We had a lazy start to the day. I woke about 6am and decided I’d best catch
up on the logs. I haven’t written in
several days so I’m hoping I remember all the key points and that the writing
comes out smoothly. We plan on heading
around Martinique to the south-east coast and will hopefully find internet so I
can send these updates.
Larry checked the weather and it might be a
rough trip but we’ll head out anyways.
But … we’re afraid we might be trapped there for several days because a
front is moving through and the next few days will be 6-9 foot seas. If that’s what’s forecasted, I can’t imagine
what they will actually be! We will
wait for them to settle some before crossing to St. Lucia.
The trip started out wonderfully. We were sailing with headsail and mizzen
(didn’t raise the mainsail) and it was a perfect ride. We were making about 7 knots. If only it could have continued longer. As we rounded the southwest corner of
Martinique, the winds shifted. The
winds were on the nose, howling at about 35 knots and the waves grew. Our speed dropped to less than 2 knots. We had dropped the sails because they were
luffing (flapping in the wind) violently and we didn’t want to damage them any further. Damn … this was going to be a long, hard
ride for the balance of the trip.
Luckily, we have a strong motor in this boat
and were able to maintain about 4.5 knots through the crashing waves. We pulled in to Sainte Anne, Martinique and
were happy to find calm waters.
Sainte Anne is a cute town from a distance
but up close, it was VERY dead. Don’t
know if it was because of the time of day or the season or what but no
restaurants were open and only one or two shops. This was surprising because there are probably over 100 boats in
the anchorage. How many does it take
for businesses to think it’s worth their while to open?
Just as we got into town, there was a local
event with young kids doing native dancing.
Cool to watch!
Back on Soulmatie, Larry and I got into a
horrendous fight. Somehow, a simple
conversation turned into a war. We
haven’t fought about many things during this trip but this fight was one of
those that was about EVERYTHING at once!
Nothing was off limits for the attack.
Usually, when one of us is in this type of mood, the other is able to
calm the situation. Tonight, we were
both on the warpath. Neither of us
slept well and the following morning was tense!
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