Friday 27 April 2012

27th April St Pierre Martinique

Le Marin, although looking pretty scary on the charts, to me anyway, has well marked channels and the shoals are easy to see as long as the sun is shining; and although there are a lot of boats at anchor, there seems to be a big turnover of boats so spaces open up regularly, I did use a lot of fuel in the dinghy though.

Got a bit tired of LeMarin so did a coastal jump yesterday. Leaving just after sun-up and got the sails up in the channel but left the engine running until clear, just in case. We had a lovely sail up, wing and wing along the South coast with the wind behind us, then jibing (gently) coming round on to the West coast, reaching nearly seven knots for a while!

Northern Martinique

Then with just 5n miles to go the wind veered on to the nose with no warning, inevitably just as a sail boat was crossing in front, so started the engine and furled the jib (the wind I think was now being deflected by the mountains, although I was expecting it to bend the other way and not as dramatically) Anyway we motored the rest of the way in to Saint Pierre.

Snow White on the right

St Pierre

The old and the new

Beachfront sculptures

The bay is long and open and the only obstacles are the hard to see pot markers and easy to see buoys marking wrecks for the dive boats. The main shelf for anchoring is either side of the town pier and is not very wide, and we did search around for a while before finally going for a space on the South side.

This morning after a walk up the hill overlooking the bay, I watched seine fishing right in front of our anchorage.

Laying the net

Net laid starting to pull in

Pulling in net with help from primary school

Picking up the fish

Thursday 19 April 2012

18th April Le Marin Martinique

Here are some picks taken snorkelling at Bequia

not my shorts!

Conger poaing

We have now made the jump to Martinique, after deciding that St Vincent probably was not a good place for a singlehander to stop, it does not have a very good reputation for unannounced boardings, and St Lucia just didn’t have enough of interest to warrent the cost of a stopover. This time I thought we would try going to the East to get clear wind, however as with all plans it didn’t work out like that, for one thing the wind was not very strong at 2-4 so we motorsailed for all but about ½ hour of sailing.

The passage took about 27 hours ( I had estimated 20 to 30) after leaving Admiralty Bay at 6am; as the sun set we were nearing St Lucia with a dark night ahead with plenty of stars and cloud on all horizons, the sickle moon rose about 4am when a cargo boat decided to aim straight for us entering the channel between St Lucia and Martinique, since we were on courses at right angles to each other and he was doing 12 ½ knots to our 3-4 knots all I could do was wait and see, he finally decided to pass aft of us at about 1n.mile so all was well, curiously enough the AIS although telling me his ship type, speed, rate of turn etc. gave his name as ‘unknown’.

Marin, sorry Le Marin (as the customs man reminded me) is a col-de-sac with lots of little hideaways to moor in, I elected to go right in to its’ Northern (innermost) end and found a slot big enough without faffing about too much in about 5m of water. Ominously enough there is a boat stuck on a reef about 100 yards away.

Today is the 19^th, I have been unable to find a wi-fi that covers the anchorage so have to come ashore to surf, today it has been raining heavily so after doing some inside maintenance I had a shower outside.

Thursday 12 April 2012

12th April Bequia

Well I decided to take a short trip up to here (Admiralty Bay Bequia) to keep legal and check in. We up-anchor and left Union just before 2am on the 10^th April, to ensure we arrived in office hours. The passage was uninspiring in that most of it was motor sailing as the expected Easterly wind was in fact NNE so nearly on the nose, we did manage to sail for about three of the total of ten hours it took, but that forced us to the west and probably added about two hours to the journey!

Bequia

Admiralty bay from shore

Admiralty bay & Port Elizabeth from lookout

Beach fishing

Front street Port Elizabeth

Admiralty Bay is a very popular stop apparently as there are loads of boats anchored up, which adds to the fun of finding a slot, the one we finally plumped for is in 20metres close to the central channel; by the time I got ashore Customs and Immigration was closed for lunch, but on opening at 1pm was quick and efficient, and did not question why the trip from Grenada had taken so long.. Shoreside is pleasant with a good veg market right on the front, mind you the town only has a front street and a back street! And the inevitable plethora of eating and drinking holes.

Looking North from Mt Pleasant

Admiralty Bay from Mt Pleasant

Port Elizabeth

I took a pleasant wander to the top of Mount Pleasant, the highest mountain about this morning, mornings are the best time to get out and about as it gets kinda warm in the afternoons.

Sunday 8 April 2012

8th April Union Island

Happy Easter to all

We are anchored in a bay on the South end of Union Island just off Frigate Island well protected from the swell, where someone started building a marina but went bankrupt, so only a slowly silting up and decaying outline remains.

The area of Grenada we were in is definitely suburbia with bigger houses being built, the monkeys song kept going through my head (‘It’s just a pleasant valley Sunday, here in status symbol land’) every time I was ashore.

I actually saw the green flash just after this photo (Union Island)

We left Prickly Bay Grenada on the 2^nd April, just after dark and managed to sail for all of four hours before the wind died, we motor sailed the rest of the way less one hour! The trip lasted fifteen hours anchoring here about 10am on the 3^rd, the anchorage is not all that big so I was a little worried but saw a sail leaving as we were approaching so came ahead only to find five boats all close in, so having come this far I went for it and found a spot close to Frigate Island and ‘dropped the hook’ which held first time, in celebration put the kettle on had a cuppa then went to sleep, leaving the gps on anchor watch.

Small ray under boat

anchorage and frigate island from Union Island

Having to clean Snow Whites’ bottom, and wandering off when I feel a little tied to look at the reef around Frigate Island; even took a wander /climb up frigate island yesterday.