MARTINIQUE - continued

We left the anchorage at Sainte Anne after 8 days; we sailed north along the west coast.  Not very far to a bay called Les Anse D’ Arlet where there were reportedly good snorkelling spots.  We stayed one night and then moved to the bay next door called Grande Anse and anchored in sand. We put the dinghy down and heading to another snorkelling spot. At this spot there were a number of tourist dive boats so you can tell it was a good spot.  

We anchored the dingy and got in and it was pretty special.  Right along the edge of the island was a healthy reef with lots of variety of fish, eels, an octopus and lots of other divers.  Again, with the goggles stopping you from having any peripheral vision, there were a few close encounters with other divers. 

Marina Port de Bouc.

The next morning, we left the anchorage to go to a marina we had booked in a small tourist area called Les Trois Islets, the three islands.  The marina was in a village called Port de Bouc.  The wind was at full strength this morning, so we were stressing out about docking as it is a very small marina, but we knew our berth was just inside the entrance.  The wind was blowing right into the marina entrance and as we were heading in a ferry and then two tourist boats went in front of us and we wondered how much room there would be for us to manoeuvre.  The marinera was there to help catch our lines and was offering advice, IN FRENCH, so when handing me a line to take up to the front of the boat to tie on, he lifted up the rope while the engine was still on, and the rope promptly wound around the prop! 

We went walking to the next village and found a little piece of my home.

With the boat mostly tied up, Tony had to get into the water and check the rope.  Fortunately, the berth was right near the opening to the sea, so the marina water was really fresh and clear, for marina water!  After his first look at the situation the new piece of boat equipment was going to prove its worth.  Tony had bought and paid for a Hookah just for this purpose.  The other type of Hooker would not be useful in this instance but would possibly have taken Tony’s mind off the rope wrapped around the prop!! 

After some time of fighting with the rope, Tony successfully removed the slime line from the prop, and we went to report that the job was complete to the marinera because he had actually organised a diver to come and fix the problem the next day. 

Looking towards the capital Fort-de-France.

Pina Colada? Don't mind if I do.

We got the chance to walk through the lovely little tourist town looking at the shops and scoping out the restaurants we wanted to try and there were many to choose from.  We had initially booked a three-night stay but after the first night we decided to book another two nights. There were some sweet little beaches on edge of the town, the one with the overwater bar was the obvious choice for the first day.  After a swim and a short sunbathe we went to the bar and ordered a drink.  A Pina Colada seemed the natural choice for a cocktail considering we were in the middle of the bay sheltered from the sun by a grass roof. It would be fair to say that we have relaxed into the Caribbean LIFESTYLE so drinking Cocktails at lunchtime is becoming a more regular thing. 

While we were in the marina, we took the opportunity to catch a ferry across to the main town of Martinique, Fort-de-France.  Considering the ferry arrived and left the marina all day and some of the night only two berths away from us, it couldn’t have been any easier. The ferry ride took about 20 minutes, and we spotted a huge cruise ship in port on the way in.  The town/city was pretty old, and the central streets were narrow and packed with a mixture of locals and tourists.  We dropped into the covered Central Markets which had lots of stalls with the same tourist offerings replicated over and over again.  I wonder if I’m getting jaded with the cheap tourist offerings. 

The view from the bathroom window to where the ferry docks in the marina.

There were certainly more Caribbean looking locals in the city than what we had seen in other parts of Martinique.  As in bigger towns/cities we did experience the more unsavoury side of travel, being approached by less fortunate people, looking for a handout.  It never gets easier and is uncomfortable. 

After our time out in the marina, we left to start heading south again.  Martinique would be as far north as we would be traveling in the Caribbean this season, but we made two more stops before we bid farewell to the piece of Europe in the middle of the Caribbean. The first stop was back to the anchorage at Grande Anse where we anchored closer to the beach and not far from two moorings where tour boats would hook up daily to swim and snorkel and spot the many turtles that called the bay home.  The bay was always filled with people snorkeling.  They would swim out from the beach, off the tour boats or from their own boats but it was rare for the waters to be clear of swimmers. 

Grande Anse anchorage.

I think the turtles enjoyed the game they appeared to play with us.  They would come to the surface to breath and would stay on the surface for a short time and in that short time you would think, “Where’s my phone?” and just as you got your phone to take that photo, they would disappear back under the water.  It happened every time, so we never got that elusive shot of a turtle on the surface. 

We ended up staying a week before we pulled up the anchor and returned to the original first anchor spot of Sainte Anne.  We had to check out of Martinique but before that we were on the lookout for a shop to buy two dehumidifiers to use in the boat over the hurricane season to help control the inevitable mould that can develop in wet humid conditions.  With successfully finding a place to buy the required equipment and also finding a different supermarket, one that had a dinghy dock at the end of the building, we stocked up and then pushed our trolley to the dock and loaded our shopping into the dinghy.  It was the best service ever! 

We were doing another overnight sail leaving Martinique around 3pm and sailing past St Lucia and Saint Vincent to return to our favourite place, Bequia. The conditions for sailing were not too bad with winds as high as 18-20knt but mostly around 15knt but with the wind coming from the east the wave conditions made for a bumpy ride.  When we came into the shadow of the island the wind got lighter.  

We had an interesting “Race” with a cruise ship as we were travelling along the coast of St Lucia.  We had seen the ship on the Chart Plotter coming slowly from behind and from the speed they were doing it would take them over an hour to get close enough to be concerned about how close we may be to them.  By the time they reached the end of St Lucia the cruise ship was far enough in front of us (around ½ a nautical mile) to cross our path and head further out to sea.  As we reached the passage between St Lucia and St Vincent the wind picked up and we were beginning to gain ground on the cruise ship and ended up edging ahead again. The ship was lit up so well that it was like a beacon in the water and very easy to spot.  We were playing this game for most of the night until early morning when we had nearly reached the end of St Vincent the cruise ship must have picked up their speed because they crossed our bow again and headed into the main port on St Vincent and we continued into Elizabeth Harbour on Bequia.