Martinique
Heerenxvii
Mon 7 Feb 2011 16:16
Yep, we made it safely sailing, engine off, no stress, to martinique. Although we told customs our next Port Of Call would be Marin, we ended up on the very south west instead, at Petite Anse d'Arlets. We anchored without any problem and decided to take a good look at the propellor. With snorkle we checked and we were shocked by the amount of living species covering the propellor and even the hull!! Not just some green stuff but serious amounts of pyramide shaped shelves, very difficult to remove. With a piece of hard plastic we were able to tick/scoop them off, but the 6 sides, its a 3 blade propellor, took almost 2 hours to clean for about 75%. What a nasty stuff, knowing that the propellor was mounted in las palmas mid november last year...
We dried up as it was getting dark and prepared for cooking. Bummer! No gas! Valves were open but no gas, hm. Plan b. Noodles, with boiling water from the watercooker. Jummie.
No burglars overnight, and awake early, beautiful !!
We were enjoying our coffee while we heard some yelling. What? O, our boatname, aha, dutch people, and aha2, the same we met in Tenerife, Eric and Margreet, started after the ARC rallye and still en route to New York. We did a quick mutual update with Eric while Margreet tried to circle our boat without hitting it which turned very difficult after which they went on to Fort de France.
We swum a bit more and then left for St Pierre, north west Martinique.
As it was sunday, all was closed so still no gas, but G promised a surprise, not being noodles. We spent a other 2 hours trying to further clean the propellor and the hull area I passed by in order to reach the propeller. When taking in a full amount of air, then move to the middle of the boat about 1.5m under water, the water wants to, and succeeds sometimes, in pushing you against the boat. This is all natural, but rather painful as the shelves and other stuff is sharp and cuts were all over me. Ofcourse at first underwater I did not know, but once on deck my blood trails could not be overlooked. Luckily G had just finished inspecting the special ARC medical kit and was able to quickly spray with several items and sticker my 'wounds'.
Diner was indeed a surprise, beef bourganouf, from "bever sport", stuff to take with you when leaving civilization :)
We were very closely anchored to shore and were con erned the music from the various parties (carnaval?) would keep us awake. We planned to leave at 4.30 am, to try and sail in one go to Gouadeloupe, so went to bed early.