Sail Away for a Year and a Day

The weather is lookih better so we are planning our sail over to Guadeloupe. Alas one of the sliders on our sail track has broken so we have had to do a side trip down to Fort to France to source a new one. Rose and ai have taken the bus from St Pierre today and visited the Sea Services shop there. Alas, they have sold.out. most annoying given this is a small plastic rectangle with a loop atta he'd and costs about £1.  Give a decent block of PTFE I reckon I could probably whittle one with a decent pen knife but no joy there either. Plan B is to take one from the bottom of the sail and move it to the top, then only sail with at least one reef in. It means we can't use the full sail but since this is generally overpowered in any wind above about 14 knots that's not a big problem. One success though was that we managed buy some wool. Since Rose and Alfie have both got keen on doing finger crochet we have been searching for will supplies and did find some today. Hop...

Well today we planned to head up the coast a little way to Fort de France (the big town) to do some shopping.  Alas weather got in the way and we found 31 knot winds as we sailed north at 5 knots on a headsail alone about the size of a bedsheet!!! As we arrived at the inlet for Fort de France the wind was still strong and our attempt to motor up the inlet to get to one of the anchorages was pretty poor with a max speed of 1.9 knots ... At that rate it would be 3 hours to get to the anchorage.  We decided to bail out and head for a sheltered anchorage on the west coast called St Pierre. This is up near the volcano that Alfie and I climbed a few days ago. It took us about 2 hours to get up here motor sailing at 6 knots and the wind here is pretty low. We have a hugs set of high cliffs sheltering our anchor spot. It looks to be quite a good place for sunset spottig. Our friends on some other ARC boats, Water Dogs, Kithara Dragonfly are here too. It's tradi...

Yesterday we set off from St Anne's to move north up the Martinique coast. It was still quite windy so we just put up the smallest part of our mainsail and set off downwind. Our destination was Anse Arlets which is a nice anchorage on the west coast about 11Nm NW of At Anne's.  We had a great little sail past Diamond rock which is pretty impressive up close.  With the wind behind us we are always a bit worried about the danger of an unintended gybe where the boom.slams across the boat due to a wind shift or a wave turning us. We sail with a preventer line rigged holding the boom out to one side but even so it can be a problem.  Despite this slightly nail biting situation we managed to get a nice course right between the rock and the mainland but did have a lot of powerboats zooming past along the way. These power mad freaks are really annoying as their wake can really rock our boat. Grrr Anyway we made it here and then had the annoyance of having to anchor twi...

Alas it's Martinique regatta weekend so we have had to leave the marina this morning. Normally we wouldn't leave in such high winds ( gusts pushing 30 knots). With no choice we headed back out to the bay where we know our anchor holds pretty well and put it down in about the same spot as we previously moored. It's a bit choppy and kind of gusty of course. We are keeping a sharp eye on our plotter and the TWS (true wind speed) along with listening out for our anchor alarm. Hopefully we will manage to eat and sleep here today. Tomorrow is also pretty windy so we have to live with this for a few days. Of course as soon as my darned bank card arrives at the marina I have to head back there to collect it and then we can set off North again.

Having arrived in Martinique 5 nights ago we have reluctantly come into the marina at Le Marin so that we can receive a parcel from home. Not having a postal address is a quite a problem on this life on the ocean wave. Since my bank have to send me a new card there's no alternative.  Still, it's nice to be in a totally still bit of water for a few nights and to have access to lots of shops. We will probably hire a car for a day to explore the island whilst we are here. 

Today our quick excursion to Marigot bay was a success. Rose completed her PADI open water course. This meant I got to go for a dive with her which was really special. We reviewed done fish from an old broken fish trap and found loads of Lionfish. Ended up the day with dinner at Roots which is a lovely little restaurant up the hill from the Marina. Super food , all local cuisine and friendly cats too.  Cracking day and now we are free to head off to Martinique.

Wierd, yesterday we arrived with lots of other ARC boats here an this morning they mostly went off to Martinique. As for us it's back to Marigot bay tomorrow to finish Roses SCUBA course now that she has finished the theory lessons. The freedom to just up anchor and move is only just beginning to dawn on us.  Meanwhile the sunsets are pretty amazing too.