It’s HOT.

Oh my, it is hot. The last week or so has been almost Trinidadian in terms of heat. Luckily our mooring here in Le Marin has a little breeze. The mate’s fan died so that had to be replaced, or the consequences would have been unthinkable (a hot mate is not a happy mate!! – Mate). Talking of fans, we installed proper Caframo fans in the cabins and the saloon, they give a whopping 5000 hours of use or so. Sounds good, but in practice if they are on 24/7 it only equates to 208 days (they aren’t actually on quite that much (even mine!) so seem to last about two years – Mate). As our fans were installed mostly at the same time you can guess what is happening and at €108 apiece you can guess we aren’t pleased. With the aid of YouTube, I dismantled one and saw that the motor would be easily replaceable (for about €10 each) so you can see what I am going to do. As the motors aren’t easily available here (because everyone wants to sell you a new fan) we have enlisted the help of a very good friend and they will be arriving in Martinique quite soon, we hope.

We have both started to really like and appreciate Martinique; more and more. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this: Mark Twain famously said that ‘you can go to heaven if you want to, I’ll stay here in Bermuda’. I shall reply to this by saying ‘Mr Twain, you may stay in Bermuda if you like, I’m staying here in Martinique’.

Anyway, enough of this…

A quick snapshot of what we’ve been up to (and it is quick this time as it’s too hot to type and my laptop is getting hot and not working 100%) includes a day trip up to Pointe de Bout (across the water from Fort de France), mainly for the mate’s haircut but we did get back to St Anne in time for a late sunset dip off the beach there – which was a glorious highlight. We also saw an old French friend from Trinidad had moored up at Pointe de Bout. A few days later he was in Le Marin, so we had a nice evening with Michel and talked about his lovely Swan 38. I like S&S Swans, but they’re now much more dated than the Firsts.

Having enjoyed our late dip up at St Anne so much, the mate booked in a day for St Anne beach. It was great, hardly anyone there (it was the first day back at school) and the buses ran to perfect time. The mate does like St Anne beach, I do too, so we’ve vowed to go once a week and just enjoy a day off the boat.

Sadly, our dinghy Pierre (P2 or to give him his full name – Pierre the Second of Stargazer) needed a repair to his air floor and a replacement scupper valve. We waited until last Sunday when no one would be around and whipped over to Caraibe Marine’s pontoon. In blistering heat and trying to calm our tempers with each other (we succeeded) we sorted out the problems. The fun one being pouring a latex solution into the floor, via the valve entry. This involved ten minutes of ‘fun’ throwing the floor around in all directions to disperse the solution throughout. It’s amazing, but it works and now the floor is back to normal with no leaks… until next time…

Other than that, it has been business as usual. We’ve been dealing with house stuff and various things in the mornings and keeping Stargazer in good shape, which does take time. After lunch (as it is now) it is simply too hot to do anything, so we don’t!

I said to the mate I could live here in Martinique and she mentioned that I don’t speak French. I replied, ‘no matter, yours isn’t bad plus I’ve got an old school friend who lives in France and she helps when we need her.’ ‘Anyway, you can get an app now’, I told the mate; ‘you speak English into it and it comes out in French.’ The mate remained silent…

Coming up is a birthday – mine! Ouch. I’d rather not count the years now, but the mate is good at birthdays, takes them seriously and I’ve been told to man-up about it and celebrate. I just need to find a large enough cake for all the candles!! (Mate).

At some point when it’s a bit cooler we’ll give further thought to future plans, after our failed attempt at heading west due to the weather earlier this year. I know, as does the mate, that we can’t sit on our mooring buoy forever, but right here, right now, it is a very nice place in the world to be.