Tuesday 17 April: We awake to sunshine again. One afternoon of rain was enough for us!
The small town of St.Pierre looks very inviting. But we decide it’s better to push off as we have quite a lot to get done before our guests arrive on Friday.
Maybe we will come back and visit St.Pierre by car. It used to be the main town on Martinique, and was nicknamed Petit Paris. The Mont Pelle eruption in 1902 wiped out all but one of the 30,000 inhabitants and it never recovered its status. In the bay there are 20+ wrecks from the same event. They would be interesting to dive on but our tanks are currently empty.
We pull the anchor at 9am and set off south. It seems a long time since we used the anchor; we have been on buoys mostly in the last weeks.
We are heading for Le Marin, a deep bay in the south of Martinique where there are multiple marine services and near to Carrefour, Decathalon and other such shops that we have been deprived of!
The main task is to get the vang repaired, hopefully. Not only is it leaking hydraulic fluid, as of last evening it also no longer holds up the boom. So it must have a problem on the compressed-air side too. When we lift the boom with the traditional topping lift, we realise just how heavy it is!
We motor along the gusty coast with mainsail out then when we get to cross the bay of Fort de France we turn off the wind across the mouth with both sails out but reefed. The easterly wind funnels through this bay and is gusting to 27kts and the water is surprisingly choppy considering the short fetch.
Once across the bay the wind dies and we furl the sails away, motor on again. As we pass Les Anses D’Arlet (Grande and Petite) we motor in close to check out the beach for a potential stop-over with our guests next week.
As we pass headlands on our way to Pointe du Diamond there are significant tidal races that throw Cloudy Bay all over the place and puts a lot of green water over the bow.
Then it’s a long 10 mile leg directly into the wind and chop all the way up to Le Marin. With 2 knots of current against us, beating up wind would be a very long affair – so for once we just set the autohelm to track-to-waypoint and sit back with engine on. Well, the Volvo could do with a bit of hard work for once. Diesels really don’t like all this quick on then off without even getting warm.
We normally only use it when arriving or leaving an anchorage. And anyway we want to make water and have the 1000ltr tanks totally full. Guests always use a lot of water, so we are prepared!
As we enter the Le Marin bay there are literally hundreds of yachts, maybe even a thousand moored and anchored, then several hundred more in the marina. We squeeze ourselves into a gap between …. hmm how to describe it with PC? … very worn out livaboard yachts!
Soon we are ashore at the marina trying to locate Gaetan from Caribe Marine; he is going to service the vang. He seems convinced the parts will arrive from Germany by Friday. But he has no confirmation from Reckmann yet. So honestly, we doubt the vang will be fixed before Teo and Geta arrive.
We have a wander around and find that Le Marin is one big yacht service center. It looks like you can buy, build and get serviced absolutely anything here. There is not one but several very well stocked chandleries …. infact so many toy shops that Glen doesn’t know which way to turn! And above all, everybody we speak to are so very helpful and positively engaging.
From the boat Oana had spotted a shopping center behind the mangroves. Glen had seen a dinghy head into the mangroves earlier, maybe that’s the way in? We take in the dinghy precautiously, worried to run aground.
The channel gets narrower almost to the point we may not be able to turn the dinghy around, then suddenly it opens up and there is a perfect dinghy dock right in the middle of yet another yacht service center with yet more marine shops! We must be in heaven! There is also a Carrefour and we do a spot of shopping.
Back on Cloudy Bay, just before dark, Oana takes Glen up the mast to remove the AIS antenna. It has been giving errors and a Furuno electronics guy said to bring it in. So a job added for tomorrow.
In the evening we give the Volvo a 200 hour service. It’s still very hot from the motoring, so a good time to change the oil, even if the engine room is like a sauna! First time we serviced it took 2 days. This time just a couple of hours to change oil and all the various filters, take diesel samples and clean up. Glen in the engine room and Oana fetching parts and tools and taking away the waste. Great teamwork.
Only one mishap when Glen over fills a sample bottle and pours 1/2 liter of diesel all over himself and the tools. There was quite some cursing but soon all cleaned up.
It seems to have been a long day and a new island for us. Looking forward to finding Decathlon and Nespresso by hire car tomorrow.