THURSDAY, 2ND MARCH, 2017

Jervis Kay and his partner Louise Ratterie joined us last Friday 24th Feb’ in St, Lucia.  We found out that Maggie and Nick Kingdon were also staying in a hotel nearby.  Consequently I organised that they should meet us in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia where we were picking up Jervis and Louise in the dingy after arriving from the airport on Friday.  In sailed ‘Spirit of Lusitania’!! with Dai, Augusto and a very old friend of Dai’s called Natasha so we all got together in the evening before dinner for a drink, it was lovely catching up with them again and hopefully we will meet up in Antiqua later.

 Maggie and Nick joined us on Saturday morning.  I organised a picnic lunch on board and we set sail for the Pitons to drop anchor in the bay between them for lunch and a swim.  Unfortunately it was quite windy with the odd liquid sunshine but nevertheless we had fun.  I also managed to order a Birthday cake for Jervis the evening before from the hotel in Marigot as we only discovered two days before that it was his Birthday that day as well.  After lunch we sailed up to Rodney Bay Marina to drop Maggie and Nick off to catch their car back to the hotel.  We found ourselves on the opposite side of the pontoon from ‘Askari’ the Oyster belonging to Caroline and Andrew.

  I got chatting to Caroline the following morning only to discover they had a pretty bad time when the SW gales and swell came into the bay in Mustique.  Their buoy broke the chain and they drifted in very fast towards the beach and reef off it, damaging their rudder.  Fortunately a couple of yachts came to their rescue in their dingy and pulled their anchor out to anchor off the beach so they did not ground any further they are now making their way to Antiqua to have the rudder sorted.

After filling up with water and fuel we set off up the coast to Fort de France in Martinique.  We had forgotten it was Mardi Gras so the drums from just about every band on the island in the city were playing, loud music and a lot of noise from back firing cars.  We went ashore where we came across the first day of the carnival everybody dressed up both those parading and those watching, it was huge fun.  The next morning we rented a car, with difficulty as everything was closed.  We finally went out to the Airport and rented a car there.  We drove up the west coast to St. Pierre and on to Habitation Céron, which was an old Sugar Estate and now Botanical gardens and a lovely restaurant where they serve fresh water Crayfish bred in their own large ponds.  Photos of this will follow as they are not included at the bottom of this diary.  We drove back over the mountains from St. Pierre, this town used to be the capital of Martinique but was swamped by ash from the volcanoes above it in the early 1900s  with only one survivor a chap in an underground jail, who was eventually dug out alive.  We were very late for lunch at the Habitation and were told at first that the food was finished but the very nice Madam managed to find more Crayfish and some pate de foie gras with bread and a sauce, so we ended up having a lovely long lunch with some delicious wine and then a walk around the gardens.  The drive back over the mountains in our tiny car was great fun.  We stopped now and again to look at the views, there was a very good waterfall with a steep walk to and from it but as it was getting dark we decided not to do it, what we did see were many fireflies and as a child one can imagine them as fairies at night flitting from branch to branch.

We took the car back to the airport and got a taxi back into town where the second day of the carnival was just finishing.  The following day, Shrove Tuesday was also Mardi Gras and everybody going to the carnival was to dress in Red fancy dress, for some reason Jonathan, Louise and Jervis were not too keen.  Instead we set sail up the coast anchored off St. Pierre for a swim at 9 am. the sailed on to Dominica to drop anchor in Prince Rupert Bay.  The sail was very rough and the wind was blowing at about 25 - 30 knots with 4 meter waves on coming at us from the starboard side. Fortunately Louise had taken a sea sickness pill and lay in the cockpit looking very sorry for herself.  The weather was very wet and windy.  Supper of Bolognese cooked by Jervis that evening.  the following morning a local boat came along side called ‘Lawrence of Arabia’  and we organised for them them to take us up the ‘India River’ this is where the the Sooth sayer from the Pirates of the Caribbean was supposed to live you can see the hut which was part of the scenery for the film in a photo below.  The River is fascinating, with its  tree roots, land crabs and tropical foliage, fortunately it is all now protected and you can only row up the river, no engines allowed but you have to take a local boat.  

Back to our yacht and a swim and lunch before setting sail again for the Les Saintes, which I love they have a certain atmosphere which is very French Breton.  The sail was as rough as the day before and we managed to shop on huge wave over the yacht it certainly was not comfortable.  There were no mooring buoys left so we went and anchored in the lee of an island nearby.  It was quite a rolley night.  The following morning we went into the bay to look for a vacated mooring buoy and found one, huge fun trying to tie up to it with the wind howling, fortunately a very nice couple from Alaska came over in their dingy and helped us.  Once sorted we went ashore and for a walk up to the Napoleonic fort, only to find it is only open from 9 am - 12.30 pm we arrived bang on 12,30……..

It was a good walk anyway and great views from the top.  We had a lovely light lunch at a little french restaurant near the bottom of the hill on the coast.  Tonight we are out to dinner at a restaurant which has some good write ups which we have never been able to get into before so hopefully it will live up to it’s reputation.