Le Marin, Martinique

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The boat next to us in Rodney Bay North, a 35' Fontaine Pajot Tobago cat, sports a Canadian flag, and her home port is St Johns NB, so I thought I would say hello and enquire after the haul out facilites in New Brunswick. They tell me there are none at all for cats. They purchased their boat in Martinique in 2004 and sailed her home to do a refit. It involved finding a makeshift trailer and a farmer with a tractor to haul her somewhere up the St John river.
On arrival in Canada they were greeted by the revenuers, who felt entitled to a 25% levy on the boat for coming into Canadian waters. They enjoyed the trip up through the inland waterway, but found she was wet inside all the way North from Cape Hatteras. Too much condensation in the colder waters. They took her North and went South again twice before swearing it off as a bad job. They took the Bermuda route and hated the run South again in November, way too cold.
So my thoughts of coming North this summer are in disarray. Grenada seems to be a better idea. My main concern is the six month limit I can stay out of the country without losing my health care coverage.

Anyway, we also discussed the situation in Martinique and the possible window to go north on the morrow. They were dubious, wind still supposed to have a lot of North in it; supposed to be light, I ventured. Now I have doubts about leaving for Martinique. Strike still on and the wind not ideal. The next window won't open until sometime next week. Its a bit disconcerting.

In the morning, the dawn brings very light wind from the SE. That's unexpected. I eye the fleet and fret, Alicia still in bed. Chris Parker comes on and says we should expect NE winds 14 knots. If we go right now, we might hang onto this SE wind for a few hours and get well on our way to Martinique before being headed. At that point, it will only blow 14 knts and we can motor in. I wake her up and we set off, leaving the customs man without a visit. Does he really care?

The wind holds well and we can make Le Marin in a tight reach. A squall nine miles from Martinique breaks the wind and we are left with the NE wind predicted, but not the 14 knots. Its blowing a steady 20 and more, so our motor in is a bit of a slog. Fortunately not far to go and we make Le Marin by 2:30 pm. Customs is closed, but my Volvo-Penta dealer has my replacement bolt for the starboard engine (its a stud, actually) ordered at great cost a month before. The job to install this stud will be really interesting, I am sure you will all want to hear about it in some detail. I need to be ensconced somewhere with reliable help close at hand should it go awry. That would be Antigua, I think.


This morning, I went in to clear and talked with the customs lady. The strike ends officially on Saturday morning. Stores are opening up, but the grocery stores have exhausted their supplies. The containers are sitting on the docks unopened and it will take a few weeks to clear the goods through the port into the stores. No cheese, no butter, none of the sausages and things from France we find attractive about Martinique. The baker is still baking baguettes and the fruit and vegetable markets are open for business. There is undoubtedly no wine to be had.

We have made a leg up on our journey to Antigua. The weather and the North swell block us from moving North beyond Martinique until Monday, so we will poke around Anse d'Arlets and Fort de France before moving up to St Pierre on Sunday, ready to dash for Dominica as soon as the swell goes down. All of next week is supposed to be good for North bound vessels, so we may keep moving all week. We will keep an eye on things and let you all know as the situation unfolds.
Meanwhile, the Designer has been hogging the computer, preparing her submission to her Indian manufacturer. The St. Lucia Computer World failed to install virus protection on the ship's main computer, although they spent a goodly amount of time trying and charged me withal, so we are limited to a single machine and she has been working hard on it all day. We remain internet free, though tantalisingly close to making a connection. So this will be posted at a cafe when next we venture ashore.

Bon courage mes amis, the determined will prevail.

Anse d'Arlet

Friday, March 13, 2009

Another gorgeous Friday the thirteenth. Isn't that something. We pottered around this morning, I into Le Marin to see if I could find out more about internet antennae for boats, Alicia doing her laundry. I received lots of directions to a small computer store which was rumoured to carry specialised gear for yachties, but despite a lot of walking up and down, no luck. I did find a grocery store open, a small chinese run establishment with a burnt out sign; they had a green pepper, which I bought, sesame oil, which we have had great difficulty finding and which the Artist requires as a staple food, and good cheap french wine. So the hike was worthwhile.

After a quick lunch we cleared decks for a foray in to the fuel dock for fuel and water. We gorged on the plentiful cheap water. Filled tanks and all the jerry jugs, then washed down the cockpit with lots and lots of fresh water. These spots are like hens teeth, and we made the most of it.

Sated and languid, we motored out of the bay and set sail for Pointe du Diamond, ten miles distant. The air was very clear, and the wind strong on our starboard quarter. At first only the genoa was needed to push us along at a steady 5.5 knots on a flat sea. Very pleasant with all hatches wide open. As we made distance from the protection of the eastern peninsula, the sea became bigger and the wind diminished a bit. We set the main and needed to pay a bit more attention. St Lucia was clear as a bell 22 miles to the South. As we rounded Pointe du Diamand, we could make out Dominica 50 miles distant to the NW. Its rare that the air is so clear.

Anse d'Arlet is set in the second bay up from Pointe du Diamand. We arrived at about 5:00 pm, anchored, reanchored, and after a swin to check the set of the anchor in the clear deep water, settled down to the business of rum and chips with the Artist's ad hoc salsa. We set the sunscreen curtains in the cockpit to cut the glare of the setting sun. They made little difference, but provide a sense of privacy and create an outdoor room in the cockpit which is a bit of fun. A small boat with three fishermen aboard came by to suggest we move down the anchorage a way because they are going to net the bay at 5:30 in the morning. We did, anchoring again.

Dinner was the Artist's latest creation, Pasta Anse d'Arlets (my bent for naming dishes by the geography involved); english translation, Pasta Ants on a Log (the Artists's reference to the raisins and celery in the dish).

I have taken a moment to update the the blog, not expecting an interent connection and, by gum, there's a real humdinger of a signal coming out of the Spot Coffee shop on the shore. Of course, there is no way to set up the login and password without a visit to the cafe. Too late for that now, perhaps in the morning.

Sayonara for now, it is getting to be bedtime.

Saturday, March 14, 2009.

We have been into the lovely little town of Anse d'Arlet and found the Cyber Base in a steel box prefab building next to the school. We buy 3 hours for 9 Euro. A and I climbed to the top of Bas Morne after a beer and a pizza pie. It is very steep and quite high, despite being "Bas".

Back aboard, I fire up the Aspire One and get going, only to find that the Cyber Base, although connected to Django is no longer connected to the world at large. Worse, I cannot get to the server to log off and preserve my time investment. Huff and puff! This is our modern society for you, all bombast and promise but very little substance. Well the connection comes and goes, leaving me feeling pressed to complete the most urgent tasks, communication with children, two of whom are in difficult situations.

I believe I can post now, lets give it a try...

Nope, false alarm. I think I am getting about 20% of what I have paid for, so annoying.