MARTINIQUE – CARIBBEAN SAILING
After three days of travelling, two different hotels, and three cities: Bristol, London and New York in 24 hours we finally arrived in Martinique where (we hoped) the Lagoon 52 catamaran was moored. The yacht was not ready for sail despite the purchase being made quite some time ago, so we booked an Air BNB apartment near the marina for a couple of nights.
Martinique is a French colony in the Caribbean. Most people have dark skin and not that many people speak English. It is the island where most boats on a cruise come to refuel, restock etc before they continue on their passage of the British Virgin Islands. It is a very green island and the sand is beautifully light and fine and the sea is warm and salty enough that you can float on top of the gentle waves in a starfish shape without sinking, one of my favourite things to do in the salty sea!
There are palm trees everywhere, and although parts of the Island are quite built up, there are beautiful spots if you go in search of them! Martinique is supposedly one of the least expensive and most prosperous places for essential shopping. Apparently, shops are more sparse and expensive further along our planned voyage, which, of course, means that I have to plan meals, find cubby holes to store food on the yacht and ensure I buy enough so as not to starve the yacht owners whilst keeping up with their every want and need.
I am writing now from the catamaran now, which is still moored up at the marina. It is very warm, not too humid today and very sunny. I awoke at six am to a text message from Georgie (who is five hours ahead in the UK), whilst I was having a nightmare that I was being assassinated! The wake up was rather welcomed as I did not want to die this morning, however, I did not get back to sleep after that. My days at the marina consist of exercise, prepping, cooking and serving breakfast, cleaning, sorting myself: my room, hygiene, washing etc out. Then sometimes there is laundry, food shopping and other requests as well as repairs that need doing.
At mid-day we went for a drink at the local Mango bar, I had mango juice. Then we ambled back, made some couscous (we are on a bread ban today) and made some sandwiches for the owners of the yacht. This is when it gets really hard and you get to kick back and relax which is what I decided to for the first time in a week. I took my pillow, stuck my headphones in my ears and stretched out on the front of the boat across the net above the turquoise water below. The sun was blazing hot, so much so at times that my stomach muscles were contracting as a reflex to the heat (not sure why this happens to me?). And now I’m here. So that’s a day in the life of me for the next month!
It’s not all as easy as my photos would make you believe; today was my ‘day off’ from fitness, but the previous two days I was up at six for long runs, where I beat my personal bests on both days using the app Strava. Yesterday we went to the beach and did lots of swimming and took some beautiful photographs.
Other fun things we have done are snorkelling, diving and taking the yacht’s brand new dinghy on little excursions. It was on the first excursion that we found a secluded beach – we were the only ones there! We pulled up in our dinghy, dragged it up onto the beach so it didn’t float away. It was paradise; white sands, bleach-white driftwood and snorkelling. When snorkelling, we found a family of lobsters clustered under a rock, saw plenty of fish and coral and flew the drone. On another excursion snorkelling with the dive school (free as they messed up our bookings), we went to an even better coral reef and saw lots of fish and coral, had fun exploring underwater (my new favourite hobby)! A few days later when time constraints permitted, we were able to go diving! The captain of the boat is a dive instructor so he was really keen to go and I love the sport so was not staying behind! I was lucky enough to see an octopus and was allowed to dive without any assistance, as the dive school owner agreed I am ‘very comfortable underwater.’ And told me to get my qualifications a.s.a.p! There was no hesitation, ‘sign me up!’
A few days later now, the mast of the yacht has been repaired and we are almost ready to set sail (hopefully tomorrow), so I won’t have much if any Internet to update y’all. I will take tons of pictures and share them with you when I can. Anyway, as much as I’d love to stay and ramble, the suns out and I think my tan needs a top-up!
