Martinique Majestueux

Raftkin vous souhaite un joyeux Noël et une bonne année

Le Marin was our first destination on this French outpost.  We anchored in the harbour a short dinghy ride from the marina.  As always it was so lovely to be out of the marina hothouse and back on anchor.  We did some provisioning at the Leader Price supermarket, got the rigging checked on the boat and had a picnic in St Anne.  The girls also had some dinghy lessons with dad, so now it’s a race to see who gets to drive the dinghy as we all want to have a go.  On Christmas Eve morning we sailed out of Le Marin with kite surfers playing chicken with us as they scooted across the channel. 

Rainbow in Le Marin anchorage

Dinghy lessons - Megan

Dinghy lessons - Hayley

Kite surfer plays chicken, Le Marin chanel

We were sailing for Anse d Arlet, about 1/3 the way up the west coast of Martinique where we could catch up with John and Brigid for Christmas.  We had the perfect sail day, with a good wind angle, so we gave Jerry (our auto-pilot) a rest and enjoyed sailing the boat ourselves, even managing to sail right between Diamond Rock and the ‘mainland’.  We arrived mid-afternoon and settled in, found John and Brigid, made plans for Christmas day and went to bed hoping that Santa would find us in this pretty little bay on the opposite side of the world.

Sailing through the gap 

Diamond Rock

We made it

Anse d Arlet

Time for a swim at Anse d Arlet

The good news is that Santa found us!  Merry Christmas! We all found Christmas to be so different away from family.  This was good and bad, but the best was that there were no Christmas Day traffic jams.  John and Brigid joined us for a few drinks and snacks on Raftkin, then late afternoon we headed to their apartment for Christmas Dunch (a late lunch/ early dinner) of roast chicken, potatoes and garden salad – yum!

Santa found us!

Santa delivers!

Christmas Raftkin-style with John & Brigid 

Ready for Dunch

Boxing Day was an exciting day as we went and picked up Aunty J and Uncle Chris from the airport.  Smiles and tears at our joyful reunion, with much anticipation about the next fortnight together.

Aunty J and Uncle C arrive, Anse d Arlet

 We spent the next few days enjoying the snorkelling along the reef around the bay.  We saw lots of turtles and managed to follow a few as they grazed the seabed.  Turtles are super cool. 

Swimming with turtles (look closely)

Guess who!?

Fun on the beach with Brigid

Swimming with Uncle

Church at Anse d Arlet  - oh the bells...

Last supper with Raftkin Crew, Anse d Arlet

We had a tough upwind sail back to St Anne, where we anchored for two nights to re-provision and enjoy the beach.  St Anne was another pretty town with the added bonus of a bar with wifi (😊) and Pizz Boat.  Pizz Boat was a catamaran fitted out with pizza oven – tie your dinghy at the aft of the boat to collect delicious pizza, or send GPS coordinates to have it delivered.  Amazing.

St Anne

St Anne

Cheers and wifi in St Anne

Pizz Boat!

Delicious pizza frpm Pizz Boat

New Years Eve we were back in St Lucia, anchored this time out in Rodney Bay, opposite Gros Ilet.  New Years Eve was a grand affair on board La Cigale in Rodney Bay Marina.  So great to catch up with ARC friends again, the kids falling straight back into the games they were playing when they were together last.  Fireworks around Rodney Bay signalled in the new year and suddenly it was 2018.

NYE on La Cigale

We spent the first day of the new year on the beach near Pigeon Island with Pontoon S crew.  There were sandcastles to be built, paddle tennis on the beach, good snorkelling on the reef and great company.  The girls had such a great day with their ARC friends and followed this up with a sleepover on La Cigale, where they had pancakes for supper and an impromptu pontoon party.  Justine, Chris, Dave and I enjoyed a kid-free evening on Raftkin 😉.

Buying fruit Caribbean style

Hayley & Catherine at Pigeon Is

Isabelle and Megan at Pigeon Island

SFF

S-Pontooners at Pigeon Island beach

Off for a boat-kid sleepover at La Cigale

Moonrise over Rodney Bay

Kids away, adults play

 Goodbyes are always hard, and the 2^nd of January they were no easier as we left the S-Pontooners in Rodney Bay and sailed back to Martinique.  Another great sail day, with calm seas and fair winds all the way to St Pierre at the northern tip of Martinique.  

Back to Martinique - adults

Back to Martinique - kids

Arriving St Pierre

St Pierre from Raftkin

We spent a morning roaming around the ruins of St Pierre, which was once the biggest city on Martinique until Mount Pelee erupted in 1907.  Very few people left St Pierre when the volcano first started to smoke, so thousands were killed when it finally erupted.  There was only one survivor, a prisoner who was in solitary confinement in the city gaol, protected by the walls of his prison cell.  We spent the afternoon swimming, paddle boarding and taking advantage of the St Pierre free wifi which we were (just) able to pick up on board.  There may have been rum punches at Sundowners…

Raftkin from St Pierre

Ruins of theatre, St Pierre

Theatre ruins, St Pierre

Solitary confinement where the only survivor was found

Mount Pelee uncloaked

Crazy kid

Swim time, St Pierre

Go ahead and jump!

Free wifi in St Pierre

Swim time with Aunty and Uncle

Sundowners on Raftkin

The wind died out the next day, so we motored down the coast to Schoelcher, a town on the outskirts of Fort de France where we organised a hire car for a few days to explore the island and do some essential shopping 😉.  Unfortunately, there was only a five-seater available, so we had to take it in turns.  The weather pattern also changed while we were in Schoelcher and we had two days of Caribbean winter rain.

Motor sail to Schoelcher

Rainbow! Schoelcher

The first car hire day was for essential shopping, so Dave, Chris and Hayley head off to Decathlon with a big list.  They came back with big smiles and a car boot full of toys. The second car hire day Chris, Justine, Hayley, Megan and I set out on essential sightseeing – first stop, the rum distillery.  The Clement Agricultural Rum distillery is a historic site with beautiful gardens and working relics of the distillery showing how the rum was made.  There was clever creole architecture showcased in the homestead buildings around the grounds, always catching the best of the breeze, and of course rum tastings to finish off the tour and tempt us.

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Making her own fun

Clement Rhum distillery

Gardens at Clement

Where there is sugar cane...

There is rum!

Sculpture at Clement

Main house at Clement

Main house at Clement

Chilling out at Clement - tastings should be here!

The weather cleared a little so we head over to Robert on the east coast for some lunch.  As it was Saturday and well after midday, everything was closed except the local kebab shop.  We had a quick bite to eat, then head to the beach for a swim and play with the new toys.  Too soon the weather closed in again, so we abandoned further sightseeing up the east coast and head back to Raftkin.  There were new toys to play with.  The girls pressured Dave to blow up the new kayak, which turned out to be a good move as air wasn’t staying in and we soon found a hole in the bottom.  We negotiated a couple of extra days with the hire car to allow us to return the kayak to Decathlon and also get Chris and J to the airport in two days’ time.

Road testing new toys at the beach in Robert

We pulled anchor on Sunday and motored around to Trois Ilet, but did not really fancy the anchorage. Chris and J had driven around and already done a reconnaissance of the bays nearby, so we moved around to Anse l Anne, where there was a lovely beach and bay to swim in.  We spent the last afternoon/evening with J&C on Raftkin swimming, enjoying the new toys and savouring the company of family.

Swim with Aunty and Uncle at Anse l Anne

Boat fun at Anse l Anne

Swim at Anse l Anne

Swim at Anse l Anne

Monday Dave and I left Hayley, Megan, J and Chris on board Raftkin where they played Cluedo and Chris finally won!  Dave and I went on a return trip to Decathlon to exchange the kayak.  This was achieved without too much trouble, the only problem being that on any visit to Decathlon it is impossible to avoid buying more essential, useful items for play 😊.

When we returned it was time for the hardest of goodbyes, as we left Justine and Chris behind and set off for an overnight sail to Bequia for an important occasion -  Hilmer and Dan’s beach birthday party.

Bye bye Aunty and Uncle :-(

Bequia bound