Martinique

We haven’t had decent WiFi since getting here so this is a consolidated post covering several days.

We finished up replacing the standing rigging (except for the fore stays) while we were in Rodney Bay Marina. It was nice to have completed that project finally.  When we left St Lucia on Tuesday there were 3 IP’s in the Marina – 2 38’s and a 37.  I borrowed a cordless drill from the folks onboard 38 Oceana and owe them a drink – they plan to move over to Martinique so hope to bump into them again.

1 Jan 2013

Our trip over from Martinique was great – started out motoring – sailed some – then motored on in to St Anne.  While we were motoring we had an unusual vibration in the drive train so suspect that the prop may have excessive growth already – will check it out later.  We arrived late in the afternoon on Jan 2^nd so anchored and had dinner – Church’s fried chicken (from St Lucia), home made coleslaw, and steamed basmati rice.  Really hit the spot.

2 Jan

I took the dingy in to the Captainiere Office and completed clearance and then stopped at Leader Price for some wine, Goats du Roam, a baguette and some lettuce.  Got back to the boat and some folks that we met 2 years ago here stopped by to say hi and invite us in to play dominoes tomorrow?  We had leftover pressure cooker pot roast with potatoes and carrots and sliced baguette with butter.

3 Jan

I checked the prop shaft alignment, adjusted the packing gland, checked transmission fluid and motor mounts and everything is OK.  Put the dive skin on and got out the long hose/scuba tank and dove on the bottom of the boat.  Lots of barnacles on the prop and weed shoe and scraped them clean.  Will check the drive train out when we move in a couple of days.  Went ashore and played Mexican train with 3 other couples.  Lots of fun as we had noted played dominoes in a very long time.

4 Jan

We decided to try out the prop/shaft and see if the noise/vibration issue had been resolved.  Picked up anchor and motored around some at higher than normal RPM.  Drive train is now fine and no unusual noise or vibration.  We reanchored and I was able to get a marginal WiFi signal from shore but just as we got comfortable a French boat came in and anchored on top of us.  We picked up anchor and decided to go ahead and move in closer to Marin so that we could do some shopping and also go ashore for lunch (Mussels at Mango Bay).

5 Jan

The chart extract image shows where we are anchored (we are the only boat here) and we have an easy dinghy ride in to town running behind the reef and along some mangroves.   

We are anchored at the Green Boat but now having a beverage ashore at the Mango Bay in Le Marin.  The rains stopped for awhile this morning so we were able to do some shopping and Lesley is now doing some Skype calls.

Windguru now shows that the weather will improve late next week so we plan to move up to Fort de France late next week then scoot on up to Roseau Dominica where I will be working on a WiFi access point.