We’ve been in Martinique now since early May. Arrived in St Pierre and went to stock up at their very good market. We have been playing around with methods of catching rain water for the tanks instead of always having to make fresh water. One plan was to just put a bucket under the drip line at the front then tip it into the tanks but that involved lots of running around in the rain and often at night. We have now adapted our sun shade at the front to pour water into a bucket that has a hose attachment fitted to the side to syphon directly into the tanks. Of course it hasn’t rained properly since then! It should work really well as the catchment area is huge – the top two levels of the boat and the whole area of the shade sail. The syphon hose really slurps the water away even when there is only a tiny amount in the bucket.
One day we went for a long hot walk to the Depaz Distillery and wandered around there ending up in a tasting and lunch.
Next we sailed down to Anse Mitan and caught up with Lisa and Jean Luc who we have met a few times now. Kayaked and swam a lot here. The marina had forgotten or messed up our booking and Jean Luc was able to sort it out for us as he has been in it for years – lucky for us as we are depending on being here for when I go to England and then we both go to Iceland for our World ARC reunion – phew. It is quite a new joint community/government/EU venture and still quite cheap. At least half the price of Marin down at Ste Anne.
On the 13th we celebrated being away sailing for 2 years!
We’ve rented a car (a great price thanks to Jean Luc) and have been exploring places that we can’t get to by boat ie up mountains and the east coast . A really nice island with excellent roads and highways. We notice that the French have influenced baguette making, croissants and the driving! Fabulous food in the big super markets too.
I’m off to the UK to see my Mother for a week tomorrow. My brother Mark and sister Mandy will be there too – a bit of a family reunion!