Well, Ulrich is back for certain.  Lawrence arrived and changed the fuel filters first thing on Monday morning and cleaned out the gunge in the bottom. Sadly this did nothing but give us a few more revs in forward gear so back to the drawing board.  A somewhat frustrating session with Just Ask with broadband blinking on and off throughout came up with a few more ideas to check but Ulrich has gone away to have a think about it with Lawrence and thought that they should lift out Windy to have a really good look. He decided that in the meantime we were safe to go to Martinique with a sort of promise that he would rescue us if everything went horribly wrong.  So we leapt up, battened down the hatches and dashed off to Martinique.

We had a cracking sail bowling along between 7 and a half and eight knots.  It brought a smile to our shore bound hearts.  Windy loved it and romped along like a happy labrador bouncing through barley. 

We reached St Anne in no time at all and pottered around both streets, buying in a few supplies in the tiny supermarket and checking out the restaurants. The one recommended in the guidebook had disappeared but we found an excellent french place, decorated in driftwood painted in african designs.  We feasted on delicious crab parcels, lobster ad seafood platter with cute little mini Le Creuset dishes of veg in cheese washed down with a tangy bottle of Muscadet.  Totally yum.  La Patron spoke no english so I had to dredge out the schoolgirl french again. It works ok one way but I often haven’t a clue what they are saying in reply.  Nods and smiles seem to suffice.