have a new female Prime Minister – Julia Gilliard, he wished us luck and explained that we would need it as the bible clearly explained “women are not meant to lead”. Although Karen did try and argue the point (with what I thought was a plausible argument re whether he obeyed his mother) to save any problems with clearance we remained amiable, retrieved our papers and moved on to get them stamped.

We then wandered down to Immigration and cleared then it was on to do some shopping (do you get the impression that all we do is play dominos and shop?) Well this time it was important – I was almost out of beer. Then after a rum punch at Lambis, which is now almost a tradition when we arrive in Union, it was back to the boat, this time via the mountain road (they all are on Union) which provided us with another view of the island.

Next day the wind was picking up so we decided to stay in Frigate and met some friends from Island Time and Sea Quest who had spent Tomas around in Chatham, but did not have much fun – the mangroves are definitely the way to go.

After a very rolly second night in Frigate (yes rolly on a catamaran), we motored around to Chatham and was greeted by a nice calm and well protected bay. We did have a couple of attempts to anchor – if you don’t get in close enough, the holding is not too good. The Bay itself is quiet with little or no road access so there are just a few beach bars and a new resort being developed slowly (bar and restaurant with a pool so far).



For those interested in finding the treasure, the rainbow seems to end at Shark Attack – the original beach bar in the bay.

The next couple of days were quite relaxing – we swam, snorkelled and regaled the fish of this season’s bareboat charterer’s with our tales of cruising and ocean crossings (never exaggerated of course) and watched them turn green with envy . Of course we always asked them when their holiday was over!
We snorkelled just inside of Rapid Point and although it was not all that clear, we saw some interesting coral formations that we hadn’t seen before.



We also swam ashore to  explore and we walked to the end of the beach to the corner bar which is undergoing renovations to get it back off crown land and as he was about to open our beers, I realised I had lost my watertight wallet from my pocket, so we had to put the beers on hold. Luckily as we were walking along the beach I found it bobbing along in the water about 20m from shore – money all intact. Very lucky so we headed back in to have our beers.

We did visit Vanessa and Seakie’s Bar a couple of evenings. It is the Sun Beach & Eat Local Bar and Restaurant, complete with dog Pepper who loved to be scratched behind the ear, and would keep coming back and finding my hand with her ears.


We enjoyed the rum punches, which were different from most we have had to date with a spice mix we could not identify, nor could we cajole Vanessa to part with her secret recipe, but for $5EC a drink during happy hour, they were a very good way to enjoy the sunsets.



On our first night there we noticed that the décor was incomplete – no Australian flag! So as we have just put our 2010/11 season flag on Vanessa and Seakie are now the proud owners of 1 used (and signed) Aussie Flag!



We caught up with Phil and Mel from Samji (fellow cricket team members) and Tony and Sharon from Hoofbeats and were invited for a roast beef dinner on our last night (Samji cooking, Hoofbeats the venue). It was a fabulous feed and a fun night and we sampled real Yorkshire puddings made by a real Yorkshire woman (or at least Mel’s family was from there I think). It was a good way to end the week.
Next Stop Bequai!

The Start of Our 2010 Cruising Season (not what we expected)

Well after a hard hurricane season in Grenada (which I will write about soon) having had the bottom scratches repaired and a new black anti-fouling we decided to start our cruise north to the Leeward Islands a few days before the official end of the Hurricane Season.

We said our goodbyes, had our last game of Boules (accompanied by rum punches) at the Sand Bar with Jim and Wendy of Merengue (who never let us win),


Bill of Demoi and Princess



and her owners Guy and Christine of Princess of Tides, and took off to Carriacou on what was be a leisurely sail with 10-15 on a beam reach (not 18-20 on the nose).

We motored the whole way (we are not ones to tack) and made it in good time. Like our quick trip to Trinidad to buy paint, we did get to sail for about 20 minutes on the six hour trip. We grabbed a mooring buoy at Sandy Island and settled into new cruising season.

We snorkelled off the back of the boat, strolled leisurely along the deserted beach of sandy island





made it across to Paradise Beach where we visited Fidel Artisans and bought some T Shirts then stopped at the Banana Joe’s Bamboo Brunch Bar for a beer (American and not as good as the local)



and finally found the right spot to enjoy a sundowner



at Joy and Joseph’s Hardwood Bar. The rum punches are very good – up there with the Sand Bar’s.



So the start of the cruising season sounds like it is going to plan right? Wrong, in the background there is a large weather pattern called Invest 91 that is proving to us that the end of the season is the end of the season! We wait for the weather report Friday morning to find that it is shaping up to be a Tropical Storm so we have to decide what to do. The forecast tracks were split 40% saying it would go trough Trini and Tobago and the other 60% saying it would head to the north of us between St Vincent and Martinique – so nowhere to run… We talk to some Scottish people on an Horizon’s Charter Boat that we met at Hardwood the night before and Horizon had instructed them to go into the mangroves. We discussed it and talk to Bill from Demoi and decided that that is what we should do. We had already stripped the genoa and started preparing the boat for strong winds when I called Jim and Linda on Opus who we had met in Grenada and they suggested we get round pronto as it was high tide and a good time to get in.

We dropped the buoy and headed round to Tyrrell Bay and were met by Jim and his daughter Jennifer who helped us navigate into the mangroves  and tie up. We nudged Where II up into the mangroves with the bows well in – probably scratching our new bottom paint and Jim set the  lines in the mangroves and then help set a kedge anchor off the stern.






Once tied up we relaxed with a “we’re tied up in the mangroves” beer – a new variation on the traditional “we’re here” beer and one that I hope I never have to have again.
Once Jim and Jennifer left we finished preparing the boat, meaning we threw all our docking lines at the mangroves and tightened halyards etc and then gradually started bringing in the soft stuff so the boat was bare. We also watched the procession of boats coming into the mangroves – local boats as well as boats from as far away as Martinique! There must have been about 50 boats in the mangroves,



including the Hallalujah Bar previously frequented by Al and Boofa of Pascoe Vale South!



When we were satisfied, we were going to head into town for pan music and the fish fry, but Karen decided that it would be more appropriate to play dominos to take her mind of what was happening (go figure, Karen wanting to play dominos!). There is a charter boat across from us who were definitely in a party mood so after I could take no more of their music I fired  up Tex Perkins, ACDC and Casey Chambers to give them a good dose of eclectic Australian music! 

We continued to check the weather (Karen even getting up in the middle of the night to read and re-read the weather reports) and Tropical Storm Tomas has moved to the north and will pass just to the north of St Vincent, which means on Saturday we are sitting with no wind, a bit of rain and trepidation as to what the SE quadrant will bring for us as Tomas moves into the central Caribbean as a Hurricane tonight. All our information is mid-20’s with gusts that could be storm force, but I think we are on the very edge of the quadrant so I am hoping it will not be too bad. So to take her mind off it – Karen decided we should play dominos! The Americans and Scots on the horizon’s boats opposite us decided to team up and party with drinking games early in the afternoon which meant lights out was early for them.

The night was fine – wind gusts peaked at 21 knots and we hardly moved an inch in the mangroves.  So despite a restless night all was good when we awoke Sunday morning. Having been tied up for three days, it was time to venture out into the bay and into town as I had run out of beers (hurricane nervousness  (and umpteen games of dominos will do that). Well we certainly came to realise the benefits of the mangroves as we exited into the bay. While we were getting very little wind on the boat, it was whipping across Tyrrell Bay and it was quite choppy but not a lot of swell. Having secured the beer we dropped by Opus to invite them to guess what - that’s right play dominos, had to keep Karen’s mind off getting out of the mangroves now!



The girl’s were keen, but Karen got impatient and started without them. Jim came by later and said that he had spoken to Denise and the Hallalujah Bar was opening in the mangroves that night, so we would see them there. So Sunday night was a few rum punches on a boat bar, a sea gypsie braclet for Karen made by Jennifer and back to have dinner and finish the dominos!

Boats had started to leave on Sunday, but being extra cautious (I think Karen was angling for another game of dominos), we decided to wait for weather on Monday. After checking the weather, Karen put me up the mast for the annual rigging check and to change the anchor light as I didn’t think I would see such flat water for a while. Jennifer came over to say they were leaving  and they would see us at Sandy Island. So once the few squalls past we started climbing in the mangroves and untying Where II and motored around to Sandy Island.

Here I snorkelled around the boat and found some minor stains on the port bow and about a 1cm round patch on the port bow where the antifouling (my nice new black bottom) was damaged – not bad for our first hurricane! I also found a nice stingray mooching around under the boat so I called out for my camera and did a Steve Urwin but at a safer distance.



Later in the afternoon Opus came round and Jennifer paddled across taught Karen how to make do the bead thing and made her a second purple anklet before Linda popped up on the back stairs and the girls were all there chatting.



Jennifer also made me a sea gypsy anklet so I wouldn’t feel left out (but in all honesty, Ii think it looks very cool with the Rastafarian “united colours of Africa” green yellow and red beads!

Tomorrow we will check out and head to Union Island to chill for a couple of days in Frigate and Chatham before heading north – still watching the weather very carefully!

Oh and by the way, Karen just did a google search and apparently the official end of Hurricane season is 30 November! Whoops!

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Silke
URL: http://www.la-palma-sailing.com
DATE: 11/14/2010 9:26:55 PM
Ooopss, ohhh ... on rare occasions I don't know what to write. Guys I am happy you are fine. I like your posting very much! 1. It warns us a little of what we might experience once we join (;O)) you over there and 2. it tells a little about sailors life. Thanks so much - we keep on following your steps. Big hug from La Palma - had a huge BBQ today (yes, mid of November, not too bad, eh?!) XX Silke + Patrick

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Penny O'Loughlin
DATE: 11/15/2010 6:17:05 AM
Hi Karen & Matt,

Hope you are both doing well!! Photos look amazing. I've left Greenevent- so just wanted to re-subscribe with my new email address.
Cheers,

Penny

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Mum
DATE: 11/15/2010 9:08:35 AM
Good to get this blog Matt and see what was really happening with Tomas and happy to know you are safe and again your way. Take care, no more risks

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Boofa
DATE: 11/16/2010 6:05:01 AM
Ahh dominos, you haven't got a 2 have you Matt