Tag: Martinique

Time to move!

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Nov 9th – 10th

As happens more and more frequently,  Mike decided, today was the day and now was the time, to get on the move north.   We said a quick farewell to our friends on s/v DaniellStorey and s/v Diana who do not find our impromptu decisions unusual in the least.   We checked out and left La Marin within a couple hours and traveled up the leeward coast of Martinique to the little town of St. Pierre.   It used to be called the Little Paris of the Caribbean but was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1902.  The only survivors out of 29,935 people were a man who happened to be in his cellar and a prisoner who was in a windowless jail cell.   Much of the town is built upon the ruins of the old city.    We arrived just before sunset and anchored just south of the main dock.   The swell was rather large but was supposed to be subsiding over the next few hours.   We had just enough time to drop Mighty Mouse and take a quick jaunt into town for some great sunset photos from the boardwalk.    With the swells it took a bit of maneuvering and some timing to climb from the dingy onto the dock but we managed alright.   We walked a bit enjoying the ambiance of this quaint little laid back town.   We had a somewhat rolly night sleeping but by morning the swells had begun to subside and we were awakened early by the ringing of the church bells and the bustle of the residents of St. Pierre who are up and busy early in the morning.

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Martinique Magnifique!

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  Click above for Music.

Nov 4 – 8th

We reached La Marin, Martinique along with our friends on s/v DaniellStorey,  s/v Songbird, and s/v Diana.   We found that our wind indicator had been damaged by Hurricane Tomas and so we spent the next few days hauling Mike up and down the mast while he and Ken attempted to repair and reinstall it.    We have direction now but still no windspeed reading.   We also took this opportunity to reprovision our wine celler with French wines and stock up on the many of the wonderful cheeses and other delicacies we can only find in the French Islands.  On Sunday morning Michelle and I headed out for a walk.   We found ourselves meandering down a couple of side streets and through a quaint neighborhood.  We continued on over a hill into a beautiful little green valley with a small stream running through it.    We could see from a distance a road lined with royal palms and decided to head in that direction.   Michellle then spotted what she thought might be a Sandbox tree up on a hill across a pasture.   The Sandbox Tree has a seed that is naturally shaped like a dolphin and Michelle uses these in her jewelry making.    She asked me if I was adventurous and if I wanted to cross the pasture to check it out.   Me Adventurous!?      We hopped the fence hoping that there was not a large bull lurking somewhere out of site and proceeded to make our way across the field.  We had to ford part of the stream that ran through the valley but finally climbed the hill to the Tree.   It was indeed a Sandbox Tree but it did not have any seed pods on or around it.  Perhaps it only fruits at certain times of the year.   Michelle and I made our way back across field and stream and over the fence with only wet feet  and smiles to show for our efforts.    We walked back to town and along the beach where the local yacht club was having a get together.  They had food, and music playing.  Kids and Adults were taking turns sailing in the local boats around the harbor.    Everyone seemed to be having a great time.    We stopped off at the local crafts market and admired some of the work of a local Calabash artist and jewelry maker.  He and Michelle conversed in French.  Michelle is becoming more fluent every day.    I am very envious and have asked Mike for a French Phrase book so I can learn some before we return to these Islands.    It can be frustrating at times not knowing the words for common things and trying to figure out what we are buying in the grocery store is, much of the time, by trial and error.  Thanks to those of you who responded to my facebook request for useful French phrases.   Some of which might even come in handy.   Mike keeps asking me what things are when we are shopping, and I can only reply, “Your guess is as good as mine”.

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A nice walk to the beach!

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When we weren’t pouring over the latest weather reports and tracking the Storms progress,  we did enjoy the sites around Marin and St. Anne, Martinique.   We became quite the baguette connoisseurs and relished heading into town each morning to pick up our fresh bread.    When we could see that the storm was not going to develop into a hurricane we took advantage of the overcast weather.   Mike said,    “How about we take a little walk this morning over to the beaches on the other side of the point?”   You would think I’d have learned by now that our walks are never little and that I should prepare enough survival supplies for at least a full days walk.     I let my guard down and only packed 2 quarts of water and a granola bar, forgetting the sunscreen and my hat back at the boat.    David and Trudy learned early on about our little walks and somehow always have something else planned when we extend the invitation to accompany us.   Our walks always start out with Michael and I sparing for what sort of a pace to keep.   He wanting to immediately work up a good sweat while I attempt to snap pictures of the back of his retreating head or him having to wait while I stop to examine some bit of new flora or fauna I find fascinating, allowing me just enough time to catch site of him before he sets off on his forced march pace again.    We always tease each other about how to best see the sites.   I move  quietly while his tactic is to not give any animals the chance to flee before he is on top of them.     Usually about an hour or so into the hike we compromise.    We made our way through the dense verdant growth along some wonderful trails that are maintained by the forest service here on Martinique.     The hike was lovely and took us along the rugged coastline of the south western end of the point.    There were some beautiful beaches on the windward side of the Island.     We expected there to be very little foot traffic along the trail as this is the off season.   We have not seen many locals taking advantage of their trail systems.    This was the exception.   An exercise group of mostly ladies were enjoying a brisk walk and gave Michael a run for his money with their pace.     We caught up with them on a beach on the other side of the point where their workout routine was continuing with other exercises and stretches.   They invited us to join them, or so their pantomimed French would indicate, and so we spent a few minutes doing deep knee bends….etc  before proceeding on our on our extended (little) walk.   We looked at the posted trails map we came to at one of the beaches and saw what appeared to be a trail or a road that would take us from a beach further along and then across the peninsula in a circle back to St. Anne where we began.    We had no idea if this was really the case as all of the descriptions were in French but we took a chance and headed in the direction indicated.     Our journey took us across a number of amazingly different ecosystems.   From lush verdant forest , along palm lined beaches , we crossed a plank walkway across a salt marsh where some local children were fishing for crabs.  We then found ourselves walking across an old lava flow area that provided some rugged, starkly beautiful scenery down to the ocean.   Once we reached the beach where the road or trail was supposed to be we cut inland and found ourselves on a gravel road that traversed acres of beautiful private cultivated fields and pastures full of well fed cream colored cattle.   We stumbled back into St. Anne and picked up a paper trails map from the tourism office.  Perhaps we should have done that before leaving, not that it would have discouraged us as it too was all in French.  As we were leaving the office we could hear someone practicing a piece of music on a piano……the song was Henry Mancini Theme from the Pink Panther……I must have had too much sun because I was half expecting Inspector Clousaeu to appear and declare ” I will prove to the world that Maria Gambrelli is innocent…….of the crime!” We dragged ourselves back to the dingy and to DD.   We calculated our little walk for the day at 20km or about 12 ½ miles.   Even being as ill prepared as we were, we fared pretty well.  I improvised some shade for my shoulders by tucking a couple of Sea Grape leaves under the straps of my shirt and although I looked a bit funny I was better protected.  Nothing a little Aloe Vera wouldn’t soothe.   At least I found the right combination of shoes and socks to wear that day and suffered no blister problems from this.  As the gentle waves rocked us to sleep that evening with scenes from the Pink Panther Movies playing in my head….. I could almost hear Clouseau singing “Ooohhh, sixteen chests on a dead man’s rum/Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of the chest/Drink to the devil and some for the rum/Hooooooooooooooooooooo!”  The sun must have gone to my head!

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Storm Brewing!

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June 13th – June 20th

Dancing Dolphin, Dancing Dolphin,  Dancing Dolphin,  Persephone, Persephone!  Dancing Dolphin here.  Up one?  Up one.    Hi Mike and Crystal……Trudie and I were just listening to Fox News on Sirius Radio and there is a storm out in the Atlantic that has the possibility of becoming something serious.

My how plans can change in an instant.   We picked up anchor on Sunday after securing a cruising permit that will allow us to stop in Roseau, Dominica before continuing south.    So much for our plans to hike up to the boiling lake.    I began to chant my Wedding Day Mantra……The weather now controls your life……you can’t change the weather……deal with it!    We compared notes and decided that we would have to either do a couple of overnight passages to head straight to Grenada or find a hurricane hole somewhere between Dominica and Grenada that we could duck into should the storm take it’s most southern predicted track.     We opted for the latter, keeping an eye on the storm and found what appeared to be a good hole on the Southern end of Martinique called Cul de Sac, Marin.   We had about 5 days of intensive weather watching.  We were able to get WiFi on the Boat in Roseau, Dominica where we stayed Sunday night and watched with earnest interest the predicted paths of System 92(which by the time you are reading this is now called Hurricane Alex).  That was the last reliable WiFi.   Over the next several days we downloaded reports every 6 hours from the National Hurricane Center of NOAA on our SSB Radio using Saildocs and kept a wary eye on Storm  92’s progress.   We made one more stop at Grand Anse D’Arlet and passed Diamond Rock before tucking into Cul de Sac du Marin on the southern end of Martinique.   An interesting bit of history.  Diamond Rock was actually commissioned by the British into the British Naval Fleet as ships were scarce and for 18 months was outfitted with cannon and crew and became known as HMS Diamond Rock before Napoleon sent Villenueve to take it back for France.  Martinique happens to be the birthplace of Napoleons beloved Josephine.    There were about 30 boats already in the hurricane hole and tied in for the season.   As we entered what we hoped would be a good place to ride out the impending storm,  we saw hundreds of masts in the harbor.     Marin as it turns out is the French Charter Capital of the Caribbean.    We just hoped that they wouldn’t all try to move out of the harbor and into the hurricane hole should the storm turn bad.   During those days Storm 92 went from a disorganized  system with a 20% possibility of becoming a cyclone(hurricane) up to an organized system with a 60% possibility and then became disorganized again and dropped to a 10% chance finally diminishing to 0%.   With this bit of good news, we moved DD out of the Cul de Sac and over to the more open anchorage of St. Anne. (with a small hope at least on my part, of some decent WiFi, no such luck.)   This is not to say Storm 92 dissipated.  It split into 2 parts, one traveling North to the USVI bringing rain and thunderstorms and the other ½ hanging directly over Martinique.  So here I sit on our 1st wedding anniversary, confined to the boat while a downpour rages……pretty much a repeat performance reminiscent of our wedding day but with a lot more wind!    Chanting Mantra…..Chanting Mantra…..

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