Saint-Anne
Kid heaven again. It turns out that Sainte-Anne is a gathering place for kid boats heading north after hurricane season in Grenada. The town is very cute and has two fairly well-stocked mini-marts in addition to a large town square right by the dinghy dock. Every day at about 4-5pm, boaters from the anchorage (about 150-200 boats in the anchorage) would come ashore for social time and the kids ran wild. The no-see-ums were brutal, but with some Picaridin spray, they stopped being an issue.
We hung out with friends from several boats over the couple of weeks we were there and also got closer to some boats we had only briefly interacted with while further south.
The kids also got their first taste of a rope swing at nearby Pirate’s Beach. They got better after several times, and I was just happy/proud that they did it at all.
On one trip over to the beach, we got screamed at by some random French guy for anchoring our dinghy in the boat part of the beach. “Jamais, jamais, jamais!” he was shouting. The beach has huge signs with pictures of propellers and red lines through them. There are also tons of people swimming all over. So, we were in the one part that has the propeller picture with no red line through it. Seemed right to us, but the French love to give you a warm welcome.
We ended up anchoring right on the boundary of that area so that we wouldn’t hit any swimmers with our boat, but also to keep the rascal from yelling more. Some friends we were with said that someone else yelled at them the day before for the exact opposite thing. This place, I tell ya.
Boat tasks
Twenty first century!!!
The first two weeks in Martinique turned out to be very productive. I finished wiring up our AIS to our chart plotter. This means that when we are underway, we can see the other boats around us and also set up alarms if someone is going to get within a specified distance so we can take evasive action if needed. We also had a couple of guys replace our VHF antenna at the top of the mast so that our transmit and receive range for our VHF and AIS wasn’t so terrible. We used to get about 1 mile of range and now have over twenty miles. The same guys also installed an anemometer at the top of the mast so that we can see the wind speed and direction. Honestly, we’ve gotten pretty good at estimating wind speed, and obviously wind direction is very simple. The benefit that we’ve really been happy with is that when we are motoring, we can tell when it is a good time to put the sails up and shift to wind power. Under motor, it is really hard to tell how much wind is actual wind and how much is being made by our engine.
Autopilot
Unfortunately this is still ongoing work. Our autopilot stopped working in Grenada so we’ve been hand-steering our way north. I talked to a repair guy in Le Marin, near Sainte-Anne about the problem and he said to remove it and bring it in. It was one of the more complicated things I have done on the boat. In removing the drive unit, I noticed some wear on our steering cables. The 7x7 wires that connect our steering wheel to the rudder quadrant had chaffed through nearly 3 of the 7 major strands. I had two sets made by a rigging company there. One set to replace the set that is clearly an imminent safety hazard and one as a spare in the event that more issues arise when we are far away from such resources. The reason for the chafe? Well, problem number umpteen million with the work we had done by Troendle Marine before we left Pensacola - the cables cross in two places and are supposed to have a gap of about 1/2 inch, but were installed crossing the wrong way so the cables have just been rubbing hard against each other for a few thousand miles.
All the trips back and forth into Le Marin from Sainte-Anne offered some bit of awe or insanity. I saw a huge boat carrying some crazy race boats on one trip.
I went into a mangrove creek on two other trips. And on one trip I saw a boat completely engulfed in flames.
Holidays
Christmas on board for the first time was very different but we still enjoyed our day. First off, our tree was the severed top from a pineapple, decorated by Fira.
Second, we wrapped gifts in reusable shopping bags and fabric scraps rather than using paper, single-use wrap. It wasn’t as pretty, or maybe as fun as ripping up the paper, but it fits far more inline with our current lifestyle.
The kids talked to Grete and me about a week before Christmas about Santa. They had both come to the realization that Santa isn’t real and wanted confirmation. Our kids are too big :( They have tried bringing it up the last couple of years but we’ve managed to parry the attacks. This year though, they couldn’t be turned away.
We spent Christmas dinner aboard Low Expectation and had an amazing time. They had gotten a karaoke machine for Xmas so the anchorage likely hated us the next day. The food, company, and singing all made for a perfect evening.
On New Year’s Eve, there was another Low-E party, even larger than on Christmas and we had that last bash with many friends - I think more than 40 people were aboard.
Just after New Year’s, we rented a car and drove up to get tons of groceries, and also take the kids to the mall to see the Christmas decorations. I think it is the first time either of them have been to a mall, at least since they were babies.
Hiking
Sainte-Anne
We took a couple of hikes while we were in Sainte-Anne. First, we walked to Piton Crève Couer, which was a pretty short, though steep, hike. The walk to and from the mountain took much longer than the actual hike. Great views and exercise for the crew.
We also walked around the entire peninsula holding Sainte-Anne and Anse des Salines. I thought it was going to be a seven mile walk. Andrea from Low-E joined us and got a taste of what it is to go hiking with the Hoss crew. Turns out it was eleven miles, but it was really pretty and took us through Savane des Pétrifications, which seemed like it was taken from an entirely different part of the world, if not from another planet.
Dublin’s Birthday
We would have left Sainte-Anne a few days earlier than we did, but Dublin said he wanted to be with friends on his birthday, so we waited a bit. A bunch of families/kids showed up to celebrate with us on the square. We made brownies aboard (only our second time using our oven) and I grabbed a few bins of ice-cream as well. Nicole, our friend from New World, took the only picture we have of the afternoon, with an eleven-year-old Dublin!
Also, since we originally left Pensacola on Dublin’s tenth birthday, we have now reached the end of our first year of cruising. It has gone by so fast and yet slow enough that the memories we’ve made in that year dominate my thoughts.
After his birthday, we started our move up north to be ready for Grete’s dad and step-mother to arrive for their visit.
Sailing out of Sainte-Anne puts us right past the H.M.S. Diamond Rock, a small island that is really impressive when seen in person, and apparently has a very unique history of being manned by a Naval unit and cannons and engaging in battle.
Anse d’Arlet
We stopped for a couple of days on our way to the big bay at a small town along the west coast. The town was very pretty, with a church right at the end of the dinghy dock, still clad with Christmas lights.
We also hiked up and over the hill to the next bay with our friend Brad from Busy Livin’. We rewarded ourselves with a nice cold beverage before the trek back.
The views of the anchorages along the hike were, as always, very pretty.
Anse Mitan
Peepa Visit
It had been a couple of years or more since we saw Grete’s dad, since he moved to Germany to live with and subsequently marry, Annette. We had never met her so there was extra excitement surrounding the visit.
They rented a place right near the dinghy dock in a quaint little touristy area on the south side of Fort-de-France Baie, called Anse Mitan. The place had a pool, which the kids certainly appreciated and since Annette loves swimming, they had some good bonding.
We walked out to the run-down fort at the north end of the peninsula. Lots of broken glass and nature is clearly taking the fort back, but the graffiti, like most of it in the Caribbean, was very well done.
It’s worth pointing out how French it is here. Even the trees are often topless.
We went hiking a bit, but also just spent a lot of time hanging out with Peepa and Annette at their rental. We had them out to the boat one evening to watch the sunset, but they are land-lubbers and got a little queasy.
One hike was up to a mountaintop to view Diamond Rock again, but from land. They did part of the hike with us then took the car around to the other end to scoop us up.
The hike was pretty intense with lots of very large boulders we had to scramble up to get to the top. At the top it flattened out for a while before a steep descent on the other side of the mountain.
After the hike, we went to the beach at Anse des Salines and went swimming and I finally tasted Ti Punch. Ti Punch is very much not rum punch. It was basically lighter fluid and I’m pretty sure no locals drink it but they use it to try to kill tourists.
Botanical Garden and Cathedral
We took a day trip up to Sanctuaire Diocésain du Sacré-Coeur, Jardin de Balata, and Saint Pierre. The first two stops were rotten with tourists, since we apparently were on the same schedule as the tour buses. It made us have to wait a bit here and there, but for the most part it wasn’t that crowded.
The flowering trees at the botanical garden were the highlight, in addition to the treetop suspension bridges.
Last stop was the volcano museum in Saint Pierre. Over a hundred years ago, Mount Pelée erupted and killed tens of thousands of people. According to records, it seems like everyone in the entire town died, except for a prisoner in the dungeon jail. Hundreds of boats also sank in the harbor, and remain there to this day. The volcano museum was small, but pretty cool. There were lots of melted objects found in the wreckage on display and a cool view over the bay from just outside.
Habitation Clément
Every place here has about ten million rum distilleries, so we visited one. It is one of the nicest ones around for touring, and the grounds rivaled or maybe even bested the botanical garden.
We learned about the rum-making process, saw some cool artwork, and sampled several different varieties of rum.
I wish this picture was scratch-and-sniff.
Near the End of the Visit
Our final outing, other than to get some groceries, was a trip out to the east coast, to see Château Dubuc and walk to the nearby lighthouse. Since we had already stopped at the Château on our way south, I didn’t really take many pictures, though we did a much more thorough tour of the grounds.
The lighthouse was a new stop and of course, I got a pic at the summit.
We said our goodbyes and continued bumping on along.
Petite Îlet
We spent a couple days at the most tranquil anchorage we’ve been in to date. There is a tiny island deep in the east end of Fort-de-France Baie that is right next to a salt river, the reason for our coming here. We dinghied up into the river first thing in the morning before the tour boats arrived. It was really cool being inside a tunnel of mangroves. We also went back on the SUP boards in the afternoon for a second pass. Since they aren’t as deep, we were able to get a bit further upstream.
While we were there, Fira was up to her usual shenanigans and made a harness for her stuffed sloth to swing in :)
This tale goes under the ‘probably should not tell it’ category, but I overshare. One day at the beach with friends, my eleven year old son swallowed a rock. Depending on how much you know about toilets on boats, you already know how this story ends :( A day or two later, the rock came out, clogging the macerator blade on our head. This meant I got to tear the system apart, pry out the rock, reassemble things, then clean all the poo and pee off of me and the entire bathroom. It was soooooo disgusting. Here is the rock, next to a quarter for scale.
Fort de France
We spent a couple of nights in FdF, partly to revisit the town, but mostly to get some groceries, particularly of the gluten free variety. It rained a bit, which of course means rainbows.
Cities at night always tend to be prettier than the day, but of course the pictures always turn out bad.
Saint Pierre
Our last stop north was back at Saint Pierre. We really liked the town when we stopped here with Peepa and Annette and stopping here breaks up the sail to Dominica, so that’s what we did.
On our day trip to the town we skipped the zoo, but we walked there and explored now. Super duper cool zoo.
They basically cultivated the grounds of an old, decrepit sugar plantation and just made it into a small zoo.
I’m not sure if I recall ever actually seeing an anteater in real life, but I know for sure now.
The kids had a chance to feed the flamingos as well, although Dublin decided not to.
On our final night, we went a couple of miles and anchored in a beautiful little roadstead anchorage to cross to Dominica. It was a beautiful spot with the sound of crashing waves all night. Of course, in the morning some French fisherman were yelling at us to move, telling us it was time to move on and proving once more that