Ken and I had plans to depart Portsmouth in the wee hours of the morning last Saturday. We figured if we got going early enough, we could make it to Fort de France, Martinique. We weren't fancying a stop in Roseau or St. Pierre, as we figured the swells would be untenable and roll us out of our bunks.
Well, midnight rolled around, and Ken had some very unhappy inner workings. Something he ate was not sitting well, and wanted out, one way or another (frankly, I wasn't 100% either, but much better than he was). There was NO way we were leaving for a 15 hour trip with him feeling so lousy. We slept on until daylight. When we awoke, Ken was feeling much improved, and we decided to go south. Either Roseau, or if our timing was good, maybe cross the channel and get to "our" little anchorage immediately south of St. Pierre. The wind was due to pick up Sunday afternoon, and I had ants in my pants to get moving.
We motored down to Roseau, with Ken napping down below much of the way. We didn't exactly make great speed, and Ken wasn't quite up to the channel crossing, so we grabbed a mooring south of Roseau and settled in for a quiet afternoon and night. I baked some of my spice bread, and we relaxed. We had a visit from Desmond, one of the service providers in the area, but aside from that it was quiet. So while it was unfortunate for Ken that he was under the weather, we had a relaxed trip down to Roseau, and far better conditions at the mooring, vis-à-vis the swells, than we had expected.
The next morning, Sunday, we were off with the sunrise. I was glad I had put the first reef in the main, as we were on our ear, toe rail in the water, for much of the channel crossing to Martinique. By the time we made it to the lee of Martinique, we were both ready for some calmer conditions. We were motoring in the dead air when I looked out to Starboard (towards the open water). I saw something that didn't look "right", it looked "different". Then I realised what it was, whales! Ken and I watched as a pair of whales crested, got some air, and we saw both of their flukes as they went deeper under the surface again. Very cool, indeed.
Shortly after that, I saw a large clump of Sargassum in front of us. I had been thinking of doing an article on Sargassum, so this was an excellent photo op for us. We plowed straight through the thick of it, snapping pictures of the yellowish-brownish seaweed matted on the surface. Not 5 minutes after we got out of it, the engine overheat alarm when off. Dammit. We turned off the diesel and double checked everything else, but it all checked out. We must have got a stringer on the saildrive at the water intake. We had enough wind to sail at this point, and decided to go for the much closer anchorage rather than press on to Fort de France. After a sufficient cooling off period, the diesel was happy again, so we could motor in to anchor. We've anchored under sail before, but we prefer not to as backing down is more difficult.
Since it was such a nice afternoon, and I hadn't run the day before, or that morning, I decided to swim ashore to the beach with my shoes in a waterproof bag and go for a run. I didn't want to row ashore and leave the dinghy on a busy beach (kids and adults love to sit on them), and Ken really didn't feel like going ashore. Anyway, it worked very well, so well I did it again the next morning before we departed.
Monday morning we had a leisurely breakfast of French toast with the spice bread when I returned from my impromptu aquathon. We knew we had a short trip of about 15 nautical miles to go, so there wasn't a need to haul anchor early. So while we had a minor heart attack with the overheat alarm going of the previous day, we had an absolutely lovely night on the hook in a quiet place.
We had an uneventful trip to Fort de France, anchored relatively close, and decided not to put the outboard on the dinghy. Kids have been messing with the dinghies on the seawall in Fort de france, so we figured we wouldn't make our outboard a target. We checked in at the Customs computer at the chandlery, which remarkably was NOT closed for lunch (a rarity on a French island), and even found some cleats we have been looking for, then had lunch and bought some groceries.
We have since been shopping. I found out where the big sports store is, close to the Galleria where one of the big supermarkets is, so we spent a happy time there, finding running shoes for me and other sundry things. Then on to the supermarket for a few other things.
We have pretty much whittled down the bulk of our shopping list for Martinique, and now are just starting to enjoy being here again. And rowing the dinghy ashore means that I can return with a baguette for breakfast after my morning runs!
So while the trip didn't go anything near as planned, it is safe to say that it was probably better than we could have hoped for, with the positives easily balancing the negatives.