Le Marin, Martinique

Another month has passed us by and we are still in Le Marin, Martinique. Let me explain: life admin seems to take an age, even in these days of ‘instant’ communications, or should I say faster more ‘stressful’ communications. Anyway I digress, we have achieved quite a lot really over the last month. We have Stargazer in fine fettle with upgraded solar panels, serviced heads (toilets), a new water pump, refurbished Tack Tick instruments (we love Tack Tick stuff). The screens burnt on two of ours but we managed to find a local Frenchman who specialises in this repair. After 160 Euros the instruments are as good as new. Compare that to a new set up likely costing £7000, yes, I did say £7000; the main reason being that Tack Tick are no longer available and the entire system would have to be changed – so we are pretty pleased with ourselves. We also have a brand new rain-catcher. Yes, a rain-catcher – we are going to drink rainwater. Our rain-catcher, in a decent tropical downpour (which are frequent) should fill both tanks in around 30mins – far better than a water maker; ours produces good water but only at 6litres an hour and I swear the mate can drink it faster than this on some days, ha ha. Fear not, though, those that love us, we have a fine filter and will treat the tank during the rain-catcher filling process. We’ve also repaired two jib cars as the rubber supports disintegrated, presumably in UV. The repair, using dyneema was only going to be temporary, but it looks so good and seems so strong that I think we’ll call it a job done.

Whilst we’ve been in Marin, there has been a horrible northerly swell. It didn’t matter to us here, but most of the anchorages further up the island chain would have been subject to awful swell coming into them and they would have been very rolly indeed. Not for us! So we’ve been quite pleased with our choice. One day I said to the mate, we might live in Martinique – who knows, all things are possible – it is a pretty nice place, civilised too.

Obviously we’ve been doing other things and intend to do a couple of walks and beach trips before we leave. Needless to say, there has been another carnival (Kannaval in Creole). It was pretty good, we enjoyed it – the mate will put in the pictures, so I’ll leave further descriptions alone. However, we also managed to get a ringside seat (the brick wall by the pitch) for the champion of champions boules tournament. We have both marvelled at boules since we first came to Martinique, this time we were both impressed by the skill of the players. Sadly we had to leave before the end and we were so enthralled that there are no blog pictures.

So, what’s next? Well we’ve formulated our plan, we’re putting in the finishing touches and we’ll reveal it in the next blog! For now, we intend to leave Le Marin and head to Antigua via St Pierre, Les Saintes, Guadeloupe and Dominica. We have to be in Antigua well before the 28^th March – the reason being – sister in law is visiting us again. We love it when Vicky comes to see us, the mate is especially looking forward to it this time as we’ve been in Le Marin doing admin and jobs for a long time…

Jib car before repair

Jib car after repair

Le Rain Catcher – it hasn’t really rained since we got it!

Skip has developed a taste for a Tarte Exotique!!

Eco troupe at Kannaval – they smelt of foliage!

Best headdress at Kannaval

Treacly men – they smelt v sweet!

Eye wateringly short shorts at Kannaval – eek!

Best eye makeup at Kannaval