Arrival in Martinique

Maggie at the dock

Prince de Bretagne

Arrival in Martinique

The sail from St Lucia to Martinique ended up happening on Thurs, American Thanksgiving. Hope all our friends in the US are having a good weekend. The sailing itself was fine but the throttle on the engine is still not behaving properly. The revs get stuck at 1400 which is too slow if you are trying to get anywhere. Because of that we anchored at Ste Anne which is simpler than the channel into Le Marin. We took the dinghy into customs Friday and later in the day into the marina.

Friday there was almost no wind so we were happy to be off the beach instead of in a slip. We hadn’t done a “med moor” before so were wondering how Maggie and crew would handle the docking here. The boat is backed into the dock with fenders touching the boats to the side and the bow tied to a buoy. Dock handlers move the buoy and its line out of your way. I’m happy to be safe and secure now. A bit more tying down today, laundry, and packing and it is off to the airport at noon. It’s hard to believe that we will be back into winter tonight.

On Sat Barb and Bob rented a car and toured what they could of Martinique. In the evening they took us out to a lovely French dinner at Ti Toques. Meanwhile Rob and I were having a chore day. Along with things, we did manage to but a new cable to connect the throttle to the engine and a relay for the shutoff. At least it was an entertaining day on the dock. The charter boats were coming in and new guests arriving. There were briefing sessions and drinking sessions, a lot of food delivered, and a live band in the evening. There was also a magnificent trimiran at the end of the dock that participated in a race off the island. It is called Prince-de-Bretagne. The media were interviewing, photographers busy, and best of all, St. James Brewery was giving out free rum and food.

The Atlantic Odyssey boats are due to arrive here Dec 10 from Europe. It is too bad that we will just miss that. Some of those boats will be going on with us on the BPO. We tried to get a slip on the same dock but the dock master didn’t seem to know what we were talking about. We’ll see. We are on dock 4, slip97 and will return Jan.6. See you then.