Routines

Routines

Tuesday 27 - Wednesday 28 Feb 2024

Our life on the boat is full of routines. We have coffee in the morning, we run the engine to charge the batteries and chill the fridge, we swim to cool off in the late afternoon, shower in the cockpit and enjoy cocktails as the sun goes down. We also have established processes for some of the jobs that need doing; putting the outboard motor on the dinghy or pulling it off, securing the dinghy on the davits, dropping / pulling up the anchor, picking up a mooring. Over time, Gloria and I have developed ways in which we work well together to get done what needs to be done. In many respects, these boat responsibilities have become familiar and comfortable. 

With Gloria being sick, the last couple of days have been different. Yesterday we spent the whole day on the boat. Although we had coffee and ate all our meals at the appropriate times, we never left Cotinga. The “Dainty Dog” remained on the davits, and we spent the day hanging out, reading books and lazing around. This was far from a typical day! It did, however, give Gloria a chance to rest and recuperate form her illness, and today she seemed quite a bit better, but her back is still causing her a lot of discomfort. 

This morning, we relaunched the dinghy and headed into the dock in Les Anses D’Arlets. Once again, we have established a pretty good routine for tying up the dinghy that works well for us. We drive up to the ladder and Gloria climbs up on to the dock with the line (rope) to the dinghy. I back up and move the dinghy away from the ladder, and drop the 15 pound dinghy-anchor and chain overboard. Then Gloria pulls the dinghy back into a suitable location away from the ladder. I clamber up onto the dock and we secure the line and lock a cable to a secure spot, and off we go. The stern anchor holds the dinghy and the outboard off the dock and stops it form getting banged up or dragged under the structure. It works well.

We set out from Les Anses D’arlet on a short walk around the headland to Grand Anse, the next bay and town to the north. It’s supposed to be a 1.2 km walk, an appropriate length for someone still recovering from “the Lurgy”, but it turned out to be a bit rougher and more up and down than we expected. Nonetheless we made it to the next bay over and enjoyed wandering around. We stopped for lunch at a cafe that sold traditional French Galettes (pancakes made with buckwheat flour). They were delicious and we enjoyed sitting outside in the garden. The hike back was a bit tiring in the hot sun, but at least we knew the way. Once in town, we were able to pick up a baguette and some fruit, then it was back to Cotinga and our regular routines. However, this time I worked on my own to get the outboard motor clamped back on the rail, and the dinghy up on the davits. Hopefully, this helped Gloria avoid straining her back any further.

The Anchorage at Anse Chaudiere is great and we experienced yet another fabulous sunset. Dinner was baguette with French cheese, salami and olives, sitting in the cockpit as the light faded. It’s not a bad life!

Mike

Galette Vesuve ... with fresh mushrooms, tomato sauce, egg and cheese

Galette Forestiere .... with mushrooms, creme fraiche, cheese and basil. We ate outside in the garden on plastic table and chairs. It was lovely!

The view coming back down the trail into Les Anses D'Arlet. You can see the dinghy dock quite clearly.

Gloria on the dinghy dock, alive and smiling after a more strenuous walk than expected

The Dainty Dog at the dinghy dock. We are mostly very happy with the way our new dinghy and outboard are performing. Our only complaint is that the 6HP engine is not enough to get the dinghy on plane with two of us aboard. I suspect this is mostly due to shape of the dinghy bottom, which is more V-shaped than flat, making it harder to plane than our old dinghy. The stern anchor is tied on at the back and holds the dinghy away from the dock.

At anchor in Anse Chaudiere, a ten minute dinghy ride from the dock in Anse D'Arlet.

Paddle-boarder at sunset

Another lovely sunset ... my favorite time of day .... I never get tired of shooting sunsets even if you get tired of looking at the results!

A fishing boat at sunset. We haven't figured out ... a) why they cut and drop bits of palm fronds in to the water, or b) why they hang around the anchorage apparently doing nothing until the sun sets, then start driving around shortly thereafter. Our French isn't good enough to ask them.

Our nearest neighbors boat at dusk.

Pasta shapes

Pasta shapes

Sunday 25^th and Monday 26^th February, 2024

Mike likes to declare that macaroni is the best type of pasta.  This always makes me laugh as (to my mind) all pasta tastes the same, it’s just different shapes.  Over the years, I have wondered why there are so many different shapes of pasta? What is the point?  At least in one regard, I have found an answer. . . 

Today for lunch we had an excellent pasta dish with leeks, tomatoes and ham.  The pasta was buccatini (sp?). This pasta shape is long like spaghetti but more like a straw with a hole down the middle.  We had something like this in Italy and it was called picci, I think.  I was trying to wrap this pasta around my fork—with singular lack of success.  Thinking back, I realized that I didn’t really grow up with the spaghetti-twirling thing. Mom used to break the spaghetti in half before she threw it into the boiling water.  There was no twirling required.  Only years after leaving home did I try to acquire the technique.  I think it would be fair to say that I haven’t mastered the skill.  However, buccatini represents a distinct challenge to the pasta-twirling public.  Think of it more like trying to coil up a fire hose. Even picking up a single strand and twisting my fork against the spoon, the ends would spring out in an unruly fashion.  In frustration, I declared to Mike: “now I know why there are other pasta shapes.”

On Sunday, I was feeling pretty poorly.  As a result, we spent most of the day hanging out reading our books.  In the late afternoon, we went to shore for a few provisions.  This morning we hauled up the anchor and sailed west and then northwest to Anse Chaudiere.  We got anchored, had lunch and watched a three person team fishing with a large circular net. Then went to town—Le Bourg, for a little wander around.  A swim, a shower and a light dinner finished off our day. 

   

Gloria

14 28.787 N, 61 04.824 W

As of Tuesday morning Gloria is still feeling rough. She seems to be running a slight fever and has an intermittent cough, which in full swing is unbelievable. She has also developed conjunctivitis in both eyes. We strongly suspect that she has Covid (again) but we have no tests aboard to confirm that However, she has started a course of azithromycin to deal with any secondary chest infection.  Perhaps more of a concern is that she was coughing so badly that she pulled her back out, and that’s really sore. Hopefully it’s “just” a pulled muscle, but Gloria has a history of compression fractures in her back so that’s got us a little nervous. 

Mike

Les Anses D'Arlet - photographed from our dinghy as we approach town

We are anchored about a mile south of town in Anse Chaudiere. it's quiet and lovely, with super clear water. These guys were fishing in mid afternoon. Towards the end of the process the guy in the red shirt put on a mask and fins and went into the sea, perhaps to close off the net. All of Martinique seems to be heavily overfished. 

These fisherman were just hanging around when we got back from town. At first we thought they had an engine problem, but they were just waiting for sunset, when they and several other boats set off to tend to their fish weir on the edge of the bay.

The two fisherman heading off at sunset

Anse D'Arlet has a lot of colorful buildings

Details, details ...

This fishing boat was up on land

We have a first-class seat at the greatest show on earth. (The black specs you may be able to see are Frigate Birds)

St Anne and the Cul-de-Sac du Marin

St Anne and the Cul-de-Sac du Marin

Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th February

St Anne and the adjacent town of Marin are the focal point of sailing in Martinique. It’s an area that has almost legendary status. I have never been anywhere in the world where there were more boats, and to be honest I don’t see what all the fuss is about. 

There is large anchorage off St Anne that is well protected from the trade winds, and as you enter the lagoon to the north, the Cul-de-sac du Marin, there is another enormous anchorage with protection all round. So there is no doubt that this is one of the best locations in the Caribbean to head to in bad weather. There is also access to a fully operational boat yard and all the marine shops and services that you can imagine. It’s only fair to add that beaches off St Anne and to the south are gorgeous. However, we counted over 200 boats at anchor off St Anne, and during our dinghy ride up into the lagoon we saw hundreds more. Our guidebook says that the marina has the capacity to berth 800 boats. If that includes slips and moorings then we believe that is probably accurate. To me this begs the question: with so many boats, why do people want to come here? It is as far removed from a quiet, romantic Caribbean getaway as I can imagine. It seems more like taking a camping trip to Alaska, then pitching your tent in the WallMart parking lot, because that’s where everyone else is. Don’t misunderstand me; we are having a pleasant time here and I’m glad we are visiting, but the very presence of nearly 1000 other boats does tend to color the experience. At least if all these vessels are here then they aren’t elsewhere …we are already shocked by how busy the Caribbean sailing scene has become and it’s already hard enough to find anywhere that is quiet and isolated

Yesterday we took the dinghy into the dock at St Anne. It’s a small, pleasant town with a bakery, a couple of decent supermarkets and quite a few restaurants. We hiked part way along the Trace de Caps trail. This is a linear National Park that follows the south east coast of Martinique for about 34 km, and it is beautiful. We only walked about 5 km out (and then back) but we passed some amazing beaches. One of these is a “clothing optional” beach, and on our return, when we were hot and tired, we took advantage of this and went skinny dipping. Marvelous! Just as an observation, this nudist beach did not appear to be full of young people with movie-star-like bodies, but a bunch of old wrinkled people - so we fit right in! 

Today we took the “Dainty Dog” up into the aforementioned Cul-de-sac du Marin, a ride of about 3 miles, and tied up at the marina. We wandered around town and checked out a few marine stores. We were impressed that we could have bought a new Yanmar diesel for the boat, but managed to keep ourselves in check! After a good lunch out (Caesar salad for Gloria, Entrecôte steak and chips for me) we headed home and got caught in a squall. Not too much wind but we did get rather wet! It’s always a relief to find the boat where we left her. Now we are back on board relaxing. We’ll stay here until at least Monday and then start making our way northwards back up the coast

Postscript … This evening I went back into St Anne to take some low light photos and I came away with a much more favorable impression of the town. As the sun went down and daylight faded it seemed to come alive with a really vibrant and fun atmosphere. Maybe our previous trips in the hottest part of the day didn’t do it justice. Maybe the area will grow on me and we won’t be able to leave …!

Gloria is feeling a bit better, somewhat up and down, and still coughing up a storm.

Mike

P.s. Yesterday I discovered an unusual and perplexing camera problem … I have an ant inside my camera body! I could see it crawling around through the viewfinder, but it wasn't visible when I looked inside. The only way in (and out) would be through the lens attachment whilst I was changing lens. I have no idea how to extract the little bugger, so if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them!

The broad anchorage of St Anne as the sun goes down. It gives you some idea of just how many boats are here

The "clothing optional" beach south of St Anne (looking south)

The "clothing optional" beach south of St Anne (looking north)

Dusk in St Anne

A lady grilling on their porch

A girl enjoys an ice cream on the dinghy dock in St Anne ... as I am about to return from my early evening photo trip

Fishing boat on a mooring in St Anne (10 sec exposure)

A Lesser Antillean Bullfinch. We were sitting at a picnic table and it would land to pick up crumbs. I set the camera up with wide angle lens and flash (with rear curtain sync). As I press the trigger the prism flips up, the shutter opens, the bird startles and the flash goes off. In truth I got two shots of the same bird, and cut and pasted the head off the first shot onto this one because it was better focussed. A bit of a cheat really !

Random thoughts

Random thoughts

Wednesday 21^st and Thursday 22^nd  February 2024

Recently, I’ve been feeling pretty crappy with some mystery illness.  I’ve been mostly sleeping and lying around trying to rest.  There is something particularly unpleasant about having a fever in such a hot climate. I’ve wasted enough electrons on that.

On Wednesday, we departed Fort de France for Anse Noir.  This was a small bay reputed to have good snorkeling.  We got anchored and Mike did snorkel while I had a nap.  Soon several additional boats arrived and dropped their hooks way too close to us.  As the wind was light, we were circling on our anchor.  We nearly collided with one of the other boats!  When they tried to pull up their anchor, it was under Cotinga.  We had to start the engine and motor forward to allow them to haul up their anchor!  More excitement than we bargained for. Fortunately, all but two other boats left by late afternoon and it was a quiet and relaxing evening.

Today, we motored to the south end of Martinique and then headed east to St. Anne.  We were able to sail the last section which was great.  St. Anne looms large in the boating around Martinique.  There is a very large bay with fairly shallow water (about 20ft) providing a large anchoring area.  To our astonishment, there must be over 200 boats anchored here, and that doesn't include the lagoon section up by Marin, a couple of miles away.  

When visiting Guadeloupe and Martinique, it struck me that these island are equivalent to the “Hawaii of France”.  In the middle of a cold, dreary winter the French people travel to Martinique or Guadeloupe for sun and warmth.  It’s all possible without leaving the country!  I gather that if you live on the west coast, Hawaii is the winter destination in a similar way. We aren’t sure why, but there are far more boats cruising the Caribbean than there were back in 2017-8.

Gloria

14 25.991 N, 60 53.293 W

The beautiful bay at Anse Noir. It's only 4 miles or so from Fort de France (by water) and is a very popular day-trip destination for snorkeling. Fortunately, most boats left by sun set. 

I like it when we are anchored with other no other vessels between us and the setting sun.

The unmistakable Rocher du Diamant of the south west tip of Martinique. This former volcanic plug (we suspect) stands about 300-400 feet high and has immense overhanging roofs and caves. The water is deep all around and we were able to sail between the rock and the mainland, through the Passe de Fous (Crazy Pass).

At anchor off St. Anne ( 2 minute exposure, camera on a tripod)

Ditto

Our mast at night

Fort de France and Les Jardins de Balata

Fort de France and Les Jardins de Balata

Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th February 2024

We initially planned to visit Les Jardins de Balata on our second day in Fort de France. However, the guidebook suggested avoiding times when cruise ships are docked in town, and when we consulted the “inter-webs” it seemed that there might be a ship in on Tuesday, so we switched up our schedule and headed out to the gardens on Monday. We found the stop for the #25 bus, with only minutes to spare. We were excited to jump aboard only to find that there were no cash payments and we were supposed to buy tickets in advance. The driver seemed really friendly and waved us aboard. It was a windy 20 minute ride up into the mountains and by the time we arrived at our destination I was just about ready to lose my breakfast.

The gardens are spectacular, nestled amongst the tropical forest, high up in the mountains. They were more formal and structured than we expected, but beautiful nonetheless. We were also surprised at how popular and busy they were. We spent all morning wandering around, but by 1pm we were starving and tired, so we retired to the restaurant and had a three course lunch which was excellent. The French know how to live! Part of the attraction of Les Jardins de Balata are the aerial walkways. However, the queue to access these was so backed up in the morning that we chose to give them a miss. Fortified with lunch we decided to try and again. This time there was no one around we had fun walking over the suspended walkways. We got to pass through an incredible stand of bamboo, literally 100 feet tall (and beautifully named the "Bambouseraie").  Shortly after returning to the ground we saw people gathering round a particular plant … it turned out it wasn’t the plant but a massive tarantula spider that was creating the excitement! 

We weren’t sure how our return to Fort de France would work out. We still didn’t have any bus tickets and weren’t excited about hiking 5 miles back down the road to town. We explained our predicament to the bus driver, in horrible French, and he just smiled and welcomed us on board. The bus system seems excellent … we just need to figure out where you buy the tickets. It's also impressive that Google maps has all the schedules embedded into the maps. Cool !

Today, we did a bunch of boat cleaning jobs and then went ashore. We visited the local chandlery and found the exact shower sump pump / box that we need to replace our broken system. We were about to buy it, until we saw the price (300+ Euros), about 3 times what it would cost at Defender in the USA. We decided to hold off until our trip home in April. We did find a laundry and returned later in the afternoon to do some much needed clothes cleaning.

Gloria has a sore throat and a mild fever today. Hoping she will be feeling better by tomorrow. We do have some antibiotics with us, but it’s most likely viral.

Mike

Fort de France at night from Cotinga ... handheld 90 mm lens, F10, 20 s exposure

The same photograph but the negative image. Which do you prefer?

Gloria on the aerial walkways at Les Jardins de Balata ... they were quite high and bouncy!

Water lily at Les Jardins de balata (focus stacked image)

Not sure what these plants are called!

Back-lit fern leaves. There were giant ferns that could have come straight out of Gulliver's Travels

A massive Tarantula spider, maybe 4 inches across!

Purple Throated Carib, photographed next to a feeder in the gardens.

A Walk on the Wild Side

A Walk on the Wild Side

Friday 17^th and Saturday 18^th February, 2024

Our guide describes it as an “extraordinary walk along the Canal de Beauregard.  Built by slaves in 1760, this canal brought water around a steep mountain to supply the distilleries of St. Pierre.  The canal is fairly level, often shady, and easy, but you must have a head for heights for you walk along the outer canal wall, about 18 inches wide.  The panoramic views are often dizzyingly precipitous.”  Naturally it seemed like a “must do” to us.  There was the small problem of almost no information about how to get to the start.  This is where the web is a great help.

Looking at the location of the “recommended” start of the walk, we thought we should hire a car.  We were remarkably unsuccessful. One place was not open the first three times we visited. Finally, they were open, but had no cars for Saturday.  We probably could have got a car from the only other car rental in town but we balked at the price, 70 euros/day!  Our only option seemed to be the bus.  Here we felt somewhat handicapped by our rudimentary French.  Quizzing the bus driver wasn’t exactly reassuring.  Initially, she denied that she went to the Canal.  After showing the name of nearest town, she agreed that the route went there.  It is always good to start an exciting adventure with a little extra uncertainty.  

The bus dropped us off in the town in question, quite a way up into the hills.  Google maps suggested that a half-mile walk would take us to the bottom end of the canal (when has Google maps ever been wrong?) To our dismay, that half-mile walk was steeply downhill (a joy for the return trip!).  However, we did arrive at a fenced-off area with signs saying no pedestrians allowed, suggesting risk of serious injury.  We actually knew the walk was officially closed, but we weren’t the first people to go through the broken section of the fence! 

The canal was smaller than I expected, perhaps three feet wide with a couple feet of water flowing through.  It might be described as an aqueduct elsewhere. The canal wall was narrow and broken up in places.  Some sections were certainly what Mike would call “airy”.  I didn’t feel that my balance was all that great, but we persisted with Mike carrying my pack on the outward leg.  For some sections, water was pouring over the canal wall.  In other areas, something like sandbags had been laid along the top of the wall.  As they were actually filled with dirt and saturated with water, they provided an unnervingly squidgy surface for walking.  Did I forget to mention that we met about four parties of people coming in the opposite direction?  Mostly we stopped on sections of real ground to let people pass.  One party we met along an extensive exposed section.  These young women were nice enough to back up quite a long way to let us through.  

Once we arrived at the far end of the canal, we breathed a sigh of relief.  Unfortunately, it’s an “out and back” walk so we had to face it all again!  Fortified by lunch, we set off on the return journey.  This time I managed to carry my backpack, as well as move along at a better pace.  I might even have looked at the view once or twice! Soon we were back where we started.  That half-mile was just as steep going up-hill.  Once we arrived at the bus stop, we checked the wait time for another bus.  As far as we could tell it wasn’t due for another 40 minutes, so we decided to walk down to the main road and back to St. Pierre.  According to my phone (can you trust that thing?), we had walked over 9 miles, in temperatures of 85oF (30oC). We were a tad tired and a little overheated. Thank goodness for the swim after returning to the boat.

This morning, we went to shore for a speedy provisioning trip and then departed to Fort de France.  A couple hours of motor-sailing got us to the anchorage.  Once again, we had some difficulty getting the anchor to set.  It’s been pretty crowded most places we have been to and I suspect that the more open areas, which we gravitate towards because there is more swinging room, tend to reflect where the bottom is rocky rather than sand. Eventually another boat pulled up anchor and left and we were able to get settled. We seem to be in a good position with regard to the many boats anchored here.  So far we are in the same spot according to our anchor alarm. 

I’m thinking that we are still a bit tired out from yesterday’s adventures, as we have spent the afternoon hanging out onboard.

Gloria

14 35.921 N, 61 04.117 W

The amazing Canal de Beauregard walk. The views were astonishing.

You walk along the 18 inch wide wall. Thankfully, many sections had some shade. 

In some sections the water was overflowing the retaining wall ... you just had to walk through it. This photo in B&W.

Gloria on the return journey ... (minus her glasses for the photo, to avoid flare from the fill-in flash)

Another set of building shots taken over the past week ... "Les portes do Sainte-Pierre"

Ditto

This is the ship that was washed ashore just south of Sainte-Pierre. A reminder of what can happen if you end up on a lee shore and your anchor system fails

A tiny lizard (anole), photographed on the hills behind Saint-Pierre. I'm trying to put together a set of lizard shots and am working on get different angles, rather than just side head shots.