21 November 2018 St Margaret’s Beach, Bequia
The last time that we went scuba diving was in Madagascar over 14 months ago. We plan go diving in the British Virgin Islands in December, so I dug out our diving gear to check it all out. Unfortunately, when I press the purge button, two of our octopuses are free-flowing. I adjusted one, but I think I might get a dive shop to check them out.
We went snorkelling on Devil’s table again. It was okay. We saw a scorpion fish in about the same place, but nothing else terribly exciting apart from being circled by a Great Barracuda. After lunch, I ran our dive compressor and topped up our two dive tanks - I’m pleased to see that dive compressor still works.
The weather forecast looks okay to sail up to St Lucia tomorrow, so I nipped into town to clear out, which was a very painless process.
22 November 2018 Bequia to Rodney Bay. St Lucia
It rained during the night and, when we dragged ourselves out of bed at 0500, the skies were dark and forbidding.
There was enough light to see at 05:40, so we upped anchor, put two reefs in the main and set off. The passage across to St Vincent was very pleasant with a good 15 knot wind and one metre seas. We motored up the leeward coast of St Vincent for an hour and then ran straight into a big squall system at the north end of the island.
Unfortunately, the squall had strong winds and lashing rain, which combined with the acceleration zone at the end of the island, gave us 30+ knot winds and steep 2 metre seas. When we hit it, we’d already rolled away the genoa, so we continued to motor-sail with two reefs in the main for an hour until the wind had settled down to a steady 25 knots and the seas had calmed down a little.
The next four hours were unpleasant, bashing through the waves, hard on the wind with a reefed staysail. The waves crashing across the foredeck were so bad that they ripped the port navigation light from its bracket on the pulpit. We then had to run downwind, so that I could go forwards to lash the navigation light to the pulpit with some duct tape.
Once we were in the lee of the Pitons, life became better, but we were still plagued by a couple of squalls before we thankfully arrived in Rodney Bay, just after sunset. We anchored at 14°04.61N 060°57.57W in 6 metres of water on good holding sand, weed and rubble.
23 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
After breakfast, we dinghied into Rodney Bay Marina and cleared in. I’d used the online Sail Clear system, so the check-in was relatively painless. We then zipped around to the shopping mall where we went to the supermarket to buy a few things that aren’t available elsewhere - English Mustard being one of our top priorities.
The Rodney Bay anchorage is very empty at the moment with boats very spread out. That was until a single handed catamaran anchored right in front of us. He kind of apologised but then stayed put, so we moved.
In yesterday’s big waves, our port navigation light had not only been ripped off it’s fitting, but it had bent the stainless steel plate on the pulpit. I straightened the pulpit and knocked a dent out of the light housing and replaced it all. Fortunately, the lamp is an LED one and worked fine - I’m sure that an incandescent lamp would have been damaged when the light was bashing about in the waves.
The lee-side lower front shroud is still going slack when we’re bashing into big waves, so I tightened all of the four lower shrouds by another ½ turn.
24 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
We’re planning to move onto Martinique in a couple of days, but with nothing better to do, I decided to do some cleaning in the engine room, which was looking very grubby and oily. My main focus was on the very aft of the engine compartment around the stern tube for the propeller shaft. It’s a very inaccessible place and there’s a huge exhaust muffler in the way, so I thought that I’d remove it.
Big mistake… The exhaust is connected to 4 inch diameter rubber, reinforced exhaust hose. I removed the hose clamps and disassembled the engine room side of the exhaust, but the aft end goes through a bulkhead into a small bilge in the aft cabin. After 20 minutes of thrutching, twisting and cursing, it was apparent that the hose would have to be cut off, so I abandoned the idea and put the exhaust back together - a waste of a couple of hours.
If I climbed on the engine and lay with my upper body hanging down the back, I could just about reach the stern tube. Unfortunately, once in this position, I couldn’t lift my head to see properly because there are three big hoses and a bulkhead in the way. Also getting out was a mission, involving pushing back with my arms and squirming backwards off the engine.
I spent two hours, squirming back and forwards off the engine, using wire brushes, sand paper; degreaser spray and water to clean the bilge, sea cocks, stern tube and anything else I could reach. It was quite a work out and I think that I’ll have a permanent dent in my chest from lying across the Turbo. However, the bilge area looks a lot better now. I was thinking of painting the area, but the old bilge paint has cleaned up well.
I then spent a couple of hours cleaning the rest of the bilge around and beneath the engine. Again, it’s difficult to get access, especially beneath the engine, but using a variety of brushes and plenty of degreaser spray, the engine compartment is looking pretty good.
Glenys elected to work on cleaning jobs on the deck, mostly to stay away from my frequent and loud cursing.
25 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
It was a Sunday, so I rested my aching body - I’ve badly bruised my chest by lying across the engine and my lower back is not too good either. We dinghied into Rodney Bay Marina and went to one of the restaurants for our Sunday lunch, where we had an excellent pizza and Greek salad with a couple of beers.
The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) left the Canaries today and there are over 200 boats due to arrive here before Christmas (we will make sure that we are well away). The rally organisers had set up some tents and had a steel pan band playing while a big catamaran motored around playing loud music with scantily clad girls dancing on top. It appeared to be a rehearsal for the arrival of the ARC boats.
26 November 2018 Rodney Bay to St Anne, Martinique
Overnight, a big, rolling 2 foot swell started coming into the anchorage and (err) started us rolling. The weather forecast looked okay, so I cleared out and we upped anchor at 09:30. After the battering that we took on the way up from St Vincent, we were little apprehensive, but it was okay.
We were hard on the wind and not able to lay the Rhumb line but we only had ½ hour of upwind motor sailing at the end of the passage. We arrived in St Anne at 13:30 and anchored at 14°26.02N 060°53.23W in 6 metres on good holding sand and weed. It’s a huge, well protected anchorage and there must be 150 boats at anchor here.
After tidying up after the bouncy passage, we dinghied ashore, tying up to the excellent dinghy dock opposite the church. We walked to the Snack Boubou café where they have a computer linked to the customs system. The clearing in process was a doddle - fill in the online form, print out a copy, give it to the café owner who stamps the form and then pay 3 euros.
We had a walk around the tiny town centre, which consists of about ten streets. There’s a little supermarket and a boulangerie, where we bought a bottle of wine, a baguette, some brie and some olives - essential French food.
It didn’t take long to explore the town, so we wandered further afield and walked Went for a walk along the beach towards the large Club Med holiday resort. It’s a nice beach, with plenty of bars and small restaurants, but not much to interest us. (I was more interested in the cemetery that we passed on the way with its stunning white washed crypts.)
To complete our tour of the area, we walked up the path behind the church which winds its way up the steep hill. At every turn in the path, there is a small shrine depicting a scene from the crucifixion of Christ. It’s an interesting little walk with some nice views of the town and anchorage.
27 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
We took a long dinghy ride to Marin which is 2.5 miles from where we are anchored. The route we took was to pass close to the end of the pier at the Club Med resort and then head for a red buoy on the other side of the reef. We followed a sand patch over the shallows, but I think that there’s enough depth as long as you don’t stray too far from the beach. Once around the headland there was a tough up wind mile, bashing into 2 foot wind waves.
Our plan is to stay in Martinique for a couple of weeks and to spend a few days inland, hiking and having a look at the island. We went to the marina to book five nights, but they were unwilling to commit themselves and told us to ring them tomorrow to confirm a place from Thursday 29th - very strange. We wanted to confirm the booking, so that we can book some accommodation on shore, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
We visited a couple of car hire places, who told us that there was no problem with the availability of small cars, so we’ll book one tomorrow when we’ve confirmed the marina space. With our holiday arrangements done as much as possible, we wandered around the chandlers and fishing tackle shops, buying a few things. I found out that the only people who can service dive gear are a company called Nautica, but they are near the Airport about 20 kilometres away.
I called in at North Sails and had a chat with Gavin, the owner of the loft. He says that he’s happy to come to have a look at our main sail when we come into the marina. Unfortunately, he can’t make Thursday, but Friday should be okay.
After lunch in a small boulangerie, we went to the Leader Price supermarket and stocked up on a dinghy load of provisions. The supermarket has a dinghy dock, where you unload your trolley directly into the dinghy. It’s very convenient, but we’re not impressed by the range of goods on the shelves.
28 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
After breakfast, we rang the marina, but they will still not guarantee us a mooring or a berth for tomorrow. They are telling us that we should ring at 10:00 tomorrow morning and they will allocate something to us. When asked if they will guarantee a place they just say it’s very likely that they’ll have a space. It’s weird - we can’t book a hire car or accommodation until we know we have a marina space.
After some debate, we’ve decided to forget about the marina and we’ll just do day trips in a car. It’s only a couple of hours drive to get the north of the island, so we’ll be able to see most of the island and do some hiking. There’s a car hire place in St Anne, so we walked over and booked a car for three days from Friday 30th.
In the afternoon, I did some work on our dive gear. I took the octopus regulators apart, cleaned the needle valves with some fresh water and adjusted the valve seats to make them harder to purge. I then put the regulators on a tank and went for a little dive under the boat. All three now seem to work fine, so I don’t have to have them serviced now.
29 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Glenys pulled out her sewing machine and did a few repairs - mostly reinforcing stitching on the sprayhood and bimini side panels. I spent most of the day investigating what anchorages to visit in the Bahamas and doing a rough itinerary for the next few months.
Kevin & Bev from “Kailani” came for a few beers -it was nice to talk to a couple of Brits again.
30 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
The alarm went off at 06:45 - no time for a lie-in when you’re on holiday. By 08:00, we’d picked up our hire car and were on our way up the east side of the island. The roads are incredibly narrow and winding, so it was a bit tense for the first hour as I drove on the right-hand side of the road with lunatic French drivers whizzing around the bends in the middle of the road and others tailgating me. Having said that, the scenery is fabulous with many large banana and sugar cane plantations.
After a couple of hours, we made it safely to the Caravelle Peninsula and parked when the road turned into a dirt track. Most people were driving up the dirt track for a kilometre to another car park, but the road looked very rough for our little hire car. We walked up to the car park, where we joined the well-marked trail which goes around the end of the peninsula.
We took the route in a clockwise direction and started off on a single track concrete road, which leads to a meteorological station. On the way, we missed a path that led to a lighthouse on the top of the hill, oh well… The meteorological station is closed to the public, but that didn’t matter because the path continued along the rocky coast over varied volcanic rocks with dramatic scenery.
The route took us over a few hills with some great viewpoints and then dropped down into a Mangrove swamp, so we saw many different terrains on the 2½ hour hike. The walk ended at the ruins of the Chateau Dubuc, which had a sugar cane processing mill, a distillery and a coffee mill. It only cost €5 each to gain access and was moderately interesting, but our tired legs soon made us give up wandering around the ruins.
On the way back we stopped off at a couple of supermarkets, but we weren’t very impressed by the selection of items on offer. However, we filled four large bags with provisions as well as three cases of beer and a few boxes of wine.
It was a bit of a logistical challenge when we arrived back in St Anne, because there is no parking near to the dinghy dock. Eventually we parked in the town square; walked to the dinghy dock; dinghied over to the fishing dock; Glenys stayed in the dinghy while I got the car; loaded up the dinghy; I parked the car; and we then went out to the boat…
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