St Lucia to Martinique – 20/04/11

The last day in St Lucia starts with Maggie and Bob arriving to say goodbye.  Of course this starts another little flurry of tears as Maggie has been a great friend, cemented over a coconut milkshake in Tonga when I was feeling particularly homesick and pathetic one day (so bad that I even got in the dinghy and planed it over to her at high speed).  Thanks, Maggie, for your support and friendship.

Photo:  Maggie with Mike and I

Photo:  Maggie and Matt do a slow motion run up the dock to say goodbye

I go up to Crazy Horse to pick up my book, Rosemary and Matt’s words being the last ones I wanted to have.  We hug goodbye but it’s only a little misty eyed thing as we will meet up with them in the BVIs as they wind their way back up to Maryland.

Photo:  Bill, Rosemary and Matt on Crazy Horse

We then stop off at Chessie to say goodbye, but again we should see them even earlier, maybe this evening.

Mike checks out of the marina and we slip our lines to motor over to the fuel dock.  Two diesel spillages later (don’t ask) we are filled up and ready to go.  As we pull away from the dock, I look back at the last of the fleet, just 6 or so boats left now.  It really is over.

Photo:  Heading out to sea once more

We leave Rodney Bay and turn right out to sea to go north to Martinique.  There is little wind but we put the main up in the hope that it gives us a little extra speed.  At one point, for about half an hour, we turn the engine off and sail nicely but then the wind drops and go back to motor sailing for the rest of the 42 miles.

On the way Mike puts the fishing rod out and within a very short time the line is running out but whatever we hook manages to get off even before Mike starts reeling it in but at least it leaves us our lure and hook.  The second bite is something much bigger and the line screams out before Mike can catch it.  The rod is bent right over and it takes two of us to try to pull it in even when we have stopped the boat completely.  Then there is a sudden jerk and the line goes slack.  This time, whatever we had caught escapes with our lure and leader go with it.

We are now down to our last, very tatty lure.  Mike puts a new leader on and throws it out.  About an hour later we have another bite.  He starts to reel it in and it’s very heavy.  The strange thing is though that it keeps coming to the surface far more regularly than a fish normally would and Mike suspects that we have caught a large piece of debris rather than an fish.  In the end I turn the boat around a full 180 degrees and go back the way we came to help Mike reel it in.  When it first comes into view we think we have caught a large bird but as he brings it to the side of the boat we realise that it’s part of a large, and very dead turtle.  The lure is wrapped around one of it’s flipper and the fact that there is no blood around in the water means that it has been dead for some time.  Not wanting to pull it up on the back steps to retrieve the lure, Mike cuts it away.  That’s it.  No more fishing.  No more lures.

Sean calls us over the VHF to tell us about the nice mahi mahi that he has lying on the foredeck of Wild Tigris ready for dinner.  Thanks, Sean.  It was probably the one we caught and tired out for you!!

Photos:  St Pierre, Martinique at dusk

We arrive in St Pierre, Martinique around 5 pm.  Wild Tigris and Lady Ev are already there and we are surprised when Annie from Ocean Jasper calls us from the north end of the bay.  We go over in the dinghy to say hello taking pictures of the glorious evening sky as we go. 

Photo:  Jeannius and Wild Tigris at sunset

Photos:  The sunset – unadulterated by computer software - honest

We discover that they are having major problems with their alternator drive belt which has broken and they had been unable to change it or find anyone else to do it for them.  Mike has a name to give them so Jim, Twee and Lee come over to get it and Twee has a quick tour of the boat as she hasn’t been on a catamaran before.

We have dinner with Sophia and Sean, discussing our futures, theirs as open and undecided as ours.  It’s a lovely evening but we don’t make it a long one as we are all tired and Sophia and Sean are heading out early for the north tip of Guadeloupe on their way to Antigua.   Mike changes his mind once again about our plans north and decides to fit in a quick visit to Antigua on the way too but who knows.  We decide to stay another day here in St Pierre as we liked it so much when we came here before.

 

Our position is:  14 deg 44 min N, 61 deg 10 min W

Distance so far:  24746 nautical miles