Lavers blog, 8th 2008-2009 entry, February 10 - February 17, 2009

February 10, 2009, le Marin, Martinique – Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

Chris Parker forecasts 20 knot winds this morning, building to 25-30 knots this evening. Moderate seas this morning will build during the day and by tomorrow will definitely be uncomfortable. The windy conditions area expected to last most of the week. We decide to leave as soon as possible while conditions are still fairly moderate. Larry clearas out at customs, and we raise the anchor for departure. Lars reports that the chain, which has been lying in the mud at the bottom of the harbor, is covered with all kinds of muck. We set 2 reefs, roll out about half of the jib and sail the 23 miles at about 7 to 7.5 knots on a beam reach. As forecast, the seas are building, but have not reached the uncomfortable stage when we round Pigeon Island to Rodney Bay. We head into the lagoon to Rodney Bay Marina to clear customs, and all of us conclude that staying at the marina for a couple of nights is a good hing. Dinner is sautéed entrecote and eggplant a la Leif with a good salad. We eat well when Leif is around.

February 11, 2009, Rodney Bay

Today Leif proves that he is a true friend. We have to replace the 3 way valve that directs the effluent from the head either overboard or into the holding tank as well as most of the old hoses that make up the “sewage management system”. Although we flush the holding tank several times with fresh water it is still a hot, smelly, disagreeable job that takes most of the day. Not to be outdone, Lars pulls the anchor chain out of the chain locker and scrubs it down to get rid of the mud from le Marin. He found it to be overly fragrant during the night, as he is sleeping forward adjacent to the chain locker. We go ashore to Bosun’s for dinner. Leif and Lars are disappointed in their mahi mahi, but Larry’s ribs and fries are OK. We return to the boat for nightcaps and a spirited political discussion. Larry thinks that Lars is somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, and Lars is convinced that Larry is well to the left of Karl Marx. Leif referees. We manage to go to bed still friends, but at times it is a near thing.

February 12, 2009, Rodney Bay

Leif and Lars above Castries Harbor

Castries Harbor

Drying manioc to make cassava bread

Soufriere and the Pitons

Today we engage Floyd, a local taxi driver, to take us on a tour of the island. We stop for photo opportunities at the governor’s mansion in Castries and at Marigot Bay. We stop to sample bread made from manioc (cassava) as the Indians used to make and find it surprisingly good. We talk to a local who offers to let us take photos with his pet boa constrictor, which we politely decline. We tour the botanical garden and visit the sulphurous national park at “the world’s only dive in volcano”. Floyd takes us to a small restaurant in Soufriere that we would normally never find, and we enjoy rotis, a traditional west Indian wrap type sandwich of curried meat and potatoes introduced by immigrants from India. Back at the marina, we hear that things continue to get worse on the French islands, and we are worried that, with no fuel available, they (Leif and Lars) will not be able to get to the airport from the harbor and Elisabeth and the Swansons won’t be able to get to the harbor from the airport. We begin an email exchange with a skeptical Elisabeth about changing travel plans.

February 13, 2009, Rodney Bay

Leif and Lars at their favorite bar in Gros Ilet

Larry refers Elisabeth to a cruisers’ forum on the Internet that convinces Elisabeth that the situation in Martinique is serious. She arranges to change Leif’s and Lars’ flights to St. Lucia , and starts working on changing hers. We decide to go for a walk, and go into Gros Islet where they are setting up for their big Friday night street party. The beach here is not inviting. Leif sees an attractive looking hotel up te beach a ways. We get a taxi to take us there. Iit is a Sandals resort. We go to the beach bar for a beer and find that they don’t take cash. It is an “all inclusive” place, so you have to have a little pink bracelet to be served. Leif is still thirsty, so he finds a marketing person and says we want to consider booking rooms for next year. She serves us beer while we listen to her sales pitch. We return to the marina much refreshed, having left vague promises about spending valentine’s day their next year. Leif marinates chicken thighs and legs for dinner. We grill them and serve with salad and sautéed potatoes and onions. Wonderful!

February 14, 2009, Rodney Bay

Leif and Lars decide that they want to go to the beach today. Beach is not Larry’s thing, but he goes along to be sociable. While Leif and Lars go swimming, Larry walks down the beach beyond the resort area . he finds the local fishermen pulling in their nets that they had laid in a big semicircle from the beach this morning. As they pull in the nets they are enthusiastically assisted by a couple of tourists. Two of the fishermen swim around the outer perimeter of the nets to make sure they remain effectively supported by buoys. We cannot see what has been caught until the net is almost completely on shore, but eventually it includes a large moray eel, a puffer fish, a mackerel, 2 rays, a sizeable turtle and about a hundred smaller fish of indeterminate type. The tourists who are gathered to watch immediately set up a cry to release the turtle, and one of the bolder ones frees the turtle from the net and releases it to the bay, accompanied by cheers from the onlookers. The fishermen do not object, and we suspect that they would have released the turtle anyway, but the tourists feel that they have performed a noble deed. We return to the boat and once again Leif performs magic in the galley – marinated grilled pork chops. We go ashore for ice cream for dessert.

February 15, 2009, Rodney bay

Leif, Larry and Lars at the Charthouse

The girls at the ice cream shop for Lars

Larry goes to customs to sort out our plans as Leif and Lars will depart from St. Lucia instead of returning to Martinique with the boat. We had planned to walk to Pigeon Island, but Leif’s foot hurts after an accident on the boat yesterday, so we decide to go back to the beach. Leif and Lars take a local bus most of the way to the beach, and Larry walks to get some exercise. Larry arrives just as Leif and Lars emerge from their swim. We repair to the bar at the Rex Resort for some much needed beers. We then tour the local restaurants to select one for dinner, then return to the boat. It is Leif’s and Lars’ last night, so Larry makes pina coladas, then we go to the Plantation House, our selected restaurant. We are startled to see that only one table is occupied. That makes us suspicious, so we switch to the Chart House, which has been recommended by Rickard, a Swedish sailor we have met at the marina. F=Good choice! We get ice cream for dessert at Elena’s, then taxi back to the boat. A great last evening.

February 16, 2009, Rodney Bay

It is a rainy morning. We have a leisurely breakfast at Scuttlebutt’s, then Leif and Lars spend the rest of the morning getting ready to leave. Floyd picks them up for the ride to the airport at 1:00, and Larry goes to a local travel agent to try to help with Elisabeth’s travel change from Martinique to St. Lucia. The agent is singularly unhelpful, so a frustrated Larry returns to the marina and suggests that Elisabeth find a travel agent at home. Dinner is a much simpler affair when when Larry is alone. Tonight he enjoys a can of chili and a salad.

February 17, 2009, Rodney Bay

With the help of Jonathan on Phoenix Rising, the boat in the next slip, Larry manages to drill out the old throttle machine screw, and to through bolt the throttle handle to the shaft. Now he doesn’t have to use a vise grip to change engine speed. In return, Larry helps jonathan replace a through hull fitting and sea cock that had corroded immediately when a local mechanic had left a hot (electrically) wire in contact with the bronze seacock. The resulting current had completely destroyed the seacock in no time. They are able to make the change without hauling the boat – a technically intricate but economically rewarding process. Arifa invites larry to dinner, a shrimp and pasta feast after cocktails on Singoalla.

Lavers blog, 7th 2008-2009 entry, February 2 - February 9, 2009

February 2-4, 2009, le Marin

Elisabeth and Larry say goodbye at the airport

Three days alone at anchor in le Marin. Monday and Tuesday are “allergy days”, so Larry is not very active He does manage to contact Catharina on Skype. It is nice to hear her voice and to have her back from her Africa trip safe and sound. Larry continues to find small items that need to be taken care of – replacing a burned-out light bulb, servicing another halyard winch. The major task is scraping the rust off the engine mounts 

and transmission case, cleaning them with phosphoric acid, then spraying them with “Yanmar gray” paint. We shall see how long the face lift lasts. Elisabeth emails from Bristol that it is cold this time of year in Rhode Island. Perhaps we should rethink our plans to take the boat north! On Wednesday, Larry gets his long-awaited haircut. He is now so beautiful that it hurts when he looks in the mirror. Well, I guess there are other possible explanations for that.

February 5, 2009, le Marin

Today we experience Island Time in spades. Larry takes the dinghy in to the marina at 10:00 to pick up Daniel, the local diesel mechanic, at 10:30 as agreed. He is not at the Yanmar dealer where we had agreed to meet, but a phone call determines that he will now come at 12:15 instead. Larry goes to Mango Bay to get on the Internet and returns to the dealer at 12:15. Another phone call, and Larry is told by the dealer that Daniel will be there in 10 or 15 minutes. After about 20 minutes, Daniel calls to ask if Larry can pick him up at Bichik Services at le Carenage, the boat yard, about a 5 minute rde by dinghy from the marina. When he gets there, Larry finds a man drinking a beer and talking to another man. He asks after Daniel, and the man 

drinking the beer replies “c’est moi.” He will be ready to go in five minutes. After about 10 minutes Daniel says that he has to deliver a dinghy to one of his clients on a boat in the harbor. Would Larry pick him up at his client’s boat? At least it is on the way back to Singoalla. When they finally arrive at Singoalla, Daniel spends about ten minutes looking at the engine and shaking various wires, then announces that we do not have an engine problem. The engine is working fine. What we have is an electrical problem and he is not an electrician. There is some good news, however. Daniel does not charge us for his services as even he can see that he really hasn’t done anything, and he does call around to various electricians until he finds one who can come on Saturday morning to look at our engine. This is for a problem we have been trying to have addressed since Monday.
In the afternoon Larry goes to the rental car agency to confirm that the car he has ordered will be available to pick up Leif and Lars tomorrow. At first the young clerk says there are no cars available and that Larry should have reserved a car. He has not listened when Larry asked about the reservation because he is more interested in chatting with his friends who are in the office. After some confusion as Larry begins to wax indignant, the clerk finds that there is indeed a reservation and everyone is all smiles. Oui, monsieur, the car will be here tomorrow.


February 6, 2009, le Marin

Cleaning day to get ready for guests this evening. As Larry is reorganizing the lockers to provide storage space for his guests he sees a cockroach, the only one we have ever seen on the boat. They are the scourge of the tropics, and most often come on board as eggs in cardboard cartons. We have been very careful to never bring cardboard onto the boat, and it is generally only left on deck for a few minutes. But somehow we now have one, and that probably means that we have many more. Larry spends an hour or so cleaning out lockers and sprinkling boric acid in all the crevices he can get to where cockroaches might travel. With luck, this will take care of the problem. In the evening Larry picks up the rental car and heads for the airport to pick up Leif and Lars. On the way a big dog runs out into the road just in front of the car and before Larry can even hit the brakes he hits the dog at about 70 kph. The result is not good for either dog or car, but the car is still drivable and Leif and Lars are picked up and returned to the boat without further incident. They have brought with them a giant box of items that Elisabeth has purchased to replace broken ones on the boat.

February 7, 2009, le Marin

Lars at les Salines -- note he did not make it to the center of the photo

Lars and Larry discuss tomorrow's car trip

Leif samples the rum at St. James Distillerie

Larry gets up before his guests and replaces the light fixture over the nav station while they sleep. Marc, the electrician, arrives as promised at 8:30. He is very pleasant and, to our relief, competent and speaks pretty good English. Larry explains that the engine appears to work OK, but the alarms don’t sound as they should when turning the key on or off. He is worried that we will not be properly notified of a more serious engine malfunction. Marc tests the systems and isolates the problem to the buzzer itself. We have some fun with the pronunciation of the word “buzzer” in French. He will be back Monday with a new buzzer. Larry, Leif and Lars eat lunch at Mango Bay, then set off for a shortened island tour before the car is due to be returned at 5:00. We first visit the La Mauny distillery – it is closed. We see that most filling stations are also closed. We decide to stop for groceries at the giant Carrefour super market, but it is closed too. There is a general strike going on – it’s a French island, remember? Traffic begins to build up as people desperately search for gasoline, so we turn around and head back towards the marina. We make a short detour to Les Salines beach at the southern tip of the island, where Leif and Lars are excited to discover the French custom of bathing topless. One “bather”, in particular, causes a great deal of favorable comment. We extend the car rental until Monday, and will make another attempt at an island tour tomorrow. We just make it to the local grocery store before it closes. Larry makes pina coladas, Leif performs magic in the galley, and we retire happy.

February 8, 2009, le Marin

Singoalla at anchor in le Marin

West coast of Martinique

Larry is up early. He makes coffee and replaces the foot pump for salt water under the galley sink. We use salt water to pre-rinse dirty dishes, thus greatly extending the fresh water supply on board. Leif and Lars wake up about two hours later and, after breakfast, we set off on our island tour. We stop for a photo opportunity at the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, a smaller imitation of the church by the same name at Monmartre, Paris. We have a beautiful drive on twisty roads through the rain forest, look in awe at the steep hillsides, and stop for lunch at the Point du Vue restaurant on the Atlantic coast. After lunch we stop for rum tasting at the St. Charles distillery, then head back home. Carrefour is still closed, and the parking lot is blocked off by rows of overturned shopping carts. We can’t find a filling station with any fuel and the local grocery is also closed. Leif talks a restaurant into selling us some sauce Bolognese. Larry manages to find a convenience store with baguettes and we return to the boat for a good spaghetti dinner prepared by chef Leif.

February 9, 2009, le Marin

Marc, the electrician, calls to tell us he will be out at 1:15, so our planned departure for St. Lucia will have to wait for a day. We return the car, and are told that the strike is spreading. He local grocery stores are now closed so no food shopping is possible. The local farmer’s market is open, so we are able to stock up on vegetables. The marina fuel dock is closed so we can’t get water or dinghy fuel there. We are told that Bichik Services has some gasoline, so we take the dinghy and hurry over to he boat yard to see if this is true. We are not in desperate need of dinghy fuel yet, but what we have won’t last many days. We are told that Bichik will open their pump to boats and motor scooters, but not cars, at 2:00. Leif goes to the nearby restaurant and gets the restaurant to sell us entrecotes that we can cook on board. Just as we are about to leave Bichik starts the gas pump at 1:00, and allots a maximum of 20 euros of fuel per customer. As it happens, our fuel tank takes 19 euros, so we fill it up and head back to the boat to meet Marc. He has re-diagnosed our problem – he thinks the replacement used buzzer he installed on Saturday is also faulty, but he advises us to buy a new buzzer elsewhere. It is too expensive on Martinique. Leif and Larry replace the 30 year old hand pump in the head. It is nice to have a new one that doesn’t leak. Lars helps Larry install the new roller furling line to replace the previous chafed one. Leif makes pytt I panna, a Swedish high-class version of hash, for dinner. We discuss what to do about the strike, and decide to head for St. Lucia as soon as weather permits.

Lavers blog, 7th 2008-2009 entry

February 2-4, 2009, le Marin

Three days alone at anchor in le Marin. Monday and Tuesday are “allergy days”, so Larry is not very active He does manage to contact Catharina on Skype. It is nice to hear her voice and to have her back from her Africa trip safe and sound. Larry continues to find small items that need to be taken care of – replacing a burned-out light bulb, servicing another halyard winch. The major task is scraping the rust off the engine mounts and transmission case, cleaning them with phosphoric acid, then spraying them with “Yanmar gray” paint. We shall see how long the face lift lasts. Elisabeth emails from Bristol that it is cold this time of year in Rhode Island. Perhaps we should rethink our plans to take the boat north! On Wednesday, Larry gets his long-awaited haircut. He is now so beautiful that it hurts when he looks in the mirror. Well, I guess there are other possible explanations for that.

February 5, 2009, le Marin

Today we experience Island Time in spades. Larry takes the dinghy in to the marina at 10:00 to pick up Daniel, the local diesel mechanic, at 10:30 as agreed. He is not at the Yanmar dealer where we had agreed to meet, but a phone call determines that he will now come at 12:15 instead. Larry goes to Mango Bay to get on the Internet and returns to the dealer at 12:15. Another phone call, and Larry is told by the dealer that Daniel will be there in 10 or 15 minutes. After about 20 minutes, Daniel calls to ask if Larry can pick him up at Bichik Services at le Carenage, the boat yard, about a 5 minute rde by dinghy from the marina. When he gets there, Larry finds a man drinking a beer and talking to another man. He asks after Daniel, and the man drinking the beer replies “c’est moi.” He will be ready to go in five minutes. After about 10 minutes Daniel says that he has to deliver a dinghy to one of his clients on a boat in the harbor. Would Larry pick him up at his client’s boat? At least it is on the way back to Singoalla. When they finally arrive at Singoalla, Daniel spends about ten minutes looking at the engine and shaking various wires, then announces that we do not have an engine problem. The engine is working fine. What we have is an electrical problem and he is not an electrician. There is some good news, however. Daniel does not charge us for his services as even he can see that he really hasn’t done anything, and he does call around to various electricians until he finds one who can come on Saturday morning to look at our engine. This is for a problem we have been trying to have addressed since Monday.
In the afternoon Larry goes to the rental car agency to confirm that the car he has ordered will be available to pick up Leif and Lars tomorrow. At first the young clerk says there are no cars available and that Larry should have reserved a car. He has not listened when Larry asked about the reservation because he is more interested in chatting with his friends who are in the office. After some confusion as Larry begins to wax indignant, the clerk finds that there is indeed a reservation and everyone is all smiles. Oui, monsieur, the car will be here tomorrow.

February 6, 2009, le Marin

Cleaning day to get ready for guests this evening. As Larry is reorganizing the lockers to provide storage space for his guests he sees a cockroach, the only one we have ever seen on the boat. They are the scourge of the tropics, and most often come on board as eggs in cardboard cartons. We have been very careful to never bring cardboard onto the boat, and it is generally only left on deck for a few minutes. But somehow we now have one, and that probably means that we have many more. Larry spends an hour or so cleaning out lockers and sprinkling boric acid in all the crevices he can get to where cockroaches might travel. With luck, this will take care of the problem. In the evening Larry picks up the rental car and heads for the airport to pick up Leif and Lars. On the way a big dog runs out into the road just in front of the car and before Larry can even hit the brakes he hits the dog at about 70 kph. The result is not good for either dog or car, but the car is still drivable and Leif and Lars are picked up and returned to the boat without further incident. They have brought with them a giant box of items that Elisabeth has purchased to replace broken ones on the boat.

February 7, 2009, le Marin

Larry gets up before his guests and replaces the light fixture over the nav station while they sleep. Marc, the electrician, arrives as promised at 8:30. He is very pleasant and, to our relief, competent and speaks pretty good English. Larry explains that the engine appears to work OK, but the alarms don’t sound as they should when turning the key on or off. He is worried that we will not be properly notified of a more serious engine malfunction. Marc tests the systems and isolates the problem to the buzzer itself. We have some fun with the pronunciation of the word “buzzer” in French. He will be back Monday with a new buzzer. Larry, Leif and Lars eat lunch at Mango Bay, then set off for a shortened island tour before the car is due to be returned at 5:00. We first visit the La Mauny distillery – it is closed. We see that most filling stations are also closed. We decide to stop for groceries at the giant Carrefour super market, but it is closed too. There is a general strike going on – it’s a French island, remember? Traffic begins to build up as people desperately search for gasoline, so we turn around and head back towards the marina. We make a short detour to Les Salines beach at the southern tip of the island, where Leif and Lars are excited to discover the French custom of bathing topless. One “bather”, in particular, causes a great deal of favorable comment. We extend the car rental until Monday, and will make another attempt at an island tour tomorrow. We just make it to the local grocery store before it closes. Larry makes pina coladas, Leif performs magic in the galley, and we retire happy.

February 8, 2009, le Marin

Larry is up early. He makes coffee and replaces the foot pump for salt water under the galley sink. We use salt water to pre-rinse dirty dishes, thus greatly extending the fresh water supply on board. Leif and Lars wake up about two hours later and, after breakfast, we set off on our island tour. We stop for a photo opportunity at the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, a smaller imitation of the church by the same name at Monmartre, Paris. We have a beautiful drive on twisty roads through the rain forest, look in awe at the steep hillsides, and stop for lunch at the Point du Vue restaurant on the Atlantic coast. After lunch we stop for rum tasting at the St. Charles distillery, then head back home. Carrefour is still closed, and the parking lot is blocked off by rows of overturned shopping carts. We can’t find a filling station with any fuel and the local grocery is also closed. Leif talks a restaurant into selling us some sauce Bolognese. Larry manages to find a convenience store with baguettes and we return to the boat for a good spaghetti dinner prepared by chef Leif.

February 9, 2009, le Marin

Marc, the electrician, calls to tell us he will be out at 1:15, so our planned departure for St. Lucia will have to wait for a day. We return the car, and are told that the strike is spreading. He local grocery stores are now closed so no food shopping is possible. The local farmer’s market is open, so we are able to stock up on vegetables. The marina fuel dock is closed so we can’t get water or dinghy fuel there. We are told that Bichik Services has some gasoline, so we take the dinghy and hurry over to he boat yard to see if this is true. We are not in desperate need of dinghy fuel yet, but what we have won’t last many days. We are told that Bichik will open their pump to boats and motor scooters, but not cars, at 2:00. Leif goes to the nearby restaurant and gets the restaurant to sell us entrecotes that we can cook on board. Just as we are about to leave Bichik starts the gas pump at 1:00, and allots a maximum of 20 euros of fuel per customer. As it happens, our fuel tank takes 19 euros, so we fill it up and head back to the boat to meet Marc. He has re-diagnosed our problem – he thinks the replacement used buzzer he installed on Saturday is also faulty, but he advises us to buy a new buzzer elsewhere. It is too expensive on Martinique. Leif and Larry replace the 30 year old hand pump in the head. It is nice to have a new one that doesn’t leak. Lars helps Larry install the new roller furling line to replace the previous chafed one. Leif makes pytt I panna, a Swedish high-class version of hash, for dinner. We discuss what to do about the strike, and decide to head for St. Lucia as soon as weather permits.

Lavers blog, 6th 2008-2009 entry

January 27, 2009, Ste. Anne

After breakfast we take the dinghy into Ste. Anne to look for an internet café.  We wander around looking at various tourist shops, then go to the market where we restock our vegetables.  We pick up bread on the way back to the town dock, and find that the restaurant nearest the dock has Wi-Fi.  We drink café au lait, upload the latest week of the blog, and start back to the dinghy.  We run into the Maestros, who are just coming ashore and looking for an Internet café.  Larry loans Wendy his laptop, and we agree to go ashore for dinner at a highly recommended restaurant just by the dock.  After a lazy afternoon of reading, Sam and Wendy pick us up.  The restaurant is closed on Tuesdays! We go to the restaurant with the Internet.  Nice atmosphere, OK food, lousy service, but a live trio and dancing.  We find that dancing in sailing shoes that are designed not to slip has its challenges.  We return to the boat around 10:00 and read for a short while before falling asleep.

January 28, 2009, Ste. Anne – le Marin

Chris Parker’s morning forecast is for lots of wind, but we are out of water and almost out of fuel, so we decide to move the 3 miles into le Marin anyway.  The harbor is very sheltered, and we assume that we will be able to tie up at the fuel dock without too much difficulty. The assumption proves to be true.  Although it is blowing hard just a few hundred yards away, the wind is moderate at the dock, and we take on water, diesel and gasoline without incident and move around to the south side of Grande Basse, a reef in the middle of the harbor, to find a suitable anchoring spot.  We find that Maestro has also repositioned, and we anchor nearby.  We take the dinghy back into the marina to arrange a rental car for tomorrow.  We are told by the first rental agency we go to that none of the agencies in the area have cars just now, but there is a bus.  We walk up the hill to the center of town trying to find the bus stop, but are unsuccessful.  We return to the tourist office in the marina and are told that, yes, there is a bus, but it doesn’t go to the airport – it goes directly to Fort de France, bypassing the airport.  We are afraid Elisabeth will have to take a taxi to the airport (which is more expensive than renting a cara for the day), but we try one more agency and, bingo, they do have a car we can pick up in the morning.  We return to Singoalla relieved.  Elisabeth spends the afternoon packing and reminding Larry of he chores he has to do while she is gone.  We go to Maestro for cocktails, then return home for a quick dinner then early to bed.

January 29, 2009, le Marin

Elisabeth and Larry say goodbye at the airport in Martinique.

Today we have to take Elisabeth to the airport, and we will take advantage of having the car to go with the Maestros to the duty free liquor store in Fort de France to replenish our depleted wine supply.  We have been advised that there is a general strike today, so we don’t know what to expect.  We decide to get Elisabeth to the airport early in case there are problems there.  We get the car, a tiny Peugeot Clio, without problem.  We go to customs to clear Elisabeth off the boat’s manifest, but they are not there.  They are on strike.  There is no traffic on the way to the airport, so we get there about 10:00 for Elisabeth’s 3:15 flight.  She tries to get on the 11:15 flight, but it has been cancelled due to the strike.  For some reason that only the French understand the 3:15 flight is still on.  We enjoy some wholly satisfactory café au lait and croissants at the airport shop, say goodbye to Elisabeth, then head for the cruise ship dock in Fort de France.  There are 2 duty free shops at the port, and the owners apparently do not like one another.  We buy some wine from each of them.  One follows the rules and says that they will deliver the wine to the boat (on board the dinghy is OK) at le Marin.  The other calls the customs officers who are now apparently back at work – the strike only lasted until noon – for permission to deliver the wine to our rental car.  Permission is apparently granted as our ships papers are with us and in order.  We then head for the big new Carrefour store on the way back to le Marin.  Think Walmart with a French accent.  Prices and quality are good, and they have just about everything.  We load up the car and return to the marina.  We take the dinghy to meet the wine delivery at 4:00 at the Mousse Café, then head back to the car to load up the dinghies with the remaining wine and groceries.  The dinghies groan under the load, but we both make it back without mishap.  The next trick is to get everything on board without the inevitable crew of cockroaches that travel in all cardboard containers down here.  After unloading and storing, Larry heads over to Maestro (with a dinghy full of cardboard) for dinner.  Wendy serves pork with rice newly purchased at Carrefour.  Tomorrow they will continue south and Larry will start on his list of maintenance chores.

January 30, 2009, le Marin

Heavy rain squalls blow through at 4:00 a.m., and again at 5:30.  Larry hears a knocking on the hull and at first thinks he has a visitor, perhaps the anchor is dragging.  It turns out to be a small plastic buoy that was 30 feet or so off the port beam.  The wind in the squalls has changed direction and Singoalla has swung over and bumped into the little buoy.  At about 9:00 Larry picks up Wendy, and they go in to the marina to return the rental, shop at the local chandleries, and get rid of the cardboard.  They then take the dinghy over close to Incidences, the sail maker, to inspect and pay for Maestro’s repaired genoa and Singoalla’s mainsail cover.  It is almost noon when they return.  Sam goes to customs to clear out, but they have decided not to leave until tomorrow.  Larry returns to Singoalla for his first full day alone.  He alternates between small maintenance chores – clearing the hose so the bilge pump will work full strength, making sure all of the seacocks are working – and reading High Endeavors.  He determines not to let Elisabeth’s absence keep him from eating well, so he prepares a dinner of grilled entrecote, sauted potatoes and onions, salad and ciabatta bread dipped in olive oil.  A meal fit for a captain, even a lonely one.

January 31-February 1, 2009 – le Marin

Larry spends all of both Saturday and Sunday working on maintenance chores without ever leaving Singoalla.  He finds and removes the crossover connection between the anchor light and the running lights, and runs a separate circuit for the masthead tricolor.  While the head liner is down he removes the main halyard winch, which has not worked since we returned to the Caribbean in December.  He frees the frozen spindle, lubricates and reassembles it and returns it to its place on the deck.  He services two more winches that have begun to be difficult to use.  He tightens the water cooling belt on the engine and replaces one of the dome lights in the main cabin that has developed a short.  He begins polishing rust spots that have begun to show on the stainless steel on the pulpit, dodger and bimini – this goes slowly because the work can’t be done in the sun.  He fires off about a dozen emails to Elisabeth asking her to bring various things that will be needed on the boat when she returns.  Meals are pretty much whatever is easy and quick – left over coq au vin with instant mashed potatoes, soup in a box, or cereal. By Sunday afternoon he is beginning to put the boat back together and feels he has accomplished a lot.  The crew from Angel in Paradise, a nearby American boat, comes by about 5:00 to ask he we know where one can watch the Super Bowl.  Super Bowl?  Larry had completely forgotten that it is Super Sunday.  He celebrates the event by spending the evening testing the wiring connections.