This is how I hoped it might be....

Saturday lunchtime in Marin, Martinique at the best wifi spot in town! The photos above have only just this minute been taken. We are in the boatyard having dinghyed across from the boat to one of those wonderful little places, run by a husband and wife team where you can get just about anything......a little general store ( limited stock though after 23 days of general strike) but they have icecream and beer so who cares? They also sell petrol and diesel..... well, usually, and water, which is free to boatowners. The wifi reception is perfect, the best we've found so far anywhere, fast and free!! They have a free book exchange with thousands of books in a variety of languages. They also do laundry at the best price so far and if I'd asked, so she said, I could have had those "stubborn" stains removed too!!! Her English is very good too so I'm being extra lazy and not even trying to speak French. What a couple of stars!!! If you like rugby, you could even follow the Scotland/Italy match, currently showing on TV. The cat obviously belongs to this place, food is nearby and dogs are not welcome!

The weather is perfect for a change, I have a cold beer. I'm staying put for a little while longer!

Photos of Martinique

I'll write another update soon. These photos just take forever to upload!! This is just the general area where we are at the moment. Moving up the West coast next week when Pete and helen on troutbridge get here from St Lucia. I hope they will bring us lots of butter and eggs!!

Martinique is still closed and it's STILL raining

Been here for 5 days now and we haven't had a dry day or night yet, but then we didn't have a dry day in St Lucia or Barbados either. At least everything dries quickly when the sun comes out! We would love to be able to see some of the island but there is no transport as there is no fuel... I was told there are just 5 petrol stations open in the whole island. They want more money.... doesn't everyone but when I asked I was told that the average wage is just 250 euros per month.... not much when you consider that 6 eggs costs 2 Euros (as an example). We wandered around the centre of town yesterday ( Monday) and found everything bar two little shops closed. People were just standing around outside with nothing available to buy apart from the odd bottle or jar. I asked the woman in the general stores if she had any eggs and she said "sh" and sold me some from under the counter. Told me to hide them in my bag so the people outside couldn't see..... Scary moment!! But at least we have eggs if I decide to make pancakes tonight. I have been making bread which comes out quite well in the tropical heat. The local bread we have bought so far is very crumbly and dry.... makes lousy toast!
If all goes well, the strike MAY be over by the end of this week so we can get provisions on board and go off to explore some more of the coast. I keep seeing these beautiful posters of white beaches and palm trees which are supposedly found all over the Caribbean but have yet to see them for myself. The inclement weather doesn't help with this idyllic image of the islands either! A man I spoke to earlier said that it was all very unusual and that they had had over 50 knots of wind in the night through the channel between Dominica and Martinique......not a pleasant sail for them!
I have plenty of access to free wifi at the moment so am making the most of it. It may be a little while before I can post another blog. I have been trying to upload some more photos but this connection is just so slow that I've given up. Will try again as soon as possible.

Sometimes it STOPS raining

We arrived in Martinique at lunchtime Thursday 19th, having left the anchorage in Rodney Bay at around 8am local time. It was quite a lumpy trip as we were slamming, motorsailing into the waves with the wind just off the bow. This is always the problem apparently when you want to go north in the Windies…..but the trip back will be very pleasant so I’m told! Unfortunately, the weather here is just as unpredictable at the moment as St Lucia was with some tremendous downpours and it's windy too!
I’m not sure what’s happening here with the strike etc but this anchorage is very crowded so people are obviously happy to stay anyway. I’m looking forward to nice French cheeses and good red wine which are either unattainable or incredibly expensive on the other (non French) islands.
We have been buying essentials like fresh bread, eggs, vegetables and meat (not very good in St Lucia or Barbados unless you fancy eating weird cuts like chicken feet!!). I have also tried to find the ingredients for the Caribbean dishes I’m preparing. I think the greatest success so far has been the rum baba…..easy to make with “yellow cake mix” that you can buy anywhere, cream and loads of rum!!!
There are still plenty of stores left on the boat which were bought in Guernsey or Las Palmas, some of which are proving challenging to find a culinary use for, at least for me they are. I am not fond of beetroot and was a little concerned to find several large jars of the stuff that were bought in Las Palmas before I arrived. I have endured a little teasing from fellow crew members about my dislike of beetroot so I was delighted to see that the brand name for this pink horror is “Noliko”!!!

So, one day on and it would appear to all intents and purposes that Martinique is “closed”. We went ashore yesterday (Thursday) to clear customs and to get some euros only to find that we couldn’t do either! We tried again early this morning and cleared customs without any difficulty but had to rely on a friendly local giving us a lift to the nearest cashpoint, the only one open in the area and with a long queue. We bought a few things on the way back. Ouch, the poor euro/pound exchange rate really hurts.
We went ashore again this afternoon to find a wifi café/bar, a really nice dinghy ride up a little mangrove creek. There was a bar but it closed after lunch so we wandered back towards the dinghy and found another open air bar on the dockside, completely deserted because of the strike but, we discovered, the wifi and electricity were still on! We seized our chance and logged on but after half an hour or so a rather annoyed looking young woman came up, asked what we were doing and had we asked permission etc? Well, no we hadn’t so she switched everything off!! Thanks a bunch I thought…we would have even bought a drink had we been able to!
Anyway, it LOOKS like a nice place to be…..inbetween the fierce downpours and IF I had a big glass of red in my hand. I’ll let you know…………..

So we have come ashore again (Saturday) and found a friendlier wifi spot where one can buy a drink.... orange juice.... it is still only 10.30am here.

Now I shall try to post some photos. I can only put 5 on at a time and it will be slow so be patient!!! They are also out of sync with where and what we are doing but I don't suppose anyone is really bothered. You can tell by how long the hair is!! Fingernails and hair grow really quickly out here but that means they grow thinner too so I am on a mission to find and eat as much gelatin as I can which is supposed to help make things stronger.

The photos of Marin, Martinique where we are anchored were taken just a minute or two apart, showing how quickly these vicious Atlantic squalls come in and can turn a "Paradise" into a horrid cold shower within seconds.

I cut Pete (Troutbridge)'s hair the other day...... see photo..... not bad for an amateur I thought. It was rather windy and the hair went everywhere. Another skill "acquired".. extreme hairdressing to add to the extreme cooking skills already acquired Mid Atlantic! More photos to follow if I have time soon.

The lovely lady ( not me!) helping me hold up a St Lucia flag is "Miss Mary", the "flaglady" of Rodney Bay. We saw her often with her trolley of courtesy flags around the marina. They were rather expensive I thought for printed flags and trade was poor. Hmm. She said that she'd actually heard of me... my infamy spread before me.....!!

2more

I can only send 5 pictures at a time I discovered so here are the others. The view from the restaurant on Pigeon Island with Moonshiner just among the trees and the dear little cat who spent most of the evening like this waiting for scraps!

Hoping to head for Martinique on Thursday 19th now as the strike should be over by then.

Photos

At anchor now in Rodney Bay just opposite the Sandals resort which is actually quite peaceful thank goodness… no loud music and not too many jetskis, so all in all much nicer than Carlisle Bay, Barbados.
We intend to sail to Marin, Martinique on Monday 16th about 30 miles away and will stay there for some time I think before heading back to Vieux Fort in the south of St Lucia to pick up Katharine at the end of next month.
Martinique is “on strike” at the moment apparently, just like Guadeloupe was a week or so earlier so we have been listening to local radio (in French!) to find out if it’ll be difficult to get things done. The most important things we have to do there by far are the buying of wine and cheese by the dinghyful as these essentials are in very short supply and also very expensive in St Lucia!
St Lucia has otherwise been very pleasant so far. There is a cooling breeze throughout most of the day and the scenery and wildlife are certainly worth a look at. We shall explore more of the interior, the rainforest etc while Katharine is here. The osprey visited the marina several times a day but I couldn’t get a decent photo unfortunately.
We took the local transport into Castries, the capital, the other day. Another great Caribbean bus journey and only 60p fare compared with around £20 by taxi! I would recommend using these buses anytime except late in the evening possibly. Castries was quite a sight. (A few photographs below). A huge cruise ship was in and so parts of the town were full of visitors but they mostly didn’t venture far, certainly not into the fruit and veg markets in the back streets. We were on the hunt for mangoes and soursop so that I could have a go at some Caribbean cooking.
Pigeon Island is to the North of us about 200 yards away. I don’t know why it’s called this as it doesn’t look like a pigeon and it’s no longer an island either. From this angle, it looks like a bear lying down on the left with a gorilla snuggled up against its legs! Anyway, it’s a nature reserve which costs about £7 to visit until 5pm when it’s free but it’s not worth visiting then as it’s dark by 6.15pm except for the little beach restaurant which we went to last night. The food was good and cheap and the rum punches were rather strong!! There was a family of lovely little cats who were very friendly and more than a little quirky….
It has been absolutely chucking it down on and off for the last few days… lots of squally Atlantic weather hitting the island I think. I have taken the opportunity to wash down some parts of the boat as the rain is so fierce and parts of the boat are so dirty now after 6 months sailing. Niಸೆ!!

A few pictures of St Lucia

I am certainly making the most of this free wi fi.... charging up the computer at the same time with free electricity too! The generator isn't quite fixed yet on the boat so we can't get ac current yet.

Watching dvds eats up the computer's battery power I discovered....... It is dark here at 6pm so we have been entertaining ourselves huddled around this 9" screen in the cockpit. Makes a good little cinema!!

Some photos of St Lucia above. They always come out in reverse chronological order! The last one is the first clear sighting of the island as we approached it from the North I think. I have been trying to take photos of the birds, mostly not successfully but the bird on the mast is actually an osprey! They are apparently rare here too so I felt quite privileged to see one so close.

We are going out to the anchorage tomorrow so I don't know if the wifi will stretch that far. If not, my next post may be a little while.

Rodney Bay, St Lucia

We left Barbados on Thursday lunchtime for an overnight sail here. Conditions were not so good as per normal it seems! The sea was lumpy and it rained but, still, we got here after about 16 hours.

This is rather a nice spot on a marina berth, yacht friendly with free wi fi and lots of things to do and see so we are going to make the most of it while we are here..... until Tuesday. The yankee is being repaired ( sacrificial strip has been sacrificed!) and so we have to wait for that to be done.

Some thoughts on Barbados....... it was mostly rather expensive probably because most touristy things are geared towards the cruise ship passengers who arrive by the ten thousand just about every day it seems. Carlisle Bay is full of bars playing very loud music til all hours and the bay itself awash with day tripper catamarans, speedboats, jetskis etc. There is apparently nowhere else to go on the Island except Port St Charles and possibly a little place called Holetown which we didn't see. Anyway, once we had left, that was it, as it is very hard to get back there under sail!!

Getting ashore and coming back again in the dinghy became a bit of an issue as there is usually a lot of surf on the beach and I didn't manage it once without getting wet!! Thank god for my waterproof bag for all my paraphenalia needed ashore, camera etc.

The insects were a menace especially to me and especially at night...... I need to toughen up a lot still!

A couple of days before we left, a delightful lilac painted traditional fishing boat about 30' ( Veracity from Penzance built in 2004) appeared & anchored nearby, photo below I hope. The owner/builder, Marcus came and said hello and we subsequently had a brilliant evening bbq ashore eating fresh local fish prepared by a Brit gone local, (Dave) together with lots and lots of rum!! After chatting, we found we had several people in common ... the traditional boat world is like that. Marcus and Jess had crossed the Atlantic together from the Cape Verde in just 14 days, quite a feat! They are bound for Dominica soon and then Antigua for the Classics in April. We have agreed to stay in touch.

A story we had been following via the noonsite and "Herb" ended a couple of days ago when we heard that a man sailing alone across the Atlantic and about 150 miles away from us at one point had died at sea, presumably from natural causes, during the crossing. His boat washed up in Trinidad on Thursday. He had called up Herb saying that he felt unwell so any boats nearby were asked to keep a watch. We listened in for a few days and tried to contact him but he didn't respond. There was nothing we could have done in the circumstances but very sad all the same.

Today is Sunday ( I think!!) and we are hoping to find a local bus to take us on an island tour but if we can't find one today, there's always tomorrow....

I have just bought 3 books, one on local trees, one on local birds and one on Caribbean cookery.

I hope I can now put names to some flora and fauna and some experimental meals then for the future!

Thats all for now except for the photos.........

We’ve been at anchor in Carlisle Bay now for a week and this is the first day without rain!! My mosquito bites are just beginning to disappear but I must remember to use insect repellent every time ashore as there are a lot of other little beasts that bite living around the beach and they seem to love me especially. I’m reliably told that my suffering will stop once I’m a little browner so bring on that sun….!

We have done a couple of the touristy things. Went to Harrison’s Caves the other day. My photos didn’t come out … it was rather dark down there….. interesting though! Friday nights are fish fry nights at the famous Oistins, a few miles along the coast so we went along there too. It was choc a block with tourists and the food was expensive but very good all the same.

For me, doing these things, the best part is the transport because we always choose to go local wherever possible and the buses are something else. They are really cheap at $1.50 (Barbados dollars) which is currently about 50p and you can go any distance for this fare. You get to see all the off the beaten track places en route as they wind their way up and down dead end and frighteningly narrow tracks to drop off or pick up passengers. The other public transport we have been using are the route taxis which have the same $1.50 fare and are basically just mini buses which somehow always manage to cram in around 20 people and have really loud reggae blaring out as they weave and dodge their way through the traffic. Great fun!

Later on today, we are going to the races at the local racetrack which is a dinghy ride, then a short walk away from here at the Garrison Savannah. Some of the horses are exercised here on the beach in the evenings. They seem to enjoy being in the water. Don’t fancy getting on board myself though. They look hard to handle and it’s over 20 years since I last rode!!

We have found a nice beach bar just opposite which does good rum punch and food, flying fish and chips mostly. The tourist hotspots that fill up with cruise passengers every day are much more expensive and are quite a rip off I think. We may try the yacht clubs later as they are both fairly close but the (Royal) Barbados YC has a dress code and it’s not easy getting dressed up, dinghying ashore in the surf (where I always manage to get a soaking) and staying presentable.
I’m writing this blog on the boat and hope to be able to transfer it when I next get to an internet café which may be in a day or so. If I can, there will also be photos but I’ll need help to do this and help may not be at hand!!

We should leave for St Lucia in 5 days or so and will probably do an overnight passage there. I expect the trip will be a little less eventful than the ocean crossing. Everyone we have spoken to has said it was the worst conditions they’d experienced. One chap has been coming across for 30 years so it must have been bad this time!!!

I am going to try to send some photos now but I'm not very good at these things so it may not work. I'm reliably told that St Lucia is much more efficient for everything so I may have to wait til we get there.