After checking out of Martinique on Monday the 29th June 2020, we lifted anchor and sailed from Anse Caritan at midday. A light 12 – 15 knot easterly with a medium sea swell took us the 22 nm to St Lucia, where we anchored at 4 pm after a relaxed sail. St Lucia was still in lockdown, and there were only 20 other yachts in Rodney Bay – usually the bay would be packed with boats, particularly at the finish of the ARC rally across the Atlantic in January.
Enroute to St Lucia: Sargassum seaweed invading the Caribbean.
St Lucia: Entering Rodney Bay.
Rodney Bay: Almost deserted.
Similar conditions prevailed the next day, allowing us to sail down the west coast of St Lucia and visit beautiful Marigot Bay and the Pitons with hardly any yachts around, before anchoring at Vieux Fort on the southern tip of the island by mid afternoon. In fact, in two days of sailing we saw only two yachts underway, one north and one southbound – courtesy of Covid-19?
Motoring into Marigot Bay.
Beautiful Marigot Bay.
Marigot Bay village – almost deserted.
Sailing past the Pitons.
The 31 nm crossing to St Vincent was a repeat of two days before, with a medium swell and strong westerly current. We anchored in Chateaubelair bay with three other yachts for a quiet night and left at 5:30 am the next morning to sail the 14 nm to Young Island Cut, to tie up to a mooring buoy at 08:00 am.
Approaching mountainous St Vincent.
Anchored in Chateaubelair Bay.
Chateaubelair Bay sunset.
At 10:00 we went for our PCR Covid-19 tests, at USD 60 per person, USD 75 for the agent, USD 25 for Customs and USD 20 for the mooring = USD 240, to enter St Vincent and the Grenadines! The test results were emailed to us 28 hours later – both of us tested negative. Happy days!
Young Island offshore on the south side of St Vincent.
Boats awaiting Covid-19 testing in the Young Island Cut.
Annie’s PCR test.
Sometimes when your children work abroad, you try and picture these places. Karen has worked in hospitals in Cape Town, London and St Vincent. I was happy to discover that St Vincent is quite organised and civilised and not the ganja smoking Rastafarian Island I had imagined.
Leaving St Vincent for Bequia.
At 3 pm the next day, we cast off the mooring buoy in Young Island Cut and had a relaxed, short 9 nm sail to Bequia (pronounced Beckway), where we anchored in Admiralty Bay off the main town of Port Elizabeth, with a suburb called Pretoria – also historical and original city names in South Africa, but now renamed Nelson Mandela City and Tshwane, in the new improved SA.
Arriving at the dinghy jetty.
First stop in Bequia: the Frangipani restaurant for coffee.
View from Frangipani across Admiralty Bay.
Bequia is quite special and alluring, with some well preserved Victorian homes and quaint shops and restaurants. The island has its own flag which has a whale on it, because New Bedford whalers settled on the island way back. As a result Bequians became great boatbuilders – a craft that continues on through today. The whaling has pretty much come to an end. Following are some photos of Port Elizabeth.
The Whaleboner bar next to the Frangipani – showing their whaling history.
Grand old houses turned into upmarket accommodation.
Motoring into town long the shore.
View across the bay from Maria’s bar .
Local taxis are utes with bench seats at the back.
The harbour is busy with ferries coming and going.
Boat building has slowed down, but model boat building fills the gap.
This old house is in need of new timber shingles.
Another fixer upper.
This old Rastafarian uses his house as a notice board.
Youth dinghy sailing at the yacht club on Saturdays.
I was going to check out the Penthouse Pets, but Covid-19 has closed down the bar.
There was still no indication of Trinidad opening before their general elections in mid August, so we decided to have some of the work planned for Esprit, done here in Bequia. As a result our first week in Bequia was quite busy with getting quotes for canvas and stainless steel work, measurements done for a new mainsail boom bag, taking the mainsail, jib and bimini down for repairs and having a template made for a new canvas cover (chaps) for the dinghy.
The view from our anchorage to Jack’s bar and Princess Margaret beach.
Walking along Princess Margaret Bay.
Lower Bay.
Dinner at Mac’s pizza bar – really tasty pizzas!
The quaint local church.
The cruisers at anchor here, are quite active socially, with a radio net, walks, pot luck and music evenings and BBQ’s. Our first get together at the Open Deck Bar on the Saturday was quite a liquid affair, wiping out any attempt at doing the 14 km hike on Sunday morning. Annie, again ending up in the water after a late night failed gazelle like leap from the dinghy onto the boat.
Potluck BBQ at the Open Deck Bar.
A jam session at the Open Deck – great sound.
During the following week, we managed to get the repairs to the mainsail and the jib, as well as bimini canvas repairs done by Grenadine Sails in Bequia. They also made us a new boom mainsail bag and UV cover for the dinghy.
Calvin the master sewer, with the new dinghy cover he made.
Our new boom sail bag. The old one was totally knackered after 5 years.
The week was wrapped up with a climb up the mountain,for a great view down to Port Elizabeth, followed by sundowners and dinner at Jack’s Bar later in the day.
Our hiking group halfway up the mountain.
View down and across to Port Elizabeth, from the top.
Here we are at the top.
We still have some steel and aluminium welding to be done here in Bequia, so we plan to be here for a while before sailing further south in the Grenadines. Until later, keep well and safe wherever you are.
Since our last post of 10th June, we spent more time in Martinique, while waiting for islands to the south of us, to open their borders. A large number of yachts departed to Grenada, where conditional entry with two weeks quarantine and Covid-19 testing on completion, was put in place.
On the 14th June we sailed north to Martinique’s capital, Fort de France, with “Nimrod” and “Purrr” for a change of scenery. We used the FdF anchorage as a base and rented a car to reach some trails on the island.
Sailing to Fort de France.
Passing Rocher du Diamant.
Our first 10 km hike was the Canal de Beauregard near St Pierre in the north. This 5km long irrigation canal, fed from the upper reaches of the Carbet river, was built by slaves in the 18th century. The canal clings to the side of the mountain and in sections near the end, has a sheer drop of hundreds of metres down into the valley of the Carbet river – absolutely breathtaking.
Start of the canal walk.
Far down below, the river and some farms.
Walking along.
Deceptive: the drop on the left is about 200m
Tall bamboo’s along the way.
A beer and lunch after the hike: Dirk and Chris.
The next hike was high up in the central mountains, to reach the Didier falls. This walk takes you through a 150m long tunnel. Afterwards, we visited the beautiful “Jardin de Belata”, a few km’s further up the valley. These gardens were established in 1982, by the horticulturist Jean-Philippe Thoze.
Start of the Didier Falls trail: Annie, Sue and Chris.
Lights on!
In the tunnel.
Reaching the weir where the water supply pipes for Fort de France start.
The first falls.
A swim to cool off, after the first leg.
The view from the top of the falls.
The entrance to the Belata gardens: Annie and Sue.
Majestic 40 year old palms.
View down the valley.
The tree top walk.
The girls on the rickety walkway.
A view from the tree top walk.
One of the amazing flowers.
Our last hike this week, was along the “Trace de Jesuits” a trail established by Jesuit priests along the Lorrain river. This walk is in the rainforests and lived up to its name – we walked back in the rain, on the way back to the car.
Start of the Trace de Jesuits.
Following in the footsteps of the Jesuit priests.
Rain forest.
Back in Fort de France, we visited the Schoelcher library. This library was shipped from France after a Paris exhibition in the 19th century and rebuilt here piece by piece.
The Schoelcher library – much of the facade is made of cast iron elements.
We woke up on the 18th of June, to a dust storm blowing in from the Sahara, over thousands of miles of Atlantic Ocean. We thought we had seen the last dust storms in Egypt and Cyprus. The dust blanketed out the sun for three days. With the following rain, our boats looked like they had a mud bath.
A surprise awaited us when we tried to start the engine to sail to Anse Mitan at the three islands, to join a group of friends for lunch on Saturday the 21st. The 5-year old engine battery died suddenly, as they sometimes do. We motored back to Fort de France on the Monday and bought and installed a new 70A/h starter battery, before sailing to Petite Anse d’Arlets in the south.
Lunchtime with beautiful ladies: Sue, Annie, Annie and Suzanne.
And their beau’s: Charlie, Marc and Chris.
In Petite Anse d’Arlets, we joined Chris and Sue Jones on “Nimrod” for their 20th wedding anniversary dinner and party, with these yachties – a jolly evening and a late night affair, with lots of dancing.
Chris and Sue Jones, celebrating 20 years of marriage.
These Frenchie’s can dance: Annie and Marc.
Pole dancing at 2 am!
Word reached us that St Vincent and the Grenadine islands to the south, will accept yachts from the end of June, subject to an application submission and a Covid-19 test on arrival, which if negative, will allow the crew to enter after 24 hours. We immediately submitted our application online and got approval on the 25th of June. We sailed back to our previous anchorage at St Anne to do our laundry and check out of Martinique on Monday the 29th June 2020. So, here we go at last, after an unplanned four months in lovely Martinique, to travel south to St Lucia and on to St Vincent and the Grenadines. We’ll keep you posted – until then, Cheerio!
A walk with Matt and Kristina was planned for Wednesday the 20th May, but Annie woke up with a sore knee, so we had to cancel it – just as well, because it rained just about the whole day. Thursday and Friday were the Abolition of Slavery public holidays in Martinique, so we managed to do some walks. The Saturday evening we had another music evening with Helmut on SV Kepasa.
Dirk, Kristina and Matt.
Young bikers on the trail.
Annie and mangrove roots.
On the Sunday, after 10 weeks at anchor, Esprit’s hull looked like a veritable vegetable garden. I worked away in the swell to clean the starboard side of the hull, in the process getting covered by dislodged water lice, resulting in bites similar to blue bottle stings. Copious applications of “Stingose” and anti histamine tablets got the burning under control after 3 hours.
Boredom was getting the better of us, so on Monday the 25th May we rented a car for three days to travel the island and get some retail therapy. The first day we visited Decathlon, the amazing sports goods store near Fort de France, followed by Mr Bricolage (like an Australian Bunnings, Plus) hardware store opposite, and finished with the Hyper U store nearby, for provisions.
Enroute – here comes the rain. (beehives in the foreground)
The next day was the sight see and exercise day. We did an eight km hike in the Caravelle nature reserve halfway up the East coast and got thoroughly drenched in a heavy 30 minute downpour. We then drove up to Mt Pelee in the North (see our first post on St Pierre in Martinique). This is the volcano that destroyed the town of St Pierre in 1902.
Mt Pelee before it clouded over.
The view to the south.
When wereached the start of the 2 km track up to the caldera of the volcano, the sky was clear, but 5 minutes later, the clouds came in, making the hike a non starter. Matt quickly launched his drone to give us a view of the caldera, but the clouds were too fast as the drone disappeared out of view, before returning to base. We got back to StAnne well after dark.
A: Come on – let’s walk up to the top! D: Are you talking to me?
Cut it-out! – and smile for the camera.
On day 3 we did more shopping in Le Marin, at the Leader Price supermarket for food and wine, as we were told that wine is expensive further south. After returning the car to the hire company, I cleaned the port side of Esprit’s hull, with Matt helping me clean the sail drive leg, keel and rudder. (Being 30 years younger, he can free dive for up to 4 minutes)
On Thursday we moved Esprit about a km south to Caritan beach, where the water was calmer, so we managed to do some maintenance and scrubbing the green waterline clean on the Friday. Saturday was laundry day and in the evening, Helmut had 35 dinghies tied up to Kepasa for his concert. We were pleasantly surprised when first, Michelle and later Karen, called us on WhatsApp, for the first time in weeks! (all good on their side).
Chris and Sue Jones from London, on their catamaran Nimrod, joined us for drinks on Esprit on the Sunday evening. Interestingly, there are not many English speaking boats anchored here, with the majority of the boats from France and Europe. Also, it is encouraging to see how many of these boats are sailed by young couples or families in their 30’s and 40’s, making us old farts almost unique in this part of the world.
Kasia, Marcin and their son Vincent from White Dog.
Monday the 1st of June has arrived and so far only Grenada to the north of Trinidad has opened it’s harbours to yachts that have reservations at their marinas, subject to a 14 day on board quarantine period and testing afterwards. A lot of yachts have left Martinique to take up that option.
June 1st – the sunset has moved north from the small island on the left, in the time we have been here.
We are still waiting for news from the other islands to the south of us, as we only have to be in Trinidad by the end of July – weather permitting. No sign of potential hurricanes forming in the eastern Atlantic at this stage, but we are ready to move south at short notice. In the meantime we carry on walking.
Walking group having a rest.
Chris and Sue – serious hikers.
The easing of restrictions now allows us unlimited walking (also on the beaches) and socialising in groups of up to 10 people. Sailing between Martinique and Guadeloupe to the north (both French islands) is also permitted. We already have spent some time on Guadeloupe on the way here, so won’t do that.
Picnic with French, UK, Canadian and US sailors.
Sunset view from our picnic.
By the 9th of June we have been anchored her in St Anne for 12 weeks, but with the exception of Grenada to the south (see the map) none of the of the islands have opened up. We have heard that the anchorage in Grenada is overflowing with boats allowed to enter, as a result of bookings in marinas.
Windward islands.
Expats from Cape Town – John, Annie and Dirk.
Beautiful flowering tree.
Passing the stations up to the church on the hill.
View from the church.
Drinks with French Annie, Dirk, Chris and Charlie.
We will carry on walking, travelling and socialising on this beautiful island, as we have made many new friends here. An approaching hurricane, or islands opening up will see us moving south, but until then we leave you with photos of our lives here on the island. Until then, cheers and stay safe!
On Friday the 8th May the Cruisers Net informed us that the French government decided to relax the quarantine conditions as follows: All shops and businesses except restaurants and bars can now open from Monday the 11th. People can also meet in groups of up to 10 (with social distancing), walk more and travel up to 100 km on Martinique. There was no news from other islands and no other borders have been opened.
Annie making our masks.
Also, on the 8th May, Michelle our younger daughter, turned 30 and we had a WhatsApp video call to wish her well. We were sorry that we could not be in Sydney. How the time marches on – it feels like yesterday when this noisy baby, looking like Charles Bronson with a head of black hair, arrived in our lives. She has been a challenge and a pleasure since. See Shell’s 30th Birthday Video compiled by her friends from around the world – mostly from the UK, where she has lived for 5 years:
The 15th May 2020 marked four years since we sailed out of Sydney on this adventure. It gave us the chance to reflect on how much we have seen and learned in the four years. We have heard statements like “You are so lucky to do this”. We don’t agree – it takes a lot of planning and hard work to do this. Had it been easy, a lot more people would be doing it. Doing this, also has the advantage of keeping our brains and bodies active.
That could be me!
It was almost five years since we saw the photo above of a Sun Odyssey 439 in the Jeanneau catalogue and I thought, but didn’t tell Annie: “Yesss! That could be me! (Before I started growing sideways instead of lengthwise). And here we are, still enjoying the experience and looking forward to our next year in the Pacific Ocean. The Covid-19 pandemic has tied us down in Martinique for two months, but hey, it could be worse.
Walking south to Caritan.
Arriving at the beach in Caritan.
Walking back to St Anne.
Annie having a rest.
Remy and Annie.
Illogical as it may seem, the relaxed Covid-19 rules allows us unlimited walking with no attestation approval required, but, not on the beaches! We have crisscrossed the roads and tracks on land for exercise and decided we would take a chance and walk on the deserted beaches, which are really pretty. We came across one other person, Remy from Bordeaux, who with his dad sailed a sister ship, a Jeanneau 419, from France to the Caribbean. They plan to transit Panama into the Pacific next year. Our list of buddy boats is growing!
St Anne’s statue celebrating the abolition of slavery.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning the yachties around Martinique listen in and contribute, on VHF radio to the “Martinique Cruisers Net”, to keep themselves up to date with the latest news and developments. This is expertly run by Steve in English and Patrice in French. This has been expanded to musical quiz evenings on Friday nights, covering Jazz, Classical and Rock, run by John and Les from Cape Town – I wish my friend Jim was here to help me with the quiz. Sunday nights we have a general quiz evening hosted by our American friends.
Helmut on guitar.
…and on saxophone.
Last Saturday night we had the talented Helmut from Kiel on “Kepasa” host a live show, playing the saxophone and guitar with vocals. We were tied up with a whole bunch of dinghies behind his Bavaria 44, drinking and singing along. He had been quiet for a month since his last show, due to a severe cold, but is now back in form. We look forward to another show this coming Saturday. See these links for the video’s:
We slightly overdid our walking, with a hike to Pointe Dunkerque on Saturday and on Sunday, with a long hike to Anse Meunier, Petite and Grand Anse des Salines. We got back footsore at lunchtime on Sunday after an early morning start, had a swim and a Nanna nap before we had guests over for sundowners.
Setting out under the trees.
The mangroves behind Anse Meunier.
Petite Anse des Salines.
Fever tree.
The route is well signposted.
Grande Anse des Salines.
An hour and a half after starting: a selfie.
Annie had to carry on walking to the end of the bay!
So, I took a rest.
Heading back to St Anne.
Mountain bikes by the dozen passed us.
There is no news yet about the borders between the islands opening, so we sign off with the hope that next time we will report on us leaving Martinique after 10 weeks to the islands further south. Until then, we leave you with a photo received from our girls in Australia – they seem to be having fun. Cheerio!
As previously reported, on the 17th March 2020, the island of Martinique in the Caribbean, introduced a compulsory quarantine for all persons on land and at anchor, to contain the Covid-19 virus. Not much news is available for our blog, so bear with us as we cobble together some photos of the lovely village of Sainte Anne, it’s surrounds and it’s anchorage, to keep you informed about our quiet existence.
Sunset from our anchorage at Sainte Anne, Martinique.
On April 6th 2020, at the end of our week 3 in quarantine, Juliette and Guerric, while delivering our baguettes, eggs and croissants, informs us that the Prefect of Martinique is thinking of extending the quarantine to the end of April – we will know during the next week.
Juliette and Guerric.
I received the email meme below, from a South African friend: It was also Founders Day in SA, as Jan van Riebeeck landed in Table Bay on the 6th April 1652, to establish a re-victualling station for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope. I was born 295 years later at the foot of Devil’s Peak, behind JvR, in the painting.
Van Riebeeck meets the locals.
On Esprit, life carried on, albeit slowly and a bit boring, with mostly reading and swimming around the boat to keep us occupied – all the boat maintenance items were up to date. Three days earlier, Annie was politely asked by the Maritime Police not to paddle board amongst the boats in the anchorage.
Annie cleaning the deck.
Annie working out on the clean deck.
We celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 10th April – quietly. With our girls’ emails of good wishes, came the news that Michelle was now working for the UN Women remotely online, doing policy writing and advocacy on Gender Based Violence and Covid-19, while waiting for her deployment to PNG, whenever the Covid-19 pandemic will allow this. Karen was still working her butt off in orthopaedic surgery at the John Hunter hospital.
Our wedding anniversary – still alive.
On Monday the 13th April, Emmanuel Macron the president of France announced that the lockdown in France and its territories has been extended to the 11th May 2020. This includes Martinique, but the date may be reviewed during, or at the end of this period. Bonjour St Anne – once again! Tuesday the 14th marks one month in quarantine for us, with another month to go.
A quiet afternoon in St Anne – we drop off the rubbish and go to the supermarket.
Rubbish separation.
Walking back to the jetty with our groceries.
We are getting concerned with the time left to us, to get out of the Caribbean hurricane zone, by the beginning of June. We were planning to reach Trinidad, which is outside the hurricane zone, by the 1st June and we have a booking at Peakes Boatyard in Trinidad to have Esprit hauled out on the 15th June, for 3 months. With most of the windward islands to the south of us still in lockdown, it may be quite a rush to get there in time.
Cat 5 Hurricane tracks 1851 to 2018. Martinique is to the north of Trinidad, slap in the middle of the tracks!
We had completed our travel plans on land for the 3 months, to visit Cuba for a week. Then a road trip from Florida to North Carolina to visit friends, before travelling to New Orleans and then on to Guatemala and southern Mexico to visit the ancient Aztec sites. Fortunately, we haven’t booked airline tickets yet and will have to see what the Covid-19 situation allows us in terms of travel.
On the 16th April we got French attestation documents, allowing us to go for one hour walks in St Anne. We used the first opportunity to walk 4.5km to a fruit and veg stall to buy fresh stuff and on the way back stop at a small shop to get wine, beer and groceries.
We may now walk for exercise!
Mural on the way to the Fruit & Veg.
Another mural towards the church.
Mural detail.
Beautiful colours along the road.
At the Fruit and Veg stall.
So happy to be on land – my princess hugs a palm tree.
With this new document, we wanted to make the most of it, without putting anyone at risk with Covid-19. We ventured forth again the next day doing another 5km walk in solitude, enjoying the lovely scenery, before going back to the boat. We were knackered after a month of inactivity, so we hit the water to cool down and then relax for the rest of the afternoon.
The town beach.
Murals to brighten up the street.
Religious statue
Out of town, walking past Brahman cattle.
The road back to town.
Matt, our Aussie neighbour on “Yotty”, is a keen diver and from time to time brings us some crayfish from his catch. He also helped me strip the lower leg gearbox of our outboard, to try figure out why the engine revs go up, but the prop revs stay the same. We can’t work this out, but the owners manual mentions the “over-revolution limiting system” which must be checked by a Suzuki dealer. That will be done in Trinidad when we get there.
A crayfish pressie from Matt.
The next milestone was my 73 birthday on the 28th April. Our neighbours on both sides, Kristina, Matt, Kasia and Martin join us on Esprit to quietly celebrate with drinks (A hurricane action plan meeting, if the cops turn up). A news item around this time, quoted Brian May, astrophysicist and lead guitarist of Queen, saying that us baby boomers are now old and vulnerable. I do a Google search for old age homes in Sydney.
Happy birthday!
Annie and Matt.
Martin, Kasia and Kristina.
Next morning – this quarantine thing makes you thirsty!
To quote my friend Trena: “When this is over…what meeting do I attend first…Weight Watchers or AA?”
News on the Martinique cruisers net, on the same date, is that the quarantine period here and in Trinidad has been extended to the middle of May. So, we bid you adios – we will do an update in a fortnight.
