Martinique

Moonbeam
David and Lynn Wilkie
Sun 13 Jan 2013 19:00
 
14.30.263N   061.05.354W
 
On the 2nd January we moved North the 8 miles to the anchorage at Pigeon Island which is very pleasant but the forecast was for a couple of days of bad weather and we wanted to do some provisioning so after a couple of days we headed into Rodney Bay Marina for a couple of nights. The wet and windy weather turned this into 6 which was convenient and sociable!
 
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It rains in St Lucia too!
 
We got the ‘dollar bus’ to Castries- the island’s capital – but we found it disappointing.Very much geared to selling trinkets to cruise ship tourists we did not find anything to recommend it- even our lunch!
 
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Foiled again in Castries!
 
Outside the marina was a 24metre Jongert called ‘Uisge Beathe’ with Henk and Liz on board- they used to live in Kilmelford!
 
The unsettled weather passed through and we headed back out to anchor off Pigeon before heading North to Martinique.
 
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Fishermen at Pigeon Island                                                             Gregory the floating fruit seller
 
A glorious close reach in 12 knots of wind but a lumpy sea was replaced by a squall that backed the wind 30 degrees and gusted to 27 knots!
 
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However in the lee off Martinique all was quiet and we picked up a new ( free ! ) mooring ( EU Money! ) in Grand Anse D’Arlet after 4 hours sailing.   24.6 miles logged
 
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Sunday was a glorious day and Matti arrived in his Swan 46 “Eclipse” – first met in La Gomera over 2 years ago!