The last day at Rodney Bay was very low key. We did a little shopping, cleared customs, and prepared the boat for sail. We also bbq’d some chicken on the grill. After dinner Michael and I played Rummy til about midnight, he’s addicted. We had a fairly early wakeup call from the captain. He wanted to get under sail by 0800 to make sure we would pull into Martinique by night fall. We actually did a little better and were sailing by 0715. The winds were less than desirable but, the next two days were forecasted to be even worse. ENE at 25-30 knots which not only made it really rough but the direction wouldn’t let us shut the engine down. We had to motor sail the whole 32 mile crossing. The waves were between 8-12ft and it seemed like every 12th wave or so would bust over the bow. Life jackets and safety harnesses were ordered by the captain as a just in case safety measure. It’s been a while since I’ve been in 12 ft seas and add the fact I’ve never been in a sail boat when it’s leaning at 40 degrees…..Holy SHIT was it unnerving for the first hour. I’ve been doing almost all of the steering and handling of the helm so far. It took me a while to settle into it today. If a power boat is leaning at 40 degrees and then a 10-12ft wave came up on the pitching side it would be every man for himself and grab on to anything that is nailed down and hope the boat rights its self. Not so with a sail boat, it’s standard protocol. With five thousand pounds of lead in the keel I’m told a sail boat can actually lay on its side with the sail in the water and right its self…..as the captains also says to me “let’s hope we don’t have to test that today”. Ahhh, YEAH! Especially while I’m driving! So, after an hour of learning to trust the boat and get comfortable with its characteristics, it actually became a little fun. The waves crashing over the bow, riding the big rolls, gusts of 30+ filling the sails….very exhilarating. Michael, who has a fair amount of sailing experience, on the other hand didn’t find it so fun. As soon as we rounded the tip of St. Lucia where the seas picked up he lost his breakfast and didn’t stop throwing up for 5 hours! His skin color was greener than the sea. The poor guy just couldn’t get his sea legs and was literally paralyzed. He couldn’t move anything except his head and that was just enough to put it in the bucket. Of course the Captain and I had to have a little fun with him….right?! Yeah, we did, we went there. The camera came out and the suggestions of left over marlin steaks we had in the fridge and offers of rum punches were injected into the conversation throughout the day. Lol. Instead of the Russian Comet he is now the Russian Vomit.
About 1230 we were all glad to pull into Le Marin on the southern tip Martinique. The anchorage was very, very tight quarters. I have never seen and sail boat anchorage with so many sail boats moored in such a small area. My guess would be close to a thousand boats. Add the fact that even though we were on the leeward side of the island the wind was still gusting 25+ made me weaving the boat in and out of tight and shallow areas, while we were trying to find a hole big enough for us to fit in made the last half hour a little stressful. With a sail boat you only have one very small engine. It’s not like a twin engine power boat with 1,600hp that can stop, spin and back up on a dime. We actually tried to set the anchor once unsuccessfully and had to go find a different spot. Once you commit to setting the anchor on a 50 ft. single engine boat you have to let the wind blow you out of control while you are waiting for the anchor to set. If the anchor doesn’t grab not only are you waaaay out of position and have to regain control of the boat but, you have 100 ft of anchor chain that you have to retrieve while you are dodging boats, anchor lines, buoys and shallow areas. I wanted to learn how to handle a sail boat….today I got thrown into the fire.
Martinique is one of the areas that we can dive by ourselves. We are trying to see if the weather will even allow us to get in the water. That’s the mission at the moment. I picked up a tourist book today and saw that they offer rappelling overtop of the islands rain forest waterfalls. If our scuba trip gets scrapped then that may be my back up plan.
I have several other blogs to put up but I had no idea that the Caribbean doesn't use the internet like the rest of the world and it is HARD AS HELL to find it. More soon.
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