Sitting in Martinique

Moonshine
Mon 26 Mar 2007 01:38
The trip to Martinique was interesting.
That's interesting as in the Chinese curse - 'may you live in interesting times' not interesting as in 'ooh look at that'
It started off with a small ships advisory in force - gusty winds and big seas - but the decision was to go anyway.
Just because the boat has sailed from Falmouth to St Lucia without hassle doesn't mean it's still in a fit state to sail the 36 miles to Martinique! I should have guessed from the cockroach war that things deteriorate unless actively stopped from doing so.
I didn't even check why when the engine didn't sound quite perfect on the way to the fuel dock.We had a lot of fuel left over from the crossing, and I thought it was just a bit stale and dirty.
I still didn't check why when the electric autohelm tried to steer us in circles - just turned it off, took it off, gave it a good shake, and put it back on. It worked, and I set it for Martinique. The log wasn't working either, but we could do without that!
The sea was lumpy, but plenty of wind. It was delightful sailing - water over the decks, but warm and safe. We fished, but failed! Flying fish were everywhere.
Apart from the leaping about, everything was right with the world.
I was asleep when we closed on Martinique, but Sandra knew the plan, and I think felt quite smug at the thought that I would have bumped into it if she hadn't steered us around it.
The wind got up a bit as we were approaching the marina at Point de Bout. I hate strange marinas when it's windy.
Sails down, and start the engine. No. Engine wouldn't start. Discussion on alternative plan. Insufficient time to overhaul engine. Sails back up. Could we anchor off a strange coast under sail - maybe. Suppose we then couldn't repair it! Could we enter a strange marina under sail? The answer to that is clearly yes, but then what! It would be like freewheeling downhill without brakes into a carpark full of Rolls hoping that a space was available at the precise point that you would otherwise have stopped.
No, the engine was essential, at least reverse gear was.
Tack over to Fort de France to give thinking time. Heated discussions with engine. Engine remained silent bar occasional grunt. Threatened total dismantling. Pulled rank. Engine reluctantly started, but ran very very slowly. If I looked away, it stopped. But slow was enough, just mustn't look away. Engine knew this.
Reapproached Point de Bout marina. Engine had upper hand. Rank didn't work no more. Passed point of no return. Looked away!
Freewheeled downhill with no brakes into a carpark full of Rolls.

We met a very nice lady on the boat next to the one we hit.

The engine has now been subdued. All it needed was a few bits of maintenance, and to know that it was important too.

Martinique is nothing you would expect of the Carribean. Unless of course you were French.
It is as French as it is possible to get. Point de Bout is all classic French chic, with boutiques, restuarants and the elegance of Paris all set in the tropical sunshine. Even the beaches are manicured. We sat through a lunch of moules and frites in a French speaking restuarant drinking French draft beer in those tiny glasses. Wonderful.

Our attempts to clear customs on Saturday were also met with a gallic shrug of the shoulders - closed - come back Monday.

Tomorrow - Monday - we leave for the 90 mile sail to Les Saintes, a group of islands just below Guadeloupe, and also very French, and difficult to get to unless you do it this way.

Beginning to get into this

Rod n Sandra - mouse jumped ship.


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