Martinique Revisited

Bonjour. Ca va? We are in France again, Fort de France no less, the capital of Martinique, “the largest and liveliest city in the Windwards” according to our cruising guide. Last night (Saturday) the revelling went on ashore until 6.00am to be replaced by a peal of bells from Cathedrale St-Louis. At least the latter only lasted for 10 minutes. The anchorage here is under the walls of Fort Louis built in 1640 to keep out the pesky British. The currency here is the euro and prices have just about doubled.

Conrad Falls, Grenada - in spate for the dry season!

Did you notice the red dinghy? We bought it in Chaguaramus. It was an old Avon which came with floorboards, oars and a pump. It needed several patches but it turned out to be ideal for four of us over Christmas. Once Simon and Erin had left we offered it for sale and a fellow cruiser bought it. Feeling we were on a roll, we took four items to a boat jumble and sold them all. The total earnings didn’t quite cover the cost of lunch, but it felt like success to us.

Chocolate machine

The strong, gusty winds that Simon and Erin experienced continued for the next two weeks so we stayed on anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada. We decided to take an island tour and had a good day out with 8 other cruisers in a mini bus. Cutty’s Tours are very good and Cutty shares his extensive knowledge of the island’s flora and fauna as well as taking you to visit local sights and businesses. We saw nutmeg, chocolate, rum and cocoa processing. The rum factory was still using a water wheel from the 1780’s (made in England) to power the sugar cane crusher. They produced a white rum that was 75% alcohol. (Brandy is 40%).

Water wheel over 200 years old

 Back on Sal Darago, Jeremy replaced the oil pump gasket and rebuilt two water pumps. He was horrified to discover that a mechanic in New Zealand had fixed a drive shaft  in place with super glue! (and he charged a fortune.)

Drying cocoa

 At last the weather showed signs of moderating so we motored round to St Georges for supplies and motorsailed to Carriacou via Isle de Ronde. The wind was stronger and the seas were bigger than they had been at Christmas. We cleared out of Grenada at Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou; went to Petite Martinique for diesel; anchored overnight and set out on a 133 mile passage at 6.30 the next morning. All went well. The wind stayed between 17 and 23 knots from the East and the swell was down to about 4-9ft. Sometimes we had to motor as the islands of St Vincent and St Lucia blocked the wind. Jeremy sent out a VHF call to All Ships when he saw a red flare land in the sea behind him at 0150. The Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Martinique picked up the call and broadcast a Mayday Relay to all vessels every half hour. We heard that someone was looking for two fishermen, but we do not know if they were found.

We were relieved to drop our anchor off Fort de France at 8.30am after a 26 hour passage.

Our view of Fort de France