Martinique
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Wed 4 Jan 2012 02:11
We sailed from Les Saintes to Martinique leaving at 1400 yesterday and arriving at 1000 this morning and our anchored off the town. The wind had been blowing for some days and there was a big swell with confused seas, a couple of which ended up in the cockpit otherwise the boat was very dry! It was a mixed passage with strong winds between the islands of Les Saintes and Dominica and Dominica and Martinique with flukey winds down the leeward, western side of Dominica--then no wind down the west coast of Martinique, other than the now usual 25 knot squall that appears from nowhere just to keep us on our toes! The grib files which showed 15 to 20 knots of wind were somewhat inaccurate as we bounced along at 7 to 8 knots boat speed with a furled up jenny and a deep, three reefed main. We arrived somewhat tired but otherwise in good order--Marita was great and Gavin (the hydrovane self steering) remarkable given the wind/seas. We now seem to have had about 3 weeks of continuous wind, day and night, with rain squalls so we are looking forward to some more benign weather but perhaps that is wishful thinking and it does not happen in the Windward Isles, given their name!??
George returns to the UK tomorrow morning and then we are here for a few more days and will hire a car to tour the island before moving on to St Lucia.
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