More of Martinique

Rather than the expected white van, we happily ended up with a car although the passenger window didn't work. We drove out of Fort de France up into the Pitons du Carbet on the Route de La Trace (opened by the Jesuits in the early 1700s) and stopped at the Ancienne Station Thermale d'Absalon, where we enjoyed a wonderful 2 hour circular walk in the rainforest. Steep paths laced with tree roots took us through luscious tropical greenery and exotic flowers populated by brightly coloured hummingbirds. At the end we climbed down into the gorge and had a refreshing swim under a waterfall.

On day 2 we visited Habitation Clement near Francois, a rum distillery with a beautifully restored Creole plantation house. Taking the coastal road up the Atlantic side of the island we investigated the Caravelle Nature Reserve and then had a spectacular drive up to Grand-Riviere on the very north of the island. Along the way we managed to collect a bucket full of fallen mangos which we are now gorging ourselves on.

On a more commercial note we also took some time to visit the myriad of massive shops and malls in Le Lamentin - there was no sense of being in the Caribbean, it was like being back in Europe, everything is available!

Exploring Martinique

Our first stop after Le Marin was the little village of Ste Anne, still in the same enormous bay towards the south of the island. The long white sand beach there is buzzing on Sunday with large crowds of locals picnicking under the trees. Joined by our good friends on S/Y Scorch, we had a delicious three-course lunch in town at Le Sud, which we would highly recommend to anyone.

A pleasant downwind sail took us to Fort de France, the capital, where we anchored under the imposing fortress of St Louis. The town has a very French feel to it and offers some good shopping and a number of interesting buildings. The most striking is Bibliotheque Schoelcher, built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and then shipped to Martinique; it is still in use today. Disappointingly there is a dearth of street-side cafes in the town centre where one can enjoy a coffee or a cold beer and watch the world go by.

We moved on to Trois Islets (confusingly the name of an area and a small village). The anchorage feels very rural with the sound of birds, crickets and some very vocal cockerels. Bourg of Trois Islets is charming and was the home of Princess Josephine up until the age of 16. There is a lovely stuccoed church and a plethora of fish-scale tiled buildings. We walked across the peninsula to see Anse Mitan which was a complete contrast – very touristy and rather naff.

Finding a rental car has been a challenge, there simply aren’t any! Apparently after the strikes of last year, the rental agencies divested themselves of much of their stock. Now, in high season, they don’t have enough cars to go around. We finally managed to find a 2-seater white van to rent and are picking that up tomorrow to explore more of the island.

New GPS

We sailed up to Martinique from St Lucia last week and took our ailing GPS to Jacques at Diginav Electronics in Le Marin. It took several visits over a few days for him to determine that, it was uneconomical to repair. Jacques gave us a fantastic deal on a new Furuno 32 which is now installed and running.

At the moment we are anchored off Ste Anne but we plan to spend the next couple of weeks exploring Martinique before returning to St Lucia for 22^nd March.

Wow! The Tobago Cays

Our GPS has gone on the blink but we arrived safely through the reefs after an overnight sail into pretty Clifton Harbour on Union Island for a check in. In the afternoon we headed off to Horseshoe Reef in the Tobago Cays and remained anchored there for a few days. Coincidentally we anchored next to good friends on Scorch of Wessex and were later joined by other friends on Eiland.
The colours and crystal-clear water here is breathtakingly beautiful and the snorkelling is incredible; it's like swimming in a giant aquarium. There is a turtle sanctuary where one can swim with literally dozens of turtles in shallow water. We also sighted barracuda and sharks. We are wondering why we have managed to sail past this area so many times!
Too soon it was time to leave. On Tuesday morning we sailed up to Bequia to check out and have a late lunch. Then another night sail up to Vieux Fort in St Lucia and a sad farewell on Wednesday to our guest, Anna who had joined us for the last couple of weeks.
Wednesday evening we sailed up to Rodney Bay and will be here until Sunday. Then it's up to Martinique to see if we can get our GPS fixed.

Canival Continues

The revelry continued for another 3 days. On Sunday we went in to Dimanche Gras, a big sellout event in the stadium. It was somewhat disappointing after an enormous effort to get tickets. There was a fantastic costumed depiction of the rainforest which was breathtaking but it was followed by hours of calypso performers, not our cup of tea (nor of most of the audience judging by their faces!). We got back to the boat for a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 4am to go into Port of Spain for J’Ouvert, dressed in our oldest clothes. From the French “jour ouvert” it’s a celebration of the darker elements of Trinidad’s folklore and history. The participants dress as devils or demons and bathe in mud and paint and throw away their inhibitions until daylight.

Unable to get a local bus we hitched and were picked up by the coastguard in a minibus. Sweetly they dropped us right in the centre of things. Along the way we saw crowds of revellers, covered in paint. In town we arrived just in time for the start of the parade. We stayed on well into the morning enjoying the friendly atmosphere and some really good steel bands.

Needing a break from Carnival we took the boat around to beautiful Scotland Bay where we could have a swim and relax for the night. On Tuesday we went back into Port of Spain for the last day’s big Parade of the Bands. The costumes were spectacular but there were few vantage points along the parade route where one could see the big groups in action. Once they had performed at the judging points the masqueraders seemed to give up performing.

We spent Wednesday re-provisioning and filling up with cheap fuel at $0.25/litre. Checking out on Thursday morning we had a brunch stop in Scotland Bay and then a very fast overnight sail to Union Island.

Carnival begins

We had a very fast night sail to Trinidad arriving at dawn into Chaguaramas. After a long tedious check in we set off for Port of Spain to see the Junior Parade of the Bands (kiddie carnival!). It was incredible to see how young they were, some were being wheeled around in prams. The costumes were fantastic and the atmosphere very gentle, a good introduction to Carnival celebrations. In the evening we watched the beginning of the Steel Band Finals and managed to walk around the bands as they were warming up before they went into the big stadium. Sadly Anna had her rucksack sliced open with a knife and wallet stoled, a dampner on an otherwise good day. Short of sleep, we ducked out early and went back to Irony passing the start of huge parties (one with 20,000 people) on the way. More on Sunday!

On the move again

I flew back into St Lucia with Anna on Wednesday, in the meantime Nic sailed the boat down to Vieux Fort on the southern tip of the island to be closer to the airport. We touched down just after 3pm and by 10pm we'd upped anchor and set off for Union Island in the Grenadines.
We arrived in Chatham Bay by lunchtime on Thursday and had a lovely day of snorkelling and a good night's sleep before setting off at noon on Friday for Trinidad.