Well, it has been a month, and time to let this journal know some things. We are presently back in Ste. Anne, Martinique. We have returned mostly to pick up parts and have an electronic thingy looked at.
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| Dominica to St. Pierre, Martinique |
We were in Trois Islets a month ago, primarily following Steve and Maria on Savannah Sky as they were both looking for new anchorages at the same time as they were attempting to keep the boat from rocking in the wind and waves. We both found Trois Islets rather uncomfortable, and the water was just plain brown. They left for flatter water, while we once again tramped the streets in search of new things, and bokit sandwiches. Finding neither, we upped anchor to spend a couple of nights at Anse Mitan. Steve and Maria showed up for a day and we had a wonderful beach lunch. When they left to get a new technical matter repaired, we put the jib up and went to St. Pierre.
From St. Pierre, we made a loop of Portsmouth, Dominica, and Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, then back to St. Pierre over a period of 16 days. The time included 5 trips to customs, visits with the PAYS group of marine service providers who are also a lot of old friends, hiking and lunching on Terre de Haut with the people of Charlotte D, CloudStreet, Aspen1, and Prism; all of which was terribly enjoyable. As Aspen 1 were the newbies to the island, we all enjoyed showing the sites and sharing our wisdom. Not enjoyable was the weather, and especially the sailing. While in Portsmouth, the wind turned light and shifted to the west, and western swells actually emptied the anchorage. Two boats: a 70’ freighter and a fairly new cruising boat, ended up on the beach. All others, predominantly members of the Salty Dawgs who were there for a major event, scattered before the event was over. The weather continued to be poor for some of the time we were on mooring balls in Les Saintes. A few more boats were thrown onto the shores along the islands.
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| We saw several boats that washed ashore the night of the west winds and swells! |
Nor was the sailing very good, as we pretty much motored the whole route. Like other passages this year, we would reef for the forecast, then find not enough breeze to move the boat above 3 knots.
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| Lunch in Les Saintes with sv Cloudstreet and sv Charlotte D. |
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| A resident of the restaurant dropped in to see if anyone had any tidbits leftover from lunch! |
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| Lunch in Les Saintes with sv Cloudstreet, Charlotte D., Prism, and Aspen1. |
We regrouped at St. Pierre on the 17th of February and sailed to Anse a l’Ane, on the south shores of Fort de France Bay. There we had 3 nights that were quite lovely, a couple of nice lunches ashore, and found a hike we had never been on before. Traveling west along the shore, up and down the beautiful, shaded, green and irregular coast, we found two secluded beaches and a major archaeological site at a secluded place called Anse Bellay. Predominantly a large 18thcentury slave burial site, it also provided the archaeologists with evidence of the habitation of 13th century Kalinagos and the habitation of 8th century Arawaks. The bones were originally removed for study, but after the locals made it a political football, they were returned with ceremony and a proper plaque to display both history and respect.
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| A lovely, partly shady, meandering trail. |
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| Supposedly part of the original cemetery. We were delighted to learn and read all the details on the plaques here, thanks to Google Translate! |
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| A lovely hour long hike involving some good ups and downs! |
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| Deep fried ballyhoo and fries! Such delicate white fish with no bones. A treat, but not necessarily nutritious! |
Leaving Anse a l’Ane on Tuesday, 20th of February, we were determined to sail upwind to Ste. Anne and Marin. That was a bit of a disaster. Although properly reefed, we encountered a dry squall, high and sharp waves around Diamond Rock and Pointe du Diamond. The forward crossmember crashed into waves way below their tops, dislodging everything not nailed down. The water constantly cascaded up the boat and found all our undiscovered leaks. When after 30 minutes of this we arrived at the other side of the disturbance, the wind calmed down and for about an hour, we found the sailing we were after. Then it was gone, and we motored even longer, all the way to Marin.
We’ve now departed Marin and are anchored in Ste. Anne and are waiting for a call about our equipment. Not so bad, really, we’ve had a lovely lunch at le Sextant with Johanna and Bill and a pizza ashore here with Kristin and Terry of Silk Pajamas. Today, Anina and Charlie of Prism should arrive with their company from Rodney Bay.
TECHNICAL
I went ahead and switched back to 55 ampere alternators for both engines, now that I have two, and also fitted them better with sleeves for the bolt holes from the spare alternators. It also took new belts to stop the constant wearing of belts, and things are better in that area.
I had a fuel leak I couldn’t seem to stop on the port engine, and each time I ran it, a slow drip came from the Yanmar fuel filter. I just got a new set of gaskets for those little filter cans and put one on. It seems to have stopped it so far. If it continues in any way, I’ll replace the soft copper washers on the banjo fittings and tighten them.
The cockpit table dropped a screw, and when I attempted to tighten the screws, I noticed many holes were stripped. I epoxy-filled them, predrilled and reassembled. That is likely the end of that problem.
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| Repairing the curly wire for the remote control for the anchor windlass. |
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| Anse a l’ Ane to le Marin & Ste. Anne |
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| The underside of the cockpit table and the pedestal connection. |
Lastly, we’re waiting on the return of our 2015 Raymarine AIS 350 transceiver from Diginav, Marin. We have never had a consistent signal out from it and other boats do not read our position very often. Interestingly, the respected genius there, Jacques Fauquet, said he would not work on the screen of my Raymarine a75 chart plotter as it is difficult to repair and the unit is a piece of shit, his words. Time to go shopping, I guess.
