Martinique, Cosmo's Birthday and "Where's Matty?" 14:36.0N 61:04.0W
Pacific Bliss
Colin Price
Thu 11 Mar 2010 17:59
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Martinique, Fort de
France
A most irritating sail down to Martinique. We
left at midnight, motored till dawn and then the wind came up and we took a
long tack out. Oriole, left at 2.30am and beat us to the entrance to the
harbour by tacking up the coast. Skipper very grumpy!
 We stopped in Fort de France, under a fort, and under
the tricolor. The Saunders were due to come here the next day and we would
take them down to Les Trois Islets across the bay. Great place to clear in
at the local chandlers.
Sadly, the ferry didn't run on Mondays, the boat
Michael was going to charter from St Lucia to Martinique went fishing and the
possibility of swimming was scotched by Lynn. So, the Saunders weren't
coming here after all. We decided to go down to St Lucia to pick them
up. Left in the late afternoon and arrived in Rodney bay around 11pm
having sailed most of the way on a single tack, which is most unlike
us.
Picked the Saunders up the next day and immediately
headed back to Martinique having been through the rather tricky customs process
in Rodney Bay. Had a zippy sail and headed for Baie des Anglais on the
East coast that Colin was very keen to visit for its remoteness and
beauty. A very shallow entry made for an interesting anchorage. We
only stayed one night as it wasn't the idyllic beachside anchorage we
thought. There was a lovely anchorage around the corner, but far to
shallow for us to approach. Got in a but of swimming and zipping around in
the dinghy
    "Where's Matty?"
 . . . .
. Safe and sound. Asleep again.. St Anne
Round the corner is St Anne. Nice little town,
nasty little beach but great French bread.
Kids did some opi' sailing and got pulled along on the
Dickenson boy's bodyboards. We vowed to get some out to us come hell or
high water.
    Cosmo had cheesy puffs for his birthday, in fact he had
a mega birthday. Breakfast with Granny and Papa and the largest chocolate
croissant in the world; lunch in a cafe; balloon games on the beach; pizza party
and on the boat; all rounded off with cake and a film. Tequila and rum
punch for adults softened the screams of the children bouncing on the
trampoline.
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