Still enjoying Bequia, visiting with other cruisers

April 30, 2007  Monday

Admiralty Bay, Bequia

This weekend was spent socializing with other cruisers.  Saturday was the first anniversary of Bill’s retirement, or at least the first anniversary of his final day at work full time.  Richard and Beth of SLOW DANCING came over for sundowners and snacks.  A bunch of us were meeting at a local bar later in the evening.  As soon as Richard and Beth left, then we got into our dinghy and headed across this large bay towards the bar – and the rain promptly started.  We were soaked to the bone before reaching the other side of the bay and getting cold.  So we returned to our boat, changed clothes, waited a few minutes for the rain to subside; and took off for our second dinghy ride towards the bar – and the rain promptly started again.  This time we did not return to our boat but went to the bar soaking wet.  Didn’t really matter anyway because we continued to get rained on at the bar since the band was set up outside.  So we all sat around under umbrellas in the rain and visited while drinking rum drinks and beer.  The band was not very good and no one could dance unless they wanted to be out in the direct rain, but we had a great time talking to everyone.

And we learned that Tony and Linda on AMAZING GRACE are now on their passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas!!!  This shocked us!  We both really like Tony and Linda; first met them in Grenada and saw them again in Trinidad.  They are on a 32-foot Island Packet.  Linda is not fond of overnight passages and last summer they were not sure where they were heading next.  So you can imagine our total surprise to learn that they are now well into the South Pacific.  They will be a year ahead of us, but we do hope to meet up with them again somewhere along the way.

Sunday I felt yucky all day; just wanted to sleep all day and don’t know why.  Sunday evening we went to AUDREY PAIGE and enjoyed sundowners with Dennis and Allayne.  They are on a Bayfield 36; looks like a comfortable boat.  Not to our taste in boats because it has way too much wood for Bill and me, but it has the classic lines and is a pretty boat with a comfortable interior.

Early this morning we moved BEBE to the northern side of the bay so we could get better WiFi connection.  We had lunch ashore with Tito and Roberta of ALLELUELIA! And played dominoes at the restaurant.  Nice way to waste away an afternoon.  I finally got to taste a flying fish sandwich and got that out of my system.  Discovered that I am not a fan of flying fish when cooked – love to watch them soar over the waves but don’t particularly care for eating them.

This evening about 30 of us gathered for sundowners at Jack’s Bar on the beach, including 8 guys from England who were on a charter boat.  They had come over for the cricket World Cup finals.  There was a fantastic green flash as the sun passed below the sea horizon.  This was the brightest and most distinct green flash that Bill and I have ever seen.  The entire bar applauded the sunset.

Bequia tour; quite a whaling history

April 27, 2007  Friday

Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Wednesday morning we went into Port Elizabeth and officially cleared into the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  We will clear out of this island chain country when we reach Union Island, but we can remain legally in the SVG islands until May 22 if we so choose.

Bill had a bit of sticker shock when we visited the local vegetable market.  I bought 4 small tomatoes, 2 medium cucumbers, and 3 carrots for a total cost $30 EC.  Bill’s face was had an incredulous expression!   That converts to $11.11 USD.  Food is a bit pricey here on Bequia.

On Wednesday afternoon we took a taxi tour of Bequia with people from 2 other cruising boats.  Our little tour group consisted of us, along with Al and Joan on BREAK & RUN, and Richard and Beth on SLOW DANCING.  Beth’s sister, Barbara, is visiting them so she also joined us.  Our tour guide was a local man named Curtis.  Curtis was born on the island and is about 60 years old.  He said that his heritage is French, Scottish and Portuguese.  His accent definitely had a Scottish tinge.  According to our sailing guide, there were a lot of Scots brought to this island when it was briefly under British control.  Neither of us remembers how or why the Portuguese came to this island.

It was good to talk with a local resident for several hours; learn so much more than from the guide books. 

Bequia has a strong whaling history.  A whaling man named Wallace moved from the USA to Bequia during the 1800s and taught the locals how to build small whaleboats; they have been catching whales ever since.  The IWC has granted Bequia the right to harvest 4 whales per year, but many years they don’t get any at all.  Everything is still done is the traditional manner, no modern ships or conveniences.  Curtis was lamenting that all the excitement for the islanders has gone out of whaling and he doesn’t think it will continue much longer.  There are very few people still alive who know how to do this work.  Plus, the whaling season lasts only February through April; so it cannot be a full-time job for anyone.  BTW, 60% of the men on Bequia are unemployed.  They and their families subsist pretty much on what they can garner from the sea and grow on their land.   

In the very old days people would light fires on the island when they spotted whales from the hills.  But this made the location of the whales known to the whaling ships from the US that were nearby, so the islanders eventually changed to using mirrors to signal whale sightings.  The larger the mirror, the better.  People would go outside and move their bedroom mirrors to glint in the sun to let other islanders and the whalers in the little whaleboats around Bequia know that whales had been spotted.  They would move several steps while the glinting mirror to correspond to the whales’ movements---right, left, up or down to correspond with east, west, north or south---to guide the little Bequian whalers to find the whales.  You could see mirrors glinting all over the island when whales were spotted.  Eventually people got VHF radios and they changed to this modern method of communicating the locations of the whales.  But Green Peace came down and would thwart the local whalers and caused dangerous encounters (remember, these local islanders only have very small boats with harpoons).  Then they changed to cell phones; the method of whale notification used today.

The whalers harpoon a whale from these tiny whaleboats, and haul it back by rowing to a nearby tiny island where the whale is butchered.  They used to butcher the whales at Petit Nevis, but now the whale processing is performed at Semplers Cay in Friendship Bay.  Every resident on Bequia gets a share of each whale, but not everyone eats whale meat any more.  Curtis said that he had not eaten whale meat since he was about 25 years old because he just does not feel comfortable about it.    He thinks that the whaling should stop.

When we first visited Bequia while we were on a Windjammer cruise back in the mid-1980s, we bought some scrimshaw pieces.  Scrimshaw is banned today.  True scrimshaw was carved from the teeth of the sperm whales.  Sperm whales are never killed any more; they only kill humpback whales.  Humpback whales are baleen whales and do not teeth, so no more scrimshaw.  (Okay, Trey and Aaron:  do you have any idea where your scrimshaw necklaces are today?)

Our tour also included a visit to a pottery place located in an old sugar mill at Spring plantation.  We enjoyed seeing the old building and the methods of production and the pottery was quite nice, but not something we need on a boat.  Thought about buying some as gifts for relatives but storing it and hauling it back home would create problems.  So, sorry everyone; no unique pottery gifts from us.

We wanted to go see Moonhole, but Curtis would not bring us out there.  The road to Moonhole is terrible.  Plus, you must make prior arrangements with a certain couple if you want to visit there.  Moonhole is an isolated community founded by the late American architect Tom Johnson.  The houses are really different.  The houses grow out of the rocks without straight lines or right angles.  They have huge arches.  There normally is no glass in the windows, and there is no electricity.  But the breeze is constant on that point of the island so the temperatures are comfortable.  The houses have fantastic views and very nice patios.  It is a very private place and is a special kind of vacation home for the right people.  The original house was built under a natural arch known as “Moonhole.”  It was abandoned when a huge boulder fell from the ceiling and crushed the empty bed.  Jim and Sheena Johnson have a bar there and offer limited tours by prior arrangement only.  Moonhole is on the hill overlooking directly onto the water but is not accessible from the water because it is too rough and rocky out there.

Dennis and Allayne on AUDREY PAIGE came over for sundowners.  It was really nice visiting with them again.

Thursday was spent doing our routine Make and Mend Day – laundry and making water.  The rest of the day was wasted sitting around reading.  I now know more about Tierra del Fuego and Charles Darwin and Captain Robert Fitzroy than I ever wanted to know.  Bill is still reading about a fighter pilot named Boyd who supposedly changed the art of war.  Apparently he is responsible for the basis of the plan that Schwartzkoff used during the Gulf War.

We went to the new Jack’s Bar on the beach in front of our anchorage.  We are anchored off Tony Gibbons Beach, a.k.a. Princess Margaret Beach, which is a gorgeous location.  Jack’s Bar is nice and they make a great pina colada.  A perfect view of the sunset from the beach bar.  Only bad thing was their choice of loud island music which was driving Bill insane.  Then we went to Mac’s Pizzeria for dinner.  We wanted a fix of the famous Mac’s lobster pizza.  We have eaten lobster pizza at Mac’s each of the previous 3 times that we have visited Bequia.  But they didn’t have lobster this time.  It has gotten too expensive and it is too late in the season.  What a bummer!  I think we paid about $120-$150 EC for the lobster pizza last year and would have been willing to splurge once again if it had been available.  Instead Bill had a lovely Creole chicken dinner with gingered pumpkin and I had a small traditional sausage pizza.

Rain has come and gone all morning, but the sun is now shining brightly.  I watched most of the boats anchored around us setting up their rain catchers so they could fill their water tanks.  These are various configurations of canvas that collect rainwater and drain into the water tanks.  They are only put out when it is raining; otherwise, they would become salt encrusted.  Glad we don’t have to do that.  OTOH, our water production is dependent on diesel and theirs is free.  There was a beautiful total rainbow twice this morning!!!  One end was actually inside the bay and close behind us and the other end was out at sea.  It was very vibrantly colored.  The first rainbow disappeared and the rain began again; when the rain stopped then the second rainbow appeared in exactly the same spot!  How incredibly unusual to see two complete rainbows and in exactly the same location! 

We are thinking about snorkeling this afternoon; a couple of locations nearby look like they that might be interesting.  We are having sundowners on AUDREY PAIGE this evening and I need to figure out what we can bring.  The cruiser tradition is to always bring something when invited to someone else’s boat.  I think we might have a few remaining frozen tortillas and I know we still have Monterrey Pepper Jack, so maybe we can bring chicken quesadillas to share tonight.

Overnighted at the Pitons, then on to Bequia

April 23, 2007  Monday

Between the Pitons, St. Lucia

13.49.181N; 061.04.000W           Sailed 54 NM    8 hours, average speed 6.75 knots

We did not rent a car to explore Martinique; neither of us was really in the mood for that.  We visited several chandleries to buy the never-ending needed boat items.  Also found an Ecomax!  We had stumbled into an Ecomax for the first time on Basse Terre, Guadeloupe.  It is sort of like a mini version of Big Lots; never know what you will find there and you will likely never find the same item twice, except for the standard refrigerated food items.  So this time we bought a 220v blender.  Probably never use the darn thing because we never used a blender when we lived in our house on land, but now we have one just in case we ever find the need.  It does get hot in the tropics and frozen drinks are beginning to sound more appealing – actually just eating crushed ice sounds the most appealing to me.

Bill also bought one can of Fritz Brau (beer) and one bottle of Bordeaux wine and one bottle of champagne, all VERY inexpensively priced.  We tried each of these and then went back to Ecomax today and stocked up.  Bill said the Fritz Brau tastes just like Budweiser.  This will be the last chance to buy beer for only $11 per case until we reach VZ (where it is only $7 per case).  The Bordeaux was just okay, not great; so we only bought 6 bottles.  The cheap champagne was pretty good (for only $2.50 USD), so we bought 10 bottles.  We had wanted to find a few bottles of really good champagne for some celebrating soon but we didn’t search out the right store.

Yesterday we met Bob and Linda Masterson on VILLOMEE, a 47-ft Beneteau.  Bob had emailed us a couple of times and it was nice to put a face with the name.  They came to our boat for sundowners and then the four of us went to a marina restaurant for dinner.  We thoroughly enjoyed their company and hope to run into them again as we move south.  VILLOMEE is headed to Trinidad.  So we might see them again along our way to Grenada.

The sailing today from Martinique to St. Lucia was a calm beam reach.  Just lovely.  Only exciting thing that happened was that a small airplane buzzed us.  Bill got a kick out of that.  The plane approached from our starboard quarter, crossed our stern, buzzed really close and then banked off our port side and turned north toward Martinique.  We couldn’t figure out what that was all about.  But later we heard a VHF radio pan-pan-pan call about a missing sailboat on our same route, so maybe the French coast guard was looking for the missing boat and checked us out for that reason.

I saw a large creature that we assume was a porpoise.  It was very dark colored and about 16 feet long.  It swam perpendicular to our boat and dove right beneath us.  About 5 minutes later I saw what looked like the same creature (same size and same color) well off our starboard beam.  Porpoises normally travel in pods so maybe it wasn’t a porpoise.  Bill thought it might be some sort of small whale.  Neither of us saw the head clearly enough to identify it (or them).

We were disappointed to miss another of our friends!  Russell on LADE PAULINE was in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia last week and we had emailed each other several times.  We tried hailing him half a dozen times when we got near Rodney Bay but had no response.  Since we weren’t sure if he was even still there we decided not to stop.  We wanted to get to the other end of the island about 30 miles away to spend the night.  So, sorry Russell that we missed one another.  It would have been fun to catch up on what we each have been doing since last June.  We wish you calm seas on your passages north.

Tonight we are moored in between the Pitons on the southwestern tip of St. Lucia.  Last year we moored in Soufriere Bay (just on the other side of Petite Piton) near the bat cave, and it was horribly rolly.  So we wanted to try a different spot this time.  It is positively gorgeous at this mooring field between the Pitons.  The park ranger said that this mooring can also become very rolly if a swell comes from the south, but it is very comfortable and calm tonight.  Would recommend this mooring area to anyone planning a stop in St. Lucia. 

April 24, 2007  Tuesday

Admiralty Bay, Bequia

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

13.00.091N; 61.14.675W            Sailed 55NM     8.75 hours; average speed 6.29 knots

Well, today was lively!

We decided to sail down the eastern (windward) side of St. Vincent on our passage from St. Lucia to Bequia.  The waves were 10 feet and pleasant enough for most of the trip, but we got too close to land near the southeastern tip of St. Vincent and it was shallow.  The waves rolling in off the Atlantic were large but comfortable in the deep water, but the waves were building one upon another in the shallower water and it became unpleasant.  That lasted about 2 hours and then we were back to pleasant sailing.  So we learned a lesson:  keep at least one mile to two miles offshore if sailing on the eastern side of St. Vincent.  At only one-half mile offshore you will experience nasty sailing conditions.

I trailed two fishing lines all day yesterday (54 miles) and never had a bite.  Today I trailed two fishing lines most of the day (about 50 miles) without a bite.  And then we had two bites within a minute!  I went below to the head and when I came back into the cockpit there was Bill with my fishing line all over the place.  Seems there had been a strike by something large on the fishing line being trailed from the port side.  The entire lure was gone and the hand reel had actually exploded into tiny pieces from the pressure of the fishing line wrapped around it.  All that remained of that gear was the bungee cord and the fishing line and the metal wire that used to hold the lure!  And that was my brand new favorite lure!  Hope I can find another one like it.

Less than a minute later there was a strike on the fishing line being trailed on the starboard side.  This time the line snapped right at the hand reel.  The line was 100 pound test strength, so something quite large must have hit that lure.  So, two fishing lures and 150 meters of fishing line, leaders, etc.--- all gone within a minute.  And no fish to show for it!  Bad enough to lose the fishing gear but I really wish we could have been able to at least see the fish that took my gear.

When we arrived in Bequia we found Dennis and Allayne on AUDREY PAIGE, and Al and Joan on BREAK AND RUN.  We are anchored between their two boats.  Dennis and Allayne are friends from the marina in Trinidad last summer.  We knew that Dennis and Allayne were in Bequia several weeks ago and hoped that they would still be here.  We really enjoy their company.  Great folks.   We met Al and Joan in Guadeloupe when we shared dinner.  Another guy, Richard (and Beth) on SLOW DANCING came by and introduced himself because he recognized our SSCA burgee and he is also a SSCA member.   All these people plan to stay here in Bequia for a week or two or more, so hopefully we will be seeing them all several times.

BTW, while talking with our friends we learned that the exact same fishing experience had happened to two of them at the exact same location recently.  Except each of them lost only one lure and line instead of two like I did.

FYI, we are now in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  That is a rather long country name, so it is usually abbreviated to SVG.  We opted not to stop at St. Vincent because there is too much thievery there.  So our first stop in SVG is Bequia, which we truly love.  Luckily, it is also a clearance port so we were not forced to stop in St. Vincent.  Bequia has a special charm.  All the islands that we will be visiting in the next few weeks belong to SVG – there are quite a few of them and we will be visiting only those that we prefer.  We will skip a few of the islands that hold no special interest to us for whatever reason.

H. M. S. Diamond Rock

April 15, 2007    Sunday

St. Pierre, Martinique

Walked around town a bit but mostly spent the day on the boat.  It was sort of dreary, drizzly for most of the morning and we stayed on the boat.  Then the sun came out and it was hot, so we walked around town just for a change of scenery.  Literally everything is closed on Sundays except a few restaurants.  We did find the CyberCafe where we were able to clear into Martinique.  This time the agent did at least look at our passports.  Didn’t stamp them, but did look at them.  In Pointe ‘a Pitre and Ile des Saintes the agents did not even open our passports.

A few words about our mishap with the fouled prop yesterday.  We have an AutoProp, which is a feathering prop; and we also have a line cutter on the prop shaft.  The line cutter did its job yesterday and kept the fishing net from becoming entangled on the prop shaft.  But the fishing net formed a tight bundle around the feathered blades of the prop and the blades could not open.  When the engine is not engaged in forward gear, the three prop blades feather in the direction of the water flow; this is to reduce drag while sailing.  The prop blades move in a different direction when the transmission is in reverse.  Since we had been sailing, the blades were in the feathered position.  The net become ensnared around the prop blades while they were feathered.  When I started the engine and put it into forward gear then the fishing net spun around with the blades and the net kept the blades feathered which must have looked like a three-bladed paddle wheel.  The line cutter did cut all the fishing net that was touching the prop shaft; but the net was all around the blades like a big basketball, so the blades could not move in the proper position to allow forward propulsion.

Also, if this had happened to any of our European fellow cruisers then they would have faced a bigger problem.  Large dinghies and large outboard motors seem to be an American thing.  All the European sailors that we have met have very tiny dinghies and very small outboard engines.  Really do not think one of those tiny 3 HP or 5 HP outboards and itty-bitty 2-person dinghies would have been capable of propelling a 53-foot, 27 ton boat; and we have seen many boats just like ours with those tiny tenders.  We had considered replacing our 15 HP Mercury with a smaller outboard when it finally dies, but have now reconsidered that idea.  When this one dies we will definitely buy one of equal horsepower.

April 16, 2007    Monday

Fort du France, Martinique

14.35.949N; 061.04.134W                       Sailed 19 NM

The day started out with nice sailing conditions.  That did not last long.  This is the second time that we have tried to sail southbound along the western coast of Martinique.  Neither time has been pleasurable.  Today we did one tack westward and then tacked back towards Martinique.  That 6 ½ mile tack put us a whopping .18 mile closer towards our destination!  We could have tacked all day long and not made any significant progress.  So we furled in the sails and motored on down to Fort du France.

Fort du France is a huge city by Caribbean standards.  I have no idea of the population numbers, but it is a very large city.  Last time we were here was about 1985, and our impression of this place then was that it is a Caribbean version of Hong Kong.  Very crowded and congested and tight quarters.  Bill and I are both city creatures, but this is definitely not our favorite city.

We anchored right next to the city of Fort du France.  This small anchorage is between the ferry channel and Fort Louis and is right in front of the park area where the old market was located when we were last here.  That market has since moved to another location and the park area is fenced off and appears to be readying for some type of construction.  This anchorage is very rolly and the water is very, very dirty.

We went into town to see the sights, whatever they might be.  Neither of us wanted to shop for anything.  The prices here are pretty high so I will save my clothes and shoe shopping for another island.  But we did want to try to find some replacement vacuum cleaner bags for the French vacuum cleaner that we bought in St. Martin.  (I know; sounds really exciting, doesn’t it?)  We figured out how to catch a bus and get to a large store that was like a mixture of Home Depot, Ikea, and Bed Bath & Beyond.  We found that store, bought the vacuum cleaner bags and a couple of small 220v-50hz power tools, and caught a bus back to the heart of the city.  Not bad for two people who have not once ridden a bus in Houston.  Consider the fact that we don’t speak the language and don’t know the city and I think we did pretty well.

When we returned to the boat it was rolling so badly that we knew it would be a miserable night if we stayed there.  But it was almost sunset and we were reluctant to head off for another anchorage so close to dark.  But we did anyway.  We high-tailed it 4 miles over to Trois Ilets with the engine revved up to 3600 rpm.  We reached that anchorage with about 10 minutes to spare before darkness settled in. 

Trois Ilets is a very picturesque old town.  This is where Empress Josephine was born – you know, Napoleon and Josephine.  She lived here until the age of 16 and then she moved to France.  Navigation into the anchorage is pretty tricky and should never be attempted at night.  It is such a calm anchorage that we began to think that our keel must be sunk into mud – the boat was not moving at all.  So very glad we decided to move instead of being miserable all night over at Fort du France.

April 17, 2007   Tuesday

Grand Anse D’Arlet

14.30.288N; 061.05.267W           Sailed 9 NM

We walked around the little town of Trois Ilets this morning.  I was fascinated by the different roofs on the structures there.  They use “fish scale tiles” on many of the roofs in this little town.  These fish scale roofing tiles are supposedly used here and in St. Georges, Grenada; they are not seen elsewhere in the Caribbean.  Apparently this type of roofing tile has been popular here for centuries.  There are some very old tiny buildings here that look like the roofs might be 200 years old.  The local church was built in 1757 so it is the one that Josephine would have attended during her childhood.

Bill bought his daily “un bagette” at a local patisserie; and then we sailed/motored to Grand Anse D’Arlet.  This is the bay where Bill rescued a charter boat that was drifting out to sea early one morning during our trip south last year.

April 18, 2007  Wednesday

Ste. Anne, Martinique

14.26.201N; 060.53.122W           Motored 14.5 NM

Wind and current were again on our nose as we motored over to the southeastern tip of Martinique.  The anchorage of Sainte Anne is beautiful with clear, shallow water in every imaginable shade of blue.   It is filled with cruising boats but not too crowded.  The interior of Marin bay right next to Ste. Anne’s appears to be far more crowded, so we plan to remain in Ste. Anne’s until it is time to clear out and leave for St. Lucia on Monday morning.  Only bad thing is that there is no internet out here, and there are several things that we need to research online.  Oh well, guess we will have to live with just email via SSB or sat phone for a few days.

Here is a little history lesson, courtesy of our sailing guide:  The Carib Indians called Martinique “Madinina” --- Island of Flowers.  Martinique is the largest of the Windward Islands of the West Indies.  Apart from a few short spells under the British, Martinique has been French since it was colonized; and it feels very much part of France.  Almost no one speaks English.  As mentioned earlier the Empress Josephine was born here and grew up on a 200-acre, 150-slave estate near Trois Ilets.  The main house burned down when she was 3 years old.

In 1804 Napoleon was master of Europe but the British still had naval supremacy and largely controlled Caribbean waters.  However, ships were scarce and someone noticed that Diamond Rock on the southwestern tip of Martinique was just about where the British would station another ship if they had one.  So they commissioned the rock as a ship.  It was quite a feat to climb this steep, barren, snake-infested rock and to equip it with cannons and supplies for a full crew of men.  But the British succeeded and for about 18 months the H.M.S. Diamond Rock was a highly unpleasant surprise for unsuspecting ships sailing into Martinique.  Napoleon was furious.  After all, this was the birthplace of his beloved Josephine.  He ordered Admiral Villeneuve to free the rock and to also destroy Admiral Horatio Nelson while they were in the vicinity.  Villeneuve slipped out under the British blockade in France and headed straight for Martinique.  Nelson followed in hot pursuit; however, poor information led him to Trinidad.  So Villeneuve was able to liberate the rock.  He wisely returned to France, keeping well clear of Nelson.

Napoleon was not pleased with Villeneuve because the British fleet was left in control of the high seas, so he ordered Villeneuve to report in disgrace.  Villeneuve preferred death to dishonor, so he put his ill-prepared fleet to sea to fight Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.  Ironically, Villeneuve survived the battle (even though he wished to die at this point), and Nelson died.

We sailed by Diamond Rock this morning.  Those poor British sailors have our sympathy.  That must have been a horrendous job to get cannons up to the top of that rock, and to be stationed there for 18 months before getting killed or captured by the French.  This is one of the things that we would like to research online if we had internet access.  The British Admiralty were such sticklers for rigid rules and tradition that I would like to know who came up with this idea of commissioning a rock as a ship,  And, how did he get the Admiralty to go along with this most unusual idea.  By the time we do get internet access, we will probably have long since forgotten H.M.S. Diamond Rock.

April 20, 2007  Friday

Marin, Martinique

Thursday is our usual Make and Mend Day.  Those who have read any of the historical novels about the Royal British Navy of the 1700s and 1800s will recognize that terminology.  Funny that we ended up choosing Thursday as our day for these chores since that is the weekday assigned to these tasks by the old British Navy.  After making water to fill our storage tank and washing 3 loads of laundry, then we moved a couple of miles into the bay at Marin.

Marin is huge!  There must be at least 300 boats at anchor in here and another several hundred in the marinas.  We visited a few of the stores and also found a bar/restaurant called Mango Bay that has WiFi.  After we clean the boat today then we will try to bring the laptop in and update this website.  There is a nasty slime all around the boot stripe of our boat that we think must have come from the commercial bay at Fort du France.  Tomorrow might be another car rental day to explore Martinique.

Current took us toward the rocks; saved by our dinghy!

April 14, 2007  Saturday

St. Pierre, Martinique

Porpoises were all over the place on the western side of Dominica this morning.  We passed three pods headed north as we were headed south.  One of the pods had at least fifty porpoises!  But none of them showed any interest in playing with the bow of our boat.  Finally we came across one pod of about twenty that were headed south.  These were the large variety of porpoise.  They played with our bow for a while.  It is very difficult to catch these swift creatures with our camera, and they show up very distorted in the photos of them under the water.  More experienced cruisers have told us that when they come to play at the bow then you should clap and whistle and make a lot of noise.  The porpoises supposedly like the noise and act more playful.  Kind of hard to clap your hands when you are holding a camera and I can’t whistle loudly enough, so I am not very good at getting the attention of porpoises.

We had a rollicking sail between Dominica and Martinique.  Lots of wind; heeled over 30 degrees; and lots of fun.  We were watching a catamaran and decided that neither of us could stand that motion.  Our monohull was heeled over and that does become tiring when you do it all day; but our motion was forward to back, like a rocking horse.  That catamaran sailed flat, of course; they can’t heel over because they have no ballast keels.  But that flat sailing sure had a lot of movement going on!  The cat had the same forward to back motion that we did, like a rocking horse.  But the cat also had a side to side movement at the same time.  This caused the cat to make continuous figure-eights.  That figure-eight movement is what makes both of us seasick.  But, to each his own.

As soon as we got behind the northern tip of Martinique, the wind totally died.  So we furled in the sails and started the engine.  Within a minute the RPMs dropped from 1800 to only 800.  And we had no forward motion.  Bill checked the fuel filters and the engine and immediately decided that we had a fouled prop.  There was no wind in that area but there was a lot of motion and current, and I did not want him to dive on the prop there.  Without wind for sails and without engine for forward thrust, our boat started rolling so much it was hard to stand up.  Just did not seem like a good idea to get beneath a rolling boat with a sharp knife unless you had no other choice.

We put the sails back out to try to limp to the nearest anchorage, St. Pierre.  But there was not enough wind to get any forward motion from the sails.  The current was moving us closer to land faster than the meager wind could propel our boat!  This could quickly become a dangerous situation.  Looked like we were headed broadside into the rocks on the shore.  That shore was getting way too close for comfort!!

The dinghy was on the stern davits and the outboard was mounted on the life rail for this passage.  This is the normal routine for any passage.  So we very quickly lowered the dinghy and managed to get the outboard down onto the stern of the dinghy.  That mizzen boom and an electric winch make quick work of this chore.  We have done it so many times now that it has become a routine that doesn’t even require discussion as to who does what; each of us knows what to do automatically.

Then Bill moved the dinghy and tied it to the beam of BeBe on the port side and I dealt with the sails.  We cleated both the bow and stern of the dinghy tightly against BeBe.  That 15 horsepower Mercury outboard was able to propel our 27 ton boat all the way to St. Pierre, about 5 miles away.  At first we could only go 2 knots boat speed, but the speed slowly increased; and finally we were moving along at almost 4 knots.  Still, it took hours to get to St. Pierre.  Good thing that we had left Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica, at 5:50 a.m. today.  So we had daylight to spare for this mishap.

The wind finally picked up as we entered the bay at St. Pierre.  I put the mainsail back out and this time it did noticeably help increase boat speed.   As we got closer to the anchorage area of the bay I furled in the mainsail and Bill reduced the power on the outboard.  BeBe slowed down perfectly as we were now headed directly into 10 knots wind.  We were able to maneuver BeBe to what looked like the best spot to anchor; Bill put the outboard into idle; and I waited for BeBe to come to a stop.  I dropped the anchor – have to love having the anchor controls right at the helm!  The 10 knots of wind was not sufficient to cause us to back down on the anchor to set it well, so Bill put the outboard into reverse and that did the trick.  The guy on the sailboat anchored off our starboard stern was most interested in watching what we were doing. 

Bill grabbed a snorkel mask and jumped into the water to check out the prop.  It was plain as day that the prop was fouled by a big mess of fishing net.  So we pulled out all Bill’s diving gear and got him kitted up.  I helped do his buddy check and he had everything is the proper place, but something was wrong with the BCD; it was getting too much air and Bill could not seem to get the air to release properly.  But he jumped in anyway.  His dive knife wasn’t sharp enough to cut through the mess of net, so I gave him one of my Wustoff serrated kitchen knives.  That one was sharp enough to cut through the tangle of net.  Unfortunately, Bill lost his dive knife.  He had put it back into the scabbard clipped to the leg of his dive suit, but apparently it did not click into place correctly because it was gone when he surfaced.  Oh well, he needs a better one anyway.

That BCD must be replaced soon.  It kept filling with air and would not release air correctly, so Bill had a very tough time getting down and staying down.  He had this same problem the last time he did a dive on the boat.  Now I am really glad that he didn’t try this dive repair out on that rolling point in open water.  He could have been hit in the head by a 27 ton boat rolling over him – with him unable to get down below the boat and stay down.  Much better than he did this dive with that malfunctioning BCD here in a totally calm anchorage.

After Bill surfaced and showered and rinsed all his gear then we started the engine and pulled the anchor.   We only had out anchor chain for scope of 3:1 and we would never spend the night with scope ratio that low.  We moved farther forward (practically on the beach because this harbor is very, very deep with a small “shelf” near the beach where you can set an anchor).  We again set the anchor and put out 7:1 scope this time.   Time to relax for the evening.  Thank goodness we had leftover pork tenderloin, rice and vegetables so I didn’t have to really cook dinner tonight.  We were both really tired after this day.

BTW, we were here in St. Pierre last year on our way south.  You can read about St. Pierre and Mt. Pelee in our diary log dated 5/16/06 entitled “Montserrat through St. Lucia.”  At least I think that is the right log covering Mt. Pelee.  This time we hope to see much more of Martinique.