Martinique The European Caribbean
The darn anchor windlass, dynamic crew and how we conquer the Chinese
We have arrived in Martinique. In Le Marin we will do some boat work and load up with new crew. We now have two weeks to sail to Guadeloupe with our friends. We are looking forward to it!
Le Marin
After a gusty crossing from St Lucia, we moor at a buoy in Le Marin. This bay is probably by far the largest we have ever seen of its kind. In total, there are over 1000 boats anchored here, on buoys or in the harbour. However, everything seems to be well organised and we even get help mooring at the buoy. Anchoring is not an option at the moment because - you guessed it - the anchor winch is still at half-mast. When hauling in Rodney Bay, we had to take several breaks for the winch until the anchor was actually up. So now:
It's boatwork tiiiiime!
Never stops and all that. But we also have to say that we haven't done much on the boat for two months now. That's catching up with us now. There are four construction sites to tackle, read for yourself:
The anchor windlass is basically nothing more than an electric motor with a simple worm gear. This allows us to raise or lower the anchor electrically. As we've already scratched the surface several times and the thing is still ticking, only one thing helps: full on. We remove the motor and dismantle it. We will now replace the carbon brushes that we cleaned last time. After visiting three ship shops, we have found the right ones. Unfortunately, a seal, or rather an O-ring, is torn in the motor housing. As we can't buy this anywhere here, Andy, who will be arriving soon, brings us an O-ring from Switzerland. So we are on standby.
The windex sits at the top of the mast and consists of a kind of arrow with a wind wheel. The arrow shows the wind direction, the wheel the wind force. However, there are different winds when sailing. The wind we need for sailing is a value calculated from the windex readings and our speed. If the windex measures incorrectly, it will show us the wrong wind and our autopilot will make a mess. That's annoying. Unfortunately, the good old unplug and plug again didn't help. So we take the windex and the display to the Raymarine shop here in the harbour. A few days later we get both back repaired. So far so good, it just has to work. We shall see.
For a few weeks now, our fridge has been cooling worse and worse. That's literally not cool, because it means our food is spoiling even faster than usual. Apparently our compressor has sprung a leak and gas and oil have escaped. What's more, the evaporator is damaged and it's only a matter of time before it becomes porous and starts leaking too. After much deliberation, we decide to replace both. It will hurt the wallet, but hopefully we'll have peace of mind for a while.
For a few weeks now, we have been taking a footbath wile driving the dinghy 😂 The glue on the floor has come loose due to the heat and so water gets in. We have to glue it and then let it dry for 72 hours, which means no dinghy for 3 days. So off to the harbour and glue for all we're worth. 🥳
After spending almost a week working and doing boat jobs, we get a hire car and make a detour to Decathlon (cheers to France! 🎉) before heading to the airport. Because we have visitors! One of them is Kent, you may remember his visit to us in Menorca. He arrives a day earlier than the other two, Andy and Atlanta. The two of them visited us in Croatia almost at the beginning of our trip. Andy, Kent and I worked together for a while at the DTC. So we all know each other already and are looking forward to a fun time together.
Curse you, Chinois!
You know what we do when we go hiking on an island: climb the highest mountain, of course! 🌋 Here's another volcano. On the way there, we stop at a river and go for a swim in the riverbed 😍 Then we set off. The hike is beautiful, but also really strenuous, because it's not just steep uphill, but also steep downhill. It's a constant up and down, and unfortunately we soon have no real view as the summit is shrouded in cloud. To this day, we still don't quite understand where exactly we were walking, as we never saw a crater. But it's also difficult when you can't see anything else 🤣 Apparently, after all the effort, there is another peak on the summit, "Le Chinois". Of course, we have to go there too and enjoy the view from the top. But take a look for yourself 🤠
On the way back we stop at the airport again and pick up Andy & Atlanta. The next day it's time to go shopping, assemble the windlass, set up the dinghy and get ready to cast off! Unfortunately, the windlass plays a trick on us and pretends to be working, and when you finish installing everything it doesn't work any more. WTF?! 😵 Luckily, the full power of DTC's engineering team comes into play and we find the reason: a short circuit in the negative cable of the electric motor. It's also really nasty. We can fix the problem, but it takes a day, so we leave Le Marin a little later than planned.
Saint-Pierre
We chug up the coast to Saint-Pierre. We have to clear out here. When we arrive, the buoy field is a bit choppy. So off we go ashore for a walk. As we don't have a dinghy, everyone has to swim! 🐟 We visit the museum about the 1902 volcanic eruption that completely destroyed the village and claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Later, we eat in a restaurant on the beach and then have to swim back in the dark 🤪 How adventurous we are!
Now it's adios Martinique. What an island. You really could be forgiven for thinking you were in Europe. The infrastructure and range of goods on offer are very different from our previous experiences in the Lesser Antilles. And now we're already on our way to Dominica. The crossing to Roseau is about 30nm, so about 6 hours sailing. As always, against the wind and waves.
How many of our crew members threw up in the process?
We'll tell you in the next article!