Martinique

Friday 20 April: Heavy day today. Lots to do before Teo and Geta arrive this afternoon. We are aiming to get back to Hyper-U as it opens for shopping round-2! But first we contact Patrice from Caribe Refrigeration, hoping beyond hope that he can come and install the new evaporator plate in the fridge today, now that we are certain the fridge is duff. His English and Glen’s French are very poor but we gather to call him back at midday.
On the 30km drive to Hyper-U we run into rush hour traffic and crawl the last few km, but still get there for 9am. Paradise revisited! Today is cold foods and veg. Sooo much variety that it again takes us a couple of hours to shop. Could we ever live in the real world again where shopping needs to be squeezed in between working hours?!
Back at the marina we use our trusty Pony (a shopping trolley sized folding cart), to bring everything from car to boat. Patrice arrives to the boat at 2pm and says he cannot fit the plate tomorrow, but he can loan us a 12v mobile fridge for the next 2 weeks, so Glen goes off to get it. It’s pretty small but better than nothing …. and much needed as all our fridge food is sitting in cool bags waiting to be stored.
We try to plug it in but of course the lead is too short! A quick visit to the chandlers to buy an extension fixes that issue. We now have 4 fridges on board with 3 working, and all the food in a cool place at last.
A quick tidy up of the boat then it’s off to the airport dressed in our tee shirts that Teo and Geta made for us with Cloudy Bay logo. We are their crew for the next 14 days after all, so perfect opportunity to wear our “crew uniform”.
As we approach Fort de France airport we see their Air France flight landing. Perfect timing and very soon they are with us looking rather tired after their 22 hour journey, including a transfer across Paris, CDG to Orly airports. Immediately they comment on the warmth, even though for us today is a pleasantly cool temperature for once, but then we are not in jeans and winter clothes!
On the way back discussion is about their journey, pretty tough with a 2 year old, 21 hours and 7 time zones. Plus Teo pulled an all-nighter the night before to finish work deadlines, so has not slept for 2 days now. He looks wasted, but happy to be here with us.
Darius is immediately in Oana’s arms. She has been longing to see him and he seems to remember us both as shyness lasts just a few minutes only. On Cloudy Bay he is soon exploring his new surroundings. He particularly likes the front of the cabin that makes an excellent slide onto the deck, which he repeats time and again!
An early evening snack in the cockpit and our guests retire gracefully to bed, utterly exhausted, leaving us alone with Cloudy Bay again, and we are actually relaxing ourselves for once. Let our holiday re-start tomorrow!