Finally in Martinique

4:30 Rowan came to wake me up with a cup of tea as we were nearing our destination on Martinique, quite far down south. I just could not wake up, he gave me another 20 minutes to lie in and I went out like a log. The thought of finally being stationary got me motivated as we decided to go and check out 3 potential anchorages in the first light of day. We hoisted our quarantine flag and replaced the T&C’s flag with Martinique’s which is the French flag.

Looking for anchorages at first light

We were so excited as it all looked so picturesque with little villages nestled in beaches at the bottom of mountainous terrain. We were surprised at the amount of sailing boats out at anchor, the place that looked one of the nicest had so many boats in it that we decided against it as we want to be able to swim around the boat. In those congested areas, there could easily be a lot of black water being discharged! The other anchorage looked out to a big town so we opted for the smallest and most remote one, with a cute little village with a church right on the beach. The nightmare was playing dodgem with all the fisherman’s traps, suspended under plastic bottles that are very difficult to spot. We certainly did not want to deal with a tangled prop when all we wanted to do was sleep!

Our email of permission to anchor, stipulated we had to call the coast guard and let them know we had arrived. We were thrilled when we made contact and they said we could chose where to anchor, and that they would count our 8 days sailing from T&C’s as part of our 14 day quarantine. Woohoo! That means by Saturday we will be able to go to land and buy provisions.

We finally anchored in a little bay with about 13 other boats. So happy to be welcomed by a big turtle who was very obliging about being photographed. Once we were satisfied that we were not going to swing into any fish traps, we sat down and had a delicious cooked breakfast. Straight to bed afterwards for a huge catchup of sleep, finally waking up around midday feeling suitably revived.

Our new neighbours

Nearby village

Loads of Frigate birds

Loads of little chores to sort out. I had put a load of washing in the machine yesterday when we were under motor but discovered it kept tripping with an overload message on the electrics. I left it in the machine until today as it was full of water, our furious sailing between islands yesterday seemed to have given it the same kind of agitation as the machine, it all looked remarkably clean when I managed to drain out the dirty water. The clothes just needed a good rinse, but the electrics is beyond us to resolve. Another thing to be fixed! It was a lovely cool day with intermittent gentle rain, good breezes and some sunshine in between.

In the afternoon the Gendarmerie came by in their boat and we wondered if they were coming to inspect us, but they passed straight by. Rowan says they know where we are because of AIS, so can monitor us remotely. So it all seems very relaxed and pleasant, we are very happy to be here. Now we wait for the lock down to finish on the 11th May. Polepole is booked in for a whole lot of work a few days after that. What luck that she is a French boat, there is a Nautitech dealer here which is great, as a fair bit of warranty work can be done which includes hauling the boat out. We will then hopefully be able to hire a car and rent a place while the work is being done and go and explore the island a bit. That will most probably take us to the end of May and then if the rest of the Windward Islands start opening up we will head down to Grenada where Polepole is booked into storage which meets our insurers hurricane requirements. Otherwise we will leave her here and our insurers have said she will be covered for everything except hurricane damage. There are the odd flights from here to Paris apparently, so we would have to get home that way. From Grenada we should be able to get a direct flight back to the UK if things start opening up. So no definite plans yet. Luckily Phoebs is doing a great job of looking after Mettingham and Coco, so we don’t feel in any rush to get home. Rowan is loving having no work responsibilities and is enjoying watching the Nakedwines share price moving in the right direction, from afar.

At last we could toast the sunset with a suitable alcoholic drink! Rowan cooked a scrummy chicken rice dish accompanied with a delicious Pinot Noir, now one of my favourite wines. We went to bed knowing we were going to have a wonderful night’s sleep – with a lovely cool breeze in the cabin and the peacefulness of knowing our plan had worked.

At last a sunset with a gin and tonic!