On Feb. 21st, we had a nice sail from Fort de France to Le Marin, ~ 20 miles down the western coast of Martinique, past Diamond Rock, a giant boulder that was thrown into the ocean by a volcano years ago and whose size you can only appreciate when a sailboat the size of your own sails by it!
Marin is a pleasant town on the southern end of the island and is one of the largest yachting centers in the Caribbean. People say yacht owners come here to have work done on their boat or to abandon it. From the looks of the boats in the harbor, of which there were thousands between here and the nearby St. Anne, I’d say a good quarter were abandoned. Like the rest, we were here for boat work.
We knew our friends on Dream Weaver were in town so we hailed them on the radio (and eventually found them on AIS) so that we could pick up a morning ball nearby. The moorings were pretty inexpensive compared to what we see in the U.S. and worthwhile in this busy harbor where anchorage was hard to find.
The day after we arrived, we went to town to look into the solution for our broken water pump that supports our generator. In Fort de France, we had identified a store in Marin that had a replacement pump but we needed to pick it up and see if the fittings matched. Unfortunately, the new pump didn’t come with fittings for the hoses and the old fittings wouldn’t come off the old pump, so our next task was to find a metal worker that either had the tool to remove the old fittings or could fabricate new ones.
We found just the guy for the job at Caribe Metal. After talking our way thru a locked gate, a greasy worker in overalls referred us to the production manager, Pierre Leon (who calls himself PiLo). PiLo looked at our pumps and asked when we needed them done. We said by Monday and he said to leave the pumps with him and to call him on Monday.
That evening, we met Dream Weaver and crew in town at a place on the water in Marin called Indigo. Mike and Mary had recommended it because of the good food and a fabulous server named Marie Claude (known as MC). Arriving just before sundown, we got a beautiful show with our cocktails, had a great meal and enjoyed meeting MC, who entertained us with stories of her professional running days and treated us to spiced rum shots (on the house) and handwritten messages on our dessert plates.
Our boat buddies on Dream Weaver left to sail north but luckily we ran into new playmates, Edwin & Karen (on s/v Frog’s Leap) to hang out with the next day. We moved the boat to St. Anne, a few miles away, where the vast anchorage has crystal clear water. Here we could make water, snorkel and enjoy the amazing green flash sunsets.
One Sunday, Andrew and I took a dinghy tour up a creek, past many abandoned boats and back to Fugier Beach, a local hangout, where we had lunch and watched the locals prepare their barbecues, sunbathe and play vigorous games of dominos.
The thing about getting work done in Martinique is that, because of the language difference (and my mediocre French), we never really knew if what we wanted was communicated or what exactly we were agreeing to, so when we called PiLo the following Monday, he didn’t remember us (at first), then he hadn’t gotten to the job yet, and finally he agreed to have it done by Tuesday.
In St. Anne, we ran into our friends on s/v No Wahala and showed them the town, pointing out the nude beach and walking past the fish market just as the fisherman was blowing his conch to announce new catch for sale. We swam, watched the little sailboats from the nearby Club Med, witnessed a few green flash sunsets and gathered with other Salty Dawgs from s/v’s Koa, Frolic and Zephyr for sundowners at night. Overall, a relaxing few days before we were to pick up our water pump from PiLo and continue working our way south.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please include your first name or initials with your comment so we know who you are. Thanks.