Exhibition photo amongst the ruins of St Pierre, Martinique

Current Position: 15 52.1N, 61 35.15W Moored at Terre-De-Haut, Les Saintes

View more pics at https://picasaweb.google.com/yacht.quilcene/---

St Lucia; We can certainly report some better sailing since our long overnight motor to Martinique! After exploring the French island a bit and stocking up on European goodies for Christmas, it was time to head to St Lucia to meet Marcus. Sailing south to Rodney Bay was wonderful. We were on a beam reach with all sails out in 10-15 knots - perfect! This is exactly what we had expected of the Caribbean - but will it last?

Rodney Bay anchorage is a popular spot, especially as the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) boats had recently arrived. However there was plenty of room so we dropped anchor and headed in to clear Customs and Immigration. Hmmm.... Lots of paperwork, first the Port Health where we had to promise we were healthy and hadn't visited African (Ebola) countries, next the Customs who did everything in triplicate and wanted $EC100 because it was Saturday, and finally Immigration - phew!

This is quite unlike Martinique where you can enter your details on a computer in a café and only pay €2 each! ...how laid back is that!

Once we had picked up our new crew member and shopped for our Xmas dinner we headed over to Pigeon Island, in the north of Rodney Bay for a few days. Pigeon Island is a Nature Reserve so quite undeveloped with walking trails winding in and out of the tropical vegetation. Happily it also has the Jambe de Bois (wooden leg) restaurant/bar, named after St Lucia's first French settler, who used the islet as a base for raiding passing Spanish ships around 1550. Later British Admiral Rodney fortified the island and used it to monitor the French fleet on Martinique. We saw the remains of the soldier's barracks, batteries and garrisons on our lovely Xmas Day walk along the islet's ridge. The view from the top, Signal Peak, over Rodney Bay and beyond is stunning. Kit and Marcus snorkelled along it's shoreline (I was nursing a cold) but apart from colourful fish life the fauna and flora were a little disappointing and not as good as we'd heard about.

A quick note here for all those who were concerned for our mince pies - they escaped Kit's attentions and remained uncrushed this year!!

Over Xmas we had increasingly strong winds - the dreaded 'Christmas winds' had arrived right on cue! It looked as tho' Marcus might not even get a sail with us but a weather window appeared so we checked out (another $EC100 - it was still Xmas holidays!) and set sail back to Martinique.

Martinique; After a lumpy start at the north of St Lucia we had a great day tacking back and forth across the St Lucia channel in 15-20 knots and sailed right into St Anne. This is another very popular anchorage with hundreds of yachts of all sizes swinging at anchor. ...and full marks to the French, the Boulangerie at St Anne deliver fresh baguette and croissant out to the yachts every morning around 0730; just right for breakfast!

We enjoyed checking out the beachside bars but when the winds picked up again we motored up the channel into Cul de Sac du Marin, which as the name suggests is a dead-end bay. It's a large area dotted with sandbanks, some buoyed with channel markers, one visible only because of a stranded yacht perched atop the bank! There is ample room for a marina, moorings and again, hundreds of anchored yachts. The bottom is muddy sand so great holding. No worries if Quilcene would be OK when we hired a car to go exploring.

Martinique is very European and is the first Caribbean island we've seen with extensive field systems just like Europe. The roads are very well maintained and it even has a motorway! After a quick coffee stop in the capital, Fort de France we drove up the west coast to St Pierre in the north. St Pierre used to be the Capital of Martinique until it was destroyed in 1902 by the sudden and catastrophic eruption of Mt Pele, which towers over the town. The volcano erupted so suddenly and so powerfully that population had no time to escape and 30,000 perished. The tale is told that only one person survived and he was a prisoner locked in a thick walled cell - who says that crime doesn't pay?

You can still see the remains of the old city dotted around the rebuilt town. There had been a recent photographic exhibition and several large black and white prints were still displayed to great effect on old and new buildings (see Picasa pics).

Next day Marcus was booked on a ferry back to St Lucia as the Christmas winds were still blowing too strongly for us to make the passage between the islands, and very rough seas were forecast. We still had the hire car so dropped him at the ferry port in Fort de France but were soon picking him up again as the ferry was cancelled! Luckily he'd got two days before his flight!

We all headed off to explore the east coast of the island; a much wilder coast with beautiful scenery. The Presqu'ile Caravelle peninsular is particularly lovely with quiet beaches protected from the Atlantic rollers by off-lying reefs. We'd spotted several smoking roadside BBQ s and couldn't resist stopping for a delicious roti chicken lunch.

The winds abated a little by next day but it was still touch and go whether the ferry would run. It finally set off for St Lucia at midday so Marcus had a lumpy crossing, but at least did not miss his flight!

Back on Quilcene we began preparing for our next passage; north to Dominica, the most southerly, and reputedly most naturally beautiful of the Leeward Islands.