12-01-02 Today was a perfect weather day and we watched the local yole boats race at St. Anne. The yole design is unique to Martinique: 30-40 feet long wooden boats, with one or two sails, a crew of 15 or more, and numerous long poles for the crew to hike out. The wooden hulls are usually brightly painted and the sails look like colorful kites gliding across the water. What a great visual effect with blue skies and a turquoise sea. They started off the beach as we watched from our dinghy. Then we motored around while they sailed the course, and met them back at the finish line. They look like difficult boats to sail - we saw 4 of them sink during the day and had to be towed back to shore. Also crew members easily fall overboard from their positions on the long poles and have to be picked up by a chase boat which follows around the course. The winning boat actually lost a man just minutes before the finish line and he was scooped up and crawled back onboard in time to cross the line. Exciting finish to a fun day. Tomorrow we leave St. Anne for the Fort-de-France.
12-03-02 Fort-de-France is the capital of Martinique and a shopper's paradise (Lat 14°33.3'N/Lon 61°03.4'W). It is the largest and liveliest city in the Windward Islands and we are anchored right off the busy waterfront. It is an amazing place with boutiques selling the latest Paris fashions, French perfumes, crystal, etc. The street vendors are interesting as well selling everything from garlic, onions, rum .... to French lingerie! Ooh-la-la. The Christmas spirit is gaining momentum as we notice lots of decorations and people shopping. Maybe Santa will find a nice surprise for Colleen in a French boutique. A day or two here for email and shopping, then onto a quieter anchorage.
12-05-02 We are now at the northernmost tip of Martinique, having sailed up the entire west coast. We are anchored off the village of St. Pierre (Lat 14°44.5'N/Lon 61°10.7'W) which lies at the foot of Mt. Pelée volcano. St. Pierre was the capital of Martinique when the volcano erupted on May 8, 1902 killing almost 30,000 people. It is a such a scenic waterfront and calm bay with soft black-sand beaches, hard to imagine it was the scene of such devastation 100 years ago. It is estimated that the eruption was 40 times more powerful than the nuclear blast over Hiroshima, and St. Pierre was laid to waste in mere minutes. Only 3 of the 30,000 residents survived. The small village is now rebuilt amongst the many ruins and the volcano is monitored for any activity. The "newer" buildings have a period character with shuttered doors and wrought iron balconies. Only about 6,000 people live in St. Pierre today. It's a quiet village and the people are very friendly. We've certainly enjoyed the French and Creole flavors of Martinique, but time to move on. We are preparing to leave for the next island north - Dominica, some 30 nm away.
12-10-02 Decided we can't see every Caribbean island, so we skipped Dominica and are now in Guadeloupe. We are now officially in the Leeward Islands. The Eastern Caribbean is broken up into two island chains: from Grenada north to Martinique are the Windwards and from Dominica north to Anguilla are the Leewards. The islands are oriented a bit more northwesterly, so the sailing is easier in the Leewards this time of year, with E to NE tradewinds. Although the winds are also strengthening as the "Christmas winds" fill in, at 20-30 kts. Sailing in the Caribbean is not always idyllic as you would imagine. The channels between the islands can be windy, lumpy, wet and uncomfortable with strong currents and then you sail behind the island and loose the wind, so you have to motor. Weird. Luckily the islands aren't too far apart and you can make the hops of 20-30 nm in a short time. We are in Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe (Lat 16°13.5'N/Lon 6°132'W), after spending a couple days in the small, southern islands of Guadeloupe called "The Saints". Guadeloupe is also part of France, like Martinique. The geography is neat, it's actually two islands in the shape of a lopsided butterfly with the River Salée between the wings. Tomorrow we will go between the islands, by transiting the river, actually a mangrove swamp. There are 3 bridges that connect the islands, so the bridge-tenders will have to open them for our mast to pass through. We haven't opened a bridge since the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in the USA more than 4 years ago.
12-15-02 After 4 days in Guadeloupe, we sailed passed Montserrat to Antigua, and are now on the southern coast anchored in English Harbor (Lat 17°00'N/Lon 61°46'W). Antigua and Barbuda is a two-island nation and part of the British Commonwealth. Antigua has an abundance of colonial-era historic landmarks, such as old stone windmills from the abandoned sugar plantations and a renovated 18th century British naval base called Nelson's Dockyard. The handsome old brick and stone buildings in Nelson's Dockyard have been converted into yachting and tourist-related facilities. Many duplicate the original uses. For instance, the bakery was originally the officers' kitchen and still has the same stone hearth. English Harbor and adjacent Falmouth Harbor are quite crowded now with yachts, as this is the time of year when the European boats cross the north Atlantic and head to the Caribbean sunshine. Antigua is one of their first stops. Also many mega-yachts from the USA come here for the winter season. We just saw the gorgeous J-boat, "Endeavor", from Newport, RI. She is an elegant piece of art, over 100 feet long with such classic lines. And meticulously maintained - highly polished everything ... hull, stainless, ports, decks, varnished teak, etc. The reflection from her shiny surfaces can blind you! Poor neglected SIMMER. She's in desperate need of some TLC to get her shiny again, but we still love her. Not sure if we'll stay in Antigua through Christmas, may move on to the Virgin Islands. We're getting ready for Christmas though. Our stockings are hung on the kerosene heater, our tree decorated and we've been singing along with the reggae Christmas songs on the local radio station. Will think about baking cookies next week.
12-25-02 Merry Christmas from Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVIs). We are thinking of our family and friends in the cold, wintry northeast US and believe it or not, we wish we were there too instead of here in the warm, tropical islands right now. Next year for sure. We've been in the BVIs a week now, after a slow light-air passage from Antigua. We sailed 20 hours then motored 20 hours across the Anegada Passage, usually a boisterous body of water. The BVIs are made up of 4 main islands, with many islands in between and a popular tourist destination in the Caribbean. We've visited Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Peter Islands. The anchorages are crowded here, lots of cruise ships, charter boats, ferries, and day-trippers. Not many secluded harbors this holiday season. But we enjoyed a wonderfully lazy day today with no boat projects - just snorkeling, playing guitar, baking (cookies and lasagna), reading and a walk on the beach in the evening. Boring, boring, boring, huh? How will we ever get ourselves back into the 9 to 5 workforce again? Answer: lots of expensive therapy. We decided to spend Christmas in the BVIs and New Year's in the US Virgin Islands (USVIs). So Friday the 27th, we're off to St. John's, USVI (a whole 5 nm away). The BVIs and USVIs are close neighbors. Will be great to be back in US waters again. We've seen US Coast Guard helicopters flying overhead, a welcome sight for us. Will spend some time in St. John's, then St. Thomas before heading off for Puerto Rico. Happy Holidays.
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