It was a spectacular 105nm passage from Marie-Galante to Martinique Febuary 22-23. The first segment was a southward beat from Marie-Galante to about half way down the east (windward) coast of Dominica. This was followed by a close reach to the south end of Dominica and a beam reach across to the west side of Martinique. “Life is a Reach!” Two mild squalls touched us and several others passed nearby.
Mostly the wind was 15-20 knots, gusting 23-27 in the squalls. We made good the first 70 nm in 11 hours, exceptionally good time for our boat!
As expected, when we entered the lee of Martinique in the afternoon, the wind more or less disappeared, so we motored south along the west coast of Martinique into the evening hours and settled at anchor off the beach at St. Anne at 0230 hr.
Martinique has many delights, with the French cuisine being high on our list. Catherine enjoyed her bouillabaisse, but gave the included Ballyhoo to Peter.
Later we shared Le Grand Asian Poisson Assiette (including egg rolls, morue, poisson fumee, chartrou, and melon kabob).
The next day Catherine was bold enough to order beouf tartare, topped with a raw egg. This was accompanied by a wonderful brown mustard and a delicious garnish (minced onions, garlic and basil). She liked it!
Below you see the raw egg on tartare on bread ready to pop into her mouth!
Peter thought the tartare (left on the plate above) looked like the pile of raw ground beef that it was, and he preferred his fricassee chartrou (octopus). To each their own!
The island rhum was poured for every sunset ceremony.
And rhummeries were visited whenever possible.
St Anne is a picturesque small village. It has all the support facilities that we need. Check it out on Google Earth at 14-26.2'N 060-53.4'W.
One day while we were online in an internet cafe there was a raucous event in the next room. A sport event was on the big screen tele attended by a group of cruisers eating great mounds of frites (“chips” in Canada and UK, “french fries” in US). I noticed that the ball was being carried in the hands, so it must not have been football. There was a steady stream of shouted exhortations such as, “Go!, Go!, Run! Run!”, as if the players at the faraway game could hear the local fans. The climax of the event occurred when a boy on the not favoured team took the ball away from a boy on the favoured team and ran away with it! Imagine that! This elicited an enormous crescendo of curses from the audience before the big screen. Thus ended the event, and they departed in a dejected mood. Life is full of such disappointments.
Martinique has a well-developed system of hiking trails. We enjoyed a section of the Cape Trail, which winds 34 km along the shore southward from the village of St Anne.
The forest on this part of the island is dry with mostly small trees. There are some larger specimens that made us emotional.
After the hike, we cooled ourselves in the waters of the bay. Always ready for a swim!
The beach at St Anne is overlooked by the hilltop cemetery. .
The in-water exercise groups at the St Anne beach are well organized.
Yoles are colourful traditional island sailing vessels and are commonly seen in the harbour. They have no ballast keel, so depend upon crew weight on windward poles for stability. Be nimble, be quick, or capsize!
We rented a car for an island tour, but we only got part way up the east coast. We saw lots of banana fields! The plastic bags protect against fruit bats and other “pests”, so the bananas we find in the market are without blemish.
We chanced upon the crab wholesaler as we explored the backstreets of Le Francois.
Catherine always enjoys the spice markets. And, fortunately for us, she knows what to do with them!
On March 13 we departed Martinique for a series of day sails toward Grenada. The series of sails from Martinique, and short layovers along the way, will be described in our next posting of 2011-2012.
Meanwhile, check out this video of Catherine knitting underway, 10 miles at sea.
This sweater-to-be has quite a history! Catherine was midwife for the lambing; raised and sheared the sheep. She washed, carded, dyed the wool with onion skins and Kool Aid, spun and plied it to make the yarn before knitting began. So, really the sweater began 30 years ago when that sheep was conceived on Catherine's farm in Ontario. Whew!
“See a lot, Learn a lot, Live a lot”
Book of the week: “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods”, Henry David Thoreau
Peter and Catherine, aboard S/V Charlotte D, somewhere in warm salt water.
