06/29/2010, genada
so i guess it's about 2 months since we left cape town. i think i should start from arriving in martinique. we had planed to take our time and explore the island a bit. on arriving at the airport near fort de france. we had decided to hire a car for a few days and head out to the east side of the island. so we get in the peugeot 206 with the 3 of us and 8 surfboards, luggage 2. took a wrong turn leaving the airport and ended up on the road south, not east as expected. plans change, i had heard that marin was in the south and thats where the yachts were so south it was. martinique is a pretty place and as we rounde the headland into marin we pulled the car over at a scenic spot and admired the view. tropical bliss.
we arrived in marin as it was getting dark and pulled up at the wharfs wher hundreds of boats are crammed in. asking around we were directed to an upmarket accomodation overlooking the bay 'residence des isles' i can recommend them to anybody. haven't been on holiday for ages so we decide to make the most of it. great flatlets with a n awsome swimming pool and a view across the whole bay and all the boats, you could pick one out from the balcony.
the next morning we walked down to the marina to take a look around. saw an awesome lavezzi catamaran at a decent price and were seriously considering making an offer right there and then. looking over the boat everthing was perfect even too much. clean and shiny with all the extra's and some. looking closer at the hull i noticed a few nasty looking cracks at the part where the hulls connect to the front cross beam, which in turn holds up the mast etc. it had already been fixed once and was looking fairly dodgy. so that was out.
carried on later.
05/02/2010, martinique
to start with just a bit of background information.
having lived in cape town, south africa most of our lives we finally got it together to pursue our dreams of going cruising.
over the last few years we had built a beautiful house on the mountain in houtbay, cape town.
as we finnished it we put it on the market and after a few months it was sold.
so packing a very few of our most special belongings into a 1 cubic metre crate to be shipped to us at a later date, we set off with our backpacks and 8 surfboards (much to everyones amusement & concern).
our first flight took us to paris where we stayed in a lovely hotel near notre dame. we spent the afternoon walking, from the hotel, past notre dame along the seine to the louvre, then through the courtyard of the louvre and the tuilleries gardens to the pettit and grande palais. from there we walked to les invalides and on to the eiffel tower where we caught the lift up to the top. oscar and i ran back down the stairs while sonja caught the lift.
paris is a beautiful city, especially in the spring time with all the new leaves on the trees and flowers and blossoms everywhere. we were very lucky with the weather as it was warm enough to walk around in a t-shirt.
from the eiffel tower we caught the tube back to near our hotel and had dinner in a little restuarant in an area where the streets have been closed to vehicles, a great little area called st severin.
Leaving on the 25th, Heading to Martinique to pick up the boat.
