Meeting Samba
08 March 2011 | St Annes, Martinique
Catherine
A very pleasant sail from Guadeloupe down to Martinique, passing Isles des Saintes and Dominica without stopping as we wanted to put some miles in and hopefully meet up with the Burch family on Samba who we met in Lanzarote. The Grib files predicted constant Easterly winds of 14-16 knots. We are learning the nuances of Caribbean winds and despite having to motor some of the way, it really was a lovely sail, sunny, no swell, kids happy, clear night. Mark and I had forgotten how hard it was to do nights - I think a one off is harder than a three weeks passage, where you can get into a routine. I had to stand up to take watch so if I nodded off, my legs buckled under me and woke me up!! Perhaps my biggest sailing faux pas so far took form in the shape of the biggest riding turn in history. For landlubbers, the rope got knotted all around the winch big stylee. I was trying to get the genoa out without waking up Mark, but this only resulted in him waking up for his watch with having to rapidly sort out my cock up. I really wish I had a photo to demonstrate, but I was too busy eating humble pie to remember the camera. Arrived in Martinique to the back drop of a gorgeous sunrise only to be met by really miserable diesel operators who seemed irritated by my bad French, and all my insecurities about 'giving it a go' came flooding back. We tried to anchor in Fort de France but it was really busy and I wussed out, choosing a quieter anchorage round the corner in Schoelcher, where we got the opportunity to practise putting both anchors out til we get our new anchor. We had fun negotiating their annual dinghy regatta of 200 plus optimists, windsurfers and hobies to get inshore. Little update 24 hours on..... we are drinking ti punch with Mel and Pete from Samba - so lovely to meet up with fellow sailors. Current location: St Annes, Martinique.