Exploring the south of the island

Woke up to a very grey rainy morning. Claire produced another delicious breakfast for us before we departed. It had been a great place to be back on land with the added bonus of a good washing machine to do our mountain of laundry.

We headed south down the east coast which felt like it had a lot more farmland. Endless banana plantations and loads of sugar cane, reminding us so much of the KZN South African coast. Sadly the sargasso seaweed is a real problem and seems to collect on this side of the island with the trade winds. It is clogging up the beaches and rotting, so not only does it smell awful but it must alter the beaches dramatically as they are no longer white sand but full of decomposing matter. We have found that it is impossible to do troll fishing behind the boast as it clogs up the lures within seconds. It must have an impact on all the fishing that is done here. We are not sure if it is because of lockdown, but there seems to be very little fish for sale.

It was a lovely day to be in the car as it was cloudy with sprinklings of soft rain which was very welcome in this heat. We finally got near the southern end of the island which is where we had been at Baie Des Anglais. We headed across to St Anne which we have heard a lot about as a yachty haven, but have been put off by the 300 boats anchored there. It was a very quaint little village and we stopped and had our first take away meal, sadly no fish but a tasty pork ragout.

The town square, Mandela among their celebrities!

St Anne’s Bay with all the yachts

We headed back to La Marin to do some provisioning and got back to the boat. As we had anticipated they have done quite a bit of work but nowhere near finished. Tomorrow and Friday are public holidays, so we have arranged to bring the boat back next Wednesday to get the rest of the jobs done then. A lady is coming tomorrow to measure up Jeldi Jeldi for a canvas cover and she is making alterations to our sunscreens on the windows, so we will be here for a night or two.

A hot night in the marina……. but can’t complain as in the boat opposite a young french lady has 20 month old twins! Her man looks a bit of a dreadlocked oaf, never without a vape and a cup of coffee in his hand while she is permanently cheerful and adoring to her demanding little girls. What a saint she is! I wince each time as I look across and the twins are tottering up and down in their confined, boiling hot, mosquito filled tiny little monohull deck!