St Anne, Martinique

14:26.1N  060:53.5W

We stayed for around 14 days in Bequia, largely due to a lack of weather window to head north. I must admit, I can’t work Bequia out. It looks nice, it has a nice feel to it, but the anchorage is packed to capacity and not everyone understands how much room you need to leave around you. It might look nice now, but what about that squall at 2.00am? Then what? Do you really fancy getting up to deal with all the commotion? Well, yes, it appears that most people did! During our first week, we had to shoo away two boats that were way to close and the worst happened to us one night at 0130 in a squall when a catamaran dragged anchor and hit us square on the bow. Luckily there was very little damage to Stargazer. In these situations it’s not just potential damage it’s also if your own anchor has been pulled out. I said to the mate “I’ve had enough, we’re moving over to a mooring buoy on the other side of the bay”. The mate agreed, her nerves were also frayed by all the idiocy we’d seen in the anchorage.

A calmer few days followed and we felt able to leave the boat on the buoy and enjoy a couple of walks around the island. Bequia is a nice island, but these days, I feel, it’s best visited by land.

Ever seen this? Cows under palm trees!

The wild side of Bequia.

Skip having a nice rest after a long walk.

Still smiling on the long stroll home.

A few days later, what appeared to be a weather window, showed itself on the forecasts and so we said goodbye to Bequia and headed out. Our destination was Martinique, via Rodney Bay, St Lucia. We had a great sail, Stargazer flying along with some motoring in the lee of St Vincent, then flying along again to St Lucia. After some motoring in the lee of St Lucia, we were debating whether or not to go straight for Martinique. It would have meant an arrival of around 0100 in St Anne, but we knew the anchorage and knew that fishing pots would be ‘all over the place’. Nevertheless we had a full moon and our search light was fully charged so we felt good about it. Until – a massive squall hit us just to the south of Rodney Bay. After that, we were tired and less enthusiastic about a further 25M so we anchored in Rodney Bay for the night.

The next day was forecast to be potentially rough, so we put two reefs in the sails and donned our harnesses to clip on. After the headland of St Lucia, the wind calmed and we ended up motorsailing most of the way to St Anne. We found a good spot in the massive anchorage – good holding on sand and here we sit until we move into Le Marin in a few days. We are waiting for confirmation of a mooring buoy for Christmas and New Year.

Luckily that mate has been ashore and we are full of red wine, cheese, baguettes and other assorted French goodies. Mmm, a world away from the islands to the south…