6 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
I had yet another administration day, this time on our finances. The UK is in the middle of leaving the European Union (EU), commonly called “Brexit”. Our Prime Minister has recently negotiated a deal with the EU and the UK Parliament is currently debating whether to accept or reject the deal. This is causing great turbulence in the financial markets, with the FTSE 100 crashing down to 6,700 points today - the lowest in 2 years.
Having sold our house eight years ago, most of our money is now tied up in pensions and investments, which of course is all invested in the stock markets. Our plan is to cash-in our pensions next year when we get back to the UK, which will give us enough money to put a deposit down on a house. I’m naturally concerned about the volatility of the stock markets and don’t want to be cashing in our pensions when the stock market is very low.
I spent the morning reconciling our various pensions, investments and bank accounts, so that I have a good idea of the state of our finances. I then spent the afternoon doing some forward planning. Fortunately, 11 months ago, when the FTSE 100 peaked at 7,800 points, I moved half of our investments into Bonds, which has partially limited our losses. Instead of losing 10-15% since January, we’ve only lost about 4% total value.
There’s nothing much I can do at the moment, except hope that the stock market will bounce back when there’s more certainty about Brexit. My plan is to cash in 25% of our investments when (and if) the FTSE 100 reaches 7,800 points again. Normally, I wouldn’t be bothered about these fluctuations in the stock markets, but the draw-down of our pensions is getting very close.
The uncertainty of Brexit is also affecting the value of the British pound against the US dollar, which currently is very low at $1.27 = £1. This means that the cost of our day-to-day living expenses are higher, but on the bright side, if we can sell the boat in the USA for US dollars, we’ll end up with more pound notes in our pocket.
7 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Today, we had a holiday. We hired a car and went for a drive up the West coast. After stopping in a couple of small seaside towns, we arrived in St Pierre, which used to be the biggest port in Martinique. In 1902, the Mont Peleé volcano erupted and a pyroclastic cloud swept down the mountain slopes, destroying the city and killing 28,000 people - only about 30 people survived and most of those were on ships at anchor off the town.
Today the town is rather sleepy and is a major tourist attraction in Martinique. We wandered the narrow streets and looked at the various ruins left from the 1902 disaster. After an hour, we’d had enough ruin-staring, so we drove slightly out of town to the snappily named “Centre for Scientific Research of the Earth”. They have some interesting exhibits and a good audio tour, which runs through the 1902 disaster - it’s only €3 per person to get in.
After a three course Plat de Jour at one of the restaurants above the market, we visited the Depaz rum distillery. It was interesting to wander around the beautiful grounds and see the equipment, but the distillery only operates during the Sugar Cane harvest, which is from February to June. We’re not great fans of Rhum Agricole (rum made from Sugar Cane), so we didn’t buy any bottles. We returned home via the east coast road, making it a long day.
8 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
It was a squally day, so after returning the hire car, I had another session cleaning the engine. I tackled the starboard side of the engine a few weeks ago, so now it was the turn for the rest of the engine and gearbox. It took me four hours of lying across the engine to clean and de-rust all the hard to access areas. Glenys kept out of the way and tried not to hear the profanities.
9 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Before the wind picked up, we dropped the mainsail and bagged it up, ready to take it to North Sails tomorrow. We then went for a hike over to the windward side of the peninsula.
From the dinghy dock, we walked past the cemetery, along the main road and straight over the roundabout, taking the dirt road past the old mill. After ½ hour, we reached a car park at Baie des Anglais, where we headed west to walk along the coastline around the peninsula back to St Anne.
It was a pleasant hike through coastal bush and then into open volcanic land. We passed by the Anse Saline beach where there were hundreds of people sat in beach side eating places and had our lunch sat on a tree away from the maddening crowds. The next beach was a nudist beach, which appeared to be mostly gay men, so I tightly gripped Glenys’ hand until we’d escaped.
I’d worn my hiking boots, which had been repaired in Namibia, but as I suspected the repair didn’t hold and both soles were flapping by the time that arrived back in St Anne - the route took us about four hours.
Back at the boat, we had a quick nap, a bowl of soup and I painted undercoat on the engine parts.
10 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
After breakfast, I whizzed over to Marin drop off the mainsail - Gavin says that it should be ready late tomorrow afternoon. While I was over there, I called in at Leader Price, where I did some essential provisioning - 3 cases of beer, 4 bottles of wine, a baguette and some goat’s cheese.
In the afternoon, I painted a coat of silver paint on the gear box and green paint on the engine.
11 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
First thing in the morning, I finished off the engine room by applying a second coat of paint. Glenys popped into St Anne to do some proper provisioning, so that we can eat for the next two weeks.
We spent the afternoon waiting for the sail to be finished - I finally picked it up at 16:30. We fitted the sail before it went dark. . I think that the adjustments to the luff curve have made the sail a lot better when it is fully out. However, it still appears to be too full when reefed.
12 December 2018 St Anne to St Pierre, Martinique
I woke up thinking about the mainsail, so before breakfast, we pulled it out and I took photos of the sail when fully out and when reefed. I rang Bill in the USA and discussed the sail. He says that the fullness when reefed is probably because the sail has stretched in the middle after we’ve sailed 12,000 miles in two years. I told him that we’ve already delayed in Martinique for a week and need to move on, so he said that he’s happy for me to stop in St Martin or Antigua and let them have a look at it.
We pulled up our anchor at 09:30 and, with only a 6 knot wind directly behind us, we motor-sailed the 10 miles around Diamond Rock. Once around the corner, we had some good wind on the beam, so we had a good sail up the west coast of Martinique. Anchored off Anse La Touche about ½ mile south of St Pierre at 14°43.95N 061°10.84W in 7 metres depth over good holding sand and weed. It’s a nice quiet anchorage compared to the anchorage off the town of St Pierre.
I nipped into town to clear out, which was very easy at customs computer in the L’Alsace de Kay restaurant. Back at Alba, I went for a snorkel around the boat. The water was very clear and on first impressions it was very boring - just sand and weed. Then I spotted a Golden-spotted Eel, which perked me up. Unfortunately, I’d left my camera on the boat and the batteries weren’t charged. I swam around for an hour and saw another eel, plus two octopuses and some large Lionfish - remind me never to go snorkelling without my camera…
13 December 2018 St Pierre to Castaways, Dominica
With a 55 mile passage ahead of us, we were up at 05:30 and left at 06:30. It was a good passage across to Dominica - one hour of motoring and then a bit windy at the north end of Martinique with 25 knots at times, but that was to be expected. Thankfully, it was a reach with the wind at about 70 degrees, so we weren’t pounding up wind.
As we approached Dominica, we hooked a fish, but were disappointed to find that it was a 4 foot long Barracuda - we don’t eat large Barracuda because of the danger of Ciguatera. I hauled it in next to the boat, carefully hooked the gaff into its gill slot and managed to get the hook out from those wicked teeth without having to kill the fish.
We were planning to go up to Prince Rupert Bay, but the anchorage isn’t that brilliant and the boat boys can be a pain in the neck, so we opted to stop off at the derelict Castaways hotel. I was a bit unsure about where to anchor because I couldn’t see if the sea bed was coral or weed, so while Glenys kept the boat stationary, I donned a mask and climbed down the swim ladder to confirm that it was weed. Our Rocna anchor slammed in, so we were happy. We anchored at 15°24.86N 061°25.81W in 8 metres of water over weed and sand.
It was only 14:00 when we anchored, so we jumped in the dinghy and went looking for an artificial reef, which is made up from a couple of dozen hollow, concrete balls. The reef is about 75-100 metres in a direct line from the old hotel’s dock. It was excellent snorkelling with clear water and lots of variety of sea life. The surrounding weed has Golden-spotted Eels and Bearded Fire Worms; the sandy areas have Peacock Flounders and Lesser Electric Rays; while the artificial reef has a plethora of fish including Lionfish and Scorpionfish.
As it went dark, we were in splendid isolation, which was lovely for a change, although we did put up the security bars in the aft cabin hatch and locked the washboards in place, just in case some enterprising local wants to board us in the middle of the night.