Malua is at 14:28.045N 60:52.524W in Marin on Martinique on 15/1/2013

Saint Anne is a lovely bay with just a small village with a Church and a few shops so if one wants to do a good shop in a French supermarket you have to go to the sailing capital of Martinique which is at Ville Du Marin.

We chose to take Malua round to what is known as Cul-de-sac du Marin. It is a buoyed channel right up into the head of the bay. Remember we are no in IALA region B where Red is on the Right Returning – Red buoys are on the Starboard when entering harbour. It takes a while to get use to it and even longer to point out a mark as a starboard mark that is red. Very confusing!

We asked Jack Tar and The Southern Cross to join us on Malua and to bring their dinghies along so that they could return to St Anne of their own accord. It was a very pleasant journey with four extra crew on board which as was expected led to many instances of... did you go her or here or .... do you know so and so from this vessel. A great gathering.

We dropped anchor only a little way into the bay and everyone set off in their dinghy to the Customs office to check-in. A painless task because one sits at a computer and fill in a form generally from a drop down list. The only problem is that the French do not use the USA keyboard so the letters are not in the expected position.

After completing the check-in procedure we visited the chandlery and then helped Laurie on Moana Roa with is ssb so he can join the MOzzie net on 8161 at 0800 local time.

Then the big shop at Dia, Leader Price and Carrefour. They each have their brands and selections but I must say the wine selection was very poor – a lot must have been sold over Christmas. The meat selection was hopeless so we chose not to purchase any. Then back to Malua to sample the wine selection.

A magical moment on Malua