Pirate in the Caribbean

Down Time in Martinique After our friends flew back to Toronto, we headed to Le Marin, Martinique, to provision and investigate whether there was anyone available to fabricate and install davits.  Le Marin is a massive yacht centre with over a thousand boats on docks and moorings.   The boats are of all shapes and sizes, but primarily sailboats, both catamaran and monohulls.  There are also a number of derelict boats probably remnants from the hurricane.   We quickly got a mooring ball and stayed there a couple of nights while we checked out Le Marin.  Roger found someone to fabricate and install davits (to haul up the dinghy behind the boat)      but they were booked well into March, so we had them take measurements to potentially have them outfitted here next season.  Roger also found an electrician who came to inspect our batteries as they did not seem to be keeping a charge properly.  While doing the inspection, the electrician disc...

Martinique Carnival and Relaxing with Good Friends Trois-Ilets is a little protected, calm anchorage near Fort-de-France.  This  hurricane hole was a welcome reprieve after the rolling anchorages we had experienced.  It also ended up being a great decision on our part, as 2 of the anchorages we had decided to vacate earlier than planned, due to deteriorating conditions, (Portsmouth and St Pierre) became so untenable that 2 boats came free from the moorings in each anchorage as waves rolled them onto shore.   Other skippers had to stay up all night to save themselves from 8 ft waves.   Trois-Ilets also provided us the opportunity to get the boat ship shape in advance of the arrival of our friends, Al & Pierina, who would be joining us in Fort-de-France, Martinique, a few days later for a week stay on the boat. Al and Roger have been best buddies and sail boat racing rivals for over 30 years.  We reserved a slip at a marina just outside of Fort-de France,...

  Came in Like a Wrecking Ball....but We Bounced Back! Roger is now officially a contributor to the Lionfish harvest.  He speared 6 of them in 30 to 40 feet of water and together, the team of 8 divers, harvested almost 60 Lionfish that would be consumed at the dinner on Monday night.  Unfortunately (or not?) we didn't stay long enough for the Lionfish dinner as the rolly conditions in Portsmouth worsened and frankly became dangerous.  It was next to impossible to take a dinghy ashore as the surge at the dock was so large, thus PAYS team was ferrying people back and forth in their open boats.  After a sleepless night, with the boat rolling from side to side, we decided to head out for either Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on the southern end of the island, or to St Pierre, Martinique.  Roger was able to make it ashore with Pirate and got us checked out at customs (an extra time consuming step as as our original plan was to leave the next day).  O...

  Dominica - In Search of Propane, Lionfish and the Bar at the End of the World The winds have finally abated, and remarkably have become almost non-existent.  So our trip to Dominica was a motor with some small rolling swells.  This provided a good opportunity to charge up our batteries.  While inspecting the batteries, Roger found salt water in the main battery and cabling compartment and spent the rest of our trip pumping and sponging, and then looking for the source of the leak.  While a number of possibilities have been eliminated, it seems the through hull that was cut in for the watermaker may be the source of the problem, and that will have to get addressed when we haul-out in Grenada. Roger is not 100% convinced on that and is a bit perplexed as the water only comes in when we are under power and moving. When running the engine at anchor there is no leak. Narrowing down the sources of a leak requires tasting it to see if it is salt or fresh (fresh would...

Les Saintes - A Little Piece of Paradise We set out on an overcast, windy morning on a reach with seas that were fortunately calm due to the protection of Guadelope.  Our destination, Les Saintes, was about an hour's sail south of the main island Basse Terre in Guadelope.  As we reached the lighthouse at the southernmost point, the winds clocked south and the waves grew.  We were soon sailing upwind to our destination with a double reefed main and full jib.  Adventure I handled the conditions beautifully and as you can see below, Roger enjoyed the 24-28 knots of breeze. This is what most would call a rather "salty" sail.  We arrived in Les Saintes and found our friends Deb and Tony on their boat 'Exit Stage Left', which had been moored in front of the picturesque little town of Bourg des Saintes for the past 5 days.    We noticed that the anchorage was quite rolly, which makes sleeping uncomfortable, but we were hoping to moor near Deb and Tony.  ...