Greetings from Ste. Anne, Martinique

I have to admit, it has been a very quiet week and a half since our arrival at Le Marin, Martinique with a big, three-mile move out of the harbor to nearby Ste. Anne. We have two repairs still to make from the crossing and a new issue we have discovered with the steering cable. We will not be going anywhere until the steering is fixed, but hope to be moving on in a week or so. The other repairs we should be able to make in St. Maarten if we are not able to accomplish the repairs here.  So what have we done? We have managed to scrape all the goose neck barnacles off the bottom of the boat and spent a small fortune including three trips to the cell phone store, a café and a magazine stand for a top-up, all in an effort to get some internet access.  

Working hard on Midwatch

 



Playing hard on Yacht Cariad

We did have to move a couple hundred meters on Saturday morning to make way for a Jet Ski race. A local official knocked on the hull on Friday afternoon and gave us a pamphlet, in French, which explained the race. We worked it out, entered the race coordinates and managed the move on Saturday morning. During an afternoon race, the kids and Bob headed over to check it out, including a helicopter, flying low over the zooming water craft. A half hour later, Bob and Finn came back, sans Anna. Apparently they had found a kid boat, a bonus one…with three families (three families on three boats) on board, all English speaking.  We had a great two days visiting, playing and sharing stories. We believe we will see them all again as we make our way north.



Enjoying an early morning in the cockpit with Mom

Finn has continued his up-with-the-sun routine that was solidly set on the Atlantic crossing and I have been getting up with him, making an effort to keep his very loud voice quieted while Anna and Bob attempt to sleep. Finn is still insisting that he wants to be a knight when he grows up and we struggle as parents whether to explain the truth to him. Yesterday he insisted on practicing sword fighting, much to the dismay of Anna and Mom who bore the brunt of the sword. After several scoldings and an ‘almost’ put out eye, Daddy declared the swords ‘done’. I headed out on my fifth internet expedition amongst huge tears and bursts of anger including, “How can I reach my dream of being a knight if I don’t practice?” I returned several hours later, to be greeted by Finn in his new “Knight Crown”, fashioned by Anna from the sword parts. I was proud of everyone for working out this dilemma without me.