Americas

Wednesday 18 April: We wake up to bad news. Our troublesome fridge is at room temperature …. again. Oh bollocks!! All our hopes that it had miraculously fixed itself 3 weeks ago are dashed.
So our day’s priorities change to finding a fridge technician again. Well at least we are in the best yachting service center in the Caribbean. We do the hunt on internet and find some numbers, and we book an appointment with Patrice from Caribe Marine for tomorrow morning. He seems professional and is well recommended on the Martinique cruisers net.
We decide that we should get into the marina today but the marina office was not sure if they have a place for us for 3 days. They can only confirm us later in the afternoon.
So we switch back to plan-A and get the hire car, which is a Dacia from Romania! Today must be Romanian day because on our way in with the dinghy this morning we are surprised to see a Romanian yacht from Mangalia …. it’s the first we have seen in the Caribbean. We went over and Oana chatted to them. They seemed as surprised as us, but they are leaving Martinique now so no chance to have a proper chat.
Once we are in our Dacia we set off on our missions. Most of the shops we want are in an out-of-town industrial area on the other side of the airport, 30kn away. On any other island this distance would take 1/2 a day, but here the roads are to European standard both in surface and straightness and we are there in 1/2 an hour.
First stop Suzuki dealer. We have yet to see a Suzuki dealer anywhere, but here is a small dealership and we manage to buy a propeller to replace our coral eaten one (!) and a gear lever that we broke on the davits. In the same area we find a Nespresso store. Good, as we were down to our last few capsules of this important motivational drink! We walk away with 250 capsules which will keep us going for 4 months. Oana is very pleased!
Great, 2 tasks down and it’s only 11am! Then onto the good-old Decathlon store. We have a long list for this one and as usual, we do the list plus some! After 2 hours we come out with our arms full; shorts, hiking shoes, beach roller for dinghy, sun glasses to name just a few items. At the checkout we blow our daily allowance out-the-window, but we are happy. Today this is paradise. 3 months of beaches, blue water have made it so!
Next stop to a mall, looking for a GoPro. Ours needs to be returned to USA for warrantee, and we simply cannot do without one, so we need a back up. But we fail in this mission. No GoPro to be found. Instead, we do find Hyper-U supermarket. OMG it has to be THE biggest superstore we have every seen. Yet more paradise! We will return tomorrow for food shopping.
3pm and the marina says they have arranged a place. So we zip back to Cloudy Bay and within minutes we are heading into the marina. A tricky berth this one. Tight between 2 boats and we have to reverse in with a cross wind whilst steering between the bow mooring buoys. Surely the European method of mud-lines tailed to the quay is much easier. Anyhow, we manage reversing but once tied up we realise we haven’t dropped the dinghy. It takes a bit of acrobatics to crawl under the dinghy from the swim platform to the floating dock!
We are soon plumbed into the water and electricity, air-conditioner on and we start washing the boat ready for our guests. Glen soaps and washes while Oana wipes dry. Even with 2 of us it takes several hours and it’s quite dark by the time we are done.
Mid evening we take a stroll to the car, intending to bring all our purchases back to Cloudy Bay, but we get distracted by music. We follow the sound, fully expecting the usual Caribbean disappointment (all sound, no action!). To our surprise, we actually find a very interesting group of musicians in Kokoa Bar, a nice bar next to the quay. We decide to have a drink and listen a while. Oana is very happy because here they have caipirinha cocktail – her favorite.
While we watch, the jamming band changes people every song. A guy pops up from a table with a sax, then next song anther guy with a flute, then a guy starts rapping. By the end of the evening we feel everyone here knows each other and plays some sort of instrument – even if it’s only sticks on a cardboard box! And the atmosphere is fantastic, and needless to say strongly smelling of marijuana!
It a really great evening, but at 11:15 sharp it all stops and people start to leave. Even the internet is turned off. So it must be home time. Good, because we have a busy day tomorrow.