Our plan was to drop by the Rigging company in La Marin in Martinique to have our rigging inspected. Cat Tales loves La Marin because being a French design, all our parts and pieces came from there! After Laurie explained the age of some of the wires and fittings, Phillipe from the Rigging Company informed us that there was no need to waste time with an inspection and that the job should simply be done. He gave us a quote and informed us that we were to arrive at a particular dock at 8:00 am the next morning. Over we went, tied up, and the boys were all over Cat Tales for most of the day. Besides replacing the wires holding up the mast, they also tore apart our furling system and replaced many bad pieces and parts. After that, they took off our old life lines complete with rusty patches and installed bright and shiny stainless wires. Rust on my laundry will be a thing of the past!! The forestay stays a lot straighter under sail.
While the boys were working on our boat, we dashed off to the grocery store to buy cheese and of course French wine! Being on a dock is no small thing when lugging groceries and heavy items to the boat!
At the end of the day, we were totally finished except for the payment, which was completed the next morning back in the office with Phillipe. The entire job cost us just over 3,000.00 CAD, but was what we had expected. We were thrilled about how they went about the job; they certainly know what they're doing. We'll send a copy of the invoice off to our insurance company and will enjoy the peace of mind the new parts will provide.
Buildings in around La Marin in Martinique
We have been trying to connect with Brian and Paula from the boat Magique for some time now. We were both in Guadeloupe at the same time, however, it's a big place and we just couldn't seem to meet up. After just missing them in The Saints, we then just missed them in Dominica. We emailed along the way south and it looked like we'd connect soon. While sitting in La Marin, Martinique, we heard Krista and Bill from the boat Secoudon on the VHF radio calling Stoppknot. We hadn't seen them for over a year, but knew they were soon to be in our vicinity. The were loud and clear to us, but an island away, in St. Lucia! We were able to talk to Krista and she informed us that they had just arrived in Rodney Bay from Trinidad on their boat Secoudon. We told her that we were planning to make the trip the next morning and as far as we knew, so were Paula and Brian from Magique.
The evening found us in at the Marina at the Bread Basket in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia for a special reunion dinner!
From the left: Paula (Magique), Dawn (Cat Tales), John (Silver Seas), John Fallon (Stoppknot), Nancy (Silverseas), Bill & Krista (Secoudon), Brian (Magique) and Laurie (Cat Tales). What a great time we had catching up with old friends. You might also be interested to note that Bill, Krista and Paula and Brian are all from Saint John NB, but we met them right here in the Caribbean! John Fallon of course, is our dear friend also from Saint John.
Paula and Brian are heading south over the next few days as they head towards Grenada where they haul their boat out for the hurricane season. We'll be right along with them doing much the same. Secoudon and Silver Seas will be heading north.
