We left Dominica expecting it would be a rough crossing to Martinique, and the conditions exceeded expectations! We had seas up to 12 feet and saw a gust as high as 40 knots. After our passage down to the Caribbean we know the boat can handle it, and at least we could see where we were headed, so we donned more foul weather gear than we thought we’d need down here and headed south. Generally in the Windward Islands, conditions calm down once you are behind the high ground, but that didn’t happen in this case, and we had spicy conditions all the way down to Grande Anse d’Arlet. As we came in we spotted friends Kelley and JB Braun on Thirst. We all had trouble anchoring as swells were getting into the north side of the bay and the holding wasn’t great, but once we were all settled in we got together on Thirst for cocktails.

The next day, Kelley and I walked over to les Anses d’Arlet, a pretty little town next door, and explored a little. The anchorage there looked untenable, and waves were cresting at the dinghy dock, so we were glad we hadn’t come in there. (Most dinghy docks in Martinique are sketchy – very high, hard to tie to or climb up to, and designed such that dinghies can easily get stuck under them.) Later on, Thirst moved on. We stayed a couple more days, enjoyed snorkeling under the nearby cliffs, got on with a few projects, and had dinner at Escale, an excellent restaurant behind the beach.

We moved round to Sainte Anne for a few more days, still dealing with a few chores, and fit in a swim (and perhaps a beer!) at the beach most afternoons. We also took the dinghy into Le Marin, next door, to visit the marine stores there and for a last chance at French provisions (wine and cheese!).

Our trip down to St Lucia was still windy but a bit less uncomfortable with seas finally on the beam rather than the nose. We checked into Rodney Bay Marina for a few days, and enjoyed having access to shore power, fresh water hook-up and modern showers for the first time since early December! We took our rather battered dinghy into a repair shop – we’ve been battling a leak all season – and were talked into replacing it. We’re very glad we did as the new one is much smarter, drier and drives better. Jeremy had an adventure when he picked it up: he took it for a spin in the outer harbor only for the fuel to cut out just as he passed the last anchored boats! Not being able to row against a 25 knot wind, he was drifting towards Honduras when fortunately someone spotted him and towed him back to the dinghy shop. Problem was quickly solved but we are very grateful to his rescuers – Shout out to Dan Bower from Adventure Sailing Charters!

After a massive provisioning trip to Massie’s Gourmet we moved down to Marigot Bay to meet our friends Sue and Denny for more adventures. Local fruit vendor Noel came by on his paddle board and sold us a bunch of delicious fruit. To be honest, he was quite slick and sold us much more than we’d planned on, but it all disappeared quickly once our next visitors arrived later that day. Marigot Bay is a lovely protected harbor which you could easily miss coming down the coast. It was a setting for the movie Dr Doolittle; nowadays it is home to the rich and famous – Oprah and Mick Jagger both have houses here. Unfortunately it also attracts day charters, and there was a constant parade of crowded boats with loud music and (presumably) rum-soaked tourists! Nevertheless it’s a fun place to stop and we were glad to spend a night here.