Martinique – Forte de France

14:33.531N 61:06.83W

22nd January 2015

5570 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            Well what can I say, I have my battery charger back on board and it is still not working. Again the problem is spare parts, or lack of them, however all is not lost, what I do have now is a list of components so I think a visit to ebay is in order, get all the bits and solder them on myself. The good news is that I have still not been charged any money for the various technicians time so free tech advice I suppose. The customs clearance at Rodney bay was all very smooth and efficient and so our government costs for the stay were $100 EC for customs/light dues which is ok as most of the navigation lights on St Lucia did seem to be working even if they didn’t necessarily line up with what my chart said. The commotion with the Police boat on Saturday night turned out to be a break in on a yacht on another nearby pontoon which although these things happen is still not a very good advert for St Lucia particularly in light of the yachtsman’s death last year during a robbery attempt while at anchor. Back to the customs clearance, it all went well and we were even offered and declined a free AIDs test as part of the process which is a first but they are having a health campaign which can never be a bad thing. While we were waiting for the immigration chap to turn up for work we got talking to a local guy who turned out to be the St Lucia national swimming coach, he was at the marina to teach some swimming lessons in the onsite pool. He was a very interesting chap and although originally from Grenada is now a very patriotic St Lucian. He said that only about one in ten locals can swim and amongst the fisherman it is probably even lower which is a pretty poor statistic for a small island, his mission is to turn that around and he was very passionate about it. As an aside he also proudly pointed out that St Lucia is one of only three countries in the world where you are more likely to work for a woman than for a man, (answers on a post card reference the other two, and chaps just saying my house and putting your home address down is not an acceptable answer).

            The trip up to Martinique was pretty uneventful and ended up being a motor sail in 5 knots of wind. We spent one night in the Cul De Sac Marin anchored just outside the 600 berth marina and went ashore to clear into customs and have a Ricard or two, we were now back in France after all. The customs process involved nothing more complicated than completing a form on a computer pushing print and paying 5 Euros (yes, we are back in Europe) and that covers us for arrival and departure, so simple. The next morning we moved the 20 or so miles around the corner to the Fort De France bay and anchored right up under the dominating walls of Fort St Louise in 3 meters of water and only about 30 meters from the pontoon and beach. When we looked at our neighbours I thought for a moment that Paul from Ramsgate had beaten us to it (see pics) but on closer inspection this was an intrepid American in a very small boat.

I thought Paul from Ramsgate had got here first

This really is a bit of France and the whole feel of the place is more French Mediterranean than Caribbean, they even speak all funny, no matter how loud I talk they still refuse to understand a word I say, blooming typical. Luckily for us the Lanzarotte to Fort De France classic yacht race was due to finish the same day and the winners pontoons were about 100 meters from where we were anchored and so we had a grandstand view as the first yacht, Altair, came across the line under an absolute mountain of cream coloured top sails and multiple jibs followed by a press helicopter and fire boat with water cannons shooting a fountain into the air. Her varnish and brass work had such a depth of shine that it looked like you could dive right into them, the crew were also resplendent in matching T shirts and shorts as they lined the side deck for the arrival celebrations, and this was at the completion of an Atlantic crossing/race!! It soo reminded me of Spectra’s arrival in Barbados.

Altair looking  resplendent having just taken line honours

Yep still looks shiny by night

They must have done extremely well as it was two days later that we caught sight of the next boat coming in as we sailed out at 5 in the morning for the trip up to Portsmouth on Dominica. Over the previous two days Steve and myself had taken a trip up to Fort St Louise while Norma went shopping, we all had a good look around the town and had a very French and very good meal ashore. The fort is still an operational French Naval base and so the tour was very restricted to be honest, but it did include a walk along the battlements and glacis plate which gave us a great view of the harbour with Spectra bobbing around on her anchor below. One notable point of the tour was the Iguanas which infest the place, apparently there used to be a zoo in the fort and these are escapees that have gone native. 

Me trying to be brave while a dragon sizes me up for lunch

He’s the king of the castle

View from the fort Spectra in 4^th boat from the right

Iguanas keeping an eye on the commercial port

            And that brings me up to date it is now 8am and we are abeam of the northern point of Martinique and Dominica is just visible in amongst the clouds on the horizon. A small pod of dolphins has just swam past in the opposite direction which are the first we have seen in I don’t know how long. Unfortunately they must have been hungry as they didn’t stop to play, or maybe they only speak French and so couldn’t understand what Norma was saying? The plan is to travel most of the way up the coast of Dominica to Portsmouth in order to take the Indian river tour into the mangrove swamps and rain forest of the interior tomorrow before moving on again. The guide book is not very flattering about the honesty of the locals and advises paying a boat watcher if you leave the boat unattended for any time. But as always, we will take it as we find it, the guide book has been pretty consistently wrong about most things so far.

            That’s all for now sausage and bacon baguettes are being prepared and my stomach is rumbling I will send this as soon as I can get connected.

PS: we are looking for some crew to come back across the Atlantic at the beginning of June. Three legs of about 2 weeks each, Norfolk to the Bahamas, Bahamas to the Azores, Azores to Cork….anyone interested in all or part? drop us a line.

Sunset over the Forte de France

That looks like the front cover of an Isaac Azimov novel

PS: we are looking for some crew to come back across the Atlantic at the beginning of June. Three legs of about 2 weeks each, Norfolk to the Bahamas, Bahamas to the Azores, Azores to Cork….anyone interested? drop us a line.

Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com

No attachment or pics please as this is a very low bandwidth satellite link and costs a small fortune per minute for downloads and they block up my weather reports.

If you want to send normal email pics attachment etc.

Paul {DOT} russell732 {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} co {DOT} uk and I will pick it up when I am on WiFi