Martinique, day 17 – snorkel Ste.Anne

Friday 5 May: A bit of a rolly night in St.Anne bay, but compensated by a lovely breeze coming through the boat.
After a spell on the beach, Teo, Oana and Glen head out in the dinghy in search of the best reef to snorkel on. With the wind the sea is pretty choppy around the reef. We don’t want to put the anchor on any coral so instead we find a small fishing float to tie to.
Once in the water we see that the float is attached to a fish trap. But as with so many fish traps that we see on the seabed, this one is abandoned with trapped fish. Inside this one is a beautiful parrot fish, clearly 1/2 starved with no coral to chew on. We would love to let them out but we would need wire cutters.
The reef, as usual these days, is bleached and mostly dying from the global increase in water temperature. Reef building organisms die when the water reaches 29DegC. It’s only just spring here and the water is already 28Deg. But there are still lots of colourful fish and the occasional colourful patch of coral.
We are about 1 mile out so the ride back, against the waves and wind is very wet and we are all pretty cool by the time we reach the beach. A reminder of how wind-chill works, even in this climate.
After lunch, when Darius is again stuffed with only bread covered in thick sour cream, Teo & Geta try to snooze while Darius is left with Oana and Glen in the cockpit.
Games start with taking water out of a bucket. Then he gets in the bucket himself. This steadily progresses to 3 buckets with Darius stepping from one to another, delirious with pleasure in these water activities.
He finally gets bored after 2 hours, when parents reappear. We have a very wet but clean cockpit! Well done Darius.
We then up anchor and move into the bay of Le Marin, positioned to take our guests ashore and to the airport tomorrow.
On our way in we pass a huge yacht transporting ship. This is the 2nd one today that has entered the bay. On deck are several racing yachts and a couple of very large Oysters. Shipping yachts back across Atlantic for the Mediterranean season is clearly big business.
We go very slowly through the moored yachts, being very careful to avoid where we ran aground last time!
There must 1000 yachts anchored or moored in this sheltered bay, but we surprisingly find a nice open spot to drop the anchor.
In the evening we wander ashore in the marina complex and have a light dinner at Kokoa Rum.
Back on Cloudy Bay we have a quiet last evening chatting before another early night.
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