02/01/2011, La Marin, Martinique, France, West Indies
You may think from the title of this blog that in the last few days we've traversed almost 3,000 n.m. and returned to the Mediterranean in the wrong season. The fact is, is that while we are indeed in France, France was one of the more fortunate European countries and managed to hold on to some of their Caribbean territories.
We've been in Martinique now for 3 days. The first night we spent out at anchor after a semi-rough passage up the "milk run of the Caribbean." The passage from Pigeon Island (St. Lucia) to Martinique is supposedly a wonderful passage with winds either behind or on the beam. We hit the bad day (go figure) and it was upwind most of the way.
The next day (yesterday) we came in to the marina to prepare for a mass repair project. It turned out that instead of repairing everything, we scrapped most of the repair list for a later time. Today we planned to move out to anchor again, but got waylaid when my dad decided to go to Le Lamentin to try and get our computer keyboard fixed. That turned out to be not a total wast of time (they said 'no'), but close to it.
This will be our third night in Martinique and hopefully our last in the marina. We don't have a real clear idea of where we are going next, but we are eventually going to visit the east coast (it looks very protected).
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01/27/2011, Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia,West Indies
We plan to head out to Martinique tomorrow. We met up with Ouma today, who are friends that we met in Marmaris, so it is too bad that we are leaving tomorrow because they are going south. We hope to go to La Marin (I think it`s called that) because of repair facilities. Fort-de-France is the capitol and the largest city on Martinique, but we`ve heard that La Marin has good facilities (and I don`t mean toilets!).
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01/26/2011, Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia, West Indies
We left St. Vincent about 3 days ago. It was a rough passage. We got hit by a gigantic squall and winds got up to 35 knots. The winds otherwise weren't too bad -- about 20 knots. We were going to go to Vieux Fort, but decided to go to Soufriere instead. We got to Soufriere, but only checked in there because it is under the Pitons and everything under the Pitons is expensive. The Pitons are two large, dramatic peaks on the south-west side of the island. A lot of the tourism is focused there. Then we went to Marigot Bay and spent the last 2 nights there. Now we're in Rodney Bay, the beginning of our Caribbean cruises and the end of our Atlantic crossing. It's also the start of another section in our exploration of the Caribbean. If you want to go that route, it's also the place where we (supposedly, I wasn't paying real close attention) decided to end our trip and go to Seattle after Panama.
For now, however, we plan to go to Martinique tomorrow. We have repairs to do, so we'll likely stay there for a few days. After that, we'll probably head north, but I don't know. We have a friend coming in soon, so we may hang around here.
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01/21/2011, Admiralty Bay, Bequia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, West Indies
From Chatham Bay, we made it to Canouan. We did not originally intend to go to Canouan, but as the winds were up and the seas uncomfortable, we decided to split up the 26 n.m. journey to Bequia. Canouan was a nice island, for no particular reason. It is just like every other Caribbean island, but its quaintness, I guess, is what makes it so nice. We anchored in the considerably rolly anchorage right in the middle of the mooring field. They were well spaced, though, so it wasn't much of an issue.
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01/18/2011, Chatham Bay, Union Island, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, West Indies
I haven't been able to blog in a while, so I apologize. We've been down to Grenada, and back to Union Island. Chatham Bay is a huge bay on the west, or 'other', side of Union Island. We came here on the recommendation of some friends that we just met in Sandy Island, Grenada. They are from Seattle, so we were excited to meet them.
Grenada is seemingly richer than most Caribbean countries. St. Lucia had that feeling as well. We stayed about a week in Prickly Bay and another few days in St. George's. Prickly Bay is a popular anchorage in Grenada, and St. George's is the capitol. I have no idea why Prickly Bay is so popular. It is lined with expensive houses with a ship chandlery, marina, and couple of restaurants. It is protected, but it isn't the only protected bay around.
St. George's is a "big" city. ('Big' meaning it can take cruise ships and freighters.) There are two harbors, the main one and the 'Lagoon'. No anchoring in the main one and the 'Lagoon' is mostly taken up by a huge, fancy, expensive, mega-yacht type marina. The first time we went, we had to set a stern anchor. The second time, we anchored on 3:1 for about an hour while we got our free Wi-Fi.
Now we are anchored in Chatham Bay. It is a nice place, and is rather secluded. There are three restaurant and bar combos and one just restaurant. There also appears to be a resort. There's good snorkeling over by the point.
Right now our plan is to have no plan, so I have no idea where we'll be going next. Probably the Tobago Cays, but who knows.
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01/05/2011, Clifton Harbor, Union Island, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, West Indies
Today we were supposed to leave St. Vincent & the Grenadines. 'Supposed' is the operative word there. Now our plans are to head to the island of Carriacou tomorrow, which is in the country of Grenada.
So far, the only thing worth mentioning is Orion's birthday. If you're thinking that the Orion I mean is a constellation, then you may want to know that I am talking about my friend on s/v 'Juno'. But, back to Orion's birthday. Unfortunately he only got one present (from his grandparents, I think)
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