J'Adore Martinique

During this adventure, we are often asked, “What’s your favorite island?” And we almost always say, “The one we’re on.” That’s changed over the last month. The French island of Martinique wins.

We knew we’d stay as long as we wanted once we pulled in to Marina Du Marin on the south coast of Martinique on February 25th, so we settled in. We enjoyed each day without thinking or planning the next. We made many dinners on "Chez Making Connections," found the best crepes restaurant since St. Martin, watched boats and yachts come and go, tried a couple of different laundromats, chose our favorite supermarkets depending on the items we needed, swam, hiked, drove, dinghied and walked. We lived a normal life on a very easy-to-live-on island. Here are the highlights and even some lowlights:

Most Valued Person - Henri. Our most valuable relationship made, and the highlight of our month, was meeting Henri, an 81-year-old Dutch-born Frenchman living on the small mono-hull next to us. He brought over the makings for ti Punch (rum, sugar syrup and fresh limes,) told us amazing stories of his youth, and joined us for dinner one evening. And he loves listening to John Denver music.

Best tool – Other than gear lube, which is mentioned below, Google Translate. We finally found the function where you can translate and have it play the audio of what you’re reading. We got around Martinique for an entire month with our very bad French, the locals very good English, and Google Translate.

Best marina employee – Gustav from Marina du Marin. There are 1000’s of boats there – and we’re not exaggerating. Gustav and the other dock masters work their tails off from morning to night helping people moor, dock and not run into each other. We also appreciate Manuella in the captainerie who provided excellent service.

Most availability of any part, or anything you need – Marina du Marin was as close to being in the U.S. as it gets. We could get just about any marine part, grocery item, household item, or service done in this huge marina.

Most miles driving – We rented a car for 4 days and drove to every corner of the island. The roads are in incredible condition, the drivers are polite (no "a-holes") and the roundabouts eliminate the issues created by stoplights. Yes – absolutely no stop lights on an island of 375,000 people. The downside, was the traffic. To get to a beach was like trying to get to a ski resort on a powder day. The side roads are narrow and people park on the road, making the driving lane to the beach one lane. One lane, when you have two cars coming at each other.

Biggest rollercoaster day – We had just finished a lovely sail to Grand Anse D’Arlet. Found a beautiful anchorage in 15 feet of crystal clear water. We were looking forward to spending a few days there before heading north toward Les Trois Ilets. I was in the water snorkeling the anchor as Joe was pulling the boat back on it to set it perfectly and I saw the boat go sideways. I’m thinking “what is he doing!?” and I look up and the gear shift handle is in his hand. Imagine driving down the road in your car and your gear shift comes off. Right then, a party boat (we call them thong boats - see below) pulls up and anchors right in front of us with music blaring to celebrate a young woman’s birthday. After worry and frustration, we settled in for the afternoon and tried to enjoy watching the party.

Best cruiser friend story – Joe went on one of our many Facebook cruiser pages and asked if anyone with our model of boat had this gear shift issue. Coincidentally, we found that a couple we’d met last summer in Grenada with our exact boat, had the same exact issue. They described the fix as one loose screw. No kidding. One screw came loose and messed up the entire starboard throttle. Meaning, we had only one engine to get anywhere. Thanks to Jim and Patricia for the explanation and help.

Best Captain moment – Before we took apart our gear housing, we decided to head back to Marin in case we needed any parts or if we needed help. We had very little wind the entire way back, so motor/sailing with one engine wasn’t too bad, until we got into the Marina where the wind picked up. The marina insisted that we dock and it’s a Med Mooring dock which means you have to back in between other boats, something we’d only done one other time. I yelled to Gustav, the harbor master that we had to go bow-in because we only had one engine. He yelled “NO MADAME!” took his dingy and pushed our big catamaran around backwards, which essentially became another engine for us. Joe was so calm, and he backed right up to the dock perfectly.

Best teamwork fix – It took several hours over two days, but between Joe’s tenacity and my ability to overcome getting gear lube up to my elbows, we took the starboard gear shift completely apart and put it back together again. That loose screw messed up the entire thing with three ball-bearings floating around and other thingy-mabobs creating havoc. And if that weren’t enough, while Joe was trying to figure out how to get to the shifter, he noticed that the helm wheel chain needed lubing, so we both had to crawl in behind the helm,which is behind the freezer, which is above the stairs in an itty-bitty area to put lube grease all other the big chain.

Weirdest weather – No wind. We’ve had to anchor in high winds which is tricky, but we found that anchoring with no wind is more difficult. One of our favorite spots is Sainte-Anne’s around the corner from Marina du Marin and we motored over there one day to enjoy some bay time. The water was calm like a lake and the boats were just sitting there, kind of meandering. The problem with that is that we don’t know where all the boats are going to end up once the wind picks up. After much discussion, and anchoring 5 times, we found the right spot and never ran into our neighbors when the wind started up again.

Most fun cleaning day – Joe donned his diving gear and I snorkeled while we scraped barnacles off the bottom of the boat. We’d done it a few weeks earlier, but the ones that were left, grew. And the more they grew, the more their cement glands made them impossible to scrape off. I considered it kind of fun, until I got out of the water and the larvae (baby barnacles) were crawling all over Joe’s BCD and my wetsuit vest. It took a few showers and hours for both of us to get over the creepy crawly feeling.

Worst sound ever – It was about 10:00pm. Our French neighbors had two cats and were finishing up dinner. Then I heard the most horrible sound I’ve ever heard. A cat, meowing loudly over and over and over. As it turns out, their cat had meandered off their boat and down the dock and had somehow fallen in and was drowning. I ran down the dock hoping I wasn’t going to have to jump in the marina water to save this cat that was caught underneath the dock. Luckily, our neighbor and the cat’s owner, jumped in the water and rescued his beloved chat (French for cat.)

Best quote – From Henri, our 81-year-old neighbor.

“You know you must look a person in the eyes when you do a toast because if you don’t, you’ll go 7 years without sex.”

Sante!

Henri said, "let's go to dinner and we'll go Dutch...do you know what Dutch means?"

I said of course! And he giggled.

We paid. No Dutch for us!

I borrowed this photo of Marina du Marin to show you how big it is.

Check out these roads!

Rocher du Diamant (Diamond Rock) was officially commissioned as a naval vessel, the HMS Diamond Rock, by the British Navy. Cannons were hoisted to the top, fortifications were built, caves on the rocks served as sleeping quarters. They even established a hospital in a cave at the base of the rock. Even as we sailed by, we couldn't imagine how this all happened in 1804.

The birthday party that pulled in right after our gear shift came out. Grande Anse D'Arlet.

The infamous starboard gear shift in all its glory.

On our hike up to Cascade Couleuvre. North of Sainte-Pierre and Le Precheur.

The cascade (waterfall) at the end of our hike and yes, we went under it. It was so refreshing!

Cute Anse D'Arlet. We didn't get a chance to anchor here, so we'll have to go back sometime.

The CAP 110 is a memorial erected in memory of slavery. A ship carrying 300 slaves ran aground in a storm on the rocks of this coast on April 8, 1830, 13 years after slave trade was deemed illegal. It is oriented at 110 degrees towards the Gulf of Guinea, from where it is supposed that various ships came from.

In front of Rocher du Diamant.