Le Marin, Martinique

Yes, we know! We’re still here. Even for us it’s been a long time. However, bar the shouting, we’ve got all the domestic and administrative things one has to do in life mostly under control. A massive thanks to Pete and Phil, who know who they are and what they’ve done for us.

Why are we still here?  The reasons are many and varied; one of the main factors is the wind. It’s been blowing like stink – for weeks. Yes, we could have left, but we reasoned that if we did it would be to a crowded, rolly anchorage (they all are) with some difficulties getting water and food (in the sense we have a small dinghy and outboard and you can get pretty swamped going ashore). Not only that, but our water carriers (collapsible ones) have, shall we say, ‘collapsed’. So some might say it was a defeatist attitude to stay in Le Marin, but we don’t think so – we have bigger fish to fry – more on that later.

We do however have one important date. It is to get up to Antigua to see Vicky. Vicky flies in on the 26^th March, today is the 15^th March and we’re pretty sure we can leave Le Marin on 18^th March. This should allow time to day sail up to Antigua and still arrive a couple of days before Vicky – we’d better do because the mate will have my number if we don’t!

Yep, Vicky is coming… :)

We have enjoyed a couple of beach days, although one was a bit like being at Blackpool as it the French school holidays (I did manage to have a wonderful massage on the beach which was super relaxing – Mate). We’ve also had a couple of walks over the south east coast, to a place called Baie des Anglais. This was quite a walk in the heat. It did take us through some farmland which looked very European, and did we see a side of Martinique that you wouldn’t see otherwise.

Baie des Anglais

The mate found a friend – Guillaume the tiny gecko!

Not sure what the crop was? It is melon season though…

Skip outside what must be one of the smallest chapels ever on the path over Baie des Anglais. This was about the only place we could find shade!

Moulin Val d’Or – an old sugar cane mill

Summer in Derbyshire? No – winter in Martinique

The mate always has a photogenic smile

So, back to it, what is the meaning of our statement that we have larger fish to fry? Is it related to our last blog when we mentioned that we’d reveal our future plans? (Plans as far as you can have them these days anyway). Yes it is!

Here’s what we’re thinking, in a nutshell (disclaimer: sailing plans can change at short notice – as any sailor knows)…

As we approach our three year anniversary of arriving in the Eastern Caribbean we’ve been thinking long and hard, difficult though this is sometimes. A little background won’t go amiss. We both wanted to sail the Atlantic ourselves on our own boat – mission accomplished and we can be rightly proud of ourselves. The Eastern Caribbean is the obvious place to arrive and we gave no more thought than that, other than thinking we’d sail the islands for a while and work the next stage out from there. At the back of our minds thoughts about crossing the Pacific and circumnavigating via South Africa were always there. However, we have found our time in the Eastern Caribbean to be extremely expensive which, sadly, has ruled out the possibility of a Pacific crossing and also, to be honest (we both feel the same as do many others whom we’ve met along the way) we find the Eastern Caribbean, in terms of being on a boat, overcrowded and overrun with charterers who appear to have little experience. This latter shouldn’t matter, but when it’s so crowded, and you’ve been hit twice at anchor as we have, it does add stress every time you leave the boat. Whatever is happening to weather patterns around the world isn’t leaving the Caribbean alone and the sailing, to us, is quite frankly a huge disappointment. I would say that about half the time it’s two windy for words, with swells and seas to match, and about a third of the time you have to motorsail either due to wind directions or no wind at all. If you read the books, then you would be very lucky indeed if you sailed these islands 20 or 30 years ago. There was no overcrowding, the islands had little charter boat tourism and the trade winds were, let’s use the word ‘reliable’. Not so during our time here.

We don’t regret what we have done out here but the sailing isn’t for us. So what to do? We weren’t ready to head to Bermuda and start the long trek home just yet, it would be madness for us to stay any longer in the Eastern Caribbean, yet thoughts of a Pacific crossing are shelved. I would just like to say for non-sailors: it is impossible to head back to Europe in a straight line from where we are. It would be like trying to run on a travelator going against you at the same speed as you were running, all with a gale of wind against you.

So, what to do? Well, I’ve been researching the Western Caribbean and how to get back east from it when the time comes (not easy). We knew you could sail to Florida from Panama and from there onward via the Bahamas to Bermuda and then the Azores, but we don’t have the required visas for the US. We can go, the boat can go, but we can’t go on the boat without a B1 B2 visa. How daft is that? Then, one night we saw a YouTube video of a couple who sailed from Panama to Cayman, then Cuba, going over the North side of Cuba and onto Bermuda and onward to the Azores. That could well be our route, the mate and I exclaimed together. Let me say that the mate is the ‘traveller’ amongst us and she’s spent a lot of her life doing it. I like the sailing, for me the travelling is secondary but still enjoyable.

We also researched sailing in the Western Caribbean and there are a number of current points. In no particular order: you have to make an effort to get there meaning we expect it to be far less crowded (and hopefully with more likeminded people –Mate), there are nowhere near the number of charterers over there, Colombia and Panama are big countries – you can get stuff, with it costing an arm and a leg – and, they are below the hurricane belt. Cartagena in Colombia is an attraction too, a beautiful walled city with history and culture (sadly not really a big feature in the Eastern Caribbean (beyond very enjoyable carnivals! – Mate)). The weather is also largely out of the main trade wind belt and takes its influence from the Central American land masses.

So, at last, here’s the plan:

In mid-April to mid-May, Stargazer will turn her stern to the Eastern Caribbean and point her bows to the Colombian Island of San Andres, some 1200 M to the west. We aim during the remainder of 2026 to cruise through the Caribbean coast of Panama and head to Cartagena. The following year, we will visit the beautiful San Blas Islands (look them up) and see how the year goes. Ultimately, when we feel we are ready to leave the Western Caribbean, we will take the longer way home via the route already mentioned.

For now, Vicky is coming and it’s time to have a great couple of weeks, relaxing and not doing any boat jobs. Except I’ve got to fit a fridge thermostat and - clonk – that was the sound of the mate hitting me over the head...