Martinique

Saturday 28 Apr: After 5 days in Marina D’Etang we leave today. It’s the longest we have been in a marina since Barbados, where we recovered from the Atlantic crossing.
This marina was newly opened just recently, although it was built many years ago. One of those failed marina projects that all started with good intention but was never finished. Even now, it is just a marina with zero facilities outside. And although close to Fort de France you really need your own transport to get there. But it’s cheap …. only €25 a day.
The hire car is returned to the airport at 9am then we try to use the WiFi for last minute things before we lose the signal.
We try to top up our FLOW SIM that we purchased in Barbados. It’s been brilliant so far, giving us 10Gb for just U$30 a month. But it doesn’t work in the French islands and it won’t top up while we are here in Martinique. Oh dear, this will be a problem if we lose this SIM package. If you don’t top up for the next month they cut you off!
By 11am we depart the marina. A bit of a tricky exit as we have to reverse out with a strong cross wind. But with the wheel locked center and using the bow thruster as a rudder, we steer out successfully. We’ve come a long way in our ability to maneuver Cloudy Bay in the last 2 years.
Our journey is pretty short, across Fort de France bay and anchor in Anse Mitan on the south shore. After anchoring we put our new hammock up on the foredeck. We are not sure if it’s Teo or Darius who is the happiest to jump in there!
Meanwhile Oana and Glen carefully (!) put the new outboard on the dinghy and take it for its breaking run. Minimum throttle for 15 mins. All seems OK. It runs so smooth and quietly.
We realise that we didn’t pay any attention to the run-in procedure on the last outboard, then we used it for wake-boarding at full throttle for 15 mins at a time, while still in the run-in period did it no good. It never did sound quite the same after that!
Then we blow up the paddling pool (aka Oana’s bath!) on the aft deck and fill with sea water for Darius. Even before it has 2cm of water, the little lad is in there, happy as can be!
Out guests have their lunch at 1pm sharp while the paddling pool has not only Darius in it, but also aunty-O and uncle-G! But Darius is quite happy to share his space as long as we entertain him. After all the swinging and splashing, Mr. D is really hungry – we’ve not seen him devour his lunch so quick before!
After post lunch snoozes by our resident Ciobotaru family we venture to the beach where more water play is on the menu and there we stay until sundown …. And today, a rare treat, we do actually see the sun splash into the horizon.
Mid evening we head into the small “Creole Village”, the same one where we went to on our brief stop from St. Lucia to Dominica. It has shops that sell fridge magnets, so our guests are happy 🙂
We have a very enjoyable dinner in a Creole restaurant where Darius is given a child booster seat to sit on. All of a sudden he is like a little boy at the table rather than a baby. He loves it, and especially that he gets to feed himself for once.
It’s been a really beautiful day today, sunny, no rain, and high spirits all around. It’s so good to be back out of the marina on anchor again, in the cooling breeze.
But as we take the dinghy back to Cloudy Bay, we are punished by a rain shower – punished for the extra 10 minutes it took us to buy and eat an ice cream. But it’s just a light shower and soon we are onboard under a bright full moon, cooling breeze and virtually no waves or swell.
It maybe Saturday but it’s time for an early night.