15:17,34N 61:22,69W

14^th April 2013

On the move again.

It seems like months since we made any progress.  After spending time in St Lucia fixing things that were broken we moved on to Martinique, to fix more things that were broken.  This is normal.

As you know we are obsessed with power and don’t have enough of it.  We were recommended an electrician in Martinique who lives on his boat so knows what’s needed.  Bruno.  Bruno came aboard and we arranged for a couple more solar panels.  He also did a lot of jiggery pokery with wires on batteries and connections and wires and he undid most of the work we’d had done in Europe by the previous four electricians.  He is a magician and we were able to charge our batteries much faster and efficiently.  This is really important or Tony has to drink warm beer. Once this was all fixed, the next day our battery charger stopped working. 

We use “Henry Honda” (generator) to top up the batteries when there’s not enough sun or wind to do the job, and as importantly, when he’s on we can use the three pin plugs on the boat to charge up whatever needs charging, pc’s Ipod, phones, camera batteries, hand vacuum cleaner, toothbrush....it goes on. We had a choice, send battery charger back to France, wait two weeks and 200 Euros or have new charger for 600 Euros.  We chose the 200 Euro option.  Yes, you are ahead of me, the two weeks turned into three, Easter holiday added more time and eventually when it still hadn’t turned up we managed to do a deal and part exchange old battery charger for new one for a more reasonable cost.  Bruno fitted it, it worked and we were at last able to move on to the next island, Dominica.

The tourist information Martinique booklet has an interesting anomaly.  One page is in French (their language) and the opposite page in English.  One noticeable difference was the French side was advertising the local speciality cock fighting, the English side made no mention of it.

We set off from St Anne in the south of Martinique to St Pierre in the North where we could clear out and be on our way.  The sailing was perfect, downwind and smooth seas.  Reaching area off Fort de France the wind turned around and we were beating into it, seas a bit rougher.  Suddenly out of nowhere the wind changed from 15 knots to about 35.  All hell broke loose.  I was on the helm and Tony had just gone below to phone his mum.  I yelled for help.  He made his way up the companionway, sideways.  We were practically flattened.  I was hanging on for grim death and tony was able to let the main out and ease the foresail which meant we were only heeling over about 60 degrees and making about 8 knots downwind.  It took about 20 minutes to reef in and of course by then the squall had passed.  I have to admit to feeling fairly traumatised so we slowly made our way well reefed in to St Pierre.  We had to motor the last five miles as no wind at all.  We saw some dolphins in the distance, leaping out of the water and doing somersaults and turtles which cheered me up, and after some time in St Pierre recovering we set off early in the morning for Dominica.

I really needed my confidence back so as soon as we had the wind we set the sails, well reefed and as we were making 6 to 7 knots that was fine by me.  After a couple of hours we eased out a bit and a steady seven knots took us into Dominica.  Once in the lee of the island the wind died away and we made a slow and dignified entrance.  Then the dolphins came to escort us to our destination, Roseau.  We hadn’t seen dolphins for weeks and they always make me cry. 

We’re now on a mooring and have been into the town, bought fantastically fresh veg in the market and strolled around the Botanical Gardens and watched a game of cricket.  We went to see the national bird, a red necked parrot, but the house was closed as it is mating season and they are shy so the curtains were shut.

Tomorrow we are off on a tour into the hills, trekking across a river (5 times) and visiting waterfalls and pools for a swim in fresh water and lunch with Moses, in his Rastaurant, (he’s a Rastafarian) and back to the boat.  Dominica is very different to St Lucia and Martinique, much more original buildings and a poorer population.  I have a rule of thumb, the more chickens wandering around in the streets the poorer the population.  How they keep track of whose chicken is whose I don’t know.  The nature and wildlife here is meant to be the best in the Caribbean so we plan to stay for a couple of weeks and really see the island.