We left Rodney Bay in St Lucia excited and looking forward to explore the Islands North of St Lucia. The first island would be Martinique. The crossing over the Channel between Martinique and St Lucia was a fun sailing. As we sailed quite fast a few fly fishes flew past ahead of us attracting a bird that followed us for quite a while. Then two birds, then three birds, four and we counted at the end up to 12-15 birds! These birds were pretty good at flying and diving for the fish wherever they found it. Some dived just in front of the boat sailing at 8-9 knots! Some suddenly appeared from behind the foresail. No one seemed to be bothered by the boat’s high speed. It was a fascinating ride together with this herd of birds!

Once in Martinique in St Anne we cleared in which means change of flag. From the flag of St Lucia to the flag of Martinique which belongs to France. Instead of putting up the French flag we chose Martinque’s own flag. Alex is our Chef of Flags. 

I must admit that it was a bit of a chock coming to Martinique. I knew it was French but I didn’t expect it to be that French! Coming from the South, visiting and meeting Caribbean people, living a bit on the edge, some really nice people, content with what they have and being very friendly, it felt very misplaced to come to ”Europe” and France. Martinique is a department of France and it was like stepping into France with the road signs being the same, the cafés, the people and at some places even the mentality that unfortunately is not very positive… We didn’t need to come in all the way to Martinique, we could have just as well been on the Southern coast France during summer… After a few days I got adapted to the fact that we are now in France. The best thing was however to step into a real French bakery!

In St Anne we met some of our boat friends with family, the German boat Rosea with Max 13 years and Martha 5 years and the English/French boat Khujada with their  3 kids. It was a lovely reunion and we had a BBQ on the beach.  

  

One of Inez’s many different sleeping positions. 

  

The last night in St Anne before heading North.

  

  

The next morning we were really surprised of the christal clear water where we were anchored. Beautiful!