ST ANNES & LE MARIN, MARTINIQUE 18-23 APRIL 2017

Our time in St Annes has been busy, so many chandlers at nearby Le Marin to blow our budget on! Our main goal here is to build a hoist so Terry doesn’t tightrope walk down the decks any more when securing our RIB outboard engine to Sisu’s stern when we are getting ready to sail somewhere. We have a cunning plan for a hoist and once we get some stainless steel tubes, brackets, hinges and a rope pulley we can simply hoist the engine off the RIB straight onto the secure bracket on the pushpit, job done without pulling a muscle or dropping either Terry or the outboard in the sea.

We buy all the necessary bits and pieces plus loads more besides. We don’t keep count, it’s too painful, as it’s our first year a lot of these expenses are modifications to Sisu that we won’t, touch wood, need to spend money on again. I can hear the laughter from all the hardy sailors clutching their sides in unbridled mirth as they read that sentence…….

We are in good company here, Tim and Gayle s/v Wild Bird, Ronald and Nicole s/v Fairy Queen and Craig and Sylvie s/v Liaison. One of the highlights is the music evening we have on Wild Bird with us all. Gayle, Craig and Ronald all play guitar, I can tootle the penny whistle, play the chanter and can knock out some Manx songs, Terry is good as reciting clever and witty poetry from a Manx friend of ours, Vinty Kneale, Tim can play bongos and between us all we pitch in with our own unique talents! We had a tremendous night singing along to popular tunes, Sailing, Wild Rover, What shall we do with the drunken sailor, etc, I sang some Manx traditional and funny Manx songs, Give me the bus fare to Laxey, Ramsey Town and Laxey Wheel, Terry recited poetry, Ronald and Nicol sang a Dutch song and we all sang, banged and twanged our instruments, gustily singing with more vigour as the evening progressed! A great night! We all vowed to practise regularly for the next time our paths cross!

We had some torrential rain here too, Terry had to bail the dinghy out a few times as she was slowly sinking deeper into the sea as she bobbed alongside Sisu. We filled as many containers and buckets as we could with rainfall, water is a valuable resource.  It’s quite funny, during the torrential rain, everyone hunkers down and does boat jobs inside, as soon as the rain stopped sailors emerged from their cabins, and began zipping about in their dinghies again!

One day, Tim,Gayle,their dogs, Ronald, Nicol and myself went for a walk along the coast. Terry wanted to get some messy on boat jobs done, and it must be said, it’s easier if I’m not around and he can leave his gear out without me tidying him up all the time! Our ten mile walk took us along the Southern coastline. The scenery became arid, huge cactus and silver barked trees lined our path leading us to a river, with stepping stones as a bridge over it. Some of the stones had been washed away, so we took it in turns to leap across. I made the mistake of dithering….. and fell in…… totally drenched from head to foot! Ronald took photos of me falling with style, thank you Ronald, I think! Mind you, it’s not so bad being soaking wet in this heat, I soggily walked with the gang to a stunning palm lined white sandy beach with glowing aquamarine surf. Here I had the advantage of not needing to change my clothes, being already wet……. We saw so many varities of crab on this walk, bright red and orange land crabs, yellow, green ones too, big hermit crabs, lizards running in vivid flashes of blue and green, luckily we didn’t see any Fer de Lance poisonous snakes. Eventually we reached town, and slaked our thirst at a beachside bar with local beers!

We are checking forecasts, we need to reach Bonaire, a four day sail, then onto Curacao. We are aware of the calender and a schedule for the first time in months. Soon, Sisu will be laid up to sleep until November, safe from hurricanes.

We’ve had so many hilarious times since setting off. One such was in St Annes pharmacy. Terry required some medication for a sun rash. We had paid a call to a local Doctor who made out a prescription for Terry. We took it to the pharmacy. The Chemist looked at Terry’s prescription with the name Terence Hill on the top of the paperwork, a slow smile spread across his face. He looked up and said to Terry “Like the Western film actor Terence Hill?” We have had this query before, about the Italian spaghetti western film actor whilst we’ve been in La Coruna, Spain, Portugal and even Rome. It was hilarious. “Yes, that’s right” replied Terry, “You know of him?” “Oh yes, and Bud Spencer his partner in the films!” The actor Terence Hill is virtually unheard of in the UK, but abroad, Terry’s become a minor celebrity! The Chemist laughed and asked if he could have Terry’s autograph!

All to soon we got ready for leaving again, catching up on laundry, getting the bed made in the saloon (which we hardly used as it was so hot below!) made water, prepped passage food, last checks and jobs done, said our goodbyes, for now, to our friends Ronald, Nicol, Craig and Sylvie. We’d be leaving for Bonaire on the same day as Tim and Gayle. It’s hard leaving friends, but that’s the nature of cruising, we keep in touch by Facebook and email, it’s funny how paths criss cross though, and we will meet again for sure.

An early night then off to Bonaire, more adventures to come!

 

GRAND ANSE D’ARLET, MARTINIQUE 15 – 17 APRIL 2017 TO ST.ANNES, MARTINIQUE

Grand Anse D’Arlet

What a welcome contrast to Fort De France! A really pretty little village, with a long white sandy beach, crystal clear turquoise sea, with the biggest turtles we’ve seen yet. Tim and Gayle are here too and we had a blissful couple of days, chilling, walking and catching up on our family and friends with good wifi at a beach bar. Locals from up and down the coast including Fort De France take their motor boats and yachts here for the weekends, it’s a damn sight prettier than Fort De France!

Each day starts with a swim before breakfast, it’s a degree or so hotter now we’re moving slowly south and even the sea feels warmer. During an afternoon’s snorkelling Terry and I watch a turtle about 15 feet below us, feeding and paddling his way across the sea grass, taking his time. The turtles seem so unfazed by human company that we can dive down and almost touch him! He, or she, takes off, quite a pace surprisingly, and we follow him around for a while, he comes up for air just in front of us, and after taking a few breaths he paddles downwards again with us following him. We stay with him for quarter of an hour or so, he just carries on his way, not bothered. It’s a privilege to watch him.

One evening whilst checking out our emails over beers with Tim and Gayle we make a couple of new friends, Craig Lovett and Sylvie Honnay of s/v Liaison, a Westerly 36 and their little terrier, Guiseppe. They too are heading down the coast of Martinique.

We run the watermaker every three days to keep the filter clean, it’s also my cue to find whatever washing needs doing. Considering we wear swimming gear most of the time, and tend to only dress up when in company or going ashore in the Rib, I’ve no idea how there’s always a fair bit to wash! It’s blowing a hoolie, and hanging out washing becomes an extreme sport as I brace myself on the coach roof to string up a washing line round the rigging and headsail and then battle with towels and t shirts flapping in my face as I try to keep them on the line! It’s quite physical some days, but with this heat and wind at least stuff dries quickly!

This is just a quick stopover in paradise, we catch up on lost sleep from the rolling of the last couple of nights and pack up once more to sail onwards, to St Annes. Terry and I are becoming slick at preparing for sailing, we each have our roles and simplifying jobs where we can. Putting up and taking down the wind generator used to be quite time consuming, now we mark the ropes which hoist the generator up the back stay, so we don’t have to guess where to stop hoisting. We know how to fold up the sunshade and where to tie it on to the deck and cockpit, our next tweak with this job is to replace knots with clips. Similarly, a huge time saving tweak was to hoist the Rib vertically from a halyard on the mast, and simply lower it down onto the coach roof at the bow, before that we used to swing it over horizontally, try to hang on to it, try not to knock one of us off the boat and basically wrestle it onto the bow, now it’s up, over and lower. Simples!

Grand Anse d’Arlet to St Annes.

Next day we’re on the move once more, a 20 mile sail. An Easterly wind means that once we clear the headland the wind will be on the nose again, another good opportunity to practice tacking! Our radio crackles, and we are called up by Fairy Queen, Ronald and Nicol’s boat. They let us know they are en route to St Annes and are not too far behind us, escaping Fort De France. We can see on our AIS, that Wildbird are just ahead of us and with Fairy Queen behind us, we’re a convoy! By the time we reach Diamond Rock close to St Annes, Fairy Queen is level with us. We only have one or two photos of Sisu in full sail, in fact sailors don’t have many opportunities of being able to take photos from a distance of their boats whilst sailing, as we’re on the boat! It’s great fun to watch Ronald and Nicol on Fairy Queen taking photos of us sailing Sisu, whilst we take photos of Fairy Queen sailing! We swap our photos when we arrive, now we have excellent photos of Sisu really enjoying herself! We’ve also been able to swap boat photos with Tim and Gayle during our journey along the islands, finally, we have a good number of photos which aren’t taken from onboard!

The wind and current are against us, so we give in and fire up the engine, trying to sail means we are only managing 3 knots, there’s no point in struggling and we’re only a couple of miles from St Annes. We pass by Le Marin where there are several chandlers and a big boatyard. We need to make a hoist for our outboard engine so we can simply hoist it aboard and secure it to our stern. Currently I winch the engine off the dinghy from the bow of the boat. Terry then carries it all the way down the side decks, into the cockpit and lifts the heavy outboard engine onto its bracket at the stern where it’s then locked whilst we’re sailing. It’s a job Terry does that I can’t watch. He often has to juggle the engine whilst the boat is rocking, so a hoist is a necessity. In Le Marin we’ll get some stainless steel pipe work and he can build the hoist from his own design. Another time consuming and tricky boat job sorted!

St Annes

St Annes is busy, it’s Easter weekend, there’s live music belting out from the nearby beach, drums beat out Caribbean rhythms on another beach, it’s lively but the music settles down later in the evening as local holidaymakers chill. It looks like quite a dinghy ride into Le Marin, about a mile away, it’ll be the furthest journey we’ve made in the new Rib, taking us across sandbanks and reefs, it’ll be exciting!

 

 

MARTINIQUE, 12 – 13 APRIL 2017 ST PIERRE TO FORT DE FRANCE 14 nautical miles

My turn to take the helm for the short sail to Fort de France. The wind was pretty much on the nose, so we had to put in some tacks, and zig zag what would have been a straight course down the coast. The coastline to Fort de France is lush and dotted with buildings, near our destination we could see squalls over the mountains, it didn’t unduly bother us if a squall caught up, we wear so little clothing here whilst sailing and the rain is warm!

FORT DE FRANCE

Fort de France is the capital of Martinique. To be honest, it’s very tacky, full of tourists and as we were visiting over the Easter holidays much of the place was shut and the town front looked shabby and crammed with souvenir shops. I’d anticipated a sophisticated city, but nothing inspired us to stay longer than provisioning up. Our anchorage was busy, the sea was murky, small ferry boats roared past us from dawn till night, causing bow waves which rocked us, there was a swell which added to the rolling, and a huge Disney cruise ship pulled in close by the anchorage, with its Micky Mouse head painted on the funnels, it hooted the first bar of “When I wish upon a star” upon arrival and departure. I’m not selling Fort de France to you, am I?! We stocked up on food, wine and beer at an absolutely heaving Leader Price supermarket, crammed with people shopping for the Easter break and loaded the Rib, this was one of two reasons for anchoring here. The other reason for being here was to call in to Decathlon and Mr Bricolage for clothing and boat gear. After maxxing out our bank card, we had a tremendous evening on Wildbird with Tim, Gayle, Ronald and Nicol. Gayle and Ronald played their guitars, Tim played his bongo drum, I played my chanter and we all sang an eclectic mix of popular well known songs, What shall we do with the drunken sailor, being one of them of course, some Manx songs with singalong choruses so everyone could join in! This is the fun of cruising, meeting like minded people, making new friends, swapping stories, advice, tips for islands we’ve yet to visit, and most of all having fun! This was the highlight of Fort de France. You may find Fort De France enjoyable, it was an experience certainly.

We couldn’t stand the rolling swell in the bay any longer, so we decided to sail further down the coast to Grand Anse, a haven from the tackiness and noise.

MARTINIQUE, 8 – 11 APRIL DOMINICA TO ST PIERRE, MARTINIQUE, 55 nautical miles

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At 5am, the conditions were perfect, so after a quick brew and breakfast, we once more hauled up our anchor, and turned Sisu out to sea. We were heading for St Pierre, Martinique. Once we cleared the wind shadow of Dominica, the wind filled our main and head sails and we had another cracking sail across the channel between the two islands. Another island hop of 55 nautical miles, easily done in a day. On a close reach, in Force 4 to 5 seas, Sisu was at her best, averaging 7 knots. It’s a real joy sailing in these conditions, with sunblock, sunglasses, bare feet and swim gear on it’s the exact opposite of sailing in the Irish Sea! On the way we saw a small pod of 5 dolphins, chilling on the surface of the sea, they were as laid back as we were! We made a catch too! We were bowling along, when suddenly a large, green mass came towards us. What the hell is that? As the piece of flotsam drew near, we recognised it. It was an oblong, full length cockpit cushion!! Just what we need to cover the wooden seats in our cockpit! No more hard bums! I dashed up onto the side deck, grabbing the boat hook and leant out over the side as Terry steered us around towards it. I got the hook round the longest edge of the bulky cushion, pulling it towards the hull, Terry left the wheel and tried to hold on to the cushion, no luck, it slid away from us. After another attempt, we circled around the cushion for one more go. I got the technique perfected, held it fast against the side of Sisu, dropping the hook to one side, I held onto the heavy, sodden cushion and together we hauled our catch onboard! We were ridiculously pleased with ourselves!! I posed for a picture with our catch, it was as tall as me, now, all we had to do was dry it out…… We strapped it to the coachroof, the biggest catch we’ve ever had!

By 3pm we dropped anchor in the bay of St Pierre. We were able to anchor quite close to shore as the bay has a seabed shelf of about 25 feet that you sail onto, anchoring needs care, as the drop off is very steep. Since arriving on this side of the Atlantic, when we drop anchor, we like to check the anchor and chain are secure. In these warm seas, it’s a pleasure! Terry and I snorkel to where the anchor is and double check it’s buried into the seabed and that the chain is lying smoothly and not wrapped around any rocks or suchlike. It’s fascinating to see fish swim up to our anchor, curious at what has landed near them!

 

ST PIERRE, MARTINIQUE

Martinique, a French island is the largest of the Windward Islands at 1,100 sq km with a population of around 420,000 and St Pierre was known as “The little Paris of the West Indies”, before the eruption of the nearby volcano, Mount Pelee on Ascension Day, on the 8^th May 1902. Looking at the volcano, we can’t help feeling a little uncomfortable! In 1902 Mt Pelee had been giving warnings, rumblings began in April, with a small eruption covering the town in ash, then at 8am on the 8^th May, whilst many were in church, the volcano did its worst, releasing a fireball of superheated gas just like an atomic bomb, poured into St Pierre, killing 30,000 inhabitants instantly. All that remained were burnt remnants of buildings. Unbelievably two men survived, one a cobbler, and the second, a prisoner, Louis-Auguste Cyparis, imprisoned for murder, who was trapped in a stone cell. He became famous, touring with Barnhams Circus as the sole survivor of the eruption. Twelve ships in the harbour were also destroyed. The ruins remain, and we walked around the charred theatre, up its once elegant steps, past the ticket desk with its marbled flooring, step onto the grand stage and, next door to the theatre was the prison, here we could peer into the basement floored stone cell where Louis-Auguste was held. Turning around, and facing towards Mt Pelee, looming above us, we could feel the memory of that day. Some new buildings have been built onto the old, some having at least one wall bearing evidence of the past. There is a museum which apparently is very interesting, but it was shut!

Clearing in for immigration is self service, a laptop in a restaurant, L’Alsace A Kay, with a really quirky upstairs dining room, delightful wooden chairs with cut out hearts, an upright piano draped in fairy lights, original local artwork on the walls, and a view of the bay. Specialising in Alsace, Creole and French cooking, once we’d dealt with the paperwork, which didn’t take long, we’re getting slick at the on line form filling, we enjoyed a very good evening dinner, beats standing in front of an Immigration Desk!

St Pierre has treasure to be found. Sea glass. Masses of bounty, the beaches along the bay are simply glittering with all colours of sea glass. Old whisky bottles, glasses and wine flagons used by ships crew and locals, the sea has tumbled them around for decades, and depositing a fresh load of treasure every tide. Blue, opaque, turquoise, green, yellow and the rare black glass from the whisky bottles lies on the sand waiting to be plucked. Tim and Gayle arrived a couple of days later and the four of us spent hours bent over the sand, exclaiming when a particularly unusual shape or colour of sea glass trophy was found, holding it up for the other three to appreciate. I filled couple of big bags full. I’ll take it home and make something with these beautiful pieces of gorgeousness. Sod the luggage allowance……

 

The four of us visited the Centre de Decouverte des Sciences de la Terre, built to withstand earthquakes. The Centre explains how, why and when volcanic eruptions occur, plus an excellent film about the Mt Pelee eruption, using old photographs and modern digital filming. The film is so well done, you really feel you are there in 1902, and to shake off the fright, we had an excellent lunch at a small pavement café of delicious crayfish and beer! Well, you never know when it could erupt again, though thanks to Vulcanologists, we’ll get some warning, though of course they can’t do a damn thing about it!

 

The rescued cockpit cushion part two! We cut the foam into the right size for our cockpit. As it’s open cell foam, it takes days, and days, and days to dry, even in this heat and sun….. I washed the cover and after a few days the foam felt dry and ready to sit on, it was rather exciting, sad, I know, but that’s how we roll, and this new seating had cost us nothing! We put on the cover and with a tin of beer each, we sat down, bouncing gently, it was very comfy!!!! Sitting in comfort was really good for a while, and then after some little time I felt a dampness under my bikini bottom. Damn! It was still leaching seawater, even after a week of hanging it out to mature and dry!! I’m writing this in mid April and we are still experiencing a dampness in one corner, but what the hell, it was free, and, for the duration of sundowners on Sisu, our friends bums are caressed on squishy foam, and dry for a couple of hours, till they too, get a slowly seeping sensation beneath them as they sit back enjoying their dark and stormy rum cocktails. It’ll do until we get something made!

 

Time to move on down the coast…..……