The clans are gathering.
Oriole
Sun 2 Apr 2006 15:23
On Sunday tucked, up in the isolation of Trois
Islets, Martinique, only a stones throw from bustling Fort de France, we could
have been forgiven for thinking that the world had packed up and moved away. We
did a few jobs on the boat, read, relaxed and not a soul came anywhere near
us. In contrast round the corner on Monday we cleared Customs, did the
laundry, refueled and re-stocked with French gastronomic goodies and met up with
couple of other yachts in the busy anchorage, constantly disturbed by the wash
of passing ferries.
Evening callers in Rodney Bay, St
Lucia. Transaction completed with boat boys - all smiles.
On our way to Sainte Anne in the SE corner of
Martinique, to meet up with more friends, we passed Taraki RCC from Newton
Ferrers but inspite of shouting, waving and calling them on the radio we had no
response. We had last seen them in Trinidad in December doing a refit in
preparation for the return trip across the Atlantic. In Sainte Anne after
an exciting beat along the south coast we met up with Quadrille, Speedwell
OCC and Moonsong RCC. A lunch party ensued. Except for
Moonsong, which was a surprise, the other meetings had been organised by radio
as we were coming south. The long range HF radio is a great way to keep in
touch, and arranging to meet, as otherwise in this enormous area a boat is a
needle in a haystack and meetings are purely chance.
The Bequia bumboat refueling a
neighbour.
After a brief overnight in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, we
have now moved south to ever popular but totally unspoilt Bequia, and a meeting
with Moonrise RCC a replacement for Island Moon, a Hurricane Ivan
casualty. Moonrise is another Hallberg Rassy; bought in the Med, Peter has
just completed his tenth westbound transatlantic. John's sister Liz flies
in on Monday so this weeekend Oriole will be put into charter mode for her
reception. We plan to drop her off in Grenada in ten days time and hope
that this time she will get enough sailing. We had decided to give her a
quiet time on her last visit and she complained that she did not get enough
sailing! A dive is scheduled for this afternoon and we will be on the
lookout for seahorses which we have only ever seen here.
Bequia Divemaster. Could Douglas
be a greater attraction than seahorses?
As they are only a a couple of inches long they are
not easy to spot but are really charming. The winds have been relatively light
this week (force 4 rather than force 6-7) and we have had some great sails
between the islands in somewhat smoother seas than are normal. The dry
season is well and truely with us now, but in six weeks time the first tropical
waves will start out in the Atlantic and a new Hurricane Season will be on
its way. Already the yachts are moving away and in a month from
now Oriole will be ashore in Trinidad and we will be home in NF soon
after.