The French Non-Connection

Our time in the French Caribbean was wonderful... mostly.  Despite being some of the most beautiful and first-world places with some of the most picturesque anchorages in the Caribbean, there are connection issues - literally and figuratively.  Linda has admonished me to be culturally sensitive in this post. She will redact the testimony if she thinks I've crossed the line.

c'est la vie

Capt. Bob

Language Connection

The thing about the French Islands is... well, they speak French.  We are both high-school level Spanish speakers (which means we are sadly mono-lingual like most Americans). However, it is surprising that even around very touristy areas (like near cruise ship ports and in big cities), there are relatively few people in shops and restaurants who spoke anything but French. Even the Customs/Clearance people often spoke only French and, by definition, they are dealing with people from somewhere else all day long.

I'm not complaining. We faced nothing on the scale of how non-English speakers are treated in mono-lingual America. Normally, our "Je parle anglais?" or "no francais" would be met with "ah, okay... I'll try".  Occasionally, it was met with an eye roll or sigh, but never a "if you don't speak the language, get out of the country" type thing.  Overall, most people were polite or neutral. Mainland Guadeloupe was an outlier as it was much more common to be faced with blatant rudeness at our lack of French. Les Saintes, Martinique and Marie-Galante seemed to be much more forgiving.

So, not complaining, (well a little) but the language barrier does make things more arduous, complicated and harder to connect.  Basic purchases and restaurant ordering is fine, but more complicated interactions can be extremely challenging if not impossible. Our few phrases along with Google Translate and generous locals trying their best with Anglais mostly worked.  Directions, numbers, technical support for a non-working Orange SIM card... that's a different story.

Us being ready with our first two questions for a Car Rental

Designated Feeding Times

Oui, it is very French here. The daily schedule takes a bit of getting used to. When not working, we like to be on the move when we come ashore and pop into different places. We like to sample "a quick bite" or a quick drink at several places or secure provisions and boat parts. There is no such thing as "quick" on the French islands. Many of the restaurants say they are "Snack" places or have a "Snack" section on the menu. A "Snack" on one menu is a Burger with egg on top, salad and frites.  Now, that's a snack!  Budget at least an hour and a half for your quick bite. And be sure to hit the shops in the morning before the 1PM shut down or between 3-5PM (which means another trip to shore later in the evening for the 7+PM restaurant feeding times).

Dinner is late by American standards and especially by cruising sailor standards (9PM is known as "cruisers' midnight"). Dinner is an event. I should say that the food itself is usually incredible, but, an American who is used to attentive service with the periodic "Is everything alright here?",  "Can I get you anything else?", "Would you like another glass of wine?" may feel quite ignored and forgotten. Don't take it personally. What amazed me was how much money is left on the table (literally) by leaving customers with empty drink glasses for the last hour of the feeding or not quickly getting us to pay and move on to open our table for waiting customers. We have learned to go to them to pay; don't wait for the check.  There are skeletons of Americans waiting for checks in some restaurants.

We can decipher menus now (mostly)

Nearly every shop and service closes for a couple (or more) hours in the middle of the day. This is when the designated lunch feeding happens. Once the lunch feeding is over, don't expect to find anything to eat until the dinner feeding time at a million o'clock. During our first time in Les Saintes a couple years ago, we had the misfortune of being starving at 5PM after a long hike and no lunch. We eventually bought a can of peanuts and a bottle of wine at a market we found open. We ate and drank on a public park bench sipping directly from the very nice bottle of Rose de Provence (screw cap).

Because our time is already very regimented by boat tasks, and day jobs and other logistical needs, these regimented feeding times and business closing times can further complicate things. But we are getting used to it and make an effort to adjust when we dinghy to land.

Data Connection

Ugh - this is by far the most difficult thing.  Connectivity is very hard to come by and expensive! Many things conspired against me trying to do my day job here. There were several work telecons that I simply had to drop off from because the connection was so bad. I found it incredibly frustrating because up until that point, the connectivity had been so great in all more third-world countries. If I didn't know any better, it was almost as if the French didn't want me to work.

Whenever I complain to people about difficult connectivity issues in the islands, I'm always met with "oh poor you... you can't work in paradise". The thing is though, if I can't work, I can't be in paradise. This lifestyle is possible for us because we are able to work. When I can't work, I get very stressed and it quickly becomes the exact opposite of paradise.

Combining data and language connectivity issues, I had an Orange Mobile SIM card left over from the previous year which I could not get working. We went to an Orange Boutique in the Martinique Capital of Fort-de-France for help. There was zero English spoken here (3 blocks from the cruise ship terminal in a huge metro city).  Google Translate slowly helped but dealing with a technical issue was incredibly difficult and time-consuming. In the end, they got me going (after I threw enough Euros at them) and I was able to finally have my data for the painful price of 15EUR per Gigabyte.  (We use more than one GB per day.  This was going to hurt!)

One of the most frustrating encounters - at the Orange Mobile store.

Google Fi worked so-so or not at all depending on where we were. I believe they are using the French Digicel (not Orange) network and that was only 3G (or non-existent) in many places.

Orange is LTE.  Digical F is NOT. (Google FI is using the latter)

But, the Beauty

Linda wrote at length about Martinique already. I would say, that this is one place I could return to and charter a boat for a couple weeks.  There are so many great spots on Martinique that you would never need to leave the island in that time.

Sitting Pretty in Saint-Pierre, Martinique

If you prefer swanky urban settings, Martinique has that as well

Les Saintes is amazing. You take a well-maintained mooring for about $12USD/day and have easy access to town. The island seems to be replacing their handful of gas powered scooters and cars with electric golf carts and bikes. We love renting electric bikes to explore the island. You can cover a lot of ground and make it up some pretty steep hills in just a few hours on one of these. If you like a challenge, there are some great hikes here as well.

The mooring field in Terre-de-Haut from a e-bike ride. Can you spot Argon?

Covering some ground on the e-bikes

Getting there was half the fun

We had a fantastic day-sail from Dominica to Les Saintes. Seas were fairly flat with moderate winds over the beam. We kept sails up right up very close to the mooring field. We arrived on Dec30 and things were already filling up for New Years Eve. When we arrived, there were three moorings left. By the end of the day, people were racing for them and fighting (in French) over them.

Sailing on a reach toward Les Saintes from Dominica

Sitting on our mooring in the popular neighborhood near town.

Lodging Upgrade

We went ashore to a hotel to try and harvest their wifi password. In general, we found that wifi was a very protected commodity in the French Islands. It is very common for them to insist on typing a password into your phone or computer so that they don't reveal it (we have the technology to thwart this). But this particular hotel would not even do that unless we were guests! It occurred to me - we're safely on a mooring in sight of this hotel. Let's ask how much a room is. We needed google translate to do this even though there is a giant sign in the reception area that says "We Speak English". So I bought a wifi-password for 160 Euros and they threw in a hotel room, shower and pool. And of course they insisted on typing in the password. Using our technical advantage in the wifi arms race, we were able to harvest the password and use it in the bullet router aboard Argon for the last couple days of our time in Les Saintes. This was a major help. The hotel let us lock our dinghy to the dock overnight (fortunately Linda found a guy who really did speak English to clarify that with).

My 160 Euro wifi password came with this free room/shower and air conditioning!

After leaving Les Saintes, we stopped for just one night in Deshaies, Guadaloupe. It is a good jump off point for a 45 mile sail to Antigua and also a Customs port. Deshaies is a very pretty little town with cool shops and restaurants. You can also rent a car here (with help from Google Translate).  Deshaies is a challenging harbor to anchor in sometimes as it gets deep quickly and the katabatic winds commonly kick things up to 25+ kts.  We were able to get in close enough this time to anchor in 24 feet of water. Not bad. People arriving later in the day (and that night) had a difficult time finding a place in shallow enough water. Often they were getting shooed away by skippers who felt they were trying to anchor too close.

Sitting Pretty in Deshaies

On Balance

This lifestyle is a balance between blissful moments and misery and everything in between.  The end of the leg south last year and the start of the leg north this year were difficult and frustrating for various reasons. Our time in the French Islands, was definitely on the bliss end of the spectrum despite the challenges. Having had the time to get used to the pace and limitations, I would go back any time!

Martinique and Joyeux Noël

We planned on staying in Martinique just a few days. Two weeks and five harbors later, we reluctantly wrapped up our exploration of this fantastic French island to continue our voyage northward.

Captain Linda Perry Riera

Harbors

After a 12 hour challenging sail from St. Vincent, Argon nestled in to the extensive bay at St. Anne on the southern coast of Martinique. This vast area of good holding in 15 foot depths abutting a precious town made for a welcoming introduction.

vous êtes ici

Later, a brief but jaunty down-wind sail to the southwest harbor of Anse DÁrlet (definitely on our all time top 10 list), we enjoyed the pristine water, jovial beach and attractive hillside town.

For a change of pace we also anchored in the urban harbor of the capital city of Fort de France before setting off on an easy short early morning hop to Anse A L'Ane for a couple of nights.

The last few days on the island were perhaps the highlight of our Martinique experience anchored close to shore on an skinny swath of sand in Saint-Pierre at the base of Mt. Pelée along the northwest coast. Saint-Pierre overflows with tragic history from the infamous Mount Pelée eruption in 1902 killing nearly 30,000 people and destroying the city.

St. Anne Harbor was a welcome respite after a long difficult sail from St. Vincent.

Large sea turtles are very common in these waters. We saw the most at St. Anne and Anse DÁrlet.

The rolly down-wind sail along the southern coast through Passe Des Fous. Rocher Du Diamant is prominent in the background.

The spectacular harbor of Anse DÁrlet on the southwest coast (one of our all time favorite harbors).

Anchored near a huge cruise ship in the big city of Fort de France.

Morning sail from Anse A L'Ane to Saint-Pierre.

Harbor of Saint-Pierre with the impressive 4000+ ft Mt. Pelée volcano in the background.

Anchored in Saint-Pierre with Mt. Pelée in the background.

Exploring Land

We were able to get to land quite a bit while in Martinique. Sometimes it was to work, but mostly it was for exploration. Martinique, like all the French islands, is great for provisioning with well stocked markets, good quality produce, excellent wine and cheeses, and reasonable prices. Investigating shops, visiting chandleries, and embarking on rural and urban hikes were a great way to get lots of exercise and experience the island intimately.

Embarrassingly, we still know no French aside from a handful of standard phrases and pleasantries. It is a surprising barrier considering the focus on tourism in the country. However, the vast majority of people were either friendly or neutral about our lack of local language skills. (This is in contrast to the unwelcome vibe in much of Guadeloupe.) Google Translate is of great help in the French islands.

Fantastic, extensive trail along the southeastern coast from St. Anne to Saline Beach.

Vigorous hike along the southwest coast.

Great grilled food along the beach in Anse D'Arlet.

Interesting cascading lights pouring out of the Hotel De Ville in Anse D'Arlet. These are made of thousands of used plastic water bottles.

Close up of the plastic water bottle cascade.

Beautiful glowing plastic garbage mirage at night. Also a reminder of the immense permanent trash we create.

Exploring the big city of Fort de France.

Long hike from Anse A L'Ane to Anse Mitan lead us to a defunct hotel at the tip of Pointe du Bout with interesting street art.

 

Eclectic downtown Saint-Pierre. Many buildings retain a wall or two from original structures prior to the destruction by the volcano in 1902.

Waterfront produce marker in Saint-Pierre.

Hiking Mt. Pelée. The starting point was at about 2400 feet then we hiked up to about 4000 feet. (and there was still more to go)

Breathtaking views down the carved trench of Mt. Pelee. We were pretty tired by about now.

Zoomed in shot of Argon's anchorage along the city of Saint-Pierre from atop Mt. Pelee volcano. Argon is just above the ferry dock.

Are we there yet?! Nope, still more ridges beyond.

Enjoying post hike adult beverages in a funky downtown bar, Saint-Pierre.

We are getting better at deciphering menus.

The Negatives: Thefts, Connectivity and Transportation

Martinique proved to be a wonderful island for cruising. However, there are a few challenges.

Dingy thefts are common in Martinique (similar to many Windward islands). Even gasoline cans getting swiped out the dinghy as well as gasoline siphoned out of the can is problematic. (We anchored next to and hung out with two other American boats in Saint-Pierre - both had their gas tanks stolen recently while in Martinique.) The logistics and expense associated with replacing any of these items is substantial. Currently there are transportation related strikes on the island further increasing gasoline thefts due to the constricted supply. Stainless steel chain ($$$) locks our outboard and gas can to the dinghy. And another stainless steel chain locks the dinghy to the dock when going ashore. It is also necessary to lock the dinghy to your boat at night as thefts occur even when at anchor with owners on their boat. Argh!!

Heavy chains and locks add a layer of inconvenience when going ashore, but it is necessary.

Martinique is the most first-world place we have been in months. Roads are in excellent condition, products and services are plentiful. But this country is by far the most difficult and expensive for data connectivity. Thank goodness we had Google-Fi going in one of our phones, because for much of the time here, it has been the only option but it was slower than normal (not fast enough for voice calls / telecons). We always try to have redundant connectivity options if possible since we are so dependent on it for work. We still had an Orange SIM card from last year on the way south but could not get it to work. And even if we could, the cost of data on Orange is 15EUR/GB... more than quadruple the Digicel price of about $3USD/GB. When we got to Fort de France, we eventually found an Orange Store and brought one of our phones with our old Orange SIM. No one in the store spoke any English and we struggled through using Google Translate. For some reason (in french) we needed a new SIM card (19EUR). But even then, that didn't work so we needed to be escorted to a strangely secure upstairs section of the store to see "The Technician" (9EUR more) who got us working. After all that hassle, data is still 15EUR/GB so we continue to limit the use of the Orange SIM for when we need really fast LTE (like for work teleconferences). We will certainly go way over our allowed 15GB from Google FI this month and have to buy additional data at $10/GB (but this is still cheaper than Orange). We continue to muddle through the data challenges while island hopping.

More hours spent in search of and waiting at an Orange store for help securing SIM card data. No English was spoken here; there was lots of usage of Google Translate.

Google Translate is immensely helpful not only for deciphering menus but for more complicated transactions like renting a car or trying to rectify data issues.

Martinique has a lot to learn from the non-french West Indies when it comes to transportation. In many of the non-french islands, there is a system of private buses and taxis. In Grenada and Antigua for example, a driver can buy a van, and buy a permit to run a particular bus route. His incentive then is to pack as many people into his van and get them to where they want to go as fast as possible so he can cram more people into his van. We have never seen a bus refuse to pick up someone because of such a silly reason as  being "too full".  We have taken several rides on each other's (or strangers') laps.  For the sailor trying to get places, this is extremely efficient. You will never wait more than a few minutes on any road without several buses slowing down, honking and asking you if you want a lift. Often, the buses make stops at businesses and restaurants to deliver supplies from vendors. It's incredibly efficient Island UPS. And costs only about $1USD/trip. The downside of this system, is that because of the incentives, they drive... insane. (Just close your eyes and hang on and enjoy the thumping music.)

Martinique is the extreme opposite. There are very few taxis, and there is no private bus system. There are over-sized, overly comfortable, air conditioned municipal buses that arrive at specific stops very infrequently. (And do not dare try to pay fare with anything larger than a 10EU note.) To effectively get around Martinique, you need to rent a car. But securing a rental without an advance reservation is very difficult as the supply is strangely restricted. The roads are clogged with rental car traffic and parking can be difficult. Message to Martinique: be more like Grenada and the other islands with transportation (only maybe drive a little less frighteningly).

Bob working while we wait (for a long time) for a bus to take us to the chandleries in Le Marin.

Boat Projects in Paradise

Martinique is the Caribbean shopping mecca for mariners (second only to perhaps St. Martin). We took an (inefficient) bus trip from St. Anne to nearby Le Marin. The trip proved fruitful as we scored zinc anodes for the sail drive and bow thruster, an additional piece of stainless steel chain for added dinghy security, a headlamp, and sail tape.

There is always a list of things to fix, tweak, maintain, and inspect. We checked off several small projects recently including whipping on the reefing line and main halyard (to assist line setting for reefing), scrubbing the bottom of the dinghy, rigging the boom brake, checking and adjusting the rig tune, replacing lots of rigging tape. We also made a trip to a fuel dock and, after hovering for nearly an hour awaiting our turn, topped off diesel and gasoline and filled our water tanks. 

There are several projects on the to do list including polishing the bow roller, addressing the vented loop on the sump discharge to stop it siphoning, cleaning the sump, inspecting and cleaning the bilge pump, checking the lazy-jack lines for chafe, getting the broken backing plate out of the boom (probably requires removing the boom) and having a new padeye welded, inspecting all steering mechanics and autopilot...  The more I type, the more I think of...

Oh, and we are way behind on laundry. There is a growing, stinky pile craving attention.

Tweaking the rig tuning, replacing some codder pins, and fresh sail tape.

Whipping mark on the reefing line and main halyard to assist with reefing. (It will be re-done when we can get some reflective sail thread for better visibility at night.)

Replacing the shackle with dynema lashing on the main tack for a more clean attachment to the gooseneck bolt.

Rigged boom brake - particularly useful since we are now happily often sailing off the wind. (A recent padeye breakage is cause for improvising the attachment point temporarily.)

Where to Next?

The next island north is Dominica. Despite being big fans of this beautiful and rugged island, we will keep our stay in Dominica brief so that we can move on to Les Saints / Terre de Haut (part of another French country, Guadeloupe, thus with the same data limitations and language barrier).

Au revoir, Martinique!!

Saint Vincent - Fascinating!

Like many cruisers, we by-passed St. Vincent last spring on our southward journey to Grenada. Reports of security issues keep many away, especially charter boats. However as with many things in life, St. Vincent is complex; not all good or all bad of course. I am so happy we decided to park there for a bit and experience a little slice.

Captain Linda Perry Riera

Sailing from Bequia, Grenadines to St. Vincent

It was not straightforward to figure out when or where to go as the winds were up and with a northerly component making the sail from Bequia to St. Vincent more difficult than usual. And the popular Atlantic Rally to the Caribbean (ARC) was just arriving in the main harbor, Blue Lagoon, leaving no room. After investigating the handful of western harbor options, all with inconsistent reviews at best, we settled on Cumberland Bay. And oh what a find!

St. Vincent is similar in size and population to Grenada: about 130 square miles (almost 20 miles long) with a population of about 100,000. But its topography is more akin to Dominica with jagged, dramatic mountains (including the 4000 ft La Soufiere volcano), lush rain forests, rocky cliff-lined coasts, and scant sandy beaches.

Cumberland Bay is only about 20nm away from Bequia. But with 20+ kt E/NE winds forcasted, we weighed anchor at 0600 from Admiralty Bay, Bequia to get an early start before the winds and seas peaked. It was a short 6nm of exposed ocean and then the lee of St. Vincent quickly offered protection.

Approaching the dramatic coast of St. Vincent.

Morning sail with squalls in the open water north of Bequia, a bit south of St. Vincent.

Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent

A deep bay with shallow rocks reaching out from both the north and south sides of the entrance, a rapidly shallowing shelf, and a lush steep forest enclosure, Cumberland Bay is a unique oasis.

Cas, proprietor of the simple but welcoming beach restaurant Mojitos, greeted us as we approached to help with the tricky med moor style anchoring. We were instructed exactly where to drop the hook as the depths swiftly jumped from more than 100 to less than 10 feet. We then handed Cas about 100 feet of our line which he brought to shore and tied to a coconut tree to keep us from swinging in to the rocks.

Cas talked to us several times about his plan to organize and sponsor a Sailing Regatta around St Vincent in April 2020.  He seems very keen to do it and after sailing these waters, I can attest that it would be a pretty zesty ride! His facebook page may have more info as it approaches.

Argon remained comfortably nestled in Cumberland Bay during our two night stay despite the winds kicking up a party outside the bay. Our time in here felt like visiting someone's modest neighborhood where all their cousins gathered to hang out; completely non-touristy, everyone going about whatever they do normally leaving us to ourselves, but also making us feel welcome inviting us to join in if we wanted to.

Cas, proprietor of Mojitos, shows us exactly where and how to anchor as the deep bay quickly shallows along shore.

Enveloped in a very peaceful and beautiful anchorage. The winds were up a bit outside but one would not know it from in here.

There was usually only one or two other visiting sailboats in the entire bay.

Argon anchored in Cumberland Bay along side a couple of local fishing boats.

View from the bus ride to Chateaubelair.

Cas took us on a challenging hike through the land of his family - along a ridge with dramatic views and down a steep, muddy hillside.

Sweaty and muddy, we came upon Cas' dad, Evan, and one of his many brothers, Pie and stopped to chat for a bit. While there, we picked some sour sop from out back.

Along the hike, we gathered grapefruit, passion fruit, tangerines, lemons, sour sop, mango apples and basel.

Colorful, sturdy houses built in to the steep mountainsides.

View of Cumberland Bay from the roadside up the hill.

The fishing hut of Captain Guidi's (a colorful ex-pat from Italy). Captain Guidi is very passionate about his homemade lures. We bought a customized lure for trolling off Argon. Look forward to trying it out and bringing in a big one (or just any one).

Beach view and Mojitos restaurant.

Time to Move On

We enjoyed our final evening and prepared to depart before daybreak for a long sail to Martinique.

Impressive coconut tree climbing. We all stood back as the heavy coconuts came crashing down. What was best about this is that it is not for us, the lone tourists. It's just a few guys hanging out  wanting coconuts. And happy to share with visitors.

Venita, Rasta Joe and others all waiting for their serving of fresh coconut.

Kenny cuts open several coconuts for all of us.

First we drink the milk, then the entire coconut gets split open and we scoop out the soft layer of fresh coconut with a piece of the shell. Yum!

Nestled in Cumberland Bay for our final night. Prepare to depart at 0500 in the morning for the 12 hour sail to Martinique.

Passion fruit mojitos made by Venita at Mojitos beach restaurant. So happy we were able to experience this place briefly.