24 - On aime la Martinique!!

We love Martinique!!!!  After a month or so of sailing from harbor to harbor, spending a little over a week in one place seemed like it would a little boring!  Au contraire!!!!  We found a front row anchorage right our in front of the town of Fort de France, Martinique. 

We spent the first couple of days, touring and relaxing in Les Trois Ilets area which was an easy ferry ride from Fort de France.  The hotel Fred and Beth rented had a fabulous pool with a bar nearby so we spent their last days soaking and relaxing.

Fort de France turned out to be ground zero for Carnaval (the annual pre-Lenten festival).   No sooner than we kissed our crew good-bye, then we geared up for the festivities.  For 5 days straight the people of Martinique (yes, I think the entire island showed up each day) partied hard!  Saturday afternoon started with The Queen’s parade (quite appropriate we thought that they would celebrate our arrival).  This was a combination of former and current queens of the various provinces as well as many wanna-be and drag queens!!!!  The costumes were absolutely across the board.   Some were just adorable and some were not so much but all were entertaining.

 Sunday morning, we were jarred awake about 4am by the sounds of extremely loud drums, horns and what Pedro described as “a monkey on a motorcycle with a gun.”  By the time we got out of bed and looked as our Carnaval schedule, we realized that we’d missed the pajama party in the streets (yes, it started at 4 am).  We got into town about 7am to find several of the partiers still wondering around and from the (lack of) dress code could only imagine what we missed.  Later that day was another parade as there was each afternoon through Wednesday.  Each day there was a new theme and the parade goers and attendees all participated appropriately (or inappropriately as was really the case)!  All seemed to have fun – we certainly did - and no harm seemed to be done.  

One of the things that amazed us the most was that after the partiers celebrated well into the night, when we arrived in town each morning just after sunrise, the streets were all clean – or at least in the process of being cleaned - and garbage disappeared.    Such was the condition of most of island.  We saw more affluent areas and significantly less so, but all seemed to be relatively maintained.

In addition to the daily parades along with numerous food and drink vendors, another draw of Carnaval was this handmade carousel.  It was man powered – 2 men when they wanted to go really fast – and the music was provided by a live band.  MaryAnn was excited that she finally didn’t exceed the, uh, height limit as was the case with the other carousel’s we’d seen in the past few months.  It was an amazingly engineered machine and we loved the music!

After 5 days of partying, the city of Fort de France returned to its normalcy and we decided to venture to other parts of the island.  As we were unable to find a car rental locally, we decided to take the bus to the airport to pick up a car there.  While waiting in line at the grocery store, we were lucky enough to find a lady in line front of us who spoke English.  We asked her about the logistics of the bus system.  She was unsure, but walked us over to the depot and translated for us as we purchased our tickets.   While standing at the stop we assumed was the one we needed, a young man come up to us and said that woman who sold us our ticket (that’s what we assume he said) made a mistake and to follow him.  I admit we were a little nervous following him through some back streets but we came upon another bus stop and discovered that the bus we wanted, would not have stopped where we had been standing. This seemed to be the norm in Martinique.   While very few people we encountered were fluent in English and our French practically non-existent (and our creole completely non-existent), we found people who were willing to help us communicate in various different ways.   I just cannot say enough about how welcoming and kind practically everyone we met was.

Once we had our rental car, we spent the better part of the day, exploring various towns, agricultural areas, gorgeous mountain tops and adorable seaside villages.  MaryAnn thought that driving on the switchback mountain roads was as much fun as the carousel!!!!  We also saw several rhum distilleries.  In Martinique, they produce rhum agricole which our research taught us means that it’s made from pure sugar cane juice as opposed to the other 90% or so of rum which is produced with molasses. 

Finally it was time to move on.  We spent our last day shopping (most of the stores had been closed during Carnaval) and stocking up on the great – and cheap – French wines and chocolate (yes, we bought some fresh produce too) for a next passage.  

As I type this we are sailing north back to Dominica for a reunion of the fellow Salty Dawg sailors we sailed with from Virginia.  It’s another gorgeous day in paradise and while we loved the land, it feels great to be sailing again - even if it’s just a short 10 hour sail!!!

Until next post!

23 - Same thing every day!!!!!

Those of you who know the rest of Pedro’s really bad story, will appreciate our title.  But in reality this past month or so has been anything but!!!  We’ve dropped anchor in a new harbor, city or country every couple of days.

Since, our last post, we left the USVI and headed over the Spanish Virgin Islands of Puerto Rico.  We headed first to Culebra to meet up with family and friends of Dan and Alison.  Alison’s mother, sister and a couple of friends came for a weekend visit.  As all of their bunks were filled with her sister and mother, Nicki and Lena joined our boat as extra crew. We took advantage of the extra crew and had a great sail from the town of Culebra over to Playa Tamarindo for snorkelling and  to hike across the hill to Playa Flamenco. 

No sooner had we tied up to the mooring ball than Pedro saw two hawks fighting overhead.  Both landed in the water and while one was able to take off right away, the other could not.  Pedro jumped into the water and offered the bird a ride to shore.  It was not immediately receptive of  his assistance but quickly realized it was the best option.  He swam the hawk to shore and it was able to walk up the beach to rest, dry off and eventually fly away.   

The snorkeling in Tamarindo was the best we’d see so far this year.  The vibrant coral seemed healthy and the various fish species plentiful.  Definitely worth seeing if you’re in the area.

After a marvelous lunch on the beach thanks to Alison, we all decided to hike across the mountain – yes, probably just a hill but felt like a mountain – to see the world famous Playa Flamenco touted to be the second most beautiful beach in the world.  I’m not sure where the first most beautiful one is but this one was beautiful.  Fluffy white sand for miles, gorgeous water in multiple shades of turquoise and the abandoned military tanks that have been painted with various graffiti made the whole experience one of a kind. 

Back on the boat, we headed back into the town of Culebra to dropped off our weekend crew.  We were turning the boat around for Pedro's uncle and aunt – Fred and Beth – so we went to town in search of lunch and a laundromat.  We had lunch at a food truck selling roast pork and various Puerto Rican side dishes (we asked what they were but have already forgotten – all were good or at least interesting). We found a very small laundromat (only one working washing machine) in the back of the local gas station near the ferry terminal.  We laughed as we were able to get our laundry done for only $1.50 but we spent $8 on the beer and cookies to entertain ourselves while we waited!
 

The next morning we awoke to gorgeous rainbows.  Alison took our picture before we took off for Vieques.  The 20 mile journey was a perfect 4 hour sail and we found an anchorage very near the ferry dock where we’d arranged to meet up with Fred and Beth.  

Turned out that the dingy dock we used was right next to the local fish market.  In addition to our newest crew, we were able to pick up lobsters for dinner that had been caught just hours before!    We explored the town and picked up a few more groceries and went back for our grilled lobster dinner.

The next morning we picked up anchor and headed back to Culebra to show Fred and Beth around the areas we’d discovered, walked the beaches and through the town.  

We all got a great night’s sleep in the calm anchorage - Vieques the night before was a little rocky- and the next morning we sailed over to St. Croix.

The sail over to St. Croix was more into the wind than we like so it took about 10 hours.  We arrived after dark and dropped anchor near Fredricksted for the night.  As we’d previously seen Fredricksted we opted to instead to continue sailing over to visit Christiansted the next morning.   A friend described the St. Croix cities and Fredricksted is more local and Christiansted more tourist oriented.  I would agree but Christiansted is also more quaint, has great grocery and boat supply stores and we met some amazingly friendly people.

We needed to continue heading east.  As winds this time of year – commonly referred to as the Christmas winds – are predominately from the east, this meant a pretty rough trip with a lot of tacking back and forth.   It took us about 36 hours but we safely dropped anchor in Marigot Bay, St. Martin.  We checked into customs and found a rental car.  We explored the French side of St. Martin the first day – found an amazing restaurant on the beach for lunch – and the Dutch side of St. Maarten the second day – found the best grocery  store we'd seen in the Caribbean and got our propane tank refilled. 

Now that we’d managed to get east into the Windward Islands, continuing south meant mostly easy day sailing.  

Fred and Beth’s neighbor’s son (keep up), owns a resort on Antigua called Hodges Bay and we were informed that he was on island. He invited us to use the mooring ball located right off of this beach but the east winds would have made that pretty rough.  So we dropped anchor in Jolly Harbour, Antigua and again were able to get a rental car – the taxi’s all charge per person so a car was a much better deal.  The resort is gorgeous!! We grabbed a drink at the beach bar, were given the full tour, enjoyed a great lunch – the head chef is Edward Lee who owns a couple of high end restaurants in Louisville, KY and has been seen several times on the Food Network – and got to lounge around to our hearts content!  If you’re looking for an amazing resort in Antigua, this place is it. 

Beth has been wanting to try her hand at paddle boarding and we just happened to have Pedro’s blown up and ready so the girls took advantage of the relatively calm area at the beach near our anchorage to try it out.  She picked it up very quickly and the boys enjoyed a couple hours of drinking beer without any women around! 

Next we headed to Guadalupe.  We dropped anchor near the town of Deshaies. We checked into customs, walked the town and to a park with a nice overlook with a view of the anchorage, then found a  great French bakery for lunch!  As it was Sunday and most places were closed, we decided to head a little further south and dropped anchor near Pigeon Island.  Again, the boys chose beer and no women so Beth and MaryAnn went in to check out the beach town.  It’s exactly that.  Various shops, restaurants and bars.  The sand was very black which we found interesting but it was still fun to walk around. 

Continuing south down the islands, we next pulled into Portsmouth, Dominica.  We arrived too late to check into customs so we couldn’t explore town.   We decided to continue on further south the next morning and found a mooring ball – it’s a marine sanctuary and still over 100 feet deep very close to shore – in Roseau the capital city of Dominica.  This town was much larger than the last few we’d been in so we walked around for a few hours, found a farmer’s market and a grocery store and stopped to have lunch and a couple of drinks.  We didn’t get a chance to fully explore Guadalupe or Dominica as the waterfalls and other natural wonders would have entailed another day or two each and we really needed to get Fred and Beth to Martinique in plenty of time to catch their flight back home.  We’ll definitely head back, though.

For the entire trip they'd been with us, Beth had been giving Gary a hard time because we'd not caught any fish - we didn't troll the entire time but we did try several days.  Well, we'd no sooner pulled up the anchor, got our sails set and were settling in for our last day of sailing and "fish on"!!!!!  Gary pulled in a really nice Mahi Mahi for our last meal aboard.  

Last stop is Martinique. We’re currently anchored in Fort de France the capital city of Martinique.  Fred and Beth arranged a hotel for a couple of nights to allow for extra time in case we got here early –that didn’t happen – and we think to get their land legs back.  Their hotel was a ferry ride away in Anse Mitan a lovely little beach town.  The hotel has a great pool so we too spent a day relaxing and exploring the beach town.  Great dinner at a local French restaurant too.

Well, our crew has left us and we’re staying in Martinique awaiting the start of Carnaval.  From the looks of the costumes for sale around town, we’re pretty sure it’s going to wild.  Dan and Alison on Equus are meeting up with us here too in a couple of day so we won’t be alone for long. This island is VERY French.  We’ve met a couple of people who speak English but for the most part have been trying to communicate as best we can.  This has been our biggest challenge yet as most other islands readily spoken English.  We'll keep you posted!  

Until next post!

22 - The leaving is the hardest part!!!!!!

We’ve heard many times that the hardest part of cruising is leaving your last port behind and the people you meet and fall in love with.  As I type this, we have just pulled out of the marina that’s been our boat’s home for the last month.  It’s impossible to believe that it’s been a month since we landed back in St. Thomas.  

Since we hoped to complete several boat chores on the never ending list and we both planned to fly back to the mainland, we decided to get a slip for the month.  Not knowing any better, we chose Sapphire Beach Resort and Marina because it seemed centrally located and the price was almost half of what we were quoted for the marina in “downtown” Red Hook.  Well, we definitely won the lottery with this place.   From the moment we pulled into the marina and a guy (Brian, of Brian and Jess) pops out of his boat and asks if we need help docking, we were welcomed by a community that was absolutely amazing.   We met Jeff and Karen aboard Ecstasy and Wayne and Kenta aboard Rochelle.  These amazing people taxied us (or Dan and Alison or both) just about everywhere.  They took us to boat supply stores (numerous ones so we could see selections) and hauled our massive purchases around.  They drove us to grocery stores, a warehouse store for bigger provisioning or the local K-Mart to get a few incidentals.  They helped with lines whenever we took off for day sails, invited us to parties, aboard their boats for happy hour, over for dinner, out for dinner or just to hang out.  Jeff and Karen (our closest neighbors and the parents of the most adorable German Shepherd named Zeba with whom we completely fell in love) even took us out for a Bon Voyage (until next time) dinner party as Dan and Alison, us and an adorable 25 year old we’d gotten to know and love named Lexi, were all planning to leave the next day (Lexi is crewing on a 109 foot yacht heading to St. Martin).  We’ve already made plans to go to an amazing restaurant whose master chef is a fellow sailor a few boats down from our slip whenever we return the island.  These people were definitely very hard to leave but they will stay in our hearts and we know we’ll see them sometime again!

As the saying goes, make new friends but keep the old, so we were excited to also have our Cocoa Beach peeps Janice, Rick, Michelle and Larry make their second excursion (they came to New York while we were there).  They are absolutely perfect!  We went over to St. John for a day of hiking and sightseeing, we took a tour of St. Thomas that took us to some areas that we’d definitely not seen before, we took our boat out for a sail over to St. John for beach walks and paddle boarding and we spent a lot of time laughing and enjoying each other.  Can’t wait for the next port of call and adventure with these guys.

Now, just so no one gets the wrong idea, it was definitely not all fun, food and drink while we were in St. Thomas.  We definitely attacked with vengeance our long list of boat chores.  First on the list was getting varnish on the teak all around the outside of the boat.  The ocean crossings had done a job on this. Several areas were completely worn off.  We spent a couple of days sanding and scraping and then Pedro managed to get a coat of varnish on a day for each of the next 4 days.  Finally, she was back to her old shiny self!!!

Next, Pedro had discovered a leak in the coolant line for the engine (we thought we had it repaired in Hampton but apparently not).  So he decided to just replace the entire line of hose. That took about 20 feet but it’s all done!

Next, apparently in hose changing mode and because we’d realized that almost 20 years of flushing salt water though the toilet had left considerable build up within our hoses (this was discovered during a mini repair mid ocean on our crossing from Bermuda which is about as fun as it sounds), we decided to change all of the head hose.  This took most of the 50 feet of hose that we ordered and took a couple of days.  But, we can now safely and freely flush.

The solar panels that came with the boat were somewhat outdated so we decided to upgrade.  We had three 85 watts panels and we decided to replace them with three 160 watt panels.  We found the panels at the local boating parts store (Pedro suggested that we walk the 2+ miles along very narrow and curvy roads carrying these panels but MaryAnn bummed a ride from Jeff and Karen) and we got another ride from Niles (the guy who rented us the slip) to a metal fabricator about 30 minutes away to get the brackets to hang them.  We were even able to pass on the old panels to a fellow sailor who’d lost their old panels during a recent storm while in the Dominican Republic.

Next, Dan offered to go up our mast to repair our masthead light (we think it got dislodged during repairs in Bermuda).  Luckily this was an easy fix and we were quickly back in business.  While we had him up there, he checked all of our standing rigging and reported that everything looks good.

Then, while we had Dan and Alison, we put Alison to work making us a new sail cover.  The old one had been patched several times and the Cabo Rico logo had worn off.  We wanted a new one and she volunteered to sew it.  It took the better part of 3 days with her sewing and cutting non-stop and Dan and MaryAnn helping but the new cover is so perfect and we’re so excited to have the logo (cut out of an old recycled sail) on it too!!!

Finally, the boat chores list was whittled and our month had come to an end.  We are heading over to the Spanish Virgin Islands of Culebra (to pick of friends of Dan and Alison) and then to Vieques (to pick up our aunt and uncle sailing buddies for our next passage down the islands). 

Until next post!