Blog update.... Saturday 9th March....We're in Antigua.
Chelone's travels.....
John and Susie Blair.
Sat 9 Mar 2013 22:47
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Where were we then? in St Lucia I think? waiting for the new fridge? Oh dear, that was a while ago wasn't it. Well as I write we've just come ashore in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua after a motor sail up from Deshais in North Guadeloupe in flat calm seas this morning but I'll fill you in on the last few weeks now. We left St.Lucia after fitting the new fridge and sailed North 24 miles to Martinique arriving in Le Marin which is a massive yachting centre with a large Marina, numerous Chandlers, Boatyards, Restaurants....and a Yanmar dealer! (Our Yanmar diesel engine still had problems ie won't rev above 2000RPM so less than half power AND the starter motor is duff!). I'll try to summarise here! The new engine is warranted BUT if bad fuel has found it's way through our three sediment trap filters and into the injector pump the warranty is invalid. Besides, the Yanmar guy said he'd have to send the pump to France to have it looked at...a process of several weeks. OK, so I removed the pump, hired a car and with Susie drove up to a specialist diesel pump outfit and left it with them for inspection, we then had a sightseeing drive around Martinique. I gave our starter motor to the Yanmar guy and he said it WAS a warranty repair and having sent photos of the internal fault to Yanmar he was awaiting authorisation to hand over a replacement. Two days later we get the pump back....a small amount of water had somehow got into it but there was also a
mechanical failure which may
have meant a warranty repair after all, who knows?
We were delighted to get
it back but we couldn't test it as we had no
starter!
I called in person to see the Yanmar guy every morning but he'd shrug his shoulders saying he'd heard nothing and we must wait. After nearly two weeks of that I complained wherein he said that if I pay him for the starter with Visa we could have the replacement and go on our way and he'll refund us once Yanmar agree to warranty
the starter, well I wasn't
too happy about that but not wanting to wait any
longer took it, fitted it and
we left Le Marin.
I phoned the Yanmar HQ in the UK and told them the story....they were horrified! we should've been given the replacement starter as soon as the fault was recognised! paying for it like that is completely against Yanmar policy so they've given me assurances that they're going to get to the bottom of it, I hope that Yanmar guy in Le Marin gets his ass kicked, he cost us a lot of time there (he also tried to fiddle us out of other Yanmar parts but I'll spare you that story). In the pictures you'll see 'St.Anne's, we anchored there and wandered about the pretty village, there were friends anchored nearby whom we'd met before. Back in Le Marin we were asked to join other sailors who we hear checking in to the daily 'HF/SSB Radio Net' an American couple and two Canadian couples who are also anchored nearby so that was a great pleasure and we learned much from their vast sailing experiences in
Caribbean waters. We saw part of
the Carnival festivities before we left Le Marin
also.
On the sail north to the Anse D'arlets on
Martinique's west coast we caught a
monster Kingfish (AKA 'Wahoo') good job I'd added
80lb line to the reel as it
put up a hell of a fight! As it was so big we
swapped it for dinner for two with
free drinks all evening at a beachside restaurant.
Further north and at Fort De France (Martinique's Capital) the Carnival was in full swing with streets filled with revellers,
marching drummers and crazy
people.
Our second night there coincided with the climax of
the Carnival and burning of
the effigy of 'Vaval' at the waters edge (See
pics).
Further up Martinique's west coast we stopped at
St.Pierre, another quaint
French village known as the 'Little Paris of
the West Indies' where we met
another British sailing couple for a chat over
sunset drinks after exploring
the interesting sights. St.Pierre was devastated
by a huge eruption from
nearby Mount Pelée in 1902 which killed all but one
of the 30,000 inhabitants, a
single inmate held in prison on a murder charge,
though badly burned the thick
walls of his cell saved him from being fried by the
vast avalanche of molten lava
that covered the rest of the town, twelve ships at anchor in the bay were also
sunk.
St.Pierre was our last stop in Martinique and we
cleared Customs there and
sailed northwards to Dominica.
On arrival we took a mooring off 'New Town',
Roseau. Clearing Customs was
another sailor who recognised Chelone....turns out
he cast our lines
off in Halifax Nova Scotia when we were sailing
back from North America five
years ago! small world eh?
The next day Susie and I explored the
town and I bumped into old friend 'Drizzle',
a 'boat boy' whom I'd met here two years
ago....seemed like yesterday.
The other thing of note (excuse the pun) was that I
bought a guitar off a fella in
the street so now I can drive Susie mad with
that!
We didn't stop off at the harbour at the
north of Dominica as we'd both
been there before, done the 'Indian River Tour' etc
and so pushed on north to
Iles De Saintes, a small group of French islands
between Dominica and
Guadeloupe.
'The Saintes' are amongst the most attractive
islands in the whole West Indies.
We hired a scooter and spent a lovely day exploring
all the beaches and
coves as well as 'Fort Napoleon' with its
commanding 360 degree views and
a great museum where one can learn of the
islands interesting
history including
the sea battles
between the British and French Navy's and
well presented
exhibits detailing the Islands discovery by
Christopher Columbus in 1502 etc.
The waters in the Saintes are particularly clear,
it's a snorkelers paradise! I had
a great time mooching around the reefs and as you
can see from the pictures.
I had an encounter with a 'Ballonfish', I'm glad I
had the camera as I don't think
anyone would've believed me on describing
that!
We cleared out with Customs and motor-sailed in
sweltering light winds up the
West side of Guadeloupe yesterday and stopped off
in Deshaies for the night,
then we left for the 32 mile sail up here to
Falmouth Harbour, Antigua at
first light this morning, another scorcher with
glassy seas (We saw a whale).
We plan on staying here a few days at least before
moving on north to Barbuda
and after that St.Barts and Sint
Maarten.
Bye for now,
John & Susie.
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