Marooned in Martinique

Rainbow, West Coast Martinique, 29 April 2012

Yes, that's a joke.  We are still here; we sailed down from Dominica on Sunday and Monday last - such a good sail on Sunday that we made 65 nautical miles, all the way to an anchorage at Case Pilote, northwest of Fort de France, before sunset on Sunday.  Monday was nice at the beginning, but then the cotter pin on the starboard side of the davits gave way (not the first time), causing the dinghy to swing wildly, which in turn caused all four screws on the catbird seat to come out, and knocked the strobe light from its perch on one of the bimini supports (we didn't discover that until about an hour later - and more on that in a moment).  JP and Susan got the dinghy lowered into the water, so there was no weight on the davits, and we then started the eastward slog into the anchorage at the Marin.  

We anchored this time on the northwest side of the Cul de Sac du Marin, and arrived just in time for our friends on Nino to have cleared out, so we bid them farewell by radio and they headed on to St. Lucia.  We will probably catch up again in the Grenadines.  Ann and Chris on Mr. Mac heard us calling Nino, so they let us know that they were over at Ste. Anne, and we made plans to get together later in the week.

The generator part finally turned up late Wednesday, so Didier came Thursday morning; he completed part one of the project, and returned Friday for part two.  HOWEVER (isn't there always one?) now the gen, though working, is putting out copious quantities of white smoke, not generally a good thing, and JP and Susan are trying to diagnose it this morning.  

Yesterday morning we rented a car again, and Susan and I went with Ann and Chris, who had moved over to the Marin anchorage on Thursday, to the big Carrefour in Genipa that we had finally found a couple of weeks ago.  They invited us for a shared dinner on board Mr. Mac last night; Chris grilled a delicious pork tenderloin, and Ann and I contributed the veggies (carrots and a christophine gratin, respectively).  At one point, when I pointed out the Douane (customs) boat going out, Chris remarked that one night when they were at anchor in Ste. Anne, he noticed a strongly blinking white light at water level, and, concerned that someone was in the water, called the Martinique Coast Guard.  He said they were very responsive, but didn't find anyone, and after about 11 pm he stopped watching and went to bed.

Hmmm....what do you suppose are the changes that OUR lost strobe light made its way to the anchorage at Ste. Anne?  Actually, probably pretty good.  Now, the odds that people we KNOW would spot it...too funny.  Of course, we will never know.

We are waiting for a package that my sister sent with some valves for the dinghy pontoons; it arrived and cleared Customs on Thursday, but they decided against delivering it on Friday, for some reason.  The wind has died, anyway, and what wind there is comes from the southwest, which is of course the direction of our next stop in St. Lucia. And there is a strong possibility that Didier's services will be needed again for the gen, so...Martinique it is, for the moment.  Luckily, I like it much better than I did after our first stop here on the way south last year, the anchor is well hooked, the boat is well provisioned, and various services are close at hand.  All in all, not REALLY a marooned experience.