31 May Ste Anne, Martinique

 We left Fort de France and the awful wash from the ferries two weeks ago and moved to the southern anchorage off Saint Anne. This is a huge shallow bay before the channel into the main yacht port of Le Marin; there must be 200 yachts anchored here Unlike FdF there are no ferries, no leaf blowers running in the park at 4am, no loud music until 2am. In Le Marin there is a large marina, 240 mooring balls and probably another 150 boats anchored.  St Anne bay is calm and quiet with captains leaving a respectful distance between boats. There are turtles too. We have a small one and a big one grazing on the sea grass under us that regularly pop up to take a breathe.  They feel like our responsibility while we're here.

Taking the dinghy to the dock at St Anne we have access to a small Carrefour and an excellent bakery for baguettes. The restaurants don't appeal to us.  We've walked the southern coastal path 5 miles to the salt ponds twice and got drenched in heavy rain on the way back both times. At least it's warm and our clothes dry quickly.

the inspector calls

rain clouds gathering

shrine to fishermen

even more rainclouds

We've also been into the chandlers in Le Marin. It's a run of a two miles in the dinghy which is quicker than catching the bus from St Anne though a bit bouncy on the way in against the prevailing chop. French chandlery shops mean European stock for our European boat. We've been looking for a long for suitable new mixer taps for our three wash basins and two showers to replace the ones that have become tired in the salty air. Finally we found them in Le Ship, manufactured in Italy and the right size. David will be installing them when we reach our summer base in Grenada. Another job to add to the list while I'm home visiting family and friends.