Well I have been rather busy this last week and have had trouble finding time to write a blog because there has been so much adventure. Last I told you guys we gambled on visiting St Vincent and it turned out well enough. We skipped St. Lucia though and just went straight to Martinique. Martinique has been wonderful and soon we will sail north to the next island of Dominica.
______________________________________________
Skipping Saint Lucia
On WildChilds more relaxed sailing adventure north we want to try and see as much of the Caribbean as we can. So our plan is to try and hit as many islands as reasonably possible and find local stuff to see and do. The last stop in St. Vincent turned out well enough and my crew had a few hiking in the jungle adventures they seemed to enjoy. The next island north is Saint Lucia and last week I had to make the decision “should we go there…?”
This decision about where we sail and when is up to the captain. Of course I consult with my crew to get their input, where might they like to go and what might they like to see. To be completely honest though I am not so interested in the destinations as they all blur together and become the same thing again and again. Internet searches by my crew did not find anything particularly interesting they wanted to see in Saint Lucia. So there was nothing in particular drawing us there, but still, I wanted to see the island for myself.
So began my usual captains search thru the Active captain reviews on my Navionics charts and what I found began to concern me very quickly. I know that you have to take these reviews in the context that people are quick to complain and slow to praise and for every bad review I am sure a dozen other boats had a good time. Overall though I take the general tone as a summary to determine how safe I feel a place is to visit. I am going to share with you a bunch of snippets of the reviews I did find though for Saint Lucia and you can decide for yourself if you would go to an island like this. I will also add the caveat that in the middle of the island there is a luxury marina resort in Marigot bay that is well reviewed and has much security to protect yachties but is a very expensive place to stay. As we are not the rich old babyboomer class we do not have a budget to afford to pay such high prices. We have to anchor because we cannot afford marinas or mooring balls.
Decide for yourself…..
Would you risk going to Saint Lucia…?
This last review that I highlighted in pink was more than enough to help me decide to skip Saint Lucia. The review about cruisers being murdered and the men harassing the white women was just enough for me to know that they have nothing on their island worth taking these kinds of risks to see for myself. My super secret pirate plan is to simply avoid ever getting WildChild near dangerous places. Despite my own self acknowledged chicken soul I think a very calm rational logical mind has to admit that a simple cost benefit analysis is clear that the risks far outweigh the benefits of visiting this island for cruisers. What is the benefit worth taking such a risk over… really…? We might see a waterfall… and rock… a building… get a nice meal at a restaurant…? What benefit makes this risk worth it..?
I decided…. NOPE… We ain’t gonna gamble on this risk…
WILDCHILD IS GOING TO SKIP THE ISLAND OF SAINT LUCIA…
__________________________________________________
Martinique
So we ended up making a night sail from ChateauBlaire Saint Vincent out around and past Saint Lucia up to the lovely french island of Martinique on Sunday Feb 23rd 2020. We had learned on our way south that the French islands in the Caribbean are the BEST islands to visit. The french government makes the check-in and check-out procedures cheap/free fast and easy affairs, the culture is lovely, law and order reigns, safety is never a concern and the french culture is lovely to enjoy.
So we landed in the south end of Martinique in the bay of St. Annes. A beautiful open anchorage well protected and with a lovely government dinghy dock for cruisers to welcome us to shore. It was interesting that we heard on the radio, as we were approaching the anchorage, a cruiser trying to raise another boat warning them that there was a family of sperm whales around and to slow down. It would have been cool to see whales but we didn’t.
WildChild has already been thru 3 of these french islands on our way down here and all cruisers should stop in the French islands because they are so lovely and easy. I do not even need to read the reviews on active captain but if you do you will see these islands well reflected. Check in was a simple process as usual and with no cost at all. There were no boat boys to harass us or seedy lookin characters scoping out our belongings. I felt happy to feel safe again.
________________________________________________
Engine Troubles
As WildChild was motoring in I noticed a diesel smell when I went down below, while the engine was running. As that can never be a good thing, as soon as we got the anchor set I pulled the stairs away to expose our cute little rabbit engine and try and find the source of the fuel smell.
I freely confess that although Captain Lexi is a super smart girl who can fix or build almost anything, engines are not my thing. I understand theoretically all the basics about how an engine works but I do not enjoy fixing them, engine work is just hell on my nails.
I discovered that these little black rubber hoses that go between the injectors were all leaking, some profusely. The rubber inside the cloth heat shield is almost disintegrated and they are all leaking. This is not something that I keep in my engine spare parts box. I did manage to make a temporary repair using some spare (red) food grade plastic tubing for the water maker and I heat shielded it inside some clear vinyl hose I had around. Honestly I have no idea how diesel resistant these plastics are but it seemed to be working in a pinch. Although I was proud of my genius solution my problem was this was a temporary repair AND all of the hoses were leaking to some degree. We NEEDED to find proper fuel lines to heal the engine enough we could trust it again.
So this became our mission in St. Annes. Elena and I caught a bus to go over to the next bigger town and found an automotive supply store on Monday (Feb 24th) and were a little bit miffed to find almost all of the stores closed. We had checked before we left to make sure today was not a public holiday and for sure it was not listed as one. So we were puzzled… all this time and effort to find the parts we need, why are all the shops closed?
We asked around with our best friend google translator and found out that apparently it is Carnival time here in Martinique and nothing will be open for the next 3 days…! CRAP…!
There is a very small side story I want to share, something I personally found kind of interesting. As Elena and I were walking back from the bus stop on our return trip to St. Annes we noticed this graveyard on the side of the road we were on. The gates were open and I am always so very curious about cultural ideas about death and spirituality. We wandered into the graveyard and quietly looked around for a little bit.
I have never seen anything like this before in my entire life. Almost all of the bodies are entombed above ground. The care and love and respect that the living show for the deceased love ones really touched me. I wish my culture had this much respect for the dead. Every single grave was clean, lovingly built and almost everyone had flowers and pictures of the lost ones. You can tell the living still think about, remember, and respect their lost love ones. Most of the graves had flowers recently put on them. I cannot help but wonder if the local culture all understand they have immortal souls that pass on to Jesus when they die.
After stocking up on government subsidized french wine we returned to WildChild to discuss our options as a team. For Mr. Kol he is here for an adventure and sure seeing the Carnival celebrations would be a lovely thing for him to do. Elena also wanted to see the festival and there was nothing I could do to heal my yacht before Thursday anyway. I made the decision to make the short 15 mile sail up and around the corner into Fort_Du-France, the big city would have a bigger better Carnival and a better chance of finding the engine parts we needed.
____________________________________________________
Carnival in Martinique
The anchorage in Fort-Du-France was very crowded, for obvious reasons, and rolly as usual, but beautifully close to a GREAT public dinghy dock giving us easy access to shore. I am always a bit nervous squeezing my boat into a tight anchorage nudging my anchor between the 2 boats in front, but… sometimes we gotta do this kinda stuff.
I should probably make a small note for friends and family here that things on WildChild had exploded in drama again as the nasty side of bipolar suddenly hit one of my crew and affected all of us. Poor Mr. Kol was forced to swim to shore that first night to see the carnival, I still feel horribly bad about this happening.
The music was so loud we could hear it all night long from WildChild. For a while I was convinced I was hearing gun fire mixed in with the loud music. I never saw any fireworks but there were these loud bangs constantly… like… BAM BAM BAM….. BAM… BAM BAM… It was not until the next day I discovered that the local young men just LOVE to modify their cars and mufflers to backfire. It seems to be a thing here on this island. Martinique culture I guess.
The next day as the drama kind of calmed down on WildChild we all made our way to shore in the afternoon to partake in the Carnival festivities. This was my first Carnival. I cannot tell you anything about the history or meaning of this festivity. We wandered around Wednesday Feb 26th 2020 among the revelers and just took in the sights and sounds.
I admit to enjoying the festival parade pre-drinked but I had a lovely time. As we followed the crowd down the street behind the parade float with the giant speakers blaring the pound music I could almost feel the spirit of the Carnival thumping thru my body, I sang along to the chorus… Just FUCK IT FUCK IT… Fuck it fuck it… Just let it go and fuck it fuck it… I felt to me like they just want to let all the social rules and controls slip away and they march and break all the social convention. Men were wearing dresses, people were wearing masks or costumes expressing how they felt, everybody expressed their oppression in different ways. The social release of pressure is pure brilliance.
Another small and interesting thing I learned about French culture… During the carnival you have thousands of people wandering around and drinking but there are no public toilets or pot-a-potties available to expel all this liquid happiness. Eventually I needed to use the facilities and discovered much to my incomprehension that there ARE NO toilets available. I went into a McDonalds and the rest rooms were all barricaded closed, even people eating there were forbidden from going potty. I tried a few other places and the same thing. It seems the corporations refuse to incur any financial losses being kind to the public and allowing their toilets to be used by anyone during Carnival.
I was arguing with a security guard posted to protect the washrooms in a restaurant. I was also hungry and wanted to spend money to buy a meal for 2 people there… spend like $50 in their business… but I had to pee first… but NO… this logic is completely lost on them… you can spend your money here but under no circumstances may anyone anywhere here use any public washroom.
I noticed the next day that the city smells like urine. I understand why it smells like urine. Bring out thousands of people… sell them expensive beer and wine… refuse them any place to relieve it… you force them into public urination. This cannot be new here… What I cannot understand… is WHY do the old men in charge holding all the power want their city to smell like urine…? In Canada this would never be allowed… it is illogical… crazy… the product of poor reasoning skills… but somehow consistent with FRENCH thinking, French culture.
____________________________________________________
French Cultural inability for clear reason…
Eventually by Thursday morning, Carnival finished, Elena and I landed on shore in the early morning to conquer our Engine repair problem. Of course using Google Translator to bridge the language barrier with the locals we began our quest for 1/4 inch rubber fuel lines. After about an hour of wandering around shop to shop asking different people for directions and advice we found the French version of a NAPA AutoParts.
Now I should start by saying, being a sailor I have learned patience, I needed to stretch my patience to their limit trying to get a little bit of rubber fuel line out of this crazy place. When we arrived in the store, after being personally escorted by a lovely man we asked a few blocks away for directions were we a bit puzzled by what we saw. It seems you cannot be trusted to walk the isles and find what you need. We see people sitting along the back wall and a few people standing up at these counters talking to clerks. Eventually we figure out it is a take a number system and sit and wait to be served.
As we sit there waiting for over 2 hours what we watch unfold just amazes me and infuriates my German crew. Our number is 10 away from what the big computer screen says is being served now. We sit there and figure okay this should not take too long. We were very mistaken. It seems that although there are 3 clerks open, one is only for professional registered mechanics, and one is for merchandise return..? So we really have only one lady serving the line. As we sit there we begin to discover that she is only serving about one customer every 20 minutes. We watch and the room fills with customers, and… inevitably… after about an hour or so… people put their numbers in the garbage and just walk away. They leave because this inefficient system is not worth the effort it takes to get stuff, presumably they just go somewhere else.
What is also amazing is that several men walk in… do not take a number… go up and greet the clerks as old friends… hang out for a bit and get to skip the line and wait entirely. Buddies first of course.
I do understand that sometimes auto parts require some computer help and controls but even wiper blades and hub caps are behind the counter. You cannot buy a single thing here without going thru a clerk. Serving about 5 customers an hour is such a low business throughput it is crazy. How can a business this inefficient even survive? The management insanity running this place was simply amazing to me. You could never find any business run this badly in Canada or the States or Europe (except maybe in France). This seems to be French cultural thinking.
On our dinghy ride that morning into shore we saw 4 women rowing a dinghy in to the dinghy dock. Of course we motored over with our dinghy and offered them a tow after another dinghy with French people on it just blew by them. The women were grateful for the tow. They were all French ladies, super kind and thankful for the tow. What shocked me was they asked me where I was from, I said Canada of course. They replied with yeah… we knew it… French people would never stop to help us..! The dinghy that passed them earlier without offering help was French.
???? What the hell is that… ????
This might be a poorly kept secret… but the French can be very arrogant… they have the greatest culture on earth… just ask them… and they are often very selfish and rude… C’est la vie…
________________________________________________
The Volcano
After our engine repair we sailed up to Saint Pierre a few days ago. The volcano here mount Pelee exploded in 1902 and killed like 20,000 people wiping out the village completely. After my German crew’s failed volcano hike in St. Vincent they were still pretty determined to hike a volcano.
I decided to join them for this hike as, being a safe anchorage, I would not have to worry about my dinghy getting stolen or my boat broken into while I was away. Also I figured there must be some way for me to get a bus or taxi most of the way there, maybe reduce it to a 3-6km hike and not a 30km hike like the last one.
Personally my expectations for the hike were not very high. I know what we will find at the top, and it will not be a spectacular bubbling lake of lava. I looked at the top on google maps satellite view and of course saw it is just a valley full of tress and greenery. I figured though… the hike might be nice and the views might be pretty cool.
I was correct about our ability to catch a bus almost half way up, we hitch hiked in the rain the last few kilometers to the parking lot where the real hiking begins. To be honest it was a lovely and well defined trail. It was easy to follow, but not a beginners kind of climb. The hike up took about 2 hours and much of it was rather steep.
The volcano was enshrouded in clouds most of the time and it often rained on us. We hiked/climbed up in a measured pace. It was a long wet dreary miserable climb. Sometimes as hikers descended down past us a few spoke English, they informed us the hike was a waste of time, you cannot see anything but clouds. Still we carried on. It is that age old idea that we have come this far… too far to waste to turn back now… so obviously we should go a little further… Famous last words huh…?
Personally I was happy to not be be hot for a while, it was cool enough up there that despite the hiking I did not have sweat dripping down my back. For this I was enormously grateful. This Canadian girl still has not adapted to the heat yet.
Our prize at the peak was this magnificent view…
5 hours of hiking for a lovely view inside a cloud…
Meh…
Cheers sailors…
Tomorrow we sail to Dominica to meet Moses…
Captain Lexi…
. …… the very sore and tired..