Bye Bye Sainte-Anne

My solo trip over to Sainte-Anne from Rodney Bay was uneventful and I got to spend the week exploring Sainte-Anne and Le Marin with Gary and Donna from Page One. Had some nice French lunches, a great feed of ribs and enjoyed the fresh baquettes with cheese and wine.

It was cool to see fellow members of the Rodney Bay Bachelors' Club, Bob and Jeff from Chemaya pull in a day or so later. Bob was across from me on the dock in Rodney Bay. He is taking his boat back to Florida and was having trouble with his steering. He was afraid that he was going to have to haul the boat to get the work done so he was thrilled when he found it was just a seized bearing that they could fix. So we got a chance to have several more adult beverages before they headed off north.

Of course the highlight was on Sunday when a van pulled up to the park where I was sitting and delivered Pam! Yay!!! Jubilation!!! She reported to me that all kids and grandkids passed her inspection and everything is peachy on the home front. So now it was time to put me to the test. The boat was relatively clean and the varnish is shining. I think I'm OK.

Pam had friends over while she was home. Didn't want them to miss me!

Dinghy dock in Le Marin

Just kiddin'

Sainte-Anne beach

Lunch from the Boulangerie

Diamond Rock

Lunch in Sainte Pierre

Yumm! Accras de Morue

Ed and Ann on Windswept Dreams pulled in the day before we were going to leave so now we will have travelling buddies on our trip back up to Antigua. We have 3 weeks before we haul so we will spend 10 days cruising up through the islands and 10 days getting the boat ready for storage at North Sound.

Heading north to Dominica tomorrow!!! See you there.

Time for a Change

Hello Faithful Reader!

I've been at the dock in Rodney Bay for 3 weeks now and it's time for a change. I've done a world of boat jobs so I feel pretty good about that... but as I sit here the harbour sludge is building up on the bottom. Time to race through the water to clean it all off... over to Martinique where Pam flies in next weekend. Yay!!!

I like my own company but occasionally I get on my nerves and it's time to hang around with someone else.

I couldn't find anything that appealed to me for lunch on the boat so I thought I'd wander down to the restaurants to peruse the various menus. The closest I got to buying something was at the sushi place... but I wasn't hungry enough to pay the formidable prices... even though it is very good and artsy. I'll wait 'til I get back home to fill up on sushi.

Started back to the boat and ran into my fruit lady. I was low on fruit so I picked up some grapefruit, passion fruit and bananas. She has a bunch of bottles filled up with herbs and twigs and stuff. The idea is that you buy some of the local rum/poison and drink it as a tonic. Each time I look at it she tells me it is good for my "willie" and offers me a taste. I think she likes me.

Didn't notice the special soaps until I took this photo

Just add kick-a-poo joy juice

Fruit Lady

She had some aubergines and I asked her how she prepared them. She said slice, egg batter, bread crumbs if you like and fry them up.

So I did...

Aubergine/eggplant

Sliced

Soon to be egg batter

Panko and pepper

Looking good!

Fry 'em up

Enjoy

So... you can put lime, salt and hot sauce on anything and it tastes good. I'm not sure that I will waste my time on the aubergine next time.

So there is another thing, like zip-lining, that I never need to do again.

Off tomorrow. See you in Sainte-Anne!

Ready to go!

Page One getting ready for the trip over to Sainte-Anne

Gary seizing the halyard shackle in place

Wait a minute... who's having fun?

While Pam's gone I've been filling my time with boat jobs. I've always wanted to have some alone time on the boat so I can get some things done without having to behave and make sure Pam isn't getting annoyed or bored or annoyed and bored. So I got my wish.

I've finished the part of the cap rail that we both were working on, refinished the sole in the aft cabin. I'm working on the forward cabin as we speak and I've repaired a couple of leaky, mal-functioning hatches. Changed the oil and filters. Changed the fuel filters. All very exciting... blah, blah, blah.

Old method to keep hatch open

New (not cheap) friction lever in place

Ooooooohhh, shiny

Hatch re-bedded after removal for repairs

And... it works! Yay.

Loads of fun.

Hey, wait a minute! What's going on at home? Kids are all there, grandkids are all there. Brad's drinking scotch, Jen and Carrie overdosing on ice cream. I want some!

Having fun!!!

Grandkids "helping..."

Breakfast chaos

Gran doing Gran duties

The troops have rallied to move Carrie out of our basement where we held her captive for the last little while... into her new apartment. How cool.

Congratulations!

Moving day today!

Luke totin' stuff

Get your stuff out of my garage!!!

Hey, that's what I'm doin', too

Jack helping out Carrie load the van.

Just hangin' at Care Bear's

Yay! A picnic with Aunty Jen. Uncle Brad chillin' on the sofa.

I wish I was there!

Boat Jobs in St. Lucia

We like France. Prices are like at home and you can get everything. So getting groceries is great. Also fun to hear the different music at bars and to enjoy the meals at the local cafes.

Huge dinghy dock in St. Anne

Great panini - internet cafe

I'm not sure about their hours of operation but they always seem to be open

Sailboarding school near the Club Med

But we have places to go. We have set Rodney Bay as our turn-around point for this cruising season. The island chain from Antigua down to St. Lucia is quite magical. Our sail over could not have been better. The best of this season so far. We averaged more than 7 knots. Just flying. And that was without the staysail. Also, Pam was smiling... not grimacing like she's having a root canal.

And, speaking of chain, a focus for Rodney Bay was that the Island Water World outlet here that has the chain we want for a reasonable price. Our primary anchor chain (200 feet) was so badly deteriorated that we abandoned it and moved over to our secondary (120 feet.) So we were looking forward to getting our new chain here. Turns out, they have lots of chain, only not in a 200 foot length.

I asked Ian, manager at the local Island Water World - someone I have great respect for - where the chain was made.

He said, "China." The chain is manufactured by Canada Metal - who have a great reputation - but the galvanizing process is very nasty. Apparently you have to vaporize zinc all over the chain which can be quite harmful to humans. So doing the work in Canada, where the regulations are quite strict, is more difficult than doing the work in China, where the regulations are less strict.

So that makes you think!

I guess we will wait on chain.

We were delighted to see Page One when we arrived in the harbour. We met Gary and Donna in Allen's Cay back in 1978 and have kept in touch over the years. They brought us conch up from Carriacou so we could appreciate our Bahamas days together. Very thoughtful.

Page One - build in Surrey, BC

Cleaning and bashing conch for Cracked Conch

Fruit Guy. Want a grapefruit?

So Pam has gone home to inspect the family - make sure the kids are behaving and taking care of our grandchildren appropriately. 

She has left me in charge of boat jobs. I've got some varnish to complete. Loose wires to trace. Rum to drink. A couple of fans to replace. I'm hoping that when she returns things are generally ship-shape!

I'll keep you informed!

Poised to Leap to St. Lucia

We love France. Everyone speaks French! Wow! Who knew?

Goodbye St. Pierre from our kitchen window.

The grocery stores are awesome. There are public mooring buoys available in many places - not really sure about reserving them with a surf board or an oil container while you are away for days, though. That doesn't seem right. Transportation is good. And there is internet to be found.

Kids in a pre-Carnival parade

Fort de France - from the ferry across the bay from Anse Mitan

A savory crepe - !!! Yay.

Busy street in downtown FDF

Library in FDF near the huge public square

Ferry dock

Our ferry

Pay attention dolphins? Not sure about this one.

But we've got stronger beer - in Canada

WindSwept Dreams and Blue Pearl on the ferry in FDF

So we spent a couple of days in St. Pierre described in our last post. Then a couple of days in Anse Mitan... just across the bay from Fort De France... and here we are now in St.  Anne at the south-east corner of Martinique. There are hundreds of boats here... like the Georgetown of Martinique. Big community with a morning net and, unlike Georgetown (Bahamas) there are services and supplies

We are waiting for good weather to cross to St.  Lucia... a short hop of only 20 miles or so. Probably head out in a couple of days after a few more crepes and Ti-Punches.

We've had weird weather with the wind doing all sorts of crazy things. And the big event was a carwash-style downpour after our washing-machine-sail down from Anse Mitan. So, even though it was a bit concerning at the time - never seen anything like it - the boat got a great rinse and our anchor held.

All good.