14:27.87N  60:52.46W

 

Thursday 13 March 2014

 

Distance Run 23 nm

 

Off to Martinique today.  For the first time since we left Grenada we would be sailing north and a little west, rather than north east.  This is a much better sailing angle in the prevailing N to NE winds. 

 

Leaving Rodney Bay Marina in St Lucia involves motoring down a long, narrow entrance channel with little room to swing if we had to anchor in an emergency with engine failure.  All went well although we had discussed our fallback options and had lots of things ready just in case.  Once back out into Rodney Bay we set sail quickly and doused the engine.  Alongside us was a Beneteau 50 also heading to Martinique and that was the commencement of the ‘yacht race’ (definition of ‘yacht race’ = any two boats that can see eachother).  Both the Beneteau and ourselves had reefed sail for the expected lumpy passage between St Lucia and Martinique but as they are a longer boat than us, and therefore faster, we anticipated having our work cut out to stay with them.

 

Modesty prevents my being able to say how far ahead we were when we arrived in Martinique but suffice to say, had they finished ahead of us you wouldn’t have heard anything about it.  Satisfying but they probably weren’t even racing.

 

Four and a half hours later we were anchored in Le Marin, a large bay on the south west coast of Martinique.

 

We are really happy to be here as we haven’t been to Martinique before.  Also since we arrived in Barbados after the Atlantic crossing (one year ago tomorrow) we have been no further north than St Lucia after which we sailed south to Grenada for the hurricane season.  Somewhere new at last.

 

We called ‘Mecanique Plaisance’ who are the main Volvo dealer for Martinique (‘Inboard Diesel’ being the distributor) and arranged for them to visit the boat on Monday and hopefully let us finalise the diagnosis so we can decide what to do.