After an hour, we arrived to this pretty little village. Typical architecture, attractive malecon, and interesting sites...such as the oldest movie theater of South Martinique!!!

It was enjoyable to chat with an elderly man – 85 years old – who was too happy to recount stories of his life as a fisherman and post carrier in the “metropole” . He knew very well the path that we just hiked and used to do it twice a day !

Apres avoir marche sur le sentier contournant le Morne Champagne, nous sommes enfin arrives au bourg des Anses d'Arlet...mignon comme tout avec ses petites maisons creoles, son eglise au bout du quai, et son Cinema Atlas, le plus vieux du sud de la Martinique! J'ai fait une jasette avec un arlesien de 85 ans qui s'est fait un plaisir de me raconter ses tribulations de marin pecheur et sa carriere de facteur!

Due to strong swells in the Atlantic, some surf was felt throughout the night...not much movement here on the west side of the island, but rather the sond of waves crashing on the beaches....After breakfast we calked the windows and around 10h30 we began hiking to the next settlement of Anses d'Arlet...we took the path across Morne Champagne and enjoyed the view of our anchorage...

Asked what these grasses are for, a fisherman explained to me the "science" of attracting fishes by throwing this mass of grasses (banana leaves) in the water...he drives as far as 150 miles offshore and fills his boat with fishes...We could learn from him..so far, the only fresh fish eaten on board La Buena Vida came from the fish market!

On Sunday night, we get a taste of what the big carnival will look like in a couple of days. There is a mini-parade supposedly starting a 17h00 with groups from small communities of the South of Martinique. After almost an hour wait, here they are:men and women of all ages dressed in red, in blue and in white, with frills, sparkling ribbons or newspaper clips, playing big drums and calabash…they chant and dance through the village streets about 4 times before stopping at the market place for a longer demonstration of their skills. We are amazed and can only look forward to the soon coming parades in Fort de France! Last year, there were no celebration due to the strike movement in all French departments...so this year, there is a rebound of energy! There were thoughts for the people of Haiti who, unfortunately, are having other worries than carnival parades...

Pour nous donner un avant-goût des grandes célébrations du carnaval qui se tiendra a Fort De France du 11 au 17 février, nous assistons a une mini-parade de groupes appartenant a diverses régions du Sud de la Martinique. Mini-parade???? après une attente d'une heure, ca a valu la peine: la parade arrive! Plusieurs groupes de danseurs aux costumes multicolores font le tour des rues du village 4 fois et arrivent , exténués a la place du marche ou ils donnent une démonstration de leur danses et musique! Merveilleux! Nous avons donc très hâte d'assister au reste des parades...faut dire que l'an dernier, tout avait été annule du aux mouvements de grèves dans les territoires et départements français...ca devrait donc être deux fois mieux cette année!!! Malgré tout ca, les Martiniquais pensent a leurs frères et soeurs haïtiens qui ont d'autres malheurs s'acharnant sur eux...

On Saturday evening, we go for a stroll in the pretty village and enjoy the view of the illuminated church for the 19h00 mass. The doors are kept open as if to invite more people inside…although it is already full. We stay late in the village and join the crowds at the market place to enjoy salt cod cakes or accras de morue as well as creole chicken…fingers licking good.

Time to leave Le Marin for Ste-Anne…we are looking forward to walk to the Salines, one of our preferred hikes. It is Saturday morning and the paths are deserted and the beaches are not yet flooded with tourists … visibility is great on that day and enables a great view of St Lucia’s mountains. After a swim, we enjoy sitting in the shade of palm trees while eating our baguette sandwiches and drink cold Lorraine beer (yes, it’s ok to drink alcohol on the beach here!!!).

At some point, it seems that all cruisers meet again...we have now spent time with our friends Peter and Ruth on Aquataurus and with the delightful scottish family on Seawarrior with whom we indulged in Gin and Tonic, Martinique Rum and salt sticks last night!!!

It has been more than a week that we arrived in Martinique...once more! Our goal was to shop...food and drinks!, to do rust work and to enjoy the French way of life of the Antilles before the Carnaval, from the *th to the 15th February.

We have done all that...but the weather has been rather difficult with frequent daytime and nighttime squalls, strong winds, and cloudy days...we are anchoring in a pretty mangrove lined lagoon where the wave action and wind effect are reduced...

Mango dilemma!!!
We gathered those beautiful and giant mangoes in Bequia and now the time has come to eat them!!! They are wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! They make great pancakes........................

The passage betwen St Lucia and St Vincent is ca. 20 miles long ; the silhouette of the Pitons was easily recognized and was a familiar sight. It seemed like an eternity that we had been in St Lucia ...we had reached the 14th latitude! We anchored in the beautiful bay of Anse La Raye, just south of Marigot Bay. We were the only boat there...it is an unspoiled place compared to the other bays. In the night, I heard women's voice singing and in the morning, fishermen went out in the colourful boats to set their nets...

The sail from Bequia to St Lucia - 54 miles - was just like in the magzines...15-18 knots steady breeze from the East, but no fish..although we were having the line out for the entire trip!

There was no moon during the crossing from Bequia to St Vincent ..but as the sun rose, the stars slowly receded..and then we slowly sailed along the St Vincent coast. What a wonderful island...rugged shorelines, rocky mountains, so different from Grenada.

Nous devions quitter Bequia aux petites heures du matin pour nous aasurer d'\arriver a Ste Lucie avant la noirceur...le ciel etait etoile, et au lever du soleil, nous etions arrives a St Vincent que nous trouvons tellement imposante avec ses montagnes rocheuses et ses petites plages de sable noir!

After our friend's Uwe departed Grenada, the time had come to leave the windwards islands...leaving Grenada after several months of wonderful times with hiking, walks through St Georges, fun times in Hog Island. The passage between grenada and Carriacou was once more a tough one, with the underwater volcanoe Kick'em Jenny and other surrounding islands creating their share of currents. The next leg to Bequia saying goodbye to the wonderful - but at this time of the year too crowded Grenadines - was a great sail ending with a couple of days in Bequia. We once more gathered several pounds of mangoes, enjoyed a wonderful sunshine and left for St Lucia at 4h30 in the morning.

Callaloo soup…a caribbean delicacy! The leaves are huge, the taste close to spinach, and easy to make. I used the recipe of our dutch accordeon player, henni on Windjammer, and it was a great success! Our friend Uwe tried it at the Yacht Club restaurant and found mine wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy better!

Nous aimons faire la soupe aux callaloo…specialite des iles. Hennie, notre joueuse d’accordeon hollandaise, nous en avait preparee une pour la soiree du 31 decembre...inspiree, je l’ai recree avec un grand succes!

Another day, another fall...After Concord, Heiner felt that Uwe might enjoy the Seven Sisters Fall in the national forest of the Grand Etang Park...The ground was less muddy than at our previous visit, in October with our friends Carole and Daniel. And it was more serene...as Heiner and Uwe remained alone after a large group of german tourists departed the site. Both enjoyed this "guy's outing" and spent much time swimming in the crystal clear water of the falls...

Another “expedition” ..this time to Concord Waterfalls, on the western side of the island. We took the bus from Prickly Bay to St-Georges (2,50 $ Caribbean) and then to Concord ($3,50 Caribbean)…the road was reopened..(there had been a major explosion on that stretch last fall). We wanted our friend Uwe to experience traveling with a minibus, island style, and to view at least one waterfall…The weather was very gray that day and as we got out of the bus it was pouring rain! We took shelter in a boutique where printmaking on fabric was the specialty and clothing and other Grenadian products were on sale. The staff was from Concord and Gouyave and were delighted to have visitors..although there are sometimes 4 cruiseships in St-Georges harbour, these far away places (10 miles!) don’t profit from the tourists influx…we wonder if anybody profit from these cruiseships visitors except maybe the local shopping center in St-Georges where all visitors stream to by pizza, Subway sandwiches (!) and some tee shirts… Back to our expedition: from Concord, we walked 1.5 hour under a light and refreshing drizzle rain through..a real paradise! It was breathtaking to wander through the country side where cashew trees, star fruit trees, cocoa and nutmeg trees grow among bamboos and coco palms..such a bounty! And with the light rain, it gave a real “rain forest” touch to the landscape…

The fall itself was beautiful but we were so wet anyway that a bath did not feel "needed"!



Notre expedition a Concord fut un success: nous avions vu celles des Seven Sisters, grimpe au Mont Qua Qua et vu le lac du Grand-Etang. Cette escapade fut tout a fait differente, comme dans un paradis terrestre ou poussent tous les fruits exotiques imaginables !!! Cette marche de 1.5 heure nous emmena a la chute Concord mais nous n’avions pas envie de nous y baigner puisque nous avions ete sous la pluie au cours de notre marche !Ce fut une superbe decouverte et nous a permis de voir une autre facette de la flore grenadienne.

First time snorkeling with a S U I T...getting into it is difficult! But with the help of your friends, everything goes! Uwe enjoyed swimming with the turtles and the colourful fishes of the Tobago cays...

The dreams of some are the nightmares of others…it was late at night when the chartered 46’ Beneteau S/V Thetis anchored besides us…like 15 feet besides us. We warned the skipper:

LBV: Hi neighbours..you are really to close!
BENETEAU: We’ll be OK, we have 2 fenders at the back..
LBV: Really???? That's all? Will you keep watch tonight?
BENETEAU: …(they probably wondered what watch meant!)
BENETEAU: How many meters of chain do you have out?
LBV: 25 meters
BENETEAU: We have 14 m....

At this point, several of the crew members got all the fenders out and another 10 m of chain which made our proximity even greater. During the night, our boats were so close that we could have jumped in their cockpit. We were concerned that if forced to reanchor, they probably would pick up our chain instead of theirs!!!
This morning, as we prepared to lift anchor…we first blew the horn as a warning but it took a good 20 minutes before Skip came outside. He sheepishly said that it would be ok…we “forced” him to come out…here he was, standing like a wax statue at the bow, probably wondering what one could do…(as I am writing, a couple of hours later, he has probably not figured it out yet…).

Bye Bye 2009 , you were a fun year...and so was the party!!!
Notre "Bye Bye" a 2009, tout en musique et rires!

GOOD BYE 2009! 2010 HERE WE COME!

Last year at that time…we were already in the Caribbean, in the US Virgin Islands more precisely! We were still new to the area and 2009 has been a year of discovery, encounters of all kinds, and unforgettable experiences (the good and less good ones).

Since our departure from Kingston, Canada in September 2008, we traveled ca.4000 nautical miles and visited 20 islands! We have not yet listed how many kinds of rum and beer we drank…but we really made a distinct effort to taste each island’s beverage! Butter and cheese were mostly from New Zealand…thank God for Martinique and its imported goods from France! We met hundreds of people of different races and nationalities, locals and cruisers included! And as a bonus, we got to spend more fun time with friends …so much more than if we had been home!

As the year comes to an end, we look back and can’t help to feel good about our voyage on La Buena Vida. We had fun telling our stories and showing pictures on the Blog: Sharing the stories make the experiences so much richer! We wish all of our readers all the best for 2010!

AU REVOIR 2009! 2010 ON ARRIVE!

Ah! Le fameux bilan du dernier jour de l’année…l’an dernier, nous étions tout juste arrivés dans les Caraibes et nous célébrions cet événement à St-John dans les Iles Vierges américaines. Au cours des 4000 milles nautiques parcourus depuis notre départ de Kingston, Canada en septembre 2008, nous avons visité 20 îles, fait des rencontres de tout genre (si on compte les personnes, la faune et la flore!) et fait des expériences (bonnes et moins bonnes) qui resterons inoubliables! Et comme bonus, nous avons aussi passé beaucoup plus de temps avec des amis et fait avec eux des expériences qui resterons de merveilleux souvenirs (on espère!)...

Alors que nous disons au revoir à 2009 et saluons 2010, nous ne pouvons qu’espérer que 2010 sera à la hauteur! Nous continuerons de relater nos expériences sur le Blog car de les partager avec vous les rend encore plus enrichissantes. Merci à vous, chers lecteurs et lectrices! Nous vous souhaitons une merveilleuse année 2010 !

Gorgeous frangipani flowers ....

Every turn of the road had fabulous views and then we came to this old estate with cows and bulls grazing under coconut plams...

Holiday season? Yes, instead or doing work we snorkel or hike...One of our best hikes was to the Atlantic side of Bequia, to a place called Industry. The beaches are fabulous with black and whitish sand and the view of neighbouring island breathtaking...especially seen through the palm trees!