{"id":899,"date":"2012-12-16T21:07:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T01:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tusentakk2.com\/wordpress\/?p=899"},"modified":"2012-12-30T17:22:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T21:22:34","slug":"le-marin-martinique-december-4-13-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tusentakk2.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/le-marin-martinique-december-4-13-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Marin, Martinique — December 4-13, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we arrived in Martinique on Dec. 4th<\/sup>, weather forecasts indicated that we would in a few days be getting high winds and seas.\u00a0\u00a0 Thinking ahead about the nature of anchorages further up the chain, we decided to just stay put until winds and seas subsided again. \u00a0Not the most wise choice we ever made. \u00a0We had several more nice days, during which we could probably have made it to another well-protected location.\u00a0 And the \u201cfew\u201d days of predicted strong winds turned into a full week once they arrived.<\/p>\n

But we were snuggly ensconced in our favorite location within the Cul-de-Sac du Marin:\u00a0 up next to the mangroves past the reefs east of the peninsula hosting Club Med. \u00a0We started out the stay with a visit of a couple of boat gremlins. \u00a0When we put the dinghy down from the upper deck, where it had resided since before we went on the hard in Trinidad, I held my breath while I attempted to start it so we could check in at Customs. \u00a0Started right up, much to my relief. \u00a0I shut it off when I noticed there was very little gas left in the tank, and fetched the last full gas can from the set of three that are stored under a seat in the upper deck. \u00a0Started the dinghy again, but it soon died and wouldn’t restart. \u00a0The gas I had put into the dinghy was very old. \u00a0Maybe too old? \u00a0John and Kathy (Oceana<\/em>) gave us a ride in to customs, and John later took me in to buy fresh gas after we experimented and found the engine ran just fine when connected to his gas tank. \u00a0The other gremlin involved the shower hose that is housed in a box imbedded in the stern of TT2<\/em>. \u00a0It burst one day while I was using it to wash off after a session of water aerobics. I couldn’t find a replacement in Le Marin chandleries or Caribbean marine catalogs so I ordered one from a USA marine catalog and had it sent to Jon and Cathie Ringen, who will be joining us in the USVIs in January. \u00a0What did we do beside fuss about boat problems? \u00a0Well, we did some shopping in Marin, did some hiking, did some grumbling about the slow wifi, and went in to Mango\u2019s for a lunch and what we hoped would be better wifi.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 On another day we went to just outside the Marina that hosts the wifi service, where once again I was unable to download some software I had purchased from Adobe. And of course, as opposed to “boat problems”, there were also “boat chores”; for example I spent about a day and a half polishing stainless steel in both the interior and the exterior of TT2<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We had H\u00e5kon and Anna-Karin (Unicorn<\/em>) over for drinks one evening, and on a couple of evenings played spades with John and Kathy.<\/p>\n

For much of the windy time there were two large motor vessels anchored out in the harbor.\u00a0 The entire eastern end of the bay is jam-packed with sailboats, but with the exception of the Dock Wise vessels we have seen near Club Med, this was the first time we had seen such large vessels in the Cul-de-Sac.<\/p>\n

On December 14 we were finally able to resume our trek northward.\u00a0 But for the details of those passages, the gentle reader will have to await the next exciting episode of \u201cChuck and Barb go Cruising\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\t\t