Year 9 Day 201 St. Pierre, Martinique
19 August 2016 | St. Pierre, Martinique
Dave/Mostly Sunny
This morning around 0800 I went to Customs and Immigration and cleared out of St. Lucia. By 0845 we had tossed off our dock lines and motored across the lagoon to the fuel dock. Armed with our clearance papers, we were able to qualify for duty free fuel so we topped our two tanks and 8 jerry cans.
By 1000 the jerry jugs were on board, covered and tied down. Thus, we tossed off our fuel dock lines and we were off.
Soon we were out of the lagoon and into the bay. Shortly after that, we hoisted the sails, shut down the engines and were sailors once more. Yippee!
As we cleared the northern end of St. Lucia and entered the ocean that lies between St. Lucia and Martinique to the north we had wonderful winds on the beam blowing between 11 and 17 knots. The swells were a bit mixed but none were above 6 feet. It felt soooo good to be sailing again.
We sailed at speeds between 6.5 and 8 knots, depending on the wind. We had put in a reef in the main, just in case a squall would come roaring down the passage between the two islands. If it did, we would not have to turn in to the seas and wind and rain to put a reef in. Instead, we could just sit back and relax if the wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots. However, it never happened so our preparedness ended up costing us about 0.5 knots of speed. It was not a big deal.
Around 1300 we were approaching Fort de France after passing by Diamond Rock. Diamond Rock is a famous tall hay stack that lies just off the coast of Martinique. It is about 500 feet high and during the Napoleonic Wars the British navy hoisted up a few guns from one of their frigates. It was a nearly impossible task but they somehow managed to do it. With guns on top of this rock, they were able to control the southern passage to Martinique which helped force the French to surrender the island since entrance into their main port, was prevented.
Since it was great sailing, we decided to continue on to St. Pierre, at the northern end of the island. We reached this very picturesque town around 1630 after sailing about 6.5 hours and 42 nm. The places to safely anchor here are few and far between since the shore has a narrow shelf in which one can anchor and there were lots of fishing buoys scattered among the fishing boats that were sitting on moorings. After motoring around to see where we could safely squeeze in, we found our spot near the dock that services this town.
It feels so good to be anchor again. The multi-colored shops and buildings almost glow as the sun sets behind us. It is so pretty.
Tomorrow, at 0630, we plan on weighing anchor to sail the 57 nm to Plymouth, Dominica. We are anxious to get there so we can get a SIM card for our phone and have Internet access to better track the tropical disturbances I mentioned yesterday. I have downloaded the text reports on these two nasties, which I have included below. However, I wish to track the graphics that show the potential tracks that they may be taking. That requires the Internet to do this.
Our position here is St. Pierre is 14 44.53'N: 061 10.65W
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 200 PM EDT FRI AUG 19 2016
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Fiona, located over the central tropical Atlantic.
A tropical wave located about 600 miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands is producing a disorganized area of cloudiness and shower activity. Development, if any, during the next couple of days should be slow to occur as the system encounters a dry and stable air mass. After that time, environmental conditions are expected to become more conducive for development, and a tropical depression could form early next week while the system moves westward at about 15 mph across the tropical Atlantic Ocean. * Formation chance through 48 hours...low...10 percent * Formation chance through 5 days...medium...50 percent A tropical wave is forecast to move off of the coast of Africa on Saturday. Environmental conditions appear conducive for gradual development of this system early next week while it moves generally west-northwestward over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. * Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent * Formation chance through 5 days...low...30 percent