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…………..
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.....!!
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