We returned to Rodney Bay, St Lucia on the 10^th December, having another great windward sail, and anchored in the bay again as the Marina is full of boats that have crossed the Atlantic with the ARC rally.  This time we used our small Working Jib, which gave us a much more comfortable trip, as well as letting us point closer to the wind. We had quite a sociable time on this visit to Rodney Bay, as we met up with Pete and Jenny on ‘Modjadji’ who we had last seen when we towed them into Lagos in Portugal last October.  There was also a get together for members of the Ocean Cruising Club, hosted by ‘Ocean Blue’, which we had met in Marigot Bay last week.

We left St Lucia to return to Martinique early on the 13^th, and with the wind still in the North East we had another windward sail.  It was a fast and wet sail, and at one point we were down to 3 reefs in the mainsail in a brief squall, with so much rain we were drenched in minutes.  We had a few days in the Marina getting the boat ready for visitors: like any spare room, our spare cabin was full of all the stuff we couldn’t find anywhere else for!

Adrian and Helen, hashing friends from Devon, arrived on Saturday, and we used Sunday to take a tour of Martinique in a hire car.  We visited a Banana museum and went for a walk on the Atlantic coast.   Martinique seems to be very cultivated compared to what we have seen of other islands, and there were Banana plantations everywhere.  Our walk took us out around the coast, and had some interesting information on the ecology of mangroves.  After a restful day yesterday – walking along the coast just south of the marina and swimming from an almost deserted beach, we are now anchored in St Anne’s Bay, ready to start Helen and Adrian’s tour of the islands with a trip to St Lucia.

Le Vauclin, Martinique – they had a great market open on a Sunday

Banana Plantations everywhere

At the Banana museum they had a garden displaying a sample of the hundreds of banana varieties

Le Francois

In the mangroves

On the beach at St Anne