A hop, skip, and sail down the island chain

Martinique

We arrived in Fort de France, Martinique and dropped anchor below the fort walls. It was late in the day so we could not check in immediately. We were planning to go ashore the following morning and check in but decided rather to head straight to Sainte Anne and check in there.

Cruise liner leaving Fort de France

The sail to Sainte Anne was frustrating. We tried to stay a little offshore to avoid fish traps but ended up in very messy, choppy water making the boat bounce around like a bucking bronco. It was much calmer closer to shore. We did have to tack several times as the wind was coming from directly in front of us.

Diamond Rock

We saw this rock for hours as we tacked up and down.

We eventually arrived in Sainte Anne and dropped anchor with relief. Andrew went ashore to go and check in only to discover that the little restaurant, Snack Boubou, was closed until mid June. This meant Andrew had to dinghy across to Le Marin and check in there. He had discovered that one can check in at the petrol station on the dock, which made it a little easier.

Snack Boubou - closed

We hired a car and drove to Fort de France to go and do some shopping. It is quite hair raising driving on the roads here. It was a left-hand drive car and they drive on the right-hand side of the road. 

There are lots of circles, generally as you come off the highway, so the navigator, me, has to be on the ball! I made a couple of errors and we had to turn around a couple of times.

Our little hire car

We stopped at La Galleria, a huge mall with dozens of shops. We hadn't been in a mall that size for months. The supermarket there is huge and seems to stock well priced goods. We were going to go to Decathlon which is just on the other side of the highway, and come back later to do some provisioning, but then we got all muddled up with the roads and didn't. (read Siobhan is a terrible navigator with an even worse sense of direction!) We ended up back on the highway after taking the wrong off ramp on the circle.

Next stop was Decathlon where we spent, what felt like, a couple of hours wandering around. This is a huge sports store, selling everything you can think of. We had been when we were in Martinique a few months ago and wanted to go back to buy a few things. I found some $5 t-shirts and bikinis and we bought a pump for the paddle board (our old pump is not working properly).

Self-service check out

Then we went back down the highway to Genipa Mall and did some provisioning. It was lovely to have the car and not worry about having to lug all the bags back to the boat.

Grenada

After spending about a week in Martinique, we upped anchor and set off for an overnight sail to Bequia. For once the wind was perfect and the sea state was good. We were averaging between 6 and 7 knots. At around 12am, Andrew and I had a skipper's meeting in the cockpit and decided that we didn't want to arrive in Bequia in the dark. We were going so fast that we estimated we would arrive there at around 3am. So we decided to skip Bequia and go straight to Carriacou, Grenada. Of course, as soon as we decided this the wind dropped to nothing and we had to motor for an hour or so.

Picture postcard coastline

It's amazing how you can sleep through most noises whilst on a passage. We had the Donk droning on while I was on my 12 - 3am watch, while Andrew went to sleep. The wind came up just after 3.30 so I took the engine out of gear, ready to turn it off. I was hoping to let Andrew sleep for a bit longer but he was up like a shot with the change in sound. 

We arrived in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou at around 10am the following morning. It was a good 24-hour passage. Andrew went ashore to check in, while Laura and I made the boat shipshape again. 

We spent one day in Tyrell Bay and then went around the corner to one of our favourite places, Sandy Island. The bird life here is wonderful, not to mention the jumping fish.

Hardly any birds this time

Ronde Island is another favourite of ours. A place where you are often one of only two or three boats. The snorkelling is great and it is a wonderful place to just chill and watch nature. We spent one night there and then set off for the long sail down to Grenada.

I had mixed feelings about returning to Grenada. This is where the Caribbean adventure started. When we arrived here we were with Dave and Justin, and then Sandy flew in from Cape Town just after we arrived. We met wonderful people who have become good friends. I felt somehow we were going backwards, but we are doing this for a good reason. We have had a very clear plan, which only changed slightly with us not going to The Bahamas and this was part of the plan.

We arrived on a Thursday which meant $1 wings at Prickly Bay Marina and a bit of a social with other cruisers. Thank goodness there were a couple of people there who we knew from last year! Vernie, Paula, Pauline and Rob, were there to introduce us to all the new (to us) cruisers.

In a way, it is nice to be back in a place where we know where everything is, which bus to catch and where to go shopping or do washing!

Even the laughing gulls are back

But....we do miss our other mates terribly. It is definitely not the same without them, especially gathering three times a week for torture... sorry, exercises on the beach with Brandon. (Only kidding, B, those exercises were the best!)

I have started running again on the same routes Brandon, Claire and I used to run. After my second run I could barely walk and I was so happy when Laura decided to join me! We are doing a walk/run program to ease her into it. I end my run with a dash down the road to add another kilometer to the three we have completed.

3km fitter!

It has been interesting to compare prices of goods, which we thought were terribly expensive, with the prices up north. Some things, like beer and wine, have definitely gone up. Other things have stayed more or less the same. Cauliflowers are still ridiculously expensive. They were 19EC a head when we were here last. I saw them in IGA for 38EC, and then 26EC after a week when they are brown and inedible!

Craig, from FOB, eventually sold his boat and was heading home to his wife, Jane. We had farewell drinks at Prickly Marina where sad speeches and toasts were made by all the friends he has made while he stayed here.

Speeches

Andrew did a few boat projects. The headliner above the stove keeps falling down. Not good for my head while I am cooking or in the middle of the night when we jump up with a fright at the noise! Andrew has glued it several times, but I think the steam from the stove makes it less durable.

Remember our hot water cylinder broke. I thought we were going to be without hot water until we got to Trinidad, but Andrew bought one in Grenada and installed it! Yay, hot water again! We don't really need it to shower, it just takes the edge off, but it is great for washing up.

We had a squeaky fan belt which Andrew investigated and found the alternator mounting bolt had broken off. The alternator was still working, thank goodness. He went off on a search for the right size bolt, which he found at ACE for 40 EC, R210, but it was too short. Andrew put the old one back as he has been unable to find the right size bolt. We will have to keep a close eye on it and make sure it doesn't rattle out.

We ran out of gas! Not a good thing as we cook everything on gas! There are places here to get bottles filled, at a price and only on certain days, but Andrew decided to take the bottle to the gas place himself. It was two bus rides there and two back, but he saved some EC dollars in the long run.

Gas place

If you look closely the security guard was having a snooze!

And the reason why we ran out of gas before we expected to? We had a gas leak somewhere in our stove. Andrew tried to fix it but we could still smell gas when it was on. We were turning it off at the mains when it was not in use, just to be safe. Andrew took the whole stove off the gimble again and tightened the connections. It seems to have worked, thank goodness!

We have visited some of the old haunts: The Brewery to watch rugby, One Love to do updates on devices on their fast internet and Spiceland Mall shopping at IGA. Sadly the Sand Bar is closed for renovations. Andrew thought this was terribly sad. No sundowners on the beach with our toes in the sand!

We are ready for the last sea leg of our trip before hauling out. We are heading for Trinidad in the early hours of tomorrow morning, 25 May. We didn't go to Trinidad on the way here, so we are looking forward to exploring a new country.