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Cruising Log of Serafina of Maldon 2012

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Cruising Log of Serafina of Maldon 2012 This is our cruising log which runs from Jan 2012 through to October 2012 and covers our trip which had started in Grenada in Nov 2011 and finished in Annapolis, USA. Rob & Sarah Bell and their Najad 460 yacht, Serafina of Maldon. Pigeon Island a view on Marigot Bay, St Lucia Mon 2nd and Tuesday 3rd Jan Well it turned out that we had got our anchor properly dug in at last and we remained safe and sound for the two nights we were in Marigot Bay. Monday dawned grey and breezy and for the next 12 hours we got repeated blasts of what the locals cheerfully refer to as ‘Liquid Sunshine’ , in fact an excess of it. It really seems to be a speciality of this extraordinary ‘hurricane hole’ that has its own real micro climate. We went ashore in the morning and toured the few shops and restaurants etc. and admired a couple of outstandingly beautiful wooden yachts and then had a light lunch in Doolittle’s Restaurant. (The original Dr Doolittle film was shot on location here centuries ago) before returning to Serafina to watch all the comings and goings. Somehow, despite Sarah’s vigilance, we managed to miss Ko-Ko sailing in and this was despite them blasting their horn repeatedly when they saw Serafina anchored there! They got in touch though and we joined them and a number of their Norwegian friends in Mygos restaurant for another fun evening. However apart from this, somehow Marigot did not manage to endear itself to us and whilst we are glad that we made the visit to satisfy our curiosity, we would not rush back there again. Ko-Ko had spent New Year’s eve in Bequia and had tales of howling gales and the disturbing tale about the boat which was moored on a buoy behind them and was wrecked and sunk on the rocks on the far side of the bay, when the buoy broke free. A sort of object lesson in not trusting the local mooring buoys…. Furthermore whilst we were bemoaning the endless horizontal squalls of rain sweeping through Marigot, poor Ko-Ko was making her way from Bequia to Marigot (60 miles) sailing into 40 knots of head winds and 3 – 4 metre seas between the islands. The boat boys offering fruit and veg in Marigot also have a lot to learn from their counterparts elsewhere. We had one lad’s boat tied to our stern for an hour as he tried to fix his very ancient outboard and another chap who sailed around offering fruit using a decrepit small catamaran seemed very enterprising but was actually extremely surly and rude which did him no favours at all, particularly when he slipped on his ‘deck’ (piece of crate) and crashed into our anchor chain narrowly missing our bow! (We have since heard that Ellen on Ko-Ko had lent him a knife to cut open some fruit at which point he sailed off keeping her knife!) In contrast the services around Rodney Bay are very slick and enthusiastic and we were very impressed by the efforts made by Sparkle Laundry and the main fruit and veg man (see the photo pages). On Tuesday we got ready for the sail back up to Pigeon Island and then went ashore in the dinghy to clear out through Customs and Immigration. We stopped by on Ko-Ko for a coffee and made loose arrangements to rendezvous with them in a few days in Martinique when we also both plan to meet up with Song of the Ocean. The sail back was outstanding and although we were seriously over canvassed, Sarah managed to beat us back upwind into 25 knots of wind (30 across the deck) making a respectable 6, 7 and even occasionally 8 knots, close hauled all the way. We dropped the sails and found ourselves a good spot to anchor and it was not until we had done this and settled down to some lunch that we spotted Halsway Grace barely 200 metres away. Seems that they too are headed for Martinique in the morning. Great news by email as we got a reply from Antigua Rigging to say that they would be happy to do the mast repairs for us and will endeavour to obtain the new part from Selden themselves. We even have a date fixed for 20th Feb, all being well. Le Marin, Martinique Wed 4th & Thursday 5th Jan Up with the lark – well it was daybreak and set sail out of Rodney Bay heading north to Martinique. There was the usual big overfalls off the north western tip of St Lucia and then we were back out into the Atlantic swell and the residue of waves from the previous few days of harder winds. We were blessed however with an easterly which meant that close hauled we were just able to make a heading direct to Le Marin in the south eastern corner of this French island. The wind remained a pretty consistent 15 to 20 knots all morning and so we made great headway through the swell with one reef in the main and just the staysail set forward allowing us to make 6 to 7 knots all the way. Glorious sunshine all the way too, so finally a day without rain! We dropped anchor in final approaches to the marina which is handy for both getting to the supermarkets and the main town dinghy dock (Customs and Immigration etc.). We had an early lunch and then set off to explore the town, which turned into something of a long drawn out exercise and we did not return to Serafina until around 6.00pm. On Thursday morning we were up early again, firstly to clear in through Customs (they are only open 7.00am to 12.30am) and also to visit the internet café (no wifi in the bay). We needed to get going early as we had to pick up the car we had hired for two days at 8.00am. There was a bit of confusion about which day we had to return it mainly because we had mistakenly got it into our minds that today was Friday! So it was quite a bonus to discover we had just gained a day. We then set off on one of our usual blind days out, only this time Sarah had done quite a bit of homework and we even had a half decent road map. It did not take us long to quite fall under the spell of Martinique and certainly we have been a bit dismissive previously, but today we got to see some of its better features and (with apologies to our old travelling companions Chris and Steve off Scott-Free, who of course we missed) it turned out to be one of the best days out we have had during our time in the Caribbean. We had an early stop for coffee in Le Francois and were very taken by the extraordinary brand new church (cathedral?) under construction there – funded by Rob’s favourite financiers, the EU (anyone who hasn’t been treated to a rant has something to look forward to….). But at least on this occasion even Rob felt it was a worthwhile cause if wildly out of place in such a poor town otherwise. The east (Atlantic) coast is stunning with some wonderful beaches and bays and glorious views. It also appears to be well protected by offshore reefs, although we felt it was a remarkably calm day for Atlantic swells. We can see the temptation of sailing up this coast but the only pilot is in French. We explored the ruins of the great plantation at Caravelle which also had a lot of quite harrowing information and pictures (and even an early 1900s photo of a man manacled and netted) of the slave trade. Further on we stopped and had a very nice lunch at the Restaurant ‘Point do Vue’ which overlooked one of the best surf swept beaches of them all. We then continued north, before heading inland and wound our way up several of the volcanoes before heading through the stunning rain forest, driving along quite narrow roads and endless chicanes until we reached the ‘Jardin de Balata’. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the day and we had an adsorbing hour or so there, exploring the beautifully presented botanical gardens (including a very vertiginous aerial walkway – too much for me) with Sarah taking loads of photos, the best of which as usual we will post at http://www.rhbell.com as soon as we can. So with the rush hour in full fury, we entered Fort du France looking for the huge Carrefour Hypermarket which we found surprisingly easily. After a leisurely hour visiting every aisle in the place, we headed back to Marin and around 7.45 pm we arrived back at the stern of Serafina in the dinghy and were able to take the first real advantage of our new courtesy light! Trois Islets and Anse Matin Fri, Sat & Sunday, 7th, 8th & 9th Jan. On Friday, following a quick visit to the internet café, we set off again in the car (Renault Twingo) and after buying a load of courtesy flags for some of the countries we are due to visit later in the year at a specialist flag makers shop, we drove back to Fort de France and found our way to La Galleria which is a vast shopping mall.
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