And Then We Wait

We could call all of our blogs this season "and then we wait". That is what it seems like for this year. We are sitting in the lovely big bay of St Anne on the south part of Martinique and have been since we arrived 12 days ago. We took the back stay adjuster in to a very reputable place to be rebuilt. The fellow who spoke very little English sorted through his boxes and indicated he had the right parts and told us he would call us Tues or Wed. But he didn't say what week! Another friend on the boat Zardo speaks France French (in fact he and the service man were born in Brittany about 10 miles apart) and has been in contact for us and now the parts are coming from France. But no date. Here Quebec French and France French are a bit different. Especially when it comes to technical terms for parts etc. Serge found that last year when he visited us. He could certainly understand but some differences. But back to my story....we proceeded to try to make a back stay adjuster from some shackles and a turn buckle. What a procedure! We mentioned it to one friend that we were going in ( into the town of LeMarin where the chandleries are it is a 20 min dinghy ride) to find the bits we needed. He thought he had a turnbuckle we might be able to use. It was a perfect size. A bit old and anything that has been taken off and replaced is usually off for a reason but we thought we would give it a try. Well when we looked at the price of a new one of 500€ we definitely decided Jim's old one would work as a temporary measure. Brian got it all put together and we have the front (jib) sail back one. It is a temporary fix until the proper piece comes in. Jim is a Marine Surveyor by trade and we had him come over for a look and he thinks it is just fine.   As I write this the weather is looking like we will have rain any moment. The rain catchers are in place ready to collect enough for laundry. 

We have decided to wait here for Dawn and Laurie on Cat Tales. The weather is not supposed to be great for the next few days with lots of swells and we are in a good bay for that. They will leave when the seas look good. We will have a couple weeks to spend around here.

Yesterday we packed up our cooler bag and books and went by dinghy to a lovely beach. We had been on a hike to the Saline Ponds on Sun and spied this beach. It was good to get a good walk in since we really have been quite lazy in the walking routine. With Dawn and Laurie coming we better get our legs in shape! 

We have no internet or phone on the boat while we are in Martinique. Definitely the down side of this island. On the English islands the systems are next to free and easy but not here. We write what we want on the boat and post when in town. Carnival has started on all the islands and it is quite a noisy show. On Sunday night we were in town for a FaceTime chat with Heather and got to see the parade. A helicopter was lowering people down onto the main dock maybe just for display ? We weren't sure. This morning at 7:00 they were tuning up the drums again. They park a couple of cars on the street corner and rev them up and make them back fire! Why? No one seems to know just for the noise value we figure.