Martinique

Being in Martinque feels like we have been transported to France!  The road signs, the driving, the people, the language, the food and of course the wine...

We have taken advantage of being here and stocked up on cheese and wine...

We sailed our way up the coast of Martinique, stopping for 2 nights and swimming with the turtles.  The rock and cliff formations were amazing.  

The water was very clear, with visibility up to 30metres or more.

This is a quaint bar on the beach

At Fort de France there was a large market on, being a Saturday.  This lady is selling sorrel

Arriving at St Pierre,

which is the town at the base of Mt Pelee, which erupted in 1902.  The destruction that resulted, dubbed the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century, killing 30,000 people.

We went for a walk up to a monument of Mary.  

You could hear the church bells ringing as we made our way up the hill, 

looking down at Our Rose on our journey up...

 Like most French towns, the church is the largest building.  

This is the statue at the head of the graveyard

Hello Saint Lucia... Bonjour Martinique

A lovely sail from Bequia to St Lucia.  

We were greeted with the Pitons - two volcanic plugs in a World Heritage Site by the town of Soufriere, where we cleared customs and immigration.  

The next day we motored up the coast to Marigot.  A very cute and compact harbour.  

We had to take a mooring - it is the first time our trusty Rocna couldn't get a hold.

This sunken yacht was in the harbour at Marigot. 

You wonder why somebody would leave their boat to the elements???

Next day we dropped mooring and headed to Rodney Bay, (where we anchored).  

When the locals move around, they seem to always do it standing up!

We went for a lovely walk on Pigeon Island -  a historic site, with numerous forts, 

such as an 18th century British fort and Fort Rodney, 

both used by the British to spy on French Ships from neighbouring Martinique.

Rodney Bay is a quite large marina/harbour, set up for charter boats.  

The marina is in a lagoon area inside the harbour.

There are some impressive residences on the way into the dinghy dock 

(there is a swimming pool between the house and the water).

Just before dropping anchor, we had this guy come by.  His boat is two story.  

The bottom level is his fruit and vegetables and the top story plants for sale.

We left Saint Lucia and headed to Martinique.

This is the approach into Marin, where we cleared Customs and Immigration

Wow - what a difference in "everything"...

French speaking, Great Cheese, Great and Cheap Wine.

Wonderful food and restaurants - good internet...

One of the issues we have been working on resolving on Our Rose is our power consumption - especially at night.  Our fridges and freezers draw far too much.  

We had been recommended a Refrigeration expert in Marin.  

He required us to be aside the marina, so here we were again on a marina.  

We are thrilled that Frederic was able to reduce our power draw on these appliances by nearly 1/2.

The future will add more solar and wind generation, however in the meantime, 

this has certainly helped.

Bequia

We had a lovely sail from Canouan Island to Bequia.

This gentleman comes every morning offering fresh bread, fruit and vegetables

Bequia is a small island, measuring 7 square miles, with a population of around 4300.  The native population are primarily a mixture of people of African, Scottish and Carib Indian descent.

Traditional sailing boats are still made here with hand-tools

 When we were in Mayreau, we met Michael and Rebecca from Miami.  They had charted a yacht for 2 weeks.  We had lots of laughs and wine with them at Canouan Island, then Bequia.  

The weather forecast  for the day their yacht was due back at St Vincent was for 25 - 30 knots, so we offered to go along with them.  We had a great sail over, with a double reefed main and reefed jib.  The breaking swells were 3 metres or so. 

 We had a great squall come through, which flattened the top of the swells.  We got drenched!

Richard and I then caught the ferry back from St Vincent.  Unfortunately St Vincent is not a place that cruisers tend to go anymore due to the violence there, which is associated to the drug trade.

This is a view from the ferry as we are leaving.

Yesterday we went on an island tour with Mark and Tina (S/V Rainbow).

This photo is of the whaling station.  Bequia is one of the few places in the world where whaling is still allowed.  Natives of Bequia are allowed to catch up to 4 humpback whales a year using only traditional methods of hand-thrown harpoons in small open sailboats.  The limit is rarely met. (thankfully).

Unfortunately, they have not realised that money can be made from whale watching, rather than whale killing.  The cost to set up whale watching is prohibitive for the locals.  

This is a photo of the whaling station

Local fishing is a tradition also, this is the local boats at the fish processing area.

The view is looking down over Port Elizabeth.

Our Rose is anchored further to the right and not in the picture.

 We stopped at a lovely spot for lunch.  

In the restaurant the chandeliers and mirror were made from driftwood and shells

  

We also went to a turtle sanctuary.  These turtles are 4 or so weeks old.

  

They are kept until 5 years old, when they are returned to the wild.

Goodbyes...

When the sun goes down, for a brief moment on a cloudless evening, you get a "green flash" across the horizon.  If you blink, you will miss it - however it is a phenomena that occurs.

We went to a "Green Flash" party at a popular beach bar called Umbrellas.  Some of the photos are not appropriate for the blog!.. however a couple are...

We asked a couple of local ladies to give us dance lessons - People here can really move.  They swing their hips in a really provocative manner perfectly to the beat of the local music.

This is me trying to "move" like the locals...

Mark (Sealife) and Teresa (Seismic Wave) up close with the local police and Richard Liming...

 We had such a fun night!

Sunday Lunch at a Restaurant on the Beach - a time to enjoy each others company before sailing off in different directions...

We have had sooooo much fun with... (left around the table)... Mark - Sealife, Richard, 

Teresa & Brett - Seismic Wave, Ian and Wendy - Outsider, Sarah (Me) and Chris - Tulu.

Last week, Ian and Wendy sailed away from Grenada, heading to A,B'C's on their journey back through to the Pacific.  They have given us so much advice and been such good friends, it was with a tear in the eye that we said goodbye...

We finally left Grenada and sailed back up to Carriacou, where we met up with Kathy & Peter.  

We had met Kathy in Trinidad, with her sister Kay (who did some great canvas work for us) and husband Colin, who had taken us to their home on an island off Trinidad mainland.

Kathy & Peter took us to their beautiful "treehouse" home...  Their view is spectacular.

We had a really lovely time with them, Peter, being a sailor for many years, 

giving us lots of great advice also.

We cleared out of customs/immigration - headed to Petite Martinique, where we filled up with fuel then cleared into Union Island at the bottom of the Grenadines.  We then headed to Tobago Cays, where we snorkelled and swam with the turtles.

We sailed from there to Mayreau - Seismic Wave were there with their lovely guests from Canada, who invited us over for dinner.  Crayfish and Steak - yum!

Great painting on a wall in Mayreau.

Today we left Mayreau and motored (wind straight on the nose) for an hour to Canouan Island.  As soon as we arrived, we were offered these life crayfish - cost $30NZ for both.

While typing the blog, this guy strolled by, so thought he deserved a mention

Still In Grenada...

Doing provisioning is always interesting!... Usually it entails catching a local bus (van that holds as many people as possible, they stop anywhere to collect you as you are walking down the road).  However, we had "big" provisioning to do, so along with Ian & Wendy and Brett & Teresa and Mark, we hired a van.  Brett and Teresa are expecting guests, so their provisioning was pretty big.  We would load the van, then head back to the dinghy dock, unload to the dinghy, then the boats and do it all over again.  Brett had only just left the dinghy dock and his outboard stopped.  There was that much onboard, that the fuel line had been disrupted... so we towed him back

Some of the sunsets are gorgeous

While having lunch yesterday, we looked out and saw a yacht come around the point and it appeared to have a sail problem.  We kept an eye on it, and found that they had gone straight onto the reef.  We called Mark (Sea Life) who along with Coastguard came out to help.  Fortunately the yacht was pulled off the reef, without serious damage.

Hashing...

I forgot to add in our last update - last Saturday we went on our first Hash...  and to our naughty minded friends, no it is not what you think!

We were collected by "Shademan" in his van.  The van is a bit of a beaten up Toyota (or similar)... you know the kind.  Well, what we didnt realise, was that you can fit 18 people and 2 dogs in one.  We now know what "canned people" look like.

We ended up at the highest point in Grenada, where we were dropped off.  There was probably 100 or so people there.  We then "hashed" for the next hour or so, ending with well deserved cold beers at the end.

Hashing is Cross Country Harriers.

Tobago and Beyond

After Jono left, we headed made our way Castara Bay and caught up with Porridge and Janelle (www.castararetreats.com).  They showed us around their beautiful Retreat and then we had a lovely night of drinks and dinner with them and 4 of their guests.  We then invited them all out on Our Rose the next day, along with Shaq - Porridge and Janelles son.

We headed to another bay and they snorkelled - I had baked early in the morning, so had Homemade Pie, Salad and Muffins for lunch.  We had a lovely day with them all.

Heading up to Charlotteville we were joined again by pods of dolphins 

(no matter how often we see them, they are still a wonder and soooo beautiful!)

We cleared out of Charlotteville on Wednesday, and left for Grenada at 5pm, sailing overnight and arriving in Grenada at 9am the next morning.

Yesterday, we finally had our "Chafe Guard" installed.  This is a fitting that was sent by Southern Spars in South Africa, which will sort out of Main Halyard chaffing.

We are so grateful to Brett and Teresa (Seismic Wave), Mark (Sea Life) and Jonathan (Chez Nous) who helped us.  We had a matter of inches to spare each side of Our Rose.  Richard did an awesome job helming us in and not a scratch was had!