New Year with friends and bugs

Labels: 28 - New Year with friends and bugs

New Year with friends and bugs

What to do in Martinique?

The first sail down form Guadeloupe to Martinique was a bit fast as my brother could only visit us for 10 days. It was a great way to get a first glimpse of the countries.
So now we’re alone, we’re getting some repairs done, school back on track and we went for some great visits in Martinique.

If you don't know already and just want to see the pictures up, close and personal, just click on one of them 😎

December, 31st of 2018: New Years eve!

We stayed over a week in Petite Anse d’Arlet. More beautiful than the Grande Anse d’Arlet. Less boats, nice mini village and a great diving spot.

We celebrated new year on a 45 foot catamaran with 6 adults and 8 kids! We were spoiled with dinner and a delicious 10l home made brewery of rhum and I don't know what (secret recipe 😈). Very nice memories!

Snorkeling is fantastic before 9 am and after 4 pm when there are less people 😎. There's a small open aquarium where you don't even have to dive to see a whole variety of wonderful fishes, turtles, starfish and snails.

January, 2nd 2019.

We have started school on a higher level now. We go a bit faster and even dad has chosen a subject and is teaching math with the greatest patience ever. That's why the rules for Uno and Rummikub have changed: they get crisps each time their answer is right 😯 It feels a bit like rewarding a dog, but I guess if it works 😏😳

January, 3rd to 6th 2019.

Another great surprise was when we learned some Belgian friends were spending their holidays in the area. Se we felt the need to meet! First encounter on board, second encounter at the best bar of Little Anse d'Arlet: Au pied du Morne. It's cheap, it's delicious, it takes ... a lot of time! But while you wait for your dinner, try the planteur (local beverage based on rhum). It's the best one we had until now and also the cheapest 😜

Tip: don't annoy the owner. She's full of humour, but you have to "tickle" her a bit 😏

The third encounter was drinks and "la galette des rois". Louise was happy to be the queen and give the crown to one of their beautiful boys!

Behind this restaurant "Au pied du Morne" we went for a hike between Petite Anse and Grande Anse d’Arlet, which is very nice! Make sure to have water with you and try to not get lost! You don't have a great view over the bays due to the vegetation so it makes it more difficult to orientate 😊

January, 7th of 2019: Le Marin

We’re off to the south of Martinique to get some repairs done (our lazy bag and genua show patches of holes to come, normal after 5600 nautical miles 😎). We left in great sunshine and arrived in this weather:

As you can see, we also have our share of rain. We even had to take our sailing gear out (over the bikini) 😝

Geoffrey has it’s first big “bobo” while getting the lazy bag off.

We stayed two days at a pontoon to get the boat spotless and do almost two months worth of laundry 😖.

While waiting for the laundry (local beer in a Hoegaarden glass):

The second night was also the night to say goodbye to wonderful friends we met in Cap Verde. We’re quite sad, as we had really good times together. However I guess it’s part of the voyage and we’ll have to get used to it… snif!

As we’re having our last drink together, the girls are playing outside and suddenly shouting “cucaracha” !!! At first we’re laughing, but I swear when I saw the big beast running on our boat, I was screaming as hard as they were! Luckily Geoffrey is getting really good at catching them!

I don’t get why, we were honestly the cleanest boat on the whole pontoon! So Geoffrey started to put vinaigre on the mooring lines to avoid his cucaracha friends from coming over.
Suddenly our friends decided it was time to leave to minimalize the chances of getting some in their dinghy :-) As they left, in quite a hurry, they got pulled over by the police 😂 Luckily no alcohol test was done and they came off with a warning. Apparently, every three months new police officers are on the job and there more severe in the beginning of their term 😏

So off we go on anchor again (the cucaracha’s don’t swim).

The shopping here is easier by dinghy as they installed a pontoon behind the shop 😀

We anchored at the entrance of the bay at Sainte Anne. And we were not alone!

I don’t know how many boats but we started counting and think there were over 500 boats.

The way out of the bay towards Saint Anne. With some "small" yachts lying around...

Club Med at the entrance of the bay.

The view to the right:

And the view to the left:

There are quite a few yachts lying around on beaches as well 😓

Louise and Anna are cooking and Anna made a Ti Punch (they're learning very quickly what's good in life 😝):

Luckily not everyone goes to the beach 😎

Locals are training on there Yoles for the 35th Tour that will take place in July and August 2019. It’s a magnificent boat and looks quite difficult to be symbiotic with so many on board!

January, 11th 2019.

Now we took a mooring buoy at le Marin. I just didn’t feel at ease leaving LouiseAnna at anchor, while staying a few days on shore… We rented a car and went to the north of Martinique. We stayed two nights at a very interesting “hotel” at Morne-Rouge, just at the base of the volcano Mont Pelée.

Interesting as in: good looking houses from the outside, dark humidity patches, but clean sheets and warm water inside :-) The girls were enchanted (after daddy caught the “beasts”) and the hosts were very nice!
You only have to accept to share your cabin with other visitors... as Anna has an eye for it, the three girls screamed from time to time: "CUCARACHAAAAA" 🙈😂

Hike #1: La montagne Pelée starting from our cabin.
The goal:

We started of in ... the rain with no clear view at all...

I'm sorry there are many pictures, but it's just sooooo beautiful that it's impossible to show less 😳

Almost at the top!

Very steep and enormous steps for the girls...

But all very happy 😊

We made it and we had a clear view for ... 15 seconds!

The edge of the crater:

View of Saint-Pierre:

And the way back down 😱

The result:

Hike #2: Gorges de la Falaises (you can see them on the picture above). We went for a hike and swim in a river descending from La Montagne Pelée. Again we started of in the rain...

You have to pay 7€ and you receive sexy shoes as it's going to be very slippery and wet!

You descend the gorge through the most luscious tropical forest!

Base camp from where a guide takes you up the river. We forgot the Gopro so no pictures except one under the waterfall from the 4 other people that joined us 😃

You have to climb over ladders, swim along ropes (strong current) and pull the girls along on your back. They loved it! Except the waterfall which was a bit hard on their heads 😲

Hike #3: In the afternoon we passed by Fond-St-Denis for a small and "easy" hike along the Canal du Beauregard above the Carbet River. By "easy" I mean it's easy of you're not afraid of heights 😳