Monday 28 December 2009

St Kitts

We had a very "Mediterranean" sail from Martinique to Nevis - fickle winds from all directions! We checked in at Charleston, a very picturesque town and then sailed up to Frigate Bay on St Kitts the next day. Meeting up with friends, we spent Christmas Eve at the Shiggidy Shack with rum punch and limbo dancing. Since then unusual weather has ruled our schedule - we've had endless southerly winds which have brought big swells into all the bays and made anchoring very rolly and uncomfortable. It's Carnival here and we missed the big Jouvert celebration on Boxing Day but there's more going on over New Year. We can't complain too much, it's warm and we've had some fabulous snorkelling in White House Bay on a wreck.

Monday 21 December 2009

On to Martinique

We had a fantastic long walk (4 hours +) across to the Atlantic side of St Lucia ending up at Cas en Bas Beach and then taking the coastline further north. It was a wonderful mixture of scenery and the weather was perfect, not too hot and a nice onshore breeze. It really is a stunning island.
Friday we checked out and on Saturday we sailed up to Martinique. Irony made good time and we arrived 4 hours later. After a lunchtime beer at a cafe we hit the supermarkets to stock up on French wines, cheeses and other European goodies. It's far cheaper on the French islands despite the bad exchange rate of £ to euro.
Our dinghy has once again sprung a leak and has had more tlc and glueing. Bad timing so close to Christmas as we are meeting up with friends in St Kitts. We sail off there tomorrow morning and hope to arrive by Thursday. We're not expecting a fast passage as the winds are predicted to be light.