January 14, 2013-Magnificent Sailing to Magnificent Martinique

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Judy Chases Competition

Another magnificent day of sailing and, now, Martinique, another magnificent Caribbean island.

From St Lucia we sailed hard to Martinique, keeping a sharp eye on the other five boats which set out at the same we did. We were racing, unofficially. Maybe the others didn’t know it but I did. The sailing was great: sunshine, nice breeze, warm water, and competition. What more can you ask for? Of the five boats out there, one turned back, one beat us, and we put the other three away. The boat that beat us probably would not have if handicaps were applied but it was hard to tell for sure since he dropped his sails and turned on the motor for the last two miles. We sailed the whole distance. It was good.

Le Marin, Martinique: Nowhere have we seen so many parked sailboats. This place is huge. Judy said she loved the anchorage which means it was calm. Me too; bulletproof, just the way I like it.

Checking in was quick, about three minutes, then we found out we're in France! I thought this was the Caribbean, but no, Martinique is part of France, it is actually a department of France, which sort of explained all the French people and Peugeot cars.

Then we went to the bar and ran into Nacho and Ana. Well, they were happy to see us and tried to be polite, but since France is nearly Spain, and they are Spanish, their phones, Ipads, and pocket calculators were all lit up and they were deeply involved with things electronic. Ana was having a skype chat with her sister and Natcho was working his way through 39 emails, about 15 of which concerned his boat in Palma which was being sold and he dearly wanted to get to the bottom of that. But we came to Martinique to buy good French wine at a great price, so we said "caio" and went to the supermarche. Good Bordeaux wine is about $2.80 a bottle; we bought 41 bottles. Mission accomplished.

Yole Racing in Martinique

Saturday we had a great dinner with Jacques and Edith, who were planning to go roller-blading on Sunday but no way can we keep up with Edith’s high energy, so we photographed a local sailing boat race instead, and Monday we’ll do some more shopping before heading off to the capitol, Fort Du France.

And when I wake up from my nap on the settee trying to remember what country we are in… Oh yeah, France.

Click here for more shots of our sail to Martinique

Click here for more Yole regatta shots

Click here to see Fort De France

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Martinique