14:44.279N 61:10.664W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Wed 23 Jan 2013 16:47
|
"St Pierre, Martinique - 21st January
2013"
We woke up this morning to the sound of a dragging
anchor, if we were dragging, there was no urgency as we were heading out to sea
albeit backwards! We decided to quietly get the ship ready for sea whilst
enjoying an early morning cuppa. As we thought about the situation we
realised that whilst sitting at anchor the previous afternoon, the breeze
had never blown from the land to make us lay with our stern out to sea.
Also, we had looked at the anchor when we were swimming and it was nicely bedded
in the sand. Once the other occupants of the bay had left that evening, we
put out more chain, so the rumbling we heard was not the anchor dragging, but
the chain swiveling around 90 degrees and letting itself out. We felt
confident enough to have our breakfast before finally leaving our safe
haven at around 7am.
We had a lovely gently sail with a couple of calm
spells as the wind altered its direction off the various headlands we
passed. As we would like to meet up with Chris and Kevin again and plan to
come back down to Martinique we have decided not to spend too much time here but
to head on up to Dominica. St Pierre where we can "Clear Out", seemed a
good place to stop as it is fairly north of the island and then tomorrow we will
start off early for Dominica as Portsmouth is some 38 miles away from St
Pierre, which is about 10 hours sailing or motoring for us We may
stop at an anchorage before Portsmouth should we get tired or the weather is not
favourable.
We arrived at St Pierre at 11:30am and launched
Rustle for our journey ashore to "Clear Out" at Customs. Paperwork in
Mustique has all been done electronically on their computers. Having had
the steep learning curve when we "Checked In" at Marin, the Clearance was easy,
now that I know one has to use the numeric key pad and not the number keys and
also to remember that the keyboard is not QWERTY, as I am used to, and
checking for letters slows down the natural typing process. These offices,
in the Marina office in Marin and in the Travel Information Centre here in St
Pierre are however fun and far less daunting than the Customs Offices in other
ports. The staff are chatty (in French) and very helpful, the whole
process being civilized and friendly, being part of the EU has it bonus'.
We launched Rustle for the first time off the deck
and all went well. She pushed through the wind over tide waves and we did
not get wet at all, plus she is very stable. She really is ideal
and easily managed by the two of us, we continue to be very pleased with
her.
|