Martinique
Beoga's Madventure
Henry and Marina Lupton
Tue 15 Dec 2009 13:48
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So weve moved on.
We did a few cool things in St.Lucia. Hired a car
and drove into a volcano that is still spewing out steam and sulphur. Ate in an
amazing restaurant in between the Pitons which are trademark pointy mountains of
St.Lucia. We visited an amazing gardens with a waterfall.
We were too early for the fish festival which is a famous weekly night time eating/partying event in a small town on the middle of the west coast. THere is serious poverty on the island. Makes you realise what a privilege it is to do something like this. We also went zip wiring above the rain forest which
was amazing. You are harnessed in and slide down cables between tree tops
through and over the forest.
Lots of chats with folk from other boats and a run
punch party with folk from A Lady.
There were lots of partys going on as part of the
event. THe beach party was on the night after we arrived which was
fantastic.
We missed the Jump Up which is the weekly stree
booze up for the area. We were too knackered to go out that night.
Most of us found we are still tired early in the
night, perhaps a product of our heading to bed by 7 while we were at
sea..
We finally left Rodney bay on Sunday. Some boats
were still coming in from the race so it was a pretty long trip for some. We did
a quick trip to Marigot bay which is pretty famous. Its a small bay but very
sheltered and pretty. A big base for Moorings charter company which I think
takes from it. We anchored for an hour or so and swam (scraped barnacles off the
hull) had lunch and then headed off for Martinique. ITs about as far away as
galway to Killronan but the wind blew up to 30 knots with nasty chop. We were
not used to having wind on the beam and nose. It werent nice at
all!!!!
We are now in a marina in Marin in the southwest
corner of maritnique. This place is very well stocked with boat stuff and has
the guy that Tomas found who is the agent for our boom. We brought the bits of
the old one to him for measuring and by yesterday evening we had all the
fittings secured on the new boom and mounted it on the mast. It looks
ridiculously long now! We got lots of other bits done too. We have two small
hatches in the forpeak that got broken and lost. They are now replaced and
sealed up. Punt is fixed up, bulb on masthead replaced and lots of little
bits done.
Yesterday was the planned work day and now we are
checking weather. Its howling at present but we plan to go up the west coast
which should be more sheltered.
We will likely anchor off a town on the north coast tonight with the plan to cruise over to Dominica tomorrow and do the west coast of that island which is supposed to be the most unspoilt. Unspoilt also means no facilities so we will anchor there too. Loose plan is to head up towards Antigua and St.
Barts. BVIs look a bit far away right now. We may look to keep the boat in
St.Maarten instead. I need to get my head around that pretty soon and organise
it.
Torrential rain over the past 3 or so days. It was
obvious it rained a lot here since it is very lush and green. When is does rain
it is short duration but very heavy. I woke last night to open hatches to let
air in and woke a short while later getting wet from rain pelting in the
window.
So for now we are at 14:28.068N
60:51.997W
Not sure if anyone is reading this anymore, hope ye
are all well, we are doing it as a reminder to ourselves now too.
take care,
H
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