Happy New Year
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Tue 8 Jan 2008 11:35
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Hello Friends and a Happy New Year to all
our Blog Readers "14:26.1N
60:53.2W"
We spent Christmas and the New Year here in
Martinique and as I write on Sunday evening, we're looking forward to some
fridge works over the next couple of days to improve the efficiency of our
fridge systems. More technical details will follow soon Barny!
Whilst we've been waiting for our slot with
the fridge man, we decided to take a tour of Martinique and made a clockwise
circumnavigation. This is unusual as the windward side of Martinique has a
fringing reef which is pretty dangerous to navigation and is marked by numerous
wrecks.
Anyway, we did our homework very carefully
with the local pilot book and since the weather was ideal for beating upwind
around the northern end of the island, we decided to have a try. Google Earth on
the front of the blog pages probably gives you a better view of the windward
side - so I'll leave you to experiment with that and zoom in to see the reefs.
Having found our way through the dangers we
anchored in a superb bay (Baie du Galion, to the S of the peninsular that sticks
out E) over a mile wide with no other boats at all. The bay was totally
sheltered and so quiet that you could feel the silence. It's amazing to think
that in the Caribbean - and French Caribbean at that - there are still places
which are totally unspoilt and undiscovered.
So especially for our Australian Friends who
don't believe that the weather is nice here....
 We spent a couple of days here just chilling
out and enjoying the solitude. By then the weather had got up a bit so we had a
rather lumpy exit through one of the passes through the reef (passe sud de caye
mitan). All went well and we took the opportunity of doing a conventional nav.
plan and pilotage for James' benefit, as well as using the
instruments.
The windward side has murky water as the
Atlantic swell churns up the reef and stirs up sediment - but the west side is
clear and we had some good snorkelling: the goblet coral is extraordinary and
not uncommon.
 STOP PRESS - George & Michael will be in
London from about 9th to 21st January and we hope to be able to catch up with
our friends.
Best Wishes
George, Michael and James
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