Le Marin – Martinique

As I write this (Tuesday 9^th May) Stargazer is on a mooring about a third of a NM from the main marina in Le Marin. The weather has been superb, the solar panels have charged the batteries during the day, helped by the Duogen in air mode – the latter still doing its thing at night as the wind allows (it dies down during the night). Each time we head off out in Pierre (our dinghy) we get some water from the fuel pontoon. We could make it with our water-maker but the harbour is a little too busy for that, I’m sure you get my drift… All in all we are short of nothing and away from busy, hot and expensive marinas. This is becoming a little more like the Caribbean we envisaged, especially after our prolonged stay in Rodney Bay.

Stargazer leaving Rodney Bay Marina on a windless day

We actually arrived in Martinique (doesn’t the name itself sound evocative, almost gorgeous?) on Friday 28^th April. We had a good sail from St Lucia with full main and full genoa all the way. The wind was beam on, Stargazer was fast – even sailing lazily we topped an easy 7.5kts. Unfortunately, the mate got a bit hot and bothered and as she hadn’t had her sea-sickness tablet she was starting to feel a bit queasy. She could have actually managed the passage on her own, but being onshore for so long, recovering from Covid and then the heat of the day with a beam on sea started to take their toll*. Luckily, Martinique was only 25NM across the open channel from St Lucia and we were soon there (I had got so used to rolling down the trades that the beam on sea was a bit of a surprise! I now have le chapeau énorme which will keep the sun off on passage and make for a much happier mate).

Whenever I meet someone who has cruised the Caribbean I pick their brains about where to anchor, where to go etc. I do it that way as finding decent information still seems to be ‘hard work’, certainly when compared to UK cruising guides. So I had knowledge of where to anchor. Anchor! I immediately thought not on our arrival in the Le Marin channel. It was packed with boats, sandbanks were all around and I didn’t like the idea of Stargazer being anchored within a boat length of other boats – nor did the mate. We decided to head for the marina, after being offered a totally unsuitable berth by a berthing staff member that we could simply not understand (mind you, he could shout!) we headed out to what we saw were mooring buoys. These buoys are operated by the marina and we were led to one with another staff member, who, this time was very friendly and calm with very good English. If anyone is interested in this advice then here it is: in Le Marin forget anchoring, forget the marina and head for the mooring buoys.

View from the mooring

At first we didn’t think we’d stay in Le Marin for very long, but the more we hunted around, the more we quite liked it. Well, we like the shops and the food! Martinique is a French department (927, or is it 972? for anyone interested) and it seems more French than France! The upside to this is that the supermarkets are superb, the prices are excellent and the food is delicious. So even if I had wanted to leave quickly I would have faced formidable opposition from the mate (who loves her food, as we now all know). Our only downside at the moment is that the fridge has to work so hard that we have hatched a plan to insulate it a little more than it already is. In the UK this would entail a simple trip to the nearest Screwfix/B&Q etc, or an online order for delivery, probably next day. Here in the Caribbean, it involves car hire (luckily this is cheap) and an all day trip to Fort de France. The mate is keen for this – you’ve guessed it, we pass even larger shops and she can buy more toiletries…

Our water-maker was leaking a little from one of its seals and thinking that Le Marin would be the place to get that sorted out I duly took the end cap off it, from where the leak was. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I already had a spare seal onboard. A quick flush through to check all was well, followed by another pickle and all is well. This is especially good news as we will be relying on our water-maker quite a lot over the next few weeks. Which leads me on to: what are we doing over the next few weeks? But before I get into that I want to say one other thing about Le Marin: the mate, who isn’t too keen on engines and suchlike has been out in the dinghy. I’ve purposely encouraged this as it’s our only way of leaving the boat. She was initially a bit bothered by the outboard engine so I had a brainwave – treat it as ‘driving lessons’ and offer much praise whilst doing so. IT WORKED – the mate now zooms around with near total confidence on her own whenever she pleases! Brilliant! This is great news for the near (ish) future too when my lovely sister in law comes out to see us. As there is always a bit of a boat job to be done (this will be minimized when we have guests) it would be super to see the mate taking her sister off in the dinghy when I get bogged down with a said job for a couple of hours.

Back to the next few weeks…

Well, we have to get south. Hurricane season starts on June 1^st and our insurance dictates that, to be covered properly, we have to be in Grenada by then (for those who don’t know, Grenada is deemed to be outside of the main hurricane belt). So we will leave Le Marin early next week, overnight is St Anne (just outside Le Marin) and head back to St Lucia, anchoring in Rodney Bay for a couple of nights. From there we intend to head straight for Bequia, where we’ll anchor in Admiralty Bay for as long as time allows before heading south. As long as we are in striking distance of Grenada by the 1^st June all will be well J

Once in Grenada our plan is to spend June and July in the various anchorages and then move into Port Louis marina for August, September and October (these being the height of the hurricane season).

Before I hand over to the mate who I’m sure will have plenty to say (if we’re lucky, she’ll have some photos too) I just want to say that being in such a French place as Martinique reminds me dearly of two very good French friends that we have (currently living in the US); they know they have an open invite to come and sail the islands with us anytime they want to – we hope they do!

Here’s the mate:

Vive la France! Martinique is where France and the Caribbean collide – cockerels and chickens pecking around the palm tree line streets whilst the hot Caribbean sun is cooled by the easterly breezes. Magnifique! After struggling with pretty expensive supermarkets in St Lucia without a great deal of choice, I have totally over-cheesed here and fully intend to pack the fridge full of a variety of fromage before we head south again :) There is also a supermarket with its own dinghy dock so you can wheel your (full) trolley right down to your dinghy. Skip is also stocking up on vin rouge. He hosted a wine tasting session onboard the other night where we each selected a totally different wine as our favourite – quelle surprise! It has also been good to exercise the bits of my brain where I have stored a relatively decent amount of French vocabulary – although a phone call to a computer spares shop earlier today suggests I still have quite a bit of brushing up to do…

Supermarket dinghy dock with mangroves in the background

Skip’s wine haul #1…

It is really lovely and peaceful being out on a mooring, and much cooler as the boat swings head to wind so is nicely ventilated. The moorings are quite busy but lots of boats appear to have been left here for the hurricane season so we only have a few neighbours – most of which appear to be permanent liveaboards and several of the them with boat cats :)

Never having owned new or very reliable cars I do have rather a distrust in engines, added to this we started out with a two stroke outboard (neither new nor reliable!). We now have a shiny, new four stroke outboard (thanks M&D) so I am much happier. I also feel like I have finally got to grips with tiller steering (which isn’t rocket science but when one is so used to a wheel it takes a bit of brain power to think the other way) so am much happier pootling around in the dinghy. I’m also getting more proficient at barging my way into dinghy docks to make space for Pierre! All in all, life on the water is great.

I’m looking forward to exploring a few places on the way south to Grenada, and earmarking lots to explore on the way north again next season. There seems to be no end of beautiful bays with palm tree lined beaches and rum shacks – how is a girl to choose?!

Local yole (with sail and oars) practicing for racing