Plus la change

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 11 Dec 2013 10:46

Sun, Mon & Tues – 8th, 9th & 10th Dec

 

Very mixed weather at the moment with strong easterly Trade winds causing a lot of difficulties all round. We have been very well placed, anchored in a good position in Le Marin, Martinique and we have no plans to rush off from the island just yet.

 

On Sunday we were invited on board Tulasi (Amel 64) for drinks with Manfred and Anne.  They are moored in the marina here waiting for some spares to arrive from France before they head down in the New Year to St Lucia to take part in the World ARC rally.  We had met M & A in 2010 when they had been sailing on ‘A Plus’ in the East Med rally through the middle east.  Their boat is wonderful and the new Amel is really not in any way like the traditional Amels and it was a real delight to be shown round and chat to M & A.

 

Sarah’s hair appointment turned out to be a figment of her imagination on the Monday morning, but she was able to schedule a cut for Tuesday afternoon which turned out very well.  We have managed to acquire wifi legally via the marina who were happy to sell us some time, but fully expected us to come back moaning that we could not get a good signal out in the anchorage – but they reckoned without the Wirie!  But in general it has been a surprise to find that the French have a rather vague attitude towards wifi and even the restaurants and bars that have wifi, feel the need to charge extra by the minute for its use. Not very enlightened we felt.

 

Actually it has been quite  a big culture shock to arrive here in such a staunch outpost of France. Only last month we were still in the USA where everyone is greeted with effusive “How are you today” type greetings, but all of this has had to give way to guttural grunts of acknowledgement and the ubiquitous Gallic shrug which can mean anything from ‘yes I could help you,’ to ‘ do I look like I could give a damn?’  But the shops are good and the wine is cheap so now is not the time to get cute about this.

 

We are planning to sail round to St Ann’s which is a beach resort nearby and try anchoring there until the weekend when the weather is set to deteriorate again for a few days. This would allow us to go swimming and make water again, two things that are not going to happen in this anchorage in Le Marin.  Longer term we are a bit torn now whether to head north to meet up with friends in Antigua and Guadeloupe for Xmas, or continue south to St Lucia.  We suspect that the weather will make this decision for us as heading north to Antigua may not turn out to be much fun as things stand at the moment.

 

On Tuesday morning we did a big food shop taking advantage of the Leader Price and Carrefour shops here. All very handy with a dinghy dock nearby although Sarah was rather disappointed by the absence of good veg. Clearly we need to get up earlier and head down to the market.