Martinique is a Fantastic Island to Meet your Guests

We made our way down to Le Marin, Martinique where we stayed at a large marina for a few days in order to prep the boat for the arrival of Roger's sister Pamela and her husband Ross.  With some boat cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping, we were ready for our guests.  

A slow leak in our inflatable dinghy had been bothering us since we picked up the boat in Antigua.  We had to inflate the dinghy every few days, so we took the opportunity while at the dock, to find the source of our problem.  We put soapy water over the entire surface of the leaking hull, while it was overinflated, and looked for the spot that started bubbling with the escaping air.  After 30 minutes or so we were about to give up, when voila, tiny bubbles.  Fortunately, a local repair shop was able to put a patch over the leak and we were good to go again! 

Roger and I were lucky to be there during a Carnival parade and had the opportunity to enjoy the local color, dancing and music while we waited for the arrival of our guests. After watching over 40 bands, each with massive drums, carried by muscular and very enthusiastic drummers, we headed back to the boat to give our ears a much needed rest. 

High on our to do list in Martinique was an appointment we had booked with the local veterinarian to get a health certificate for Pirate.   She got a test for heartworm and was administered her regular heart worm and tick medications, all required by St Vincent to be completed within 7 days of entry.  In the past, this certificate, regular vaccinations, rabies titer test and the additional steps above have been sufficient for entry.  Unfortunately, there is now a requirement for the health certificate to be endorsed by the local government.  The veterinarian gave us the required contact information, and we were advised that this could not be completed remotely and we would need to travel to Fort de France to meet the government official in person.  On top of that, we would not be able to get an appointment until 4 days later.  Given that the import certificate from St Vincent takes 3 days, we were now running against the clock and our departure from Martinique was sure to be delayed.  

Pamela and Ross had now arrived and fortunately were happy to spend some extra time in Martinique to practice their French and eat some more croissants, brie and baguettes!  We were all super excited to see Pamela and Ross, and Pirate was over the moon, but also disappointed that their puppy Daisy was not able to join us.  

Roger and I rented a car to go to Fort de France while Ross and Pamela enjoyed some down time on the boat after their long travel time from British Columbia.  We celebrated our embossed, endorsed, health certificate with a traditional French meal of steak frites, followed by a beautiful sunset over the marina.  

Everyone was excited to be sailing the next day to Grande Anse and Pamela quickly took over the helm. Pirate kept a keen eye out for turtles and fish pot floats.  

As we passed by Le Diamant, Ross suggested that the rock looked very much like the profile of a golden retriever.  

We found a perfect spot right up near the beach in Grande Anse (our boat on the right below), allowing Pamela to swim to and from the beach at least a couple of times!

There were a few squalls in the area, but we found a nice weather window allowing us to get to shore to go for dinner at L'Escale, a restaurant our friend Pierina had found for us a couple years before.  The restaurant is down a steep set of stairs and is open air, surrounded by lush vegetation and noisy cicadas, reminding us of some places we had visited in Africa.  The food was as delicious as it looked! 

As we came back from dinner, the moon had come out and it was easy to find our boat.

The next morning, Roger, Pamela, Ross & Pirate went to the bakery so we could enjoy another traditional French breakfast on the boat.  This ritual would be repeated throughout our time in Martinique 😄

Afterward, all went snorkeling and we were fortunate to see several sea stars, a couple of turtles, squirrel fish, a French angel fish, a moray eel and a few lion fish hiding under a rock.  Pamela and Roger even saw a large spotted ray.  

That evening we watched the sunset from the beach while enjoying some local Lorraine beer. 

We captured the full moon rising over the mountain top above this picturesque little town, as we finished off our last day in Grande Anse.  

We headed back south again to Saint Anne where we would await Pirate's import permit for St Vincent and the required appointment with the veterinarian upon arrival in Blue Lagoon.  

And wait we did....Two days later we were still waiting on the import permit from St Vincent.  The government had been non-responsive and I was finally able to reach someone by phone.  While they had received our import permit, they were behind due to an internal deadline, but hoped to issue a permit shortly.  

In the meantime, Roger changed the bilge pump that kept recycling.  That morning, our front head also stopped working.  While the problem is usually fixed quickly with a new joker valve, this was not a quick fix.  After several hours it was determined we needed a new head and hose and we would need to go to a chandlery in Le Marin by dinghy the next day.  

We enjoyed a nice evening at anchor and enjoyed the beautiful sunset in Sainte Anne. 

 

The next morning, Roger and I headed into Le Marin to check out of customs, go to the chandlery, and stock up on last minute grocery items.  Pamela and Ross decided to hold down the fort with Pirate, enjoying the sunshine and warm water. 

When notice of the import permit finally arrived, we were able to make final preparations for our departure.  It would be the first time for Pamela and Ross to do a night time sail and an open ocean crossing in the Caribbean, so Roger ran through the safety equipment and emergency procedures.  

Later in the day, we moved our boat out to the edge of the mooring field so that we could depart easily in the dark at 2:30 a.m.  Our trip would take us 11 hours, sailing past St Lucia to the bottom of St Vincent, where we had a 3:30 pm appointment with the veterinarian to admit Pirate to the country.  Fortunately the wind forecast was favourable and we would have a relatively full moon to light our way.  But as with any boat or ocean crossing you never really know if things will go smoothly.