No, we are not back in Europe exactly, but we are on the island of Martinique, a official department of France.

The island is volcanic in origin and mountainous and the Empress Josephine grew up here. But more of that later. It is also a great place for getting anything for your boat and so we headed straight for Le Marin on the south coast, just over 20 miles from St Lucia.

The long marked channel at the entrance to Le Marin guided us the 3 miles into the bay past the shallow waters either side. Once in and anchored, it took us a while to get to grips with our surroundings of around 500 other boats either at anchor, on a mooring, or in the marina. Very different from the much less crowded St Lucia.

Once we explored ashore, we appreciated what Le Marin has to offer. We were able to get lots of laundry done very well just outside the marina, the chandlers were great and we were able to buy all the things and more that were on our list and the food shopping was just like being in France at European prices.

Blog readers may recall us needing new house batteries, well this was the place to do that. Chris checked out the various options and bought 5 Trojan flooded batteries that turned up in the dinghy with him one morning. The next few hours were spent taking out the old ones, installing the new ones and connecting it all back together again. If they last 9 years, like our Vetus ones did, we'll be very happy.

Re-provisioning was a dream with several supermarkets to choose from and Leader Price even had a dinghy dock to make life easier. With wine and rum available in 3l boxes, we are currently testing different ones so that we know what to stock up on during our time here. The fridge is full of lovely cheeses, cured meats and delicious pate. We also noticed the supermarkets selling frozen beef testicles. We're sticking to the wine and rum!

After a week of work (mostly for Chris) the main jobs were done and it was time to see what else Martinique has to offer.

CRUISERS NOTES No tax payable on batteries Camping Gas exchange at Bichik dock, 15 euros each. They also do fuel and laundry.