Bulletin - 3 February 2001

We took advantage of the rain showers which washed all the salt off the boat during our first 10 days or so to do quite a bit of painting and varnishing, since we knew we would have a few weeks to combine work with relaxing.

We were anchored in the South of the island, with many of the other yachts which had crossed the Atlantic at the same time as ourselves.  We all got together for lunch on Christmas Day, each bringing a contribution. 

Because the weather was uncertain, a kind bar owner allowed us to use his under cover tables and chairs, right by the sea, so we were all able to land by dinghy, and of course, with a cover over our heads,  the rain kept off!

We had started the day by going to a very ebullient  mass, held in a newly built, open sided, but roofed church, as the old church is in a dangerous state of repair.  The bells have been brought to ground level  but were vigorously rung nonetheless.  The choir  mistress held a practice for both congregation and choir for the 15 minutes or so before the service, so we were able to join in the singing. 

The small town of St Anne had organised a number of Christmas events, many of which were disrupted by the power workers striking (well, it is France …) but the sounds of various jazz and steel bands drifted pleasantly across the anchorage most lunchtimes, and we were also thankfully mostly disco-free at night.

 We were interested and amused by the stories from the Napoleonic wars, when Martinique was already French (Josephine’s birthplace, no less), and St Lucia, just to the south, seemed to change hands between France  and England with great regularity.

  

Visible from the anchorage across the bay was one example – Rocher Diamant - Diamond Rock.  As you can see from the photo, it is very close to the mainland, but the British decided it would be just where they would station a patrolling ship if they had one to spare, so they took possession of the rock, fortified it, put a crew on board and named it HMS Diamond!  They were well placed to take shots at passing French ships. 

Napoleon was incensed by this, and the English version of the story goes that he sent Admiral Villeneuve across to Martinique to recover the rock, and to demolish the English fleet, while he was about it. 

Nelson was keen to meet Villeneuve and chased him across the Atlantic, but wrong information sent him first to Barbados.  Villeneuve recovered the rock, but hearing that Nelson was sailing north towards him,sailed back for France, where he was met with disgrace.  He put to sea again and met Nelson in the battle of Trafalgar!   We can only gasp at such exploits – we certainly did not feel up to fighting a battle immediately after crossing the Atlantic!

On leaving Martinique, we moved south, first stopping briefly in St Lucia, where we anchored in Rodney Bay (named after Admiral Rodney who sailed from there to beat the French at the battle of the Saintes), then in Marigot Bay, with an entrance so well hidden that another English Admiral was able to hide his fleet from the French (helped it is said by tying palm trees to their masts!), while the French sailed past in hot pursuit.  Even with GPS, we only made a positive identification of the entrance when we saw a yacht come out!

We sailed on down past St Vincent – a beautiful, wild looking island, again very green and mountainous – to Bequia, where we also stayed for just a couple of days.  We hired mountain bikes and rode over to see a one-man hawksbill turtle conservation project, which was fascinating.  “Brother” King started about 5 years ago to rescue the tiny turtles as they hatched.  They were becoming endangered, and are very difficult to protect as they do not all go to one, known beach, like many other types of turtle.  He “grows them on” until they are large enough to have very few predators, which takes about 2 – 3 years, and then releases them back into the wild.  He must have had thousands of baby turtles in his sanctuary, and has already released several hundred.

The ride out was lovely, though we needed every one of our 21 gears!  That night we proved that Bequia can more than hold its own against Martinique in the restaurant stakes, and at the same time were fascinated to hear the band sing a song about the “champion whaler man”.  The following morning we set out on the bikes in the opposite direction, to see the small whaling museum, housed in the said champion’s house.  He died 6 months ago, but limited whaling continues in Bequia – they take 2 per annum, using two 27 foot sailing cum rowing boats, each with six crew; hand thrown harpoons, and 130-year old guns to kill the whales.  They use the meat and oil for food in the islands (“the oil is very good for pea soup”!), and whatever one may feel about commercial whaling, it was interesting to find the traditional methods still in use here.

Now came Cecile’s longest test so far – a 2½ day sail to the offlying Los Roques islands of Venezuela. Great relief and a much easier passage as a result!

Los Roques are a number of small islands, protected by a long barrier reef, which are a Venezuelan national park, due to their bird life.  We saw thousands of pelicans here, patrolling and diving for fish, as well as many magnificent soaring frigate birds, some of whom we had noticed on our approach to Martinique, and many other diving birds which we couldn’t identify.   

We spent hours just watching, and some trying to capture on film, these extraordinary birds, with their rather clumsy but clearly successful diving technique. As they bob to the surface, small seagulls and terns sit on their heads to try to grab fish from their bills!

We also started to snorkel over parts of coral reef, seeing more fish than it was possible to remember afterwards, to try to identify, although it has been very windy, making the water full of suspended sand and therefore often not very clear.

Only one island is inhabited – the others are reef, a few trees and mile upon mile of white empty sand, with azure water.  It is a real hardship being there!

 This update is being written in the next island group, Los Aves (named for their birds) very similar to Los Roques – reefs, beaches and mangroves, but this time with hundreds of thousands of boobies – graceful diving birds – roosting in the trees and wheeling around us.

We are on our way to the “ABC” islands and thence to Panama, from where we will try to send another update before we set off across the Pacific.

John & Helen Fleming
Flame of Gosport
3 February 2001