Smooth sailing to Martinique

With alarms set for 4am, we set off early from Chateaubelair, for Martinique. The air was pretty still, and we were expecting light winds (forecast was gusts of up to 17kts), so we pulled up full sails, and motored out until we could pick up some wind.

From then, we flew North, at 9-12kts, most of the way, a lot faster than we expected with such light wind. There were a couple of times we had to motor-sail for half an hour in the wind-shadow behind St. Lucia, but that was it.

We were very briefly visited by some dolphins, and passed a pod of whales. Sorry, no photos of either.

Connor tried trolling a fishing line behind us, for an hour or two, but we didn't catch anything.

Fort de France would be more convenient for getting Connor and Robin to the airport than Le Marin, so we headed straight there. This is an easier sail, than Le Marin, because the course wouldn't be quite so close to the wind. Making it round Saint Lucia and to Le Marin in a single tack can be tricky.

Behind the cliffs at Cap Salomon, Martinique, we were in wind-shadow again, and so motored across the bay up to the Fort de France anchorage, arriving around 2pm. This is a lovely anchorage, right outside the city, at the base of the old fort. It can be a bit rolly when the ferries race past, especially if you anchor where we did, right at the back of the anchorage, next to their channel.

After we arrived, we twisted Connor's arm for help with one last job: installing a UV water purifier drinking tap. Unusually, our fridge dumps its heat into our fresh-water tanks, rather than into sea water. This makes for simpler, longer lasting fridge plumbing, but at the expense of warmer fresh-water tanks that could grow things in them. It hasn't been an issue, but everyone we've mentioned this to has been concerned about growth so it seemed the prudent thing to do.

Navionics Track