a picture for you
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Tue 30 Jan 2007 13:33
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Our
position is currently 14.28.00N 60.52.04W
Some of our
friends from the ARC have left St Lucia and headed north, we've had emails from
them saying pop over to Martinique, it's beautiful, very European, very French,
no boat boys, and the shopping, you can buy anything here! ------- pretty
much all the things we've come to the Caribbean to get away from. We want
to see something different. But -- it's only 25 miles, Chris and Fritz were
there for a couple of days prior to going North and back to Europe. We thought
it's probably the last time we'll see them, so we cleared out from customs
in St Lucia and headed for Martinique.
We had a
good sail, it was good to getting sailing again after being at anchor for a few
weeks. We arrived at Marin, the entrance is a little tricky because it's full of
reefs, but they are well marked, not that that stopped a catamaran hitting
one on it's way past us, (only 200 yds from where he collected the boat
from, how embarrassing).
The Island
looks very pretty on the way in, Marin is a small town at the end of a
deep bay. There are a few shops and a couple of large supermarkets, some
chandlers and bars/restaurants.
I have to
say though, nothing impressed me, ok the chandlers were well stocked, and
if you need a new engine or gearbox, you could probably pick one up off the
shelf, which you can't do in many places.
Not that we
need to stock up, but everyone tells us how cheap everything is and 'you can get
anything'. We decided to call into the larger supermarket in Marin, just off the
beach alongside the sewage works, we could dingy up to a dock amongst the
mangroves, with the sound of birds singing and the fragrance of Eau de Mierda.
Well let me
tell you, you can't get English tea bags! so we're in France what do you expect,
St Lucia is an English island so they tend to have English and American
stuff. Yes, wine and beer is cheaper in the supermarkets, but dearer at the
bar, a beer here is 2 euros, we pay only one in Rodney Bay. They do have some
delights that we find hard to get hold of though in St Lucia. Pigs noses for
example, you can buy a bucket of pigs noses, in brine, for not much more than a
good steak. Even more amazing, we saw someone actually buy a bucket. Mind
you, as you can see from the photo, they do look particularly appetizing, I'm
sure served the correct way on a bed of snails horns and an accompanying horses
willy, (I think they sold them too) you could have an amazing meal, bon
appetite!
Call me an
old stick in the mud, but give me roast beef or paella anyday, so we avoided the
temptation and went back to our dingy, peg on nose and onto Chaser.
Actually,
it is strange how everyone has a different story to tell, thats why it's
important to visit these places and make up your own mind. We were talking to
some people last week in Rodney Bay, they were commenting on how expensive
things were compared to UK. We don't shop in the UK too much, but we have made
comparisons between St Lucia and Spain and Spain and UK, and although not super
cheap, our opinion that most things are less expensive than Spain, and Spain we
find less expensive than UK. I suppose it's what you buy, fresh milk for example
is expensive in a tropical country, if available, because it goes off so quick.
A Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie is expensive because they're imported in
small quantities.When we compare prices we compare a product or a meal, a meal
in UK may cost eg. 30 pounds, in Spain 8 pounds and in St Lucia 8
pounds One day I'll make a price comparison table of basic
needs.
We're going
ashore again today to log on and get an uptodate weather forecast for
Jon, and checkout a fishing tackle shop, then we'll up anchor and
move out a little way to St Anne, a small seaside town just outside Marin,
before heading back to civilization.
Jon is
about 1000 miles away now, having been stuck out there with no wind for a
week, our last forecast showed he need to head south and cross the 15
degree mark, before he would see any wind, we passed on the info and
yesterday he arrived at 15 degrees and picked up 15 knots. That day he
covered 120+ miles, much better that the 50 or soa day over the past
week. I'll keep you posted.
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