Windy in St. Anne, Martinique

We are still plagued by sparse internet; decreasing our ability to communicate here and elsewhere.  As previously discussed, the changes in technology are the problem.  Not only have Wifi devices made it easier to provide the services, they have made it very easy for the owner to block the services to those who are not the targetted customer.  We have tried to catch up: paying when we could for poor service, using our devices in bars and restaurants where the conversation and socializing make it difficult, and even acquiring a smartphone to use telephone internet.  The problem with the latter is that the branches of the company: Digicel; will not work together.   We have followed their advice, but every time we change islands, Digicel empties the telephone account and leaves us to go to a bar or restaurant and send an email to attempt to get the money or credit back.  Specifically, this occurs each time we enter French territory, and has occurred three times!  We have given up, and will not activate the telephone again until we arrive in St. Lucia.

(Sorry about the out of order pics but using the iPad for this blog is something yet to figure out. The pics are from a hike along the beach today in St.Anne, Martinique with Al and Michele, Lorna and Brian and Steve and Maria.)

As far as we can tell, our last contact by weblog was February 14th, in Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica, with pictures of a sundowner party (which would have been a supper-party if they had not lost their running water), turtle pics from Guadeloupe, and carnival pictures from Isles des Saintes.  I'm not sure if we told you that our next objective was to meet Lorna (Dawn's sister) and Brian, s/v "Peace and Plenty" in Dominica.  As followers of their weblog know, they have arranged to have their rigging replaced, and have had terrible trouble getting it done: spending much of the season mastless (no-mast-eh) in Rodney Bay.  We got word that they had the spar up and were underway, so the plan was gelling.

Since that posting, we enjoyed a fun barbecue with the Dominicans, and took a tour of the island with Peter and Catherine of s/v "Charlotte D" and 2 other couples.  It  was fun to spend time with them, and that was the primary value of the day; as it was our third tour of Dominica, and easily the least exciting or informative.  However, with news that Peace and Plenty would be staying in St. Anne, Martinique while they waited for parts, we made plans to leave, and said our temporary goodbyes to the many people we know in the bay.

We left the next day, Wednesday the 18th, and once again spent way too much time with the motor running as we attempted to get to a safe anchorage in Martinique before dark.  Denis said it was only a fair weather window, but high winds would fill in afterwards and if we didn't go, we'd have to stay another week.  He suggested that we might get gusts over 30 knots in the opening between the two islands, so after attempting to sail all down the west side of Dominica in low and contrary winds, I decreased sail to the minimum for main and jib just before hitting open water.  I also angled 5 miles out from land to get out of the "acceleration zones" that typically exist along the edges of these tall islands.  We certainly did get up to 33 knots at times, and between times the boat had to trudge along in 15-18 knots in the outrageous seas and with little canvas up.  Denis had warned that 8 foot high waves would be greeting us - and they were - but it was the sharp four-footers that tended to cause the hard feelings as they slapped us around and filled the cockpit with salt.  Still, with properly shortened sail the stronger winds were actually interesting and enjoyable - a sign that we are getting used to these wildly varying conditions in the Caribbean.

However, our plans for a speedy sail were dashed by the variable conditions, and we dropped anchor off the Town of St. Pierre, the first real opportunity for good shelter in Martinique, and had a nice evening watching the shore and open streets while the town had their final Carnival night, with the final parades, drumming, and a gathering on the beach to burn some symbolic figure.

We checked in again with Denis, while we were under way down the west coast of Martinique, and he and others with internet access provided some evidence on how to approach the weather.  We again enjoyed high winds as we sailed past the opening of the great bay of Fort de France; but with the seas quite low it just made for enjoyable boating.  However, rather than carry on to Diamond Rock and round up for the 2+ hours of effort to St. Anne, we dropped into Grande Anse D'Arlet to await an expected 4-6 knot drop in the wind.  Hilariously, s/v "Tarentella" were in there, and Al ran out with his dinghy to assist in connecting us up to one of the remaining moorings.  Dawn suggested we should tip this Canadian boat boy with a Trinidad dollar (aboout 20 cents Canadian)!

We believe waiting until 2pm did result in a lowering of the wind, but still, the strong current against the wind at the corner resulted in monsterous waves that really banged at us as we pushed around.  The wind was still fresh as we turned the corner, and it took us about 3 hours to motor-sail in tight tacks upwind to St. Anne.

Since here, we've been welcomed into a large community of "expat" Rodney Bay cruisers, gotten parts from the chandlers and fixed key pieces of gear, hiked to the super beaches of the south coast, and enjoyed lots of French cuisine.

We'll be here until the next weather window, expected next Tuesday at which time we'll head south to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

photos!!!

Check of the remora hanging on the underside of this huge turtle!

Laurie diving near a wreck in Les Saintes

Parrots at the Botanical Gardens in Deshaies, Guadeloupe

Maria & Steve and Laurie and Dawn

Carnival in Les Saintes

Bird's eye view of Les Saintes on an uphill hike!

Maria and Steve enjoying the view!

Cute little iguana we met on our walk to the beach!

Les Saintes

Hi everyone! Once again, no pictures will be posted today because of my limited Internet connection! I will email this blog from my phone when we go to the restaurant tonight. Pics will follow next week when we get to Dominica.

We are in Les Saintes with Aspen (Maria and Steve) and now Tarentela (Al and Michele). Al and Michele were enjoying company up in the USVI and BVI and have now joined up with us as we travel south.

We did a nice hike up to Le Chameau Lookout tower yesterday. It took us a couple of hours in the heat and reward was a spectacular view! I have to say though, that Steve, the runner, has run to the top every day since we arrived! So, enough about bragging about getting to the top of that mountain!

We have been warned by our friend and weather guru that we can expect winds from the west by Thursday. This may not sound unusual to you, but typically the trade-winds blow from the east and northeast, and usually quite briskly during the winter months. We all anchor on the west sides of islands to get out of the rough seas and winds. This prediction for Thursday means that the winds will blow directly into the anchorages with fetch from a long ways off! We have decided that since we're holding tight to a mooring ball in The Saintes, that we will stay put until after the winds straighten out and then we'll head off for Dominica, a 4 hour sail from here. The winds have been peculiar down in the Caribbean all season. We haven't had such light and unpredictable winds for all the years we've been sailing here.
as well, there has been no North component to the wind making it difficult to move in a south or east direction to return to our regular chain of islands. We have motored, rather than sailed to most of the destinations.

Laurie might have explained earlier that while up in the BVI, we had a major failure with our wind generator. When we arrived in St. Martin, we had a company look at it, diagnose it and replace the motherboard on it. The mechanic said that he tested it and it was producing electricity, however, when Laurie and I get it put back up on the pole (no small feat), the darn thing DIDN'T work! It had a complete dead short! Off it came again, and we had to head south to our next destination. Laurie spent several hours reading the instruction sheets supplied with the new motherboard and finally gathered up enough nerve to tear the thing apart. He found that the mechanic had bent the insulator sheet in half so that much of the back of the motherboard was touching where it shouldn't be. (Laurie would have described this in much more detail!) He put it all back together, and voila, it is back up and humming along making electricity to keep the batteries topped up between fridge demands and electronics! He has yet to email the mechanic, but it was sloppy work that might have cost us 1400.00 US for a replacement wind generator. The 500.00 US we spent for the new parts and labour were enough to endure!

I was swimming the other day at the Pigeon Island anchorage in Guadeloupe when I ran across a lovely, huge turtle. He had a remora stuck to his back and was coming toward me, which is unusual, but made sense when I saw that he had a few swimmers following him. I took a quick dive and got a great frontal shot of him with my underwater camera. By then the hitch-hiking remora had moved from the turtle's back to his belly. One of my best shots for sure! By the time I got back to the boat, I discovered 3 more of these beastly remoras under the boat looking for their next hitching host! Laurie had already seen them and was long gone from the water! I was quick to follow! By the way, these remoras are about 4 feet long, look like a shark and have a big oval on the back of their head that can suction onto you for a quick ride from here to there! We saw many of them up in the BVI and USVI's but were certain that they were an 'up north' thing because we hadn't seen any in our travels in the southern part of the island chain. The sighting the other day makes us think that they've moved here too!

Off to our favourite French Pizza joint for dinner tonight where you can get Poulet Columbo (curried chicken) pizza, our favourite! Of course, here in the French Islands, wine goes with everything!

We are doing our best to meet up with Brian and my sister Lorna in Dominica (s/v Peace and Plenty), but you should go to their weblog to catch up on their rigging troubles! You will find the link to their blog on this blog page!

Cheers, Dawn (and Laurie)


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