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 discovered that the heat exchanger for the engine was leaking salt water onto our new alternator.  The heat exchanger takes in water from the sea and uses it to cool the engine. We had the heat exchanger serviced and inspected when we bought the boat, but the seals on both ends have now failed. On the bright side, we have finally discovered the reason for the salt water we had taken on a few weeks ago.  Fortunately the holes had calcified so it stopped taking on water, but it means we need to stay in Martinique to have the heat exchanger replaced.  The earliest date for installation is Feb 28th, so we are in Martinique until then.  

We spent a couple of nights on the mooring ball and then moved to a dock so we could get the work done.  

This presented a wonderful opportunity to provision with a number of large grocery stores nearby, either walking or dinghy distance.  What we soon discovered, however, is that it matters what day of the week you go shopping.   Monday is clearly not a good day as we found that the shelves were pretty much bare at the local Carrefour.  When I got there, it felt like we were revisiting the grocery stores during Covid.

So when you do find a good selection of fresh and frozen food, I've learned to stock up because you don't know what will be around the corner! After going with me to several small grocery stores in Martinique in search of lettuce and lemons, my girlfriend, P, had never been more thankful to find grocery store shelves full of vegetables when she returned to Toronto. 

Thankfully after a few days, new shipments arrived and we also found this lovely outdoor covered market on Saturday. 

Le Marin has some nice restaurants as well, and we went out a couple of nights with some fellow Salty Dawg sailors who are also waiting for various repairs while waiting in Le Marin.  As a result of people taking time off for Carnival, it seems that many of the services are backed up a week or more.  When we tried to schedule an oil change for the Yanmar, we learned the primary person who does this was on vacation, and her back-up was also on vacation.  A few days later we were contacted about the oil change and appointments were more than a week away, so Roger ended up doing the oil change himself 😄 

And while we were doing boat maintenance, Roger made a few minor adjustments to the rigging.  But we did it the right way, tying (not clipping) the main line to the bosun's chair (which is what Roger is sitting in), and using an additional halyard as back-up.  We met a couple who did it the wrong way, and only clipped him in on one halyard.  Somehow the clip malfunctioned, and he fell to the deck and broke his ankles resulting in unexpected medical attention and a significant delay to their boat journey. Safety first. 

While at the dock we have met a number of interesting people, many of whom have traversed the Atlantic Ocean.  We were moored beside a couple and their children on a Beneateau 45 from Portugal who completed the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) leaving last November from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and travelling 2700 nautical miles to Rodney Bay, St Lucia arriving just before Christmas.  The children are taking on-line courses for their education, and he is doing his consulting business from the boat.  His wife is looking forward to returning home soon though, as she suffers from seasickness and has not been able to resolve it.  Thankfully we haven't had to deal with that. 

In addition to sailors from many countries, there are also the locals to learn from. Roger overheard a local rasta talking about rasta philosophies.  He said, 'We strive for respect.  When you have respect you have peace.  When you have peace you have wealth'.  Good advice.  May we all find respect and peace. In addition, hopefully we will get our engine fixed this week so we can head south and continue this adventure.