Right after dropping off our quad bike, we headed across the lagoon by dinghy to Island water world (a chandlery) which was putting on a free seminar about a west-to-east Atlantic crossing, including free drinks and snacks, so naturally we had to attend.
We didn’t see Blue Note or Extress there, but did once again meet up with Saga who were anchored outside the lagoon on the Fench side.
The seminar was run by 2 people, one of which has done one of two crossings, but the other who has done 19 since 2003.
There were various approaches discussed by the 2 hosts and also the audience, but the one we are likely to follow (roughly already the plan) is to stick close to the Azores high so you have enough wind to sail, but you can always head further into the high to avoid any approaching low pressures.
One person in the audience promoted their option of motoring all the way through the high, this way you get lovely flat seas, but light winds and you’re going to be burning lots of fuel!! To motor 2400 miles on Hannah, we would estimate some fuel usage at around 1440 litres. This would mean something like 60 jerry cans on deck to be sure.
There were some useful sites discussed.
https://home.pivotalweather.com, a new site for us to look at weather data, including nice long-range forecasts from different models.
After the seminar, someone from Island Water World did their seemingly yearly liferaft demonstration where they set off some old and new liferafts to let people see what happens.
They lead with an old liferaft first, which experienced a similar set of malfunctions to the old liferaft that used to be aboard Hannah before we replaced it. These include tearing of the floor, tearing of some tubes, and lack of full inflation.
They also inflated a coastal liferaft. The most noticeable visible difference being the lack of an inflated roof/spray hood.
And last but not least an off-shore liferaft complete with a roof. (Obviously, there are other differences., but that’s for the technical specs of life raft manufacturers to tell you.
We had a quick beer with Saga after being in the sunshine for far too long, cruised back to the boats and started to think more about our upcoming crossing.
On recent islands, we hadn’t necessarily explored everything the islands had to offer. It’s been a long time since we rented a car, and we knew we wanted to explore Satin Martin more.
Our aim for this day was to go and see some parrots in the parrot park, we were prepared to walk the whole way, or maybe get a taxi, bus etc, but as we were walking to get some cash from an ATM we saw some quad bike rental!
For $100 USD for 24 hours, this seemed like a bargain, as it would easily get us to all of the parts of the island that we wanted to see. (Don’t worry parents, yes we had helmets and this is just a posed picture).
We lapped the whole island, but let’s take you through the journey step by step.
On the way to our parrot park, we found a lovely high viewpoint called Bell’s lookout point. Bell’s Lookout Point in Saint Martin is a popular attraction that offers stunning panoramic views of Philipsburg, the harbor, and the Caribbean Sea.
Heading further inland we made our way to Parotte Ville Bird Park, one of the main things we wanted to try and see on the island.
Neither of us has ever experienced something quite like the bird park. It’s kind of similar to a butterfly house, but bigger and for all kinds of parrots and parrot lookalikes.
You get a little cup of birdseed, and within moments of entering through the doors, you’ll have a bird perched on the edge of your cup nibbling away.
We took far too many pictures to show you them all, but here are some of our favorites…
We spent quite some time here and ate our packed lunch of tasty wraps here before continuing on a big loop of the island.
On our way we saw a rather beaten-down marina, we assume all broken due to the recent hurricane.
Looking it up online now, it’s called Oyster Pond Marina. It was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. The marina suffered extensive damage to its docks, facilities, and infrastructure, and many boats and yachts were destroyed or damaged.
Continuing around the island counter-clockwise, there were many other lovely protected and shallow coves with crystal clear waters.
One of the best ways to get a view of an island is often from the highest point. (The lowest points of places are also often great, but the lagoon ticks that box)
As far as we could tell the highest point was called Pic Paradis at 424 meters. We headed straight there and encountered an interesting sign on the way…
Lucky for us we are not in a car! So we continued on our all-terrain quad bike!!!!
It turns out a quad bike was perfect for this little trail and in around 5 minutes we had made it to the top.
Once again, some great views
From the top, you can see many neighboring islands including the Saba, St. Eustatius, and Anguilla.
Also, this very interesting round marina.
We were late for a drinks gathering with Blue Note, Extress, and some other Dutch boats, so sped back down the hill as the sun set meeting them at a bar, then dinghying to a br for some food, moving to another bar, and so on… Wanting to make the most of our quad bike hire we made sure to end our night early enough to get up and do things the following day.
In the morning we got a SubWay (a rare occurrence) and headed to a beach called Maho Beach. This is a popular tourist attraction due to its unique location, as planes taking off and landing at Princess Juliana International Airport fly low over the beach, providing a thrilling experience. (You have probably seen videos of people here)
Fortunately, before needing to return the quad bike, we were able to see a plane landing.
And also taking off…
Now, that’s plenty of adventure for one blog post, so let’s leave it here with us returning the quad bike mid-way through the day!
Saint Martin is a beautiful island in the Caribbean that has gained notoriety as the filming location for the TV show Below Deck. The show has showcased the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and luxurious lifestyle, making it a popular destination for fans of the show.
We set off from St Kitts as the sun was setting, ready for a night sail to Saint Martin.
This was the first passage that we tried 6 hour watches for. We knew that we would only need 1 night sail, so being able to get a full 6 hours sleep each sounded quite nice. Adam stayed up until about 2am, with Kathryn keeping watch from 2am until 8am (ish). The passage was smooth sailing most of the way, but with a fair few gybes in the first hours.
We decided to stay on the French side as clearing into and out of the country here would be easy (a similar experience to other french islands with a computer and little paperwork), so on arrival we anchored on the outside of the french bridge into the lagoon, as we would need to wait until the evening or following day to enter through the bridge.
This is not the only bridge option… The first bridge is located in Marigot on the French side (our choice). The second bridge is a swing bridge that connects the Dutch side of the island to the French side. The third bridge is located near the airport on the Dutch side.
We dinghied to shore to check in, and have a little look aroud, and found outselves at a delicious pizza place! No bridge activity for us until the morning (this one only opens twice a day).
We made it through the bridge just fine, though it was very tight for a catamaran infront of us…
While contemplating where to anchor, the monohull 1 boat ahead of us decided to go north and imediatly grounded on the bottom. So rather than follow them into what seemed like shallower waters, we headed south.
The Navionics chart with sonar chart overlay is pretty good for the channel that should be dredged. On top of this, we added some fresh depth soundings to te Navionics “active captain” community overlay.
We anchored close to a small bit of land for a little bit of shelter in around 2-3m of water, so not much space under Hannah keel, but also we were back in a flat anchorage! (with the exception of the odd incosiderate motorboat that would drive through the lagoon too fast).
Next it was time for a long awaited boat job. Parts of the cabin top had some old holes form old rigging hardware etc that needed re filling. They were filled in the past but in the UV sun light whatever was in them had started degrading. We have had some fresh filler onboard for some time now to use, and this was the perfect oppourtunity.
We don’t have a comparible before pictures, but here you can seen the holes nicely filled with a gelcoat filler.
We havn’t seen Blue Note in quite some time (except for a brief chat in Antigua), but we once again found ourselves anchored next to them as they came through to the French side of the lagoon from the Dutch side.
We made a pasta bake, had some beers and a catchup as the sunset.
The following day we were also once again joined by Extress, all anchored in a little triangle.
More catching up, eating, drinking and chatting.
But the rest of Saint Martin will come in future posts!
Remember, you can subscribe to these posts by email! It’s not long until we start sailing in the Atlantic again heading back to Europe, and this time we will be trying to blog along the way!
The weather still wasn’t perfect, but in this anchorage, we made another boat friend that we would spend the next few days on St Kitts with. Sailing Yacht Zora.
Interestingly while we had some severe westerly winds the night before, they had some severe easterly winds that had actually caused them to drag anchor out to sea a little. We can only assume that the small stormy system passed right in between St Kitts and St Nevis, causing the swirling wind on both islands.
In theory, there was a wreck in the anchorage to snorkel on, so we headed out together, but couldn’t locate it. But the snorkeling was still pretty good.
This seems as good a post as any to say that you can actually follow along with most of the nature stuff that we see on a site called iNaturalist on adams profile.
From this snorkel session, for example, we have all of these observations, and more, recorded…
We sailed with Zora to a new anchorage, had a walk around a town, did some shopping, and had some lunch. The anchorage was horribly rolley giving us memories of Montserrat, so we all agreed to head somewhere else to allow for a better nights sleep.
Here there was actually a wreck, but in the 2017 hurricane, it got washed up onto the shore.
One of the best parts of this snorkel session was the small group of Caribbean reef squid that seemed to like hanging out near the rudder of Hannah.
We had some sundowners aboard Zora where we also met 2 other boats and chatted about all of our very different travels through the Caribbean.
Wanting to move on to St Martin so that we could also move on to the BVIs we headed to another anchorage a few days later so that we could check out and set sail.
As often happens in the Caribbean there was a festival of some sort going on as we were walking through the town, which included some plank walking! Who can get the furthest?
The anchorage was even more rolly here than we had had in the previous week or so. So we decided to spend as much time on land as possible, using up our remaining XCD currency which we would no longer be needing in a nice restaurant. We made sure to have some leftovers to being back to Hannah for our night sail on to St Martin.
Here you can see how rolly the boat was, no chance of sleep on that.
St Nevis was rather sunny on our arrival, just with a few very short passing bits of rain.
We moved up to Pinneys Beach where once again we took a mooring ball, though others were anchored around. As far as we could tell we had paid some sort of tax for the usage of the mooring bouys during our stay, so figured we may as well take advantage of that.
We had bought food ready for a BBQ in the evening, which we were planning on having on board, off th back of Hannha as we normally do. However, we looked at the weather, and it didn’t look good for dinner time, so we had the slightly mental idea of having the BBQ in the cockpit.
Now, ignore the smoke, it went rather well, and we are glad to have started it indoors as it poured down throughout the evening.
We moved the BBQ around a few times and eventually found the best space was on the starboard bench, where we could have enough wind catch the smoke and mostly blow it out of the cockpit.
Though throughly smoked, the BBQ was a delicious success.
The next day the rain continued. Infact, it almost rained all day, and was certainly cloudy all day.
But fresh water is valuable! so Kathryn got out and gave the deck a good scrub, one of the first time its been cleaned of salt water since St Lucia.
We spent the whole day on board, writing this a month later it’s hard to remember exactly what we did, but it probably involved food, films and relaxation… (and maybe some blog post writing)
We headed to bed, but at around midnight something didn’t feel right. It turned out that some localized weather was passing overhead, and this had actually turned out that our easterly wind (from the east) had changed into a strong westerly wind (from the west). This had meant that our totally protected anchorage where the beach and island was to the east of us, was now totally unprotected. And what had infact woken us up was the boat starting to go over ~1m waves that had built up out to sea as the wind had picked up to 30+ knots.
It was pitch black, so we have no good video of this, however to build up a picture, we were tied to a mooring bouy with the beach 50m behind us, crashing through 1m waves along with 10 other boats in the middle of the dark night in winds of 30+ knots. Water was spraying off each side of the bow, and the boat was properly moving up and down.
We were slightly worried that the mooring bouy might give way, and we could see people on other boats checking or adding lines, and this was the momment we would have much rather been at anchor rather than on a bouy!
After about an hour and a half the weather passed and the wind returned to light winds from the east. All a very odd occourance.
Our wind instruments actually gave up and just started reading 99, so we have no idea what the winds really got up to.
On the whole, odd, and not the sunny carribean we have gotten used to.
So lets end this rather grey and pictureless blog post here, and save more sunny weather for the next one!
We hadn’t necessarily planned on hauling out after our Atlantic crossing before doing whatever came next. But Hannah had a small fight with a mooring buoy in early 2023 which had taken many layers of anti-foul paint off in 1 location of the keel, and we wanted to get it re-applied and overall we could tell it was wearing in places.
So out she came in Guadeloupe Marina, at the time one of the cheapest places to get hauled out and to stay on land. Thanks, Danae for doing the research on that one. But also note that they put the prices up severely days after we were hauled out (luckily we kept the cheaper price after a lot of negotiation).
We already power-washed Hannah’s hull below the waterline immediately after getting hauled out and collected many of the paints that we needed for the painting from previous chandlery shops. We primarily need a couple of colors with a focus on grey hard anti-fouling for beneath the waterline, as well as some white for the waterline stripe itself.
First, we rented an electric random orbital sander with dust collection from the same tool place that we had rented the power washer and got to sanding, which we spent a full day on.
Sanding is important to ensure that the new anti-foul adheres properly. It helps to remove any loose old antifouling paint, contaminants, and debris that may have accumulated on the hull. Sanding also creates a rough surface on the hull, which allows the new antifouling paint to adhere better.
We didn’t sand off all of the old antifoul but made sure to rough it all up, and where there were imperfections in the antifoul we sanded slightly more to come to a smoother surface.
As we were using a slightly different base antifoul we applied a primer first, Hempels underwater Primer (light grey). This first involved masking off the top coat to avoid any accidents before covering the whole hull in primer.
Primers are important before painting new antifoul on a boat because they act as a bonding agent, prevent blistering and corrosion, smooth out imperfections, and provide added protection against the elements. They improve the overall performance and longevity of the antifoul coating.
We managed to paint the first coat in 2-3 hours, but don’t worry there are many more coats to come!
Overcoating times are important because they ensure that the previous coat of antifoul paint has cured properly before applying a new coat. Applying a new coat too soon can cause the antifoul paint to lift, crack, or not adhere properly, resulting in poor performance and premature failure of the coating. Following the manufacturer’s recommended overcoating times ensures optimal adhesion and performance of the antifoul paint, and helps to extend the life of the coating.
Painting in the Caribbean heat certainly means you can paint more coats a day than in cooler Europe, but you also end up sweating a bunch more!
We wanted to vary all of our under-the-waterline paint colors so that we would know how much has been worn through or scrubbed off when we clean the hull so next up is a blue antifoul coat.
Next, we mixed some of the last coat of blue with a future coat of grey to create a darker blue.
And on top of that, we painted with just the grey tin giving us a grey coat all over.
Last but not least we finished with a coat of the same antifoul that we had on before so the hull would remain the same darker grey.
Next, we had to mask the bottom edge of the white stripe for painting with hard antifoul.
We had measured the thickness of the line in various places (you can see the bits of tape with measurements written on stuck on the top coat) however even with the new coats of anti foul we could still just see the ridge of the previous line which we had tried to avoid sanding away, so taping was easy.
The painting began, and as you can see, lots of coats are needed for white on darker colors.
After 4 coats, we had a perfectly repainted boat with crisp edges.
Peeling off the masking tape at the end brings the same satisfaction as peeling off a brand new screen protector.
You may notice that the boat is obviously still held in place by stands. It’s expensive and time-consuming to keep moving these while painting the main coats, so we would only be applying a couple of quick coats of antifoul on the day we get hauled back into the water while the boat is in the crane slings.
We made sure to cushion the strops for the crane when being lifted in to avoid it rubbing or scratching any paint off, particularly our lovely white stripe.
You can see the ugly unpainted patch, now that the stand has been moved that needs a few coats of paint.
After a little sanding, cleaning, and a couple of coats of paint, it’s almost impossible to tell.
Getting back in the water we can leave for a future post!
Rudder stock stuffing, also known as the rudder gland or stuffing box, is a component found on most boats that helps prevent water from entering the hull through the rudder shaft. The rudder stock stuffing is essentially a waxed packing material that is wrapped around the rudder post and compressed using a gland nut to create a watertight seal. Without this component, water would leak into the hull, causing damage and making the boat unsafe to operate. Proper maintenance of the rudder stock stuffing is crucial to ensure it remains effective in preventing water ingress and protecting the integrity of the vessel.
For a while now aboard Hannah, we have had a slow drip from the rudder stock. Now that we are hauled out of the water we can go about replacing the rudder stock stuffing without worrying about water coming into the boat.
On a Camper and Nicholson 38, the rudder stock is accessible in a little cupboard in the aft cabin.
Inside you’ll see the stock with the stuffing box at the bottom.
The top part is the stuffing box body itself, which holds the packing material and can be turned to compress down onto the thread within.
Once the packing material is inserted into the upper half, the lower nut is done up to prevent the upper stuffing box from working loose.
It took quite a bit of time with WD-40, some big wrenches, the occasional hammer tap and lots of wiggling, some light sandpaper, and patience to get the stuffing box all the way off the thread and up the rudder stock to make the packing material accessible.
Once accessible we tried a variety of tools to try and get the packing material out, but we settled on a fishing hook, which could easily grab the material and enable you to pull it out.
Once out you can easily see how old the material was and why it might be letting water through. It was very dry and quite thin and we imagine water could pass right through it now.
In total there were two complete sections of packing material that went into the stuffing box, with an offset overlap between them.
To replace the packing material you need to buy the right size.
We had no specifications to work on and failed to find the information online so made some guesses and after wrongly guessing at 6mm we found that 5mm was the right size for this Camper and Nicholson 38 stuffing box. (6mm was way too big, not a chance of getting that in there)
We are happy to announce that since replacing the stuffing box packing material, not a single drip has been seen 🙂🙂
Water filters are important on a boat that cruises the world because they help to ensure that the water onboard is safe to drink and use. When sailing to different countries, it’s often necessary to obtain water from various sources, each with different qualities. Water sources may contain harmful contaminants like bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and heavy metals that can pose a risk to human health.
Water filters can help remove these contaminants and improve the quality of the water, making it safe to consume and use. Additionally, having a reliable water filtration system onboard can help prevent illnesses and keep the crew hydrated, which is essential for their health and well-being during long voyages.
Moreover, a water filter can also help prolong the lifespan of the boat’s plumbing system, appliances, and water tanks by reducing the buildup of sediment, rust, and other minerals that can cause corrosion and clogging. Therefore, water filters are an essential component of a safe and sustainable boating experience, especially when traveling to different countries with varying water qualities.
When researching we found people only using their freshwater tanks for showers and washing up etc, and choosing to drink bottled water instead. Before setting off on Hannah Penn, we wanted to make sure we had a flexible water solution that included being able to drink from our tanks no matter the water source. Not only for ease but also to avoid needing to buy hundreds of plastic bottles.
Our water filtration system is made up of a 3-stage 10-inch water filter system by Aqua Filter starting with a 5-micron going into a 1-micron, and finally a 0.5-micron carbon filter, then the water passes through a 12v UV sterilization lamp, all of which is plumbed in after the water pump and pressure accumulator for the system in the galley cupboard under the sink.
The UV lamp linked to above is the one we purchased, however, to make it 12v it needed an alternative ballast which we again managed to get off Amazon.
The reason for its location after the tanks in the system, apart from being the easiest place to install, is that the water is filtered immediately before it’s consumed, meaning it’s as fresh as can be. The other way it could be done is by filtering it upon entry into the boat.
Here you can see the filter housing installed and plumbed in with some new unused filters fitted.
The first filter is the 5-micron, and is designed to remove larger particles such as sand, silt, and sediment. This filter helps to protect the second filter by removing the larger particles that may clog or damage it. It also helps to improve the taste and clarity of the water.
The second filter is the 1-micron, and is designed to remove smaller particles such as rust, dirt, and other impurities. This filter also helps to remove any remaining sediment and particulates that may have made it through the first filter. It further improves the taste and quality of the water.
The third filter is the 0.5-micron, and is designed to remove the tiniest particles and impurities such as chlorine, chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria, and viruses. This filter is the most critical in ensuring that the water is safe to drink and use as well as making the water taste the best it can.
The carbon filters work by adsorption, which is the process of attracting and binding impurities to the surface of the filter. As the water passes through the carbon, the impurities become trapped on the surface, leaving clean and safe water for consumption.
After a period of use, the filters end up looking dirty, from the various particles that they have collected. The first filter in the chain always becomes the dirtiest and therefore we end up changing this one slightly more regularly.
The UV filter is an excellent way to purify water by destroying harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoa which are too small to be captured by the mechanical filters. These can cause waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid. UV (Ultraviolet light) water purification works by exposing water to UV light, which penetrates the cell walls of microorganisms and disrupts their DNA, making them unable to reproduce or cause harm.
Our UV filter is powered by our 12 V system and is made up of a tube with a central UV bulb that the water flows around.
Having used the system now for a few years we are yet to change the bulb, though it should be changed after a year of continuous usage.
We have had to replace the 12v ballast a few times as it has stopped working, but finally discovered the issue was apparently fluctuating voltage (due to the water pump) causing a component of the ballast to fry, so we fitted a 12v voltage regulator just before the system and have had no issues since.
12v regulator to the left
Throughout our time cruising, most of the water going into our tanks as looked acceptable. Despite this, the filters always end up rather disgusting after some period of use showing that you can’t really tell what is in your water by looking at or smelling it.
We have also heard and seen other boats doing various other things.
Firstly, if you have a water maker/ desalination unit, and only use that as a source of water for your tanks, then you are probably good to go, as long as you keep your tanks clean. However, you never know what’s going to happen, maybe your water maker will break? Maybe you won’t have enough power to run it etc.
Another boat we saw once in a marina had a 2 stage water filter system plumbed into a hose pipe with attachments. So whenever they filled up from a tap they could filter their water.
Some boats just use chlorine tablets, when they fill up, but this will leave a bad taste in your water and also won’t remove sediments.
If you have space for it, this 4 filter setup is cheap (ish), easy to use, fit and maintain, and the water tastes great!
Overall the setup would cost you around £200 + the cost of fitting (pipe connections etc)
The small islands to the south of Guadeloupe, known as Les Saintes would be where we meet Teulu. They are a breathtakingly beautiful and unspoiled archipelago. Comprising two main islands, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, and several smaller islets, these tiny islands are renowned for their stunning beaches, turquoise waters, and colorful Creole-style homes.
We managed to anchor right next to Teulu in the bay, although the anchoring situation was rather confusing. You are anchoring in around 17m of depth, and the winds and tides swirl around the islands so boats can often end up pointing in all different directions. We were right on the edge of the island and were often 90 degrees to Teulu. Getting the anchor back up from a depth of nearly 20m was very hard work!
Having chatted with them over the past few months via Instagram but only just managing to cross paths, and only for one evening, we crammed lots of boat and adventure chat in.
The next morning we set off before dawn to Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, despite knowing we were on some sort of “waiting list” for getting hauled out, no one had told us what to expect, so we wanted to get there in plenty of time.
Arriving at the marina we first tried to contact them via VHF, but struggled to communicate with whoever was on the other end and ended up mooring at the fuel dock. At the fuel dock, we used the phone to call the marina office to ask what we needed to do and where we needed to go. There was lots of confusion about who we were and if we could get hauled out for some time.
Eventually, they told us to go and speak to the manager of the boatyard, so we hopped in the dinghy and headed over. He let us know that we needed to get some paperwork from the marina (including checking in) before he could haul us out, but that he might be able to haul us out in the afternoon! 👌
We chased the paperwork around for a little while, returning with the needed forms before lunch, and he let us moor up near the boat yard alongside some other boats to wait for our haul out.
Hannah Penn looking rather small next to a very big cat
After lunch they were ready and we managed to get hauled out around 3 pm.
It was slightly nerve-wracking doing this in a foreign country with French as the first language, as neither of us really speaks French, and you always worry about communication going wrong.
We really should have done all of the lines ourselves for getting into the bay to get hauled out as one of the guys on land really made a meal of our plan.
Once in the haul-out area, the straps went in the wrong places a few times despite trying to guide the crane operator to the right place, but eventually, we were lifted!
Next was the worryingly rocky journey to the other edge of the yard where we would be for the coming week or so.
And touchdown! After getting them to alter one of the keel wood supports (which to start with we were hanging off the side of) all was good.
We hired a petrol pressure washer from a tool shop in the boat yard and got to work blasting off all growth. As we knew we were hauling out we had let this build up a little more than in previous months.
Tada, clean boat!
And you can really see where we have been wearing through the anti-foul on the bow. In total this section probably had 6-8 coats of anti-foul in June 2022.
We checked into an Airbnb, and the rest of our land activities will be in a future post!
This time the sail was much easier and the motor was not needed at all, although the crossing was a little rough and took its toll on Andrew’s stomach!
We once again met up with Danae and Artemis who had now overtaken us in our adventure since we hopped back south for a few days.
They let us know that some Carnival celebrations would be happening in St Anne, so we went to investigate with them! Little did we know this would be the start of a month of carnival for us.
We couldn’t ignore the amazing supermarket that was Leader Price, so once again headed there for another trolly full of supplies for the coming week.
We probably bought more Brie than we would normally eat in a year during our short stay in Martinique.
Our next stop was Marigot du Diamant, a less visited anchorage in Martinique, according to reviews it can be a little tricky to navigate and anchor in, but we had no problems.
As we approached the anchorage, Kathryn managed to catch a Cero Mackeral which made for a perfect sunset dinner cooked Mediterranean style in the oven for three. This is the biggest size fish we can fit whole (minus head and tail) in the oven 👌
It’s always nice catching a fish, but it can be a lot of effort in the Caribbean due to the amount of sargassum seaweed floating around and the risks of ciguatera toxin poisoning which comes from fish that eat reef fish, particularly as we near and pass Guadeloupe.
In this anchorage, we got Andrew out on the water for his first-ever SUP experience, and we all (one by one) explored the bay ourselves, including to try and catch a few small waves that were breaking on the central reef.
Next, we aimed to try and find some mangroves and headed all the way into the Fort du France Bay to Petit Ilet.
We anchored just in the lee off the island in mud. Researching the island we knew there were some picnic benches and knew that people came on little tours here so there must be some things of interest over there.
After cooking up some pesto pasta, we headed with the pot in the dinghy to eat on the island and then have a little walk around. The first bit of wildlife to come to our attention were the 2 friendly chickens that wanted some of our pasta. But there was more to see too.
The following day we moved anchorage to the other side of Petit Ilet to be slightly closer to the entrance to the mangrove-sided river, just on the edge of a no-anchoring area.
We took both the dinghy and the SUP up the river to see the mangroves and wildlife that lived in and around them. To our surprise, the most common animal here were the mangrove tree crabs, which are normally bright yellow and seemed to cover every single mangrove we could find, even way up in the canopy, and always hiding on the other side of the branches.
We had to move back to our previous anchorage as a local came passed in his boat and told us that apparently, we couldn’t anchor overnight where we were even though the chart said it was fine. We moved mainly to avoid any further confrontations 😲.
Before we knew it, it was the 12th of February, and Andrew had less than a week left with us.
First on the tourism list for Saint Pierre was the zoo which was literally a stone’s throw from where the boat was anchored, the zoo’s landscape and environment were lovely, based within the ruins of the oldest habitation in Martinique, the main house and its outhouses, including a small hospital and waterwheel were put to ruin by the volcanic eruption which we found out more about in the museum we went to the following day.
Further into the town was a fairly nice and modern museum covering the history of the island, particularly the Saint Pierre area which was dramatically impacted by a volcano eruption.
Andrew loves a good meal out, so once again we headed to find some delicious food after the museum.
Keen to start heading back toward the airport (a short taxi ride from Fort du France) we started heading south once again, choosing to anchor at a place called Four a Chaux.
There wasn’t a whole lot to see snorkeling this time, but there was a wonderful Hawksbill turtle! (We do love them, especially when the visibility is great!)
Hawksbill turtles are sea turtles found throughout the world’s tropical oceans including the Caribbean and are known for their beautiful shells and important role in maintaining the health of coral reefs by feeding on sponges and other reef organisms. Unfortunately, they’re critically endangered due to threats such as habitat loss, pollution, and over-harvesting, so it was a blessing to see a young one.
Continuing south we entered the Fort du France bay but once again headed deep into it to anchor somewhere new at Les Trois-ilets.
We had already prepared to have a couple of BBQs toward the end of Andrews’s time with us. One just the three of us and another with Extress as once again as they would be catching up with us.
With plenty of BBQable food aboard, Andrew set about making burgers and we lit the BBQ which hangs off the back of Hannah.
Sausages and bacon went on first while the burgers were being prepared. The burgers came out and looked delicious and gigantic, and on they went. Unfortunately upon flipping the burgers, the weight of them had bent the inner BBQ (which is just a disposable BBQ), and the entire thing slipped into the sea.
It’s probably one of the saddest moments so far aboard Hannah, seeing 4 delicious and gigantic half-cooked burgers drifting away downwind to become fish food. 😠At least the sausages and bacon were already cooked and off the bbq so we got to eat those.
Anyway, the next day we headed back to Fort du France to anchor once again. Extress arrived a few hours later and we brought a bag of BBQ supplies to BBQ aboard Extress so as to avoid any more BBQ disappointments.
Our sailing with Andrew was complete, with Martinique part 2 being the final set of hops.
Andrew decided to spend his final night in a Hotel to freshen up on stable dry land before his cross-Atlantic flight back to Europe. 👋👋
Carnival struck once again, and although the big day would happen once Andrew had left, there were some pre-carnival carnival events to go and see.
The first being the introduction of the carnival queen.
And the second that evening being a show of floats and cars.
Before the two of us could contemplate continuing on to Dominica and then to Guadeloupe where we had arranged to get hauled out in a boat yard for some repainting, there was a little more carnivaling to do. But that will have to wait until the next post, as its quite intertwined with the crossing to and being on Dominica itself.
