Trip Update - 27th February 2009 Grand Anse d'Arlet, Martinique

Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Fri 6 Mar 2009 00:37


Position: 14:30:10N 61:05:20W

 

In the interests of self-sufficiency, I decided that it was time to start relying less on the engine and the electric windlass.  So we decided to sail off the anchor.  This involves me pulling the chain up by hand (usually about 30 metres, plus a 25kg Delta anchor), with the mainsail up, and unfurling a bit of jib to sail off downwind.  It all worked fine and was a good bit of exercise leaving me nice and hot and red in the face.  I don’t know what the other boats must have thought of our antics.

 

We had a short sail round to Grande Anse d’Arlet, a bay just south of the capital, Fort de France.  We had a music session with the girls on the way, playing all the musical instruments in time to one of their CDs.  Their music CDs are imprinted on our brains and most of the trip can be choreographed with one of their many songs.  Just playing a song evokes such a strong image of a place.  However, it is now getting to the point where I may cheerfully smash up the CD player with a winch handle if Linda Arnold and her “Coral Reef” song comes on again…

 

Jamming session off Martinique

 

Grand Anse is another lovely bay with turquoise waters, a long sandy beach and lots of bars and cafes.  It is quiet here, mainly because of the strike, but there are still a huge number of yachts anchored throughout the bay.  We went ashore and watched the sunset with a drink. I opted for a Ti Punch which is rum and sugar syrup and I think is the Martinique speciality.  This one was a knockout – effectively a large shot!  Unfortunately it didn’t help us see the green flash at sunset, which we’re yet to see.

 

Martinique seems to lack boat boys, those enterprising souls who charge out to “greet” incoming yachts and try to do some business with them. I don’t know if Martinique has banned them.  However we haven’t really had any trouble with boat boys on other islands – on the whole, they’ve been very professional and not too insistent if you really don’t want to buy something from them.  I was led to believe that boat boys were a real menace in the Caribbean. The only place they were a bit aggressive was when sailing down the coast of St Vincent – a couple came out and tried to “encourage” us into one or other bays, when we were a couple of miles off.

 

 

Swimming off the boat, Grand Anse d’Arlet, Martinique

 

Another hard day at the beach, Grand Anse d’Arlet Martinique