St Anne & Marin, Martinique & Sailing to Guadeloupe

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Well, as we learned when we were in Peace Corps – you always need to be flexible. In our last blog we mentioned that we were going to wait in Martinique for a FedEx package (our credit cards), but we heard that there was a great weather window for traveling north to Guadeloupe so made a change of plans and up came the anchor. We are finding that not having the credit cards is definitely helping our budget. We don’t have to have them immediately as we have plenty of provisions on the boat; therefore we would set sail north and have them sent there. Before leaving Martinique we did get a chance to explore St. Anne and nearby Marin. One evening just before sunset we took a short hike up the hill behind the church in St. Anne to get a great view of the anchorage. The walk zigzags up the hill with the stations of the cross at each turn and ends at a small chapel at the top of the hill (very Catholic). We also have been trying to get some swimming in each day while in St. Anne; the water is quite nice here. Bob didn’t swim much as he was busy working on cleaning the bottom of the boat, his arms and shoulders got quite a workout. The job is made much easier with the use of the hookah (tank-less dive equipment). But it still takes about an hour and a half to two hours to do the whole boat. Janice has no problem with swimming rather than scraping the boat! She isn’t arguing about this separation of duties.

The public transportation is quite good here. One day we took the bus into Marin to explore and check out the fruit and veg market. It is definitely one of the smaller markets we have been to, but still had enough fresh produce to fill the cupboard on the boat. We were told by our friend, Denise that we should take the number 1 bus into Marin which we accomplished without a problem. Remember all of this is done in French which neither of us can speak. We found very few of the people on Martinique speak English, but with hand gestures we found where to catch the bus. On the return trip we caught a bus to St. Anne, what we didn't know was that this was the milk run. What should have taken 15 to 20 minutes lasted for well over an hour. We sat back and enjoyed the scenery and had a chance to see the interior of the island. We wound up on some very small back roads, over creeks and through the “woods” so to speak. This is part of the fun and challenge of traveling on public transportation when you cannot speak the local language. But it worked out fine and as we say "a good time was had by all". Due to the advent of ATM’s it is getting much harder to change cash into foreign currency if you don't have a credit card. We were unable to find an open bank in either town, but there were many ATM’s. So once again it was a good day for the budget.

To check out of the country we needed to get to the custom office in Marin. It is open only from 7AM to 12:30PM each day. Instead of a taking a long dinghy ride or taking the bus again we decided to move the boat to an anchorage near customs in the late afternoon on Tuesday, April 10^th. This not only made it easier for us to access customs but enabled us to do some supermarket shopping. The best supermarket in town has a dinghy dock next to it so you can wheel a shopping cart right up to your dinghy (those cases of cheap German beer get heavy if you have to walk very far). We had a very pleasant surprise when we went to the marina as we ran into friends on Raconteur, Leigh, Jean-Philippe and Susan. We thought we would catch up with them in Antiqua but they have changed plans and will not be getting their this season so we considered ourselves very fortunate to have had the chance to catch up with them even if it wasn’t for very long. With any luck we'll have a chance to catch up again with them in Europe this coming fall. They'll be in Monaco and we'll be in Portugal, who knows.

We set ourselves a timetable of leaving the anchorage at noon on April 12^th and as it turned out we did very good pulling up anchor at 12:15PM. The winds started out between 18-22 knots with swells of about 4-6 feet. Not a bad start even though the wind was not in the best of directions while we were trying to get around the southern tip of Martinique. About 2:30PM we were able to adjust our heading and the winds remained steady about 14-16 knots with calmer seas. By 5PM we were having a fabulous sail – the wind was from the “right” direction (something that has only happened two or three times in the past two years) and we were sailing at speeds ranging from 6-8 knots with winds at only 13-18 knots – it is amazing what heading in the “right” direction can do for your hull speed as well as the comfort on the boat. We were heeling (we are a sailboat remember) but at a very comfortable degree so even cooking dinner wasn’t too much of a chore. The moon didn’t come up till late that night, but even before it did we are always surprised at how bright the light is over the water. The night sky was spectacular as well without the city lights to block your vision. We were on the east side of the island easily 5 to 10 nautical miles away from land.

For the evening part of the trip we worked with a 4 hour on/4 hour off watch shift which seems to be working well for us. We both kept an eye out for dolphins but unfortunately none were spotted on this crossing. We chose to sail the windward side (the side the wind blows on) of the islands on this crossing rather than the more popular leeward side (the side of the island away from the wind). We find that the windward side has been a pleasant change when making longer jumps; you do not run into the choppy seas and changeable winds that you experience on the leeward side when going between islands. This is caused by the funneling of the wind between the land masses and is not experienced when sailing on the windward side.

In all the time that we have been sailing since leaving upstate NY in August 2010, this sail was the best! The seas and winds cooperated nicely and we were definitely headed in the right direction this time – it sure would be nice if we could get more of this type of sailing in. We were also pleasantly surprised that the trip took 21 hours (approximately 130 nautical miles) instead of what we planned would be a 25 hour trip – sure nice to have picked up some speed without any discomfort.

The island of Guadeloupe has a very interesting geological history, when you look at the island from the air it is shaped like a butterfly. The western part of the island is quite mountainous while the eastern part is quite flat. The reason for this is that the eastern part of the island is quite old and even though volcanic, the land has eroded away. The western part of the island developed much later and the volcanic activity filled in the space between the two islands making it into one island. Where these two islands met there is now a naturally existing waterway that allows boats to pass from the southern side to the northern side of the island. We arrived in country on Friday, April 13^th (we were engaged on a Friday the 13th so it has always been our lucky day) early enough in the day to do the formal check in process which is super easy in the French countries and explored the marina area before going back to the boat to catch up on some sleep. By the way to those of you that are sailors (especially the TYC group) don’t worry as we didn’t start the voyage on Friday, just ended on one!

We are currently in a very nice anchorage on the southern side of Guadeloupe with excellent wi-fi now waiting for the FedEx delivery. We will probably stay here at least a few more days and then move on to Antigua. We hope you're all doing well and enjoying the spring. Look for another blog posting soon with info on our stay in Guadeloupe.

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Photos

Anyone want some fish?
It was interesting to see this fisherman trying to sell his fish while at a busy traffic circle in LeMarin on Martinique. We were hiking around so it definitely didn’t quite fit into our backpack so better luck with another buyer.

Always good landmarks
We find that the churches are excellent land marks for finding your way around a new city. This is one that sets high on a hill in LeMarin.

Public telephones do exist
Yes, public telephones do still exist as we found out in LeMarin. This one was located just next to the church.

Colorful local boats
We always love to see the locally built boats that are still in use today. This was the view that we saw from in front of the church on the hill in LeMarin.

A local detail perhaps?
Bob was taken by the interesting detail on the stern of the boat – it may be unique to this area as we haven’t seen it on other islands.

St. Anne Martinique anchorage
A view of St. Anne’s anchorage from one of the vantage points when walking up the hill behind the church one evening.

The colors add to the scenery
Everywhere you look it is alive with colors from the various flowers and flowering trees and shrubs. It is hard to capture it all.

A lovely evening stroll
We found that the hike behind the church at St. Anne’s’ actually goes up to the various Stations of the Cross and then ends at a small chapel at the top.

A nice anchorage at St. Anne's
One more view looking over the bay at St. Anne’s, Martinique. We definitely enjoyed our stay anchored here.

Uses for Coconut Shells
We find that the use of a coconut as a planter is a common one used here- quite a useful way to use local materials.

Those evening skies
Tsamaya is anchored here off of St. Anne, Martinique.

Floating Dry Dock
It is interesting to see a floating dry dock where the boat is brought in and the dry dock rises out of the water so work can be done on the hull. This one is in Le Marin but we have seen them in even larger sizes in Guadeloupe.

Views of the Church
Just a few shots of the church located in LeMarin, Martinique.

Another evening view
Had to go for some of those artistic shots – couldn’t help myself when it presented itself.

Chapel on the hill
This is the small chapel that is located on the hill behind the main church located in the town of St. Anne’s.

Is that 2 rows of mountains?
That may look like a 2nd mountain range in back of the first set of hills, but believe it or not it was actually clouds behind the hills making it look like a 2nd set of hills. Quite a sight.

Flowering Sisal Plant
This flowering aloe plant was one of the tallest we have seen in a long time.

View from the chapel on top of the hill
For some reason just can't stop taking photos of the evening skies here. This is still a view from St. Anne.

Our previous evening walk
A view from the water looking at the walk up to the top of the hill where the stations of the cross were that we walked up the evening before.

Where are we?
A look at the chart plotter. The butterfly shaped country at the top is Guadeloupe.

Comments

[katie]

We always enjoy your stories. Thank you for sharing them. John & Katie, Marrakesh Catalina 22 on Cayuga Lake