Well, hello from Trois Islets, Martinique. Cat Tales followed Savannah Sky into this eastern edge of Fort de France Bay this morning/afternoon. We have not been here since 2005 or so.
We had last written from Rodney Bay about 2 weeks ago. Well, once we received our spare starter from Island Water World, AND bent it on to make sure it worked, we took the next opportunity to travel. That was January 12th. We had a lovely but light sail over to Ste. Anne, Martinique. Winds were forecasted to be 13-18 or so, and we reefed for it. We had more than an hour of less than 10 knots apparent wind, meaning the true wind was often 5 or so knots. Still, the wind direction favoured the east, and with two tacks, we got into St. Anne in about 5.5 hours. Not a rocket ship, by any means.
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| After a tiny hike, we still felt we deserved a great lunch and refreshments at one of our favourite beach restaurants, Basilic |
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| The beach hike along Ste. Anne. Steve and Maria (Savannah Sky) and Rachael and Susan (Aspen) |
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| Only turned the tracker on for the return trip, so you can X2 the distance. Lovely, shady and relatively flat walk. |
We’ve had a wonderful evening with Joanna and Bill of Cloud Street, sharing Dawn’s pumpkin soup, and a ti’ punch night aboard Savanna Sky with Maria and Steve and with Rachael and Susan of Aspen. We did the obligatory run into Marin for wine, beer, cheese, and groceries, a “chicken walk” for barbecue chicken and clementines, and finally the also obligatory hike to the southern beaches. We had dinner one night on s/v Fathom This with George and June where we were introduced to another lovely couple from Switzerland. The Swiss couple’s boat is an amazing aluminum catamaran about the size of Cat Tales, named “Kobold”. It was constructed as a prototype over 30 years ago, and the owner, Heinz, has carried out extensive carpentry inside. No others were ever constructed.
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| Kobold, a prototype aluminum catamaran the size of Cat Tales |
One funny occurrence was the loss of Dawn’s magnetic sun glass attachment for her progressive lens glasses. They were knocked off her face while she was leaning over to lower the dinghy. The next day, I could not find them when diving, and we had resigned ourselves to the loss. Well Steve wanted to get in on the search so we gave it another try yesterday. While the two of us searched, I gave a quick search under the port hull. Upon finding a 3-4 foot baracuda there, I didn’t look too closely. After we had scoured the rest of the anchoring arc, I returned to find the shades exactly where the ‘Cuda had sat.
One thing I want to talk about, although it has come up before, is the amazingly interesting people you may meet here. Yes, world travellers like our friends Steve and Maria, but more: Jenny of Tanglewood is not only a car accident survivor, a cancer survivor, and the most upbeat person we know, but she is the granddaughter of Irving and Etsy Johnson, who traveled the globe in two great ships as charter captains. Check it out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Johnson_(ship). We also have learned just recently that Bill of Cloud Street is a survivor of the greatest US naval fire since WWII: The Forrestal Disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire#:~:text=A%201966%20fire%20aboard%20USS,down%20system%20on%20all%20carriers.
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| Joanna and Bill (Cloud Street) and Jenny (Tanglewood). This is Jenny who Laurie speaks of in the above paragraph. |
The last interesting find is George aboard the motor sailor Fathom This. George was the builder of the original chart plotter. He sold his design to Figawi, and the world changed forever. Well George came over to Cat Tales two days ago, took apart our Standard Horizon radio, scraped off the totally blackened polarized film from the display, and stuck a new one on! Amazing!
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| George and his helper Laurie changing the window film on our vhf…it lives!! |
Today’s sail around the southwestern peninsula was easy, with most of the way done by just the jib. However, it was a hard slog to get the 6 miles into Trois Islets through 20-25 knot breezes and waves. I’ve smelled diesel in the port engine compartment and also noticed the belt is just about done. I’ll have to investigate starboard in the morning. Dawn thinks we may have a line on a bokit lunch, so I’d better start early.
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| ‘Ti punch happy hour. Take nasty French rum, add sugar syrup and lime until you can drink it! Voila! |
Plans are to move back out of here tomorrow afternoon, and maybe try Anse Mitan or Anse a L’Ane. The next weather window looks like a week away, and we hope to be ready to jump islands from northern Martinique, St. Pierre heading for Dominica.
TECHNICAL
I am happy to report that the rebuilt starter is working fabulously. I was pessimistic when picking it up, as it was a 1.2 kilowatt motor, while the old ones are 1.0 kW. It actually starts easier, without a hesitation. The older one is now the spare!
While in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, a Hobie Cat from a resort hit us and punctured the outer skin of our rear port hull. We chatted with the officials from the Landings resort and they arranged for us to meet the gentleman who was sailing the Hobie that day. The gentleman agreed to pay the asking fee and sent us the $$ into our account after he arrived back home in the UK. He was extremely sorry. We promised him a free sailing lesson if he was to come back to the Caribbean. A temporary patch was done by reaching down from the deck and a better job will happen when we haul out in Grenada.
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| Temporary, but water tight. More work to be done in April at haul out time. |
Cat Tales has been having trouble with belts, and I am starting to blame the 80 ampere alternators. Especially when we try to use the 80 amps, like when we try to use the cold plate in the refrigerator and make water at the same time. The belt heats up and throws material. I’ve switched both engines back to the original 55 ampere alternators (hard to find these days, but I got one from Bill of Cloud Street, and really need to let him know how happy I am), and things are better. The belts are something else. I’ve always kept a stock of them on board, and now think part of the problem is them drying out in storage.
Well, we endeavour to persevere.
