We have had to spend rather longer than we originally planned around the Fort de France area but will be moving on to Guadaloupe soon.
As previously blathered here, we started our Martinique adventure in Le Marin. A good time was had there though we did find it a bit “yottie”. It is after all a major center for this area and has literally dozens of charter companies as well as private boats based there along with all their associated support services. As it turned out, we could have benefitted from some of those support services. After an enjoyable time visiting old friends and making new ones on a replica Cornish lugger called Greyhound we moved a short distance to Sainte Anne.
Greyhound was a great experience though. It was built by Marcus and Freya who now operate her as a skippered charter affair both in the Caribbean and in UK waters. The original Greyhound was built to operate out of Fowey as a privateer in the eighteenth century. The current one has a much more peaceful purpose though they do carry a cannon which we had the pleasure of seeing fired in celebration of Carnival. You can find out more information about here here.
The next day, we took on some water and motored round to Sainte Anne which is just at the entrance to the Le Marin inlet. The anchorage was lovely being in crystal clear water and although in the company of lots of boats did not feel too crowded. However, the town was a distinct disappointment. It was quite smart but not in a practical way and lacked shops that we would want where we could get produce. The market was also very small and we couldn't find much fresh produce and no ice at all! Friends had recommended visiting Anse D'Arlet just to the south of the Rade de Fort de France. We therefore sailed off the anchor after just two nights and had a great sail past Le Rocher du Diamant.
There is an amusing story in the cruising guide about this rock. During the Anglo-French wars in the eighteenth century, the British wanted to station a warship off the southern end of Martinique but were short of vessels. They therefore captured this rock and “commissioned” it as HMS Diamond Rock. It was duly recaptured by Admiral Villeneneuve who then went on to lose to Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar.
This was actually taken while at anchor in Le Marin but I am a bit proud of it!
With this story in mind, we sailed quite close to it and marvelled at the tenacity of the British seamen who hauled cannons up it's sheer sides and then passed on round the point and north to Anse D'Arlet. This did prove to be a very pleasant anchorage though rather crowded – it is very close to Fort de France and gets a lot of weekend sailors in it. Stupidly, we also suffered an attack of lazycitis and didn't go ashore. We intended to go further on into the Rade de Fort de France and this is where our problems started multiplying!
First off, we were enjoying a good sail and even were overhauling an American boat when the jib started sliding down the furling luff foil. It became clear that the jib halyard had parted company or some such at the top of the mast. We lowered the jib and motored on to Anse Mitan on the south side of the Rade almost due south of the city of Fort de France. It was while motoring that the propeller started making alarming squeaking noises. We managed to get the anchor down and then took stock. The jib looked less alarming as it became clear that the halyard had not parted but rather a snap shackle on the rotator at the top of the jib had come undone. So, a trip up the mast to retrieve it should be all that was required. I spent some time poking around the gearbox, shaft coupling and through hull shaft seal to see if any of them were the culprit for the squeaking. Our biggest worry would be that the shaft seal was about to fail as that would put the boat at risk! Nothing appeared wrong and we set out to move to a more sheltered spot as we were rolling too much for me to go up the mast. We chose a spot called Trois Ilets a bit further up as being nice and sheltered as well as being a very nice spot itself. However, our propeller had other ideas. The squeaking reched a peak and then stopped as did the boat. We were left drifting, not very fast onto a coral reef with no sail ready. In record time we got the mainsheet attached, the main cover off and the sail raised and under way just as we drifted into some deeper water. Under main alone we sailed back to our old spot under the lee of Point du Bout before moving further into Anse Mitan where I was able to go up the mast and also put a mask on to look underneath.
The trip up the mast was achieved and the bent snap shackle was replaced with a simple screw shackle so we had our full suit of sails again. A trip under the boat revealed our motor problem as well.
There is a key way which locks the propeller to the prop shaft and this seems to have sheared off as the shaft rotates but the propeller doesn't. It is also very easy to turn the propeller by hand which you should not be able to do. This is quite serious as it will mean a haul out to fix and probably a new propeller or even a new prop shaft.
We don't want to sail back to Le Marin so have come up with four options, one of which as been eliminated. There is a boat yard in Fort de France and we checked to see if they could help us but are not set up to repair our sort of engine and propeller – they specialise in high speed power boats. Option two is to sail to Pointe a Pitre in Guadaloupe and fix it there. Third, we can sail to Antigua and get it fixed in English Harbour. Finally, we could do without an engine till we return to the UK. This last is not a completely insane option though unlikely.
Our plan at the moment is to sail to Antigua via Guadaloupe with the intention of hauling out and fixing our prop there. We feel it would be better to get it fixed where there are no language barriers. In the meantime we will be able to practise our boat handling under sail alone which is no bad thing really!
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