Martinique - Fort de France

We left Le Marin this morning and sailed north heading for the capital of Martinique, Fort de France. This time, despite very strong winds, the sailing was not too uncomfortable (due to the wind direction and sailing on the lee of the island), and no one was seasick. The weather here is crazy - one minute it is stifling hot, then the strong wind gusts up to about 30 miles per hour and a squall comes in with a flash rainfall. This happens throughout day. Just when you think it is sunny and calm, another squall blows in and we are shutting vents (windows) on the boat. We were experiencing a squall every hour.

We stopped off in a bay along the way, dropped anchor and ate lunch. Then I had my first swim in the Caribbean Sea! The water was turquoise and crystal clear, quite delightful. We actually saw a small turtle swimming past but by the time I thought of getting my camera it had dived under again.

We then arrived in the bay of Fort de France where we are anchored in the bay for the night as there is no marina. The winds are so strong that Gavin had a problem finding a spot to anchor where we would avoid knocking into another boat if the winds changed direction. We are going ashore by dinghy tonight for supper but Gavin has already said it will be a hurried meal as he is worried about the strong winds and the boat dragging anchor. We have found out that sailing areas are rated 1 to 3 in terms of winds and therefore challenging sailing conditions, with 1 being the easiest and calmest area, but this area ranks as a 3! Gavin's brother and his wife have visited many islands in the Caribbean and this area definitely ranks as the windiest with the worst weather! It also seems to be a very poor part of the Caribbean.

I managed to create a hotspot off Gavin's iPad to load up my blip tonight as we have no wifi - so it is a quick upload with no extra photos.