Water and Rum

Water and Rum

Wednesday 14 - Thursday 15th February 2024

Well, believe it or not, we were finally able to get our water-maker (reverse osmosis desalinator) working. It’s been so hot here the past few days that by early afternoon we have been retreating to the boat to hang out in the shade and swim to cool off. It’s also given us some quiet time to explore the problem. You only need one of the two primary pumps to function, and it always seemed strange to me that both would have failed at the same time. I took both of them out and connected them up to an independent 12 volt supply (with switch and fuse) where I could see them properly. It turns out that on one of them the motor is burnt out (sparks flying from the casing!), whereas in the other it is the pressure regulator switch on the motor that has failed. By taking the switch off the first motor and bolting it on to the second, I was able to get one functioning pump! When we put the system back together it now seems to work. Initially, we had some over-pressure issues which we appear to have eliminated by circulating fresh water through the system for half an hour. We also had some control panel issues and salt water leaks from the automatic salinity probe that we resolved by by-passing the panel altogether and going fully manual. We have made 10 gallons of fresh water so far, at about 6 or 7 gallons an hour. The salinity is a little high (350 ppm), double that of the water we currently have in our tanks, but it will do for now (EPA limit is 500 ppm). We may be able to improve that by running an alkaline cleaning cycle on the membrane, but we need to get hold of the proprietary cleaning mixture. We also have enquiries out about the cost of a new membrane. Anyway for now we’ll call that a win.

Yesterday morning we went to investigate a different kind of beverage … rum! The Depaz distillery is a long established and world renowned rum distillery and is about a 45 minute walk out of town, uphill all the way! Nestled on the slopes of Mount Pelee, surrounded by fields of sugar cane, it’s in a beautiful location. We saw wild rose-ringed parakeets flying around. You can take a free self-guided tour around the site, and for a small fee you can also visit the Chateau. This was well worth it - a really beautiful building with fabulous tile floors and the original furniture. The entrance fee to the Chateau also gets you a free sample in the tasting room. Of course Gloria doesn’t drink (because of migraines) and so whilst I had white rum, she had passionfruit syrup with water. We ended up buying two bottles of rum, one white and one amber, for a very reasonable price. The walk back down the hill seemed so much easier.

p.s. In the chateau we saw a bed in a room adjacent to the dining room, and learned that it is a Martinique tradition for guests to be able to put young children to bed close to the dining room ... that seems cool to me!

Mike

Saint-Pierre and the mooring field from the hills behind town

Sunset from our mooring ... we are on the line of mooring furthest out to sea and have unrestricted views to the west

The Chateau at Depaz Distillery

The views back down to the ocean from the Chateau

The views across the sugar cane fields towards Mount Pelee ... typically in cloud.

The games room

Sherry decanter in the smoking room, looking back towards the dining room.

Storage casks of rum

The Martinique Zoo

The Martinique Zoo

February 14, 2024

Yesterday, we walked south from St. Pierre to visit the Zoo and gardens at Habitation Latouche.  In the ruins of an old sugar plantation that was destroyed in the eruption of 1902, a lovely set of gardens was developed.  Over time, animals were added to increase the attractiveness to tourists and locals.  We saw a spectacled thrush and weaver birds (both new species for us ... and not in an enclosure!), scarlet ibis (sadly not wild), and many purple-throated caribs (a hummingbird). We enjoyed strolling through the gardens and seeing the animals.  The highlight for us was the walk-in aviary with orange-winged parrots, rainbow lorikeets and a few peafowl.  There was also a very active and inquisitive sulfur-crested cockatoo.  She perched on a line near us and worked her way down a knotted rope.  Mike was taking pictures when she decided that she “fancied him”.  Poor Mike didn’t take kindly to her attempt to land on his shoulder! 

Our guidebook suggests that the tour through the zoo takes an hour or two.  I think we were there more than five hours! We were both ready to sit down under an awning and eat our lunch before walking back to St. Pierre.

Gloria

These hummingbirds are aptly named ... Purple Throated Caribs. I took many shots of this bird, but this is the only one where the light reflected perfectly off the gorgete. This is not artificially manipulated in Photoshop! 

Purple Throated Carib, side profile.

I was lucky to catch this Purple Throated Carib just as it took off. Their hearts beat 1200 times / minute and their wings beat 70 times / second! 

Orange-winged parrots, introduced from Africa and now wild in Martinique. This was a captive bird in the zoo.

Rainbow lorikeet - just unbelievable colors.

Monarch butterfly. This one was so still that I was able to set up my camera on a tripod and shoot a set of 30 shots with focus-shift. I positioned the lens so the butterfly was against a backdrop of a back-lit palm leaf. The images were focus-stacked using Helicron focus software to generate the final image

This waterlily image was also generated by focus-stacking a set of 20 images.

A different type of waterlily

A fairly common tropical flower found in the Caribbean

Carnival in Saint-Pierre, Martinique

Carnival in Saint-Pierre, Martinique

Monday 12th - Tuesday 13th February 2024

Shortly after 8 am on the 8th May 1902, a massive eruption of Mount Pelee annihilated the town of Saint-Pierre. A wave of incandescent lava particles surged down the sides of the volcano at hurricane speeds and killed almost the entire population of 30,000 people instantly. Only 3 people are known to have survived, including one man locked in a poorly ventilated dungeon. This was the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century and Mt Pelee is still active, with the last significant eruption occurring in 1932. Saint-Pierre had been the largest town on the island of Martinique and was viewed as the “Paris of the Caribbean”. Today, Saint-Pierre is a small, picturesque town nestled between the beach and the hills behind. It has a population of around 5,000 people, less than 20% of what it was prior to the eruption, and Fort de France has become the largest and most important city.

We had enjoyed visiting the town inn 2018 and were happy to be back. Some things seem to have changed, others seem the same. The former anchoring area was a fairly deep, narrow shelf of sea-bed that ran parallel the shore, with a vast drop off to the west. This area is now entirely full of moorings, which were completely occupied when we arrived on Sunday evening. We were able to anchor about a mile south of town, but it didn’t feel too secure, as evidenced by a 40 ft sailboat washed ashore on the beach, possibly during the recent bad weather. On Monday morning, many boats departed their moorings and after checking-in at the harbormaster’s office we were able to take one the empty moorings. It is worth the 15 euro fee, as we are much closer to the town dock and feel more secure leaving the boat. The mooring itself is in 80 feet of water and there are two independent lines to the ground tackle. This does mean that the ball itself doesn’t spin and as we rotate, with winds and current, our mooring lines end up very twisted.

The town itself seems more prosperous and busy than we remember it. The latter could be due to the fact that it is Carnival time. Over the past several days, both in Dominica and here in Martinique, there have been loud celebrations taking place. It’s noisy out on the boat, but up close the volume is at a whole different level. Late yesterday afternoon I went into town to take some photos, just as a parade was starting. The music was intense and the atmosphere was terrific. There were people of all ages parading through the town, some in wild and wonderful costumes. There seemed to be a lot of people dressed up in drag; I don’t know if that’s part of the tradition. I thought it was great to see everyone having so much fun. I didn’t get the impression that this was in any way a drunken rave, but rather a genuine celebration, particularly for kids and young people. One feature of the parade was a series of cars that have modifications to their engines / exhausts that cause them to emit incredible bangs, like they were back-firing. However, some of these vehicles seemed to be making these noises in rhythm and at will. I have no idea how they do it, but even from the boat it sounds like you are in a firing range. I’m not sure what will be happening this evening but I expect it will be loud!.

Today we walked along to the Zoo de Martinique and spent the best part of 6 hours wandering around. It was beautiful, but we’ll save that for another blog, as I have some nature pictures that I’d like to share. For now I’m just going to include some “people” shots that I took during the parade yesterday. I don’t tend to take many “people” shots. I view it as one of the most important area of photography, but one that I’m not very good at. I went ashore to take photos of the buildings (which I did), but it seemed crazy (which I am) not to try and capture the atmosphere of the carnival by taking pictures of the people.

Mike

A friendly guy watching the parade

Wicked clown outfit

The zombies showed up for the parade

This group of young lads were more than happy to have their picture taken. They ran after me as I walked away, wanting to see the result. We were able to exchange emails and I just sent them a copy.

A grand-mother and grand-daughter (I presume) watching the parade

Quite the drag costume!

These were amongst the more elaborate outfits

There was a visible police and security presence (not these people!), and they seemed to be enjoying the event and interacting with the crowd

The next three shots are my favorite ... we see a mother and daughter (I presume) hand in hand, marching / dancing along with the parade ...

I think the young girl is starting to look a little; tired ...

The mother looking back to check that her daughter is doing OK ...

Not everybody seemed so enthusiastic about me taking their picture ... I didn't realize until I reviuewed my shots that this lady, watching the parade from her window, even knew I took her photo. If it''s at all obvious I usually ask permission and walk away if they are not keen.

I'll take this as a "peace sign" rather than the English version ... equivalent to the middle finger!

We catch something that we can eat!

We catch something that we can eat!

Feb 10th and 11th, 2024

Before I get into the “fish tale”, let’s catch up on the more mundane happenings.

Saturday morning we left “Les Saintes” in Guadeloupe having checked out the previous day.  We sailed back to Portsmouth, Dominica.  The weather looked a little threatening early on and sure enough we had a little shower.  The seas were not too extreme and we sailed along quite well with the staysail and one reef in the main.  Somewhere along the way, it started to rain for real.  We donned our foul weather jackets but slowly got thoroughly soaked.  In four hours we reached Portsmouth and here the troubles really began.  We must have attempted anchoring eight or ten times while getting cold (I’m shocked to admit)! We kept feeling the anchor skipping across the ocean floor and not setting. Where there was space to anchor the water was very deep, and the bottom was probably hard, rather than mud or sand. Eventually, the south side of the harbor provided an anchor set.  

We had come back to Portsmouth to meet up with our friends, Nigel and Susan.  Mike first met them as part of the ARC rally in 2017.  Later they moved to Duxbury, Massachusetts, so we were able to meet up with them fairly often.  We had invited Susan and Nigel to dinner on Cotinga.  It was a rainy, horrible night.  I give them both a lot of credit for making the effort, especially as they had spent the day touring Dominica in a mini-bus.  It was terrific to catch up with them.  

Despite the late night (for us!), we were up early and on of way to Martinique shortly after 7:00 am.  The first few hours were motor-sailing in the protection of Dominica.  Once we emerged from behind the island, the conditions were vastly different.  There was significant swell and wind chop, resulting in 6 foot seas and plenty of white caps!  The winds were 18-22 kts fairly consistently.  Fortunately, we had both applied a scopolamine patch so there was no worry about seasickness.  I’m not sure if it was a side-effect of the patch or the late night but I began to feel drowsy.  I lay down on the leeward bench and had a nap.  A few salty sprays got me a bit wet.  Mike was not quite so fortunate, he got completely soaked with salt water.  Sailing seems to be a wet undertaking.

After a while I must have fallen asleep, as a loud bang shocked me awake.  I was totally disoriented, however, Mike realized that we had a fish on the “clothes line”.  As he pulled in the line, he could tell it was a Mahi Mahi.  Even though we were sailing at about 6kts, Mike was able to land the fish.  It was a beauty.  We still had about two hours to sail, so Mike placed a bag of ice on the fish.  Once we were anchored, Mike filleted the Mahi.  Dinner was lemon pasta, salad and pan-cooked fish.  It does not get a lot better than that!

Gloria

Gloria at the Grande Anse on the east side of Terre Haut, Les Saintes, on our final afternoon before departure south

Gloria enjoying the sail to Portsmouth, Dominica, before it started raining!

The weather looked threatening and it turned out to be the wettest day we have experienced in teh Caribbean

Sunset from the anchorage in Portsmouth. It had been really challenging to get our anchor to set properly

The clipper ship "Sea Cloud" arrives in Portsmouth just as we are leaving.

We made steady progress with a single reef main and staysail, but we were well in control and fairly comfortable. This catamaran "Plaisir" passed us doing more that twice our speed (13.3 knots when I checked AIS)

The hulls of another catamaran "nanomole" disappear behind a breaking wave on route to Martinique

Looking westwards in to the sun with dramatic seas and light

The first edible fish we have landed. This Mahi Mahi was a fine specimen, and maybe weighed ~ 10 lbs. We filleted it as soon as we dropped anchor, and generated 3 x two person packs of fillets and 1 x four person pack of smaller pieces that I plan to use in Bouilliabaisse

Mahi Mahi are beautiful fish, although their color fades after they have been landed and dispatched.

The Opposite of Hallucinations

The Opposite of Hallucinations

Wed 7th - Friday 9th February 2024

The weather has been weird for the past several days with southerly winds predominating. Our mooring off main town of Bourg de Saintes has excellent protection from this direction, but we were also aware that a front was going to come through on Thursday, and the wind would strengthen and veer to the west then north, before finally diminishing and settling to north east. We thought long and hard, but decided that our current position was the best option available. 

On Thursday morning we took the Dainty Dog into the town dinghy dock and hiked over to the Pain de Sucre beach on the west side of the main island. This has one of the three designated mooring fields (with anchoring forbidden) and looks beautiful. However, it has no protection from the west or north, and the boats that remained on moorings were already bouncing around a lot. It did not look like a good place to be, with the sterns of the vessels close to breaking waves on the lee shore. We saw one boat (also called Cotinga !) Frantically trying to bail out their a little skiff before it became completely inundated. We might have explored the west of the island further, but we were a bit concerned that our dinghy might get damaged on the dock as it was also subject to winds and waves from the west, so we beat a hasty retreat.

Back on board Cotinga things were really starting to rock and roll. It seemed like the wind was all over the place, perhaps influenced by the hills to our east. In any event the boats nearby were lying in all sorts of directions. At one point we came close enough to a neighboring catamaran that we became concerned that our main mooring line may have broken. We set up an anchor-alarm (drift warning) and although our position moved as much as 200 feet, it stayed within a consistent radius. The water is 50 feet deep here so we assume that there is simply a long main mooring cable and that all the boats move significantly. As the wind picked the boats started to point in a more uniform direction and we became less concerned. However, the swells increased and so we took some Stugeron sea-sick medicines The rest of the day and night are a bit of a blur. 

We had chosen not to put the dinghy on the davits (too much strain under the bumpy conditions) and left it tied on to the side of the boat with a number of fenders to stop it bumping. It was tied securely, but not locked, so as the daylight faded I went outside to lock her up. The dinghy was gone! Actually it wasn’t … but I couldn’t see it and was convinced it had been stolen. I shouted to Gloria and she came up on deck. She could see that the line to the dinghy was still attached and when we pulled it, the Dainty Dog appeared from her hiding place near the bow of Cotinga. I blame my inability to see, what should have been obvious, on the sea-sick medicines. It was the opposite of a hallucination, not seeing what was there! It also illustrates my lack of ability to think clearly whilst under the influence of these drugs. In any event, once our heart rates had returned to normal, we locked up the dinghy and retreated inside.

A fine dinner of Ramen noodles with sautéed steak, with genuine British “chocolate digestive” cookies for dessert, was followed by an early night. After an hour or so in our bed in the v-berth, I gave up and moved into the main cabin. The winds by this point were from the north and topping 20 knots and, with little protection,  the boat was pitching and rolling dramatically. Gloria stayed where she was and, with little that we could to help the situation, we both slept as best we could. By morning things had returned to almost dead clam. We spoke to a couple of other boaters who said it was the worst night at anchor they had ever experienced. It certainly wan’t comfortable, but we didn’t feel in any danger. We’ve experienced worse, for sure!

Mike

Moored off Pain de Sucre Beach, "hobby-horsing" in the waves on a lee shore. We aren't sure why they have a skiff and an inflatable (hauled out on a halyard) but the man was bailing frantically. This is the only other baot we have ever seen that is also called Cotinga.

Another vessel moored off Pain de Sucre beach. This shot gives you a better sense of how open the anchorage is to the north and west, but doesn't capture how bumpy it was, even before the winds picked up.

The Bourg de Saintes mooring field, well protected to the east and south, but little protection from west through north

A foil boarder, Thursday afternoon off Isle de Cabrit, Isles des Saintes

It rained hard in the early evening. I took this shot on a tripod under the dodger as Cotinga swings around on the mooring (4 minute exposure). The lights are mostly from other vessels nearby.

If it could go wrong…..

If it could go wrong…..

Monday 5^th and Tuesday 6^th  February 2024

On Monday, we got up at 6 am and were hoisting the anchor by 7 am.  Our route was almost directly west to Les Saintes.  The forecast suggested the winds would be 14-16 kts from the southeast.  We were expecting a fast beam reach to our destination.  As it transpired the winds were a little stronger, 18-20 kts gusting to 24!  The combination of a big swell on the beam and a strong gust got me wondering if 8,000 lbs of lead was really enough!  Mike thought of it as a “lively sail” and hand steered the whole way.  We did avoid getting drenched in salt water, so I guess it was a better sail than some!  After two hours we were approaching the islands.  

Once into the harbor at Grand Bourg, we were astonished to find an empty mooring off the town!  We managed to catch the tall ring of the mooring with a snap hook attached to a line.  Once secured, we were able to thread lines through the bow roller to help keep the ring from scraping the hull should the winds go light.  Mike had a great solution for getting the anchor off the roller and out of the way.  He was congratulating himself for this clever solution! (See below)

Later than afternoon, we topped off our water tanks from the jerry cans.  We knew we could fill our water jerry cans at the ferry dock, IF ONLY we could get the correct adapter for our hose!  A trip to the hardware store ensued.  We thought we should check the water spigot to help us select a suitable adapter.  However, the ferries were getting ready to load passengers and the whole area was blocked off.  We spent a fair amount of time at the hardware store investigating hose fittings and returned to the ferry dock.  Eventually, Mike spoke to the dock master and was allowed along the dock to look at the tap.  We acquired a suitable adapter at the hardware store and returned to Cotinga.  

It will be no surprise to boaters out there that we had a list of boat jobs to work through.  We started with taking our blankets (used to protect the settee cushions from sunscreen) in to the laundry.  Realizing that the timing was good to fill water,  we went back to pick up the empty water jerry cans.  Upon returning to the ferry dock, the dock master could not be located.  The helpful people in the Les Saintes Marine shop told us that the dock master had gone to lunch (11:10 am!) and would be back at noon, we should call him on VHF channel 12.  Back to Cotinga! 

We tackled the sea strainer, pumped the bilge and started work on the sea-water foot pump which had suddenly stopped working.  The foot pump is located right up against the starter battery so this project was getting tougher by the minute.  We had to leave everything, as it was now noon and we wanted to get water while we could.  Back to the ferry dock, no sign of the dock master anywhere.  The very kind woman at the shop agreed to lock up the shop and come to help us with the water.  We returned to Cotinga and dumped our two soft-sided water containers into the tank (as they leak better than they contain).  After lunch, it was time to get back to the salt-water foot pump repair.  While Mike was cursing under the sink, I was hearing some very troubling noises from the bow and went out to investigate.... I’ll let Mike tell about what had happened below.

We eventually succeeded with the salt-water foot pump!  That turned out to be sea grass blocking the inside of the faucet. As you can imagine, we were a bit worn out by our adventures of the day.  A quick swim and shower soon had us feeling a bit more lively.  We went out for dinner and had a really good meal.  

Gloria

Today I recalled a classic quote from Jack Nicholson in the film Prizzi’s Honor, which goes something like … “If he’s so f-ing smart, how come he’s so f-ing dead”. Earlier this morning we decided to move from our original mooring to one a little closer to shore, with the hope that when the winds go north on Thursday we’ll be a little better protected from the swells that are reported to make this mooring field quite bumpy. The move over went really well. We tied off our dinghy to the empty mooring ball and Gloria stayed with the dinghy, whilst a friendly French guy gave me a ride back to Cotinga. I drove the boat over to Gloria and she secured the mooring lines. Gloria mentioned that I had come up with a “brilliant’ idea to get the anchor completely out of the way of the bow roller and made tying up to the enormous bow-crunching eye-ring so much easier. This involved lowering the anchor into the water and hanging it from a line through a fairlead, tied to the bow pulpit. However, I completely forgot to consider what happens when the boat does a 360 degree trip around the mooring, as often happens. Well, as Gloria described, we started to hear some strange noises after lunch and soon realized that the anchor was now caught on the main rope under the morning ball and we were in effect directly anchored by the rail of our bow pulpit. It looked a hideous mess and there was a real possibility that we might damage the bow pulpit. We were able to get the line undone and then free the anchor by driving Cotinga part way round the mooring. It might best be described as a fiasco. Needless to say it wasn’t one of my better ideas … hence my thought of the aforementioned quote! In the latest solution we have the anchor up on deck. 

Mike

A sailboat passes behind the anchorage off St. Louis, Marie-Galante in the final minutes of daylight. Les Saintes can be seen in the background and it's the 16 mile sail over to them the following morning that Gloria describes above

I spent some time in St. Louis taking pictures of the colorful / characterful buildings, with the intention of trying to make some collages at a later date. I now have plenty of material! Here are a few sets of shots ...

Ditto

Ditto

Ditto

Wilde Swan leaving  Grand Bourg, Les Saintes, with the Isle de Cabrit behind them. I think we have seen this boat before on our sail from St Lucia to Bequia in 2018

Star Flier leaving Grand Bourg, Les Saintes at dusk. This is the same boat I photographed on our way south to Dominica a couple of weeks ago.