We had a fabulous sail from Tobago to Martinique with just over 20 hours and 200 miles from lifting our anchor in Charlotteville to dropping it in Le Marin. Perfect sailing conditions on a tight reach which Eleuthera loves with a reef in the main to control speeds so we didn’t fall off too many waves. Arriving in the channel between St Lucia and Martinique at sunrise we were treated to 10 or 15 Brown Boobies following us and feeding on the flying fish we startled into flight.

Le Marin

By 9 am we were anchored and had a nap before venturing ashore after lunch to check in at the Marina Office. All that is required is to fill in the forms on the computer, pay 5 Euro and that was it- checked in, So simple.

Le Marin has 5 dingy docks, a very large fuel dock, dry stands, floating maintenance docks, many shops, several chandleries though these are small, and numerous bars and restaurants. It is a very buzzy marine destination with several yacht charter companies. Of course, the downside is there are hundreds of yachts, the marinas are very full, and the hundreds of buoys are also mostly full both at Le Marin and at Sainte-Anne which is just at the harbour entrance. The good things are there are very good supermarkets and boulangeries.

We were fascinated by the local boats out training – you must be very fit to hike in and out on the boards. Here is a short video as we watched one training. https://youtu.be/QvQoOqnI8pg Here is more about the Martinique Yole .

Raymarine Screen Failures and Delays

We anchored close in the first night as we knew we had to check in and also take in the second Raymarine screen which had failed in Tobago. We could not make the Raymarine online system work as it kept telling us to send the screen to Sydney when we were in the Caribbean and it needed to go to Boston. No amount of emails or help desk chats seemed to be able to sort this. After several days it became apparent the solution was to take it to the local Raymarine dealer to send away. We did this on Thursday and returned on Monday to check on the progress to find it still on the floor having been forgotten. After some prompting, we had a DHL tracking number the following day and it was off to Boston.

Meanwhile, we were trying to get an update on the other screen we had sent for repair via the dealer in Trinidad which was proving difficult as Raymarine would not talk to us without authorization from the dealer.

While this was going on we discovered the Transducer for recording speed, depth, and temperature was on the blink and we needed a new one. These were unavailable in Le Marin and expensive to import so to reduce the local taxes and fees we ordered one for delivery to St Lucia. Here we could import it tax and duty-free as a “yacht in transit”, not something the French were interested in.

Le Marin

Sainte-Anne

The following day we shifted out to the entrance at Saoimte-Anne for better swimming and less crowded – if 250 yachts means less crowded!

The town of Sainte-Anne dates from 1868 and was named after a man who defended the island against the English in 1808. The famous Église Sainte-Anne was burned by the British in 1730 and then destroyed again by a cyclone in 1817. It took 12 years to build another church and today it is one of the oldest on the island. As you walk up the hill, from the town towards the beach, you pass the well-kept Le cimietière Marin which overlooks the bay. All the tombs are constructed with white tiles which makes it truly beautiful. https://azmartinique.com/en/life-in-martinique/municipalities/sainte-anne.

With the old sections, there is also the new and the artwork and posters are interesting. I was very amused to see the poster of the female Air Force pilot. An Air Force poster is not an item you expect to see in the islands, let alone a female one.

A lovely lunch – Basilic Beach

After we walked over the hill from the town to the beach we stopped and had lunch at Basilic. It was a lovely low-key restaurant with a great view and excellent food. https://www.facebook.com/lebasilicbeach

A Music Bar for Dinner – La Dunette

Another night we decided to go out for dinner and try and catch some music. Well, we got a DJ but he was very good and the bar had a beautiful view but the food was like English Pub food – eminently missable. The night was very entertaining with the locals coming and going along with tourists like us. https://www.ladunette.com/restaurant/restaurant.html

Diving

We knew that we would be in Martinique for a while, so we decided to go diving. We selected Natiyabel as they were the closest. The first day of diving was with more cruisers also on their way toward Panama. The first dive was a bit average but the second one was very good. We decided to do another day’s diving but Hew’s knee had swollen up badly. We called Mark in Australia for a medical opinion. So I went diving and Hew had a day off. Hews’ knee turned out to be Bursitis from overuse perhaps kneeling in the bilges. The first dive was at Saint Luce reef and was great with a big swim through and some nice cliff formations, but the following dive was shallow and not very interesting. It was more of a snorkel site.

Natiyabel Plongee

https://natiyabel.com/

Two days Touring

We had been diving and the battery in my watch was running low and needed replacing. The company that had the agency to fix and test Suunto watches was out near the airport a 30-minute drive from Le Marin, so we decided to hire a car for two days and use it to drop the watch off and do some island exploring. So off we went and did all the southern part of the island one day and the northern part the next.

The roads are generally very good with some 2 lane motorways as you head towards Port au France—evidence of substantial financial support from France and the EU everywhere. The guys in the dive shop were very friendly and assured us the watch would be ready the following day.

We decided to head across the island to Francois and explore the bottom of the island. The southern part is lower lying and we visited various bays on the East coast along with inland areas of farming and agriculture. Lunch in a local restaurant is always a good thing with some delicious local fish and good coffee. After some further exploring and a visit to a local supermarket (Carrefour), we returned to Eleuthera at dusk.

With an earlier start the next morning we returned to the dive shop via a different route and then on to the more mountainous northern part of the island. Narrow winding roads up and down steep terrain were the order of the day. These roads would open out into valleys and areas of flatter arable land with large areas of sugar cane and many banana plantations. Almost all the hands of bananas were encased in plastic bags to protect them and help them ripen. Something we must try at home with our bananas. There is a lot of mechanised farming with large tractors and harvesters operating, we even passed a tractor and farm machinery dealership.

Lunch proved difficult as the fare in the local patisseries was uninviting and we struggled to find a cafe or restaurant. Hungry we found a large supermarket and emerged with a baguette and the makings of a picnic to consume on the beach nearby. After negotiating the one-way system in the village we made it to the beach only to discover there were several restaurants right there! We had a very nice picnic with an old upturned fishing boat as a table followed by a walk across a sandy spit to a very picturesque little island. Barb of course had to go swimming while Hew looked on.

From there it was up into the highlands and the spectacular rainforest. The island is largely volcanic with steep hillsides windy roads, narrow bridges, and lush vegetation from the high rainfall. Much of the inland area is a protected park with various walking tracks and areas to explore. Unfortunately, we were constrained by time and could only stop occasionally.

However, we did drive up Mt Pele as far as the first Refuge at about 800m and stopped to look at the view. It was a bit cooler up here and Barb had to put on some more clothes, rather than just her bikini. The mountain is nearly 1400m and last erupted in 1902 when it wiped out the town of St Pierre on the west coast below it. On our visit, the peak was largely shrouded in cloud with several walkers heading up the trail to the caldera a 7km round trip with at least 2 other shelters further up the mountain. It felt like it would be a pretty wild place in a big storm.

We visited the small town of St Pierre last year. St Pierre was settled by Europeans who wiped the last of the local Caribs in 1658. Legend has it that the last ones uttered horrible curses invoking the mountain to take its revenge before they died. By 1900 St Pierre was known as the Paris of the Caribbean with a population of 30,000 and the capital of Martinique. Despite early volcanic activity and minor eruptions throughout April, the politicians of the day chose not to evacuate the town as elections were due and on 8 May 1902 the mountain took its revenge and erupted. All but 2 people were killed and 12 ships in the bay were destroyed by a fireball of superheated gas, famously one of the survivors was a murderer who was locked up in a stone cell.

Continuing via a hilltop town with a huge church, and on towards Port au France for rush hour on Friday. Bumper-to-bumper traffic and only a large-scale map meant a few wrong turns. We got to explore parts of the town you might not normally find yourself in, got tooted at a few times but eventually found the road south to Le Marin. Interestingly Port au France has an alternative to light rail with divided bus lanes down the middle of the road and long buses with several carriages – dont know what it cost but seemed to work well!

Recruiting Crew

Given our next major leg to Panama is fast coming up we decided some additional crew to help would be a good idea. It is about 1200 miles from here to Panama, 6 or 7 days nonstop some additional watch keepers would make the journey easier. Facebook soon produced some likely candidates with a young French couple just arrived across the Atlantic and wanting to make it to Central America and a young English guy wanting to go to Colombia.

Maho Beach

We decided we had to come and see this tourist attraction and it didn’t disappoint. You cannot anchor near here due to the approach/departure path of the airport. Between watching the aeroplanes coming in and out and watching the photographers getting thrown across the beach it was a lot of fun. Despite all this, it is a beautiful beach. There is a large casino and hotel to the north side with a restaurant close to the beach which we tried out called Tortuga. There is also a real beach bar – the Driftwood Boat Bar.

On the other end, there are several other restaurants which you can watch from. They will serve cocktails and food in takeaway containers so you can go down to the beach to be closer to the action.

The rocks below the bars and restaurants contain several birds that seem totally unmoved by all the activity and noise.

Road Trip

When we asked what was good to go and look at there were only two places that were recommended one was Loterie Farm and the other was Parrot Ville. On the way there we thought we should stop in Philisburg the main town on the Dutch side. The area has many of the big retail shops/chain stores as well.

Philipsburg

This trip was the first time that we had been to the Dutch side – other than the area around the marina. Philipsburg is a cruise ship town. It is dead if there are none there which was the case this weekend and so it was very quiet when we walked around and all the shops were either shut or had about 5 staff and no patrons. There is quite a pretty beach and the boardwalk caters to tourists as does the first street back from the beach so it was all very quiet even at 10am. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the town.

The electricians who were working on the alternators on the yacht were out racing in trimarans this weekend so here are a few pictures of the yachts.

Parrotte Ville

Parrotte Ville is privately owned and operated https://www.facebook.com/parotteville/. It is a very low-key large aviary in one of the suburbs of Philipsburg. They give you a small cup of seeds to feed the birds and the birds can hold onto the edge of the cup so they are quite happy. They are very friendly birds and if you don’t move much they will climb all over you. I had to give Hew my cup as I was trying to take photos but the birds were happy to come and talk to me anyway. At one stage Hew had 5 birds on him. It was great fun and very relaxing to see so many happy friendly birds.

There is a viewing platform in the middle of the aviary and some of the birds like to hang out underneath it. You can see parts of it in the pictures. There were many forms of climbing frames and ropes for the birds to play on. There were also birdhouses all around the enclosure and many had been opened or had the entries made larger by various birds to suit themselves. There was also a lot of vegetation in the gage similar to Taro plants that they both used as shade and occasionally nibbled on. The guide for the days says they do not usually wreck the plants as they just regrow so a good one to have.

The Toucan is kept in a separate enclosure because it is a meat eater and the meat attracts rats and mice. Funnily there were lizards in the Toucan enclosure as well and they did not seem particularly concerned. His favourite place is under a table, probably for the shade.

Loterie Farm

Loterie Farm https://loteriefarm.com/ is a private nature reserve of 54 Hectares on the french side. There are walking tracks, a zip line, swimming pools, and a restaurant. It was midday by the time we got there and we felt it was too hot to go walking so we just took in the restaurant with a nice lunch, a lovely cocktail, and a large iguana walking over the roof. We then had a relaxing couple of hours around the pool for our afternoon siesta.

Sundays

We decided last week that we would get a rental car as we had several jobs to do that needed to go all over the island.

Since it was Sunday and all the shops are shut or shut at lunchtime we thought we would go out for a late brunch and then onto the beach. We walked around Marigot town and it was empty and only new thing was another painted wall I hadn’t seen before. I love the street art you find in these islands and wonder why we do not make more use of our blank walls in New Zealand.

We finally found an open cafe for breakfast near the airport. We then headed up the coast past Maho to find a beach. After driving up and then back down the coast past many gated communities we finally went and had a swim at Mullet Bay beach. A lovely beach and surprisingly sheltered. It is one bay over from Mahoe so you can still see the arriving aircraft. It has a very steep sand bank at the moment. There is only a small beach bar and no big development like Maho. The beach is backed by a golf course which I assume has kept it from becoming totally developed.

Iguanas

On Monday Hew needed to get a new gas bottle and fittings as our Italian ones could not be fitted here and we couldn’t find adaptors so off to Philipsburg again. We managed to get all the parts and a bottle at one stop. Just down the road, we watched as a huge Iguana near the bus stop decided to move out of the sun and up the hill. the Iguanas are very common around the island and often sun themselves on the rocks around the bridges. Their colour really depends on their background. You can see the difference between these two photos and the one above at Loterie farm which was very green being on a very leafy tree.

We also needed sheets and went to a great store called Cost for Less which was very like Costco in the USA – everything in bulk. We decided that we really did need a list so we did not buy anything extra and left the shopping for another day.

Seamog

Matt and Jo friends from the South Island who we met cruising last year had turned at the end of the week. We had a lovely dinner at Dock 46 with them on Friday. Then on Tuesday, they needed to come into the marina and since it was fairly full they tied up alongside. They too are off to Europe.

It looks like it is going to be a social week again.

The alternators are finally in and the belts arrive today. We are expecting Di and Pete tomorrow and to be off the dock the day after. I hope all will go as planned.

There is a very strong Dutch influence and we met several people who had arrived from the Netherlands and stayed as well as numbers of dutch holidaymakers. Along with large numbers of American businesses, Resorts with private access to the beach it seems the locals are not entirely integrated. The locals we did have the chance to meet were great and very friendly and full of information.

Willemstad

Willemstad town like a game of rugby is in two halves on either side of the main harbour entrance: Punda on the SE side and Otrobanda on the NW side. The fort sits at the entrance on both sides.

Behind the Rif fort, there is a pretty facade of old Dutch buildings.

But further back many are in decay. The fort has now been turned into restaurants and shops both inside and outside the walls.

Waterfront arches are the old wall with restaurants on the seaward side. The building behind the sign is falling apart.

Building Styles and Colours

The yellow coloured walls and ceramic tiles are a common colour theme. Many of the government buildings and offices are repurposed older houses.

Many of the buildings have ornate plaster decorations.

Jewish Area

The first Jewish immigrant arrived in 1634, then other Sephardi Jewish immigrants followed in the 17th Century from the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The community was very prosperous. In the 20th century, Ashkenasi Jews came from Eastern Europe. There is a very good history on Wikipedia. The houses in the Jewish area are being restored in a project between the government and businesses. This has been a great success and is ongoing.

Workers cottages on the main road out of town.

Street Art

There is one area of the old town especially full of street art, although there is a lot of street art all over Curaçao it is different to Bonaire. Some are very good and I would have liked to spend more time looking around the art in all the different areas.

One common theme here is the Chichi doll. Chichi is the Papiamentu word for ‘big sister’. and represents a vibrant, dynamic and responsible older sister, the eldest daughter of the family. She binds the family together in a loving and caring way. The dolls adorn the touristy shops, the art, and even underwater sculptures!!

Lack of Service but Colourful Businesses

The people are either very nice or trying to rip you off. You can buy very good fruit and vegetables at the markets in town, very expensive fruit and vegetables at the supermarket, and get ripped off( tried by some but not all) if you try and buy some at the stalls on the edge of the roads.

Fees to take money out of ATM extortionate, 7-14USD to take USD from foreign credit or debit cards out depending on the bank. Even though the ATM may look beautiful!!

Service is the exception rather than the rule, though when you do find a good restaurant it is good. Iguacu and The Grill at Punta, The Pier at Caracas Bay, and Jaanchie(walking talking menu) were all good values.

Willemstad Harbour

They have two lovely major harbours but the one near the town is for oil refining and cargo. The harbour reeks of petrochemicals and despite lower activity in the area, there is no sign of any clean up going on.

There is an old Queen Anne footbridge across the harbour entrance that is motorised at one end and can be partially or fully opened at any time to let boats through as shown in the photos earlier. It is an 1888 floating pontoon bridge and pivots on one end with the other end now motorised. Sometimes opening only partially for small craft and right open for big ships. When it is fully open for an hour or so a free ferry service operates across the harbour.

Further inland is the new hugely high motorway bridge—a huge contrast.

Spanish Waters / Caracas Bay

The cruising port, Spanish waters in Caracas Bay, is very large but you are restricted to anchoring in certain areas. The rest of the harbour includes an area reserved for mangroves and much of the other shoreline is private houses and beaches.

Despite having some fantastic sheltered harbours and a large number of local boats Curacao is not set up or really interested in cruising boats like us. There is a small boatyard and marina in the main harbour where some cruisers moor or haul out for the offseason and another small marina in Spanish Waters. The only other option is anchoring in Spanish Waters with many liveaboards scattered around the harbour. Access ashore is a wet dinghy ride to a small dock.

A selection of the houses around the harbour – large and small.

Pontoon around the bay at the entrance protects it from the boat wakes and storms – it also has a great bar there.

Immigration, Customs, Harbourmaster and Cruisers

To make life harder for cruisers The immigration and customs are 10 km from the Spanish Waters dingy dock and 2km apart on opposite sides of the main harbour entry. Buses are few and far between so you need either a rental car or a taxi which are exorbitant.

To get a cruising permit you also need to visit the pilots’ office which is near immigration and they will give you a permit for Spanish waters for 3 months. If you want to anchor in any of the other 6 approved sites you need to pay for a 3-day pass specifying the days. This means planning ahead irrespective of the weather or returning to the office when you decide, therefore, another expensive trip.

Going North

Westpunt area in the north is very nice but a long way in the yacht if you have to come back south 30-40k to check out. By car the rental cars and roads are good. There are a few interesting sites on the way like old plantation houses changed into restaurants, a few sculptures and a few beaches interspersed with failed developments.

Diving

There is diving around the island, a mixture of shore-based and boats. There are many operators and some very good and others not so. Also, several single-person operators are never there when you are trying to find them. In Bonaire, there were utes everywhere with dive gert in the back. Less so in Curaçao but you would not find gearing upon the pavement in the middle of any other city!!

We went diving in Curaçao with Benny and Alice. Benny we met diving in Bonaire and Alice joined us in Curaçao. The shore dive was at Playa Kalki and a boat dive at “Black coral garden” and “Watanula”. The diving was good but not many big fish, probably because there seems to still be a lot of fishing around Curaçao. The last dive was spectacular. As usual the further you get from the regular dive sites the better.

Another favourite activity is cliff jumping from right outside the restaurant.

Klein Curcaçao

We decided we had to get out of Spanish waters with their grey skies, wind and murky water. So we headed off upwind to a little island that is used by tourist boats and locals as day anchorage only. There are moorings which we did use with an extra rope tied on!! What a change of scenery!!

Since we were out in clean water again the washing needed doing, but in such pleasant surroundings it is not a problem.

The island was a paradise for seabirds until the 19th century when an engineer found it was covered in phosphate. from 1871 to 1886 they removed 90 tonnes of phosphate and shipped it to Europe. The island was left bare and a few meters lower. It took the seabirds a long tie to return but they have never reached the same numbers as before. In the 17th century, licences allowed people to catch and slaughter Caribbean monk seals – they are now extinct. the island was also used as a place to leave sick slaves before transferring the rest to Curaçao – they often died here. A very sad history for the island

The original lighthouse was built in 1877, destroyed in a hurricane, the current one was built more in the centre of the island but it is now derelict. There are also two wrecks on the island.

Cruise Operators

No one lives on the island but there are various structures belonging to several different tour groups. Mermaid takes out 130 people per day, St Anne Cruisers 70ppd, 3 other catamaran companies probably total about another 60ppd.

Wildlife

The island is supposed to be a turtle sanctuary but with that many people visiting every day I am not sure how the turtles get on!!

The sand on the leeward side is as fine as talcum powder, very beautiful and snorkelling or diving very easy as the reef drops straight down off the shore.

Ashore are various lizards, seabirds, and even some godwits. All are competing for beach space with the tourists.

We stayed the night, only our boat, a fisherman and a one person on the island keeping watch. Wonderful.

We departed early the next morning on the way back to check out Willemstad.

We checked out, then sailed up the coast to Santa Cruz, stopping for the night then off to Colombia.