January 26
Since my last blog, Sainte-Anne was our home anchorage. We had seven boats of friends nearby. Despite the unusual wet days, our social life was at its peak. With them, we had a chance to go on walk/hikes, shopping, lots of dinners and happy hours.
For those who read Frank’s facebook posts, you now know about the bokits. So, you may skip this paragraph if you want. For the rest of you, a bokit is a just a sandwich, a delicious heart-clogger (if you choose the “complete” version). It is very popular on the islands North of St. Lucia. Some background: after slavery was abolished in Guadeloupe, slaves had very little resources for basics: food, shelter, clothing, medicine. They created a bread without yeast, cooked in oil on a pan. Apparently, the Shawnee Indians in New England created a similar bread called a “Johnny Cake”. (They obviously didn’t come up with that name!). The name evolved from Djoncake in Dominica and Barbados, then djonkit in the French islands, to now bokit. It is cut lenghwise like a pita bread and stuffed with whatever pleases your palate. At Boubou Bokit Snacks, we had a “complete” version which included ground beef, mergez sausage, ham, an egg, some fresh vegetables (to alleviate the guilt, LOL!) and several choices of sauce. After that, I didn’t eat for 24 hours. LOL!
Our friend Andrew (boat: Falcon I) was sick with dengue in the past few days. He caught it with a mosquito bite. It takes 3-14 days for the symptoms to start (fever, muscle pain, headache, rash). It usually lasts a week. Thankfully, there are products in pharmacies to alleviate the discomfort. Andrew and other friends who caught it last year say: “You sleep all the time; you feel like sh**t”. The wives say “They have a heightened level of grumpiness” (lol). There are two vaccines for it according to Wikipedia.
This time of year is supposed to be the dry season: usually we have a bright sun and blue skies every day, all day long with a brief shower at the end of the day. This month, it’s almost the opposite: we get one or two sunny days per week! We had gusts up to 35 knots (65 km/h) in the bay! Our anchor and chain held Komeekha in place. The advantage is a clean, salt-less boat. The disadvantage is the endless hours spent on and in the boat. My body (back, hips, legs) was telling me to do something about it because it started to really hurt. Two night ago, I barely slept: my lower back was killing me despite the 4 muscle relaxants I took. Three times I got out of bed; I couldn’t find any comfortable positions. I walked the length of the boat and did some stretches then tried to sleep again. We finally had a chance to walk on shore yesterday (grocery run). I’m painless again. Yey!
I mentioned about our social life at the start of this blog. Another aspect of the cruising life is the support each other provides when needed. On WhatsApp, we created a group chat. When someone has a problem with one’s boat – it happens regularly, as you now know – everybody offers ideas to solve the issue or help with repair. They say two brains is better than one. How about 16 brains!?!? As a group, it is a fountain of knowledge, experience, wine and rum. The support is extensive, generous, immediate and so heart-warming. We never feel alone. Here’s an example: Sailing from Sainte-Anne to Trois Islets, our jib ripped about 15 feet along the sunshield seam (another repair!). We can still naviguate with the main sail (the one attached to the mast). But without the jib, sailing would be much slower. Frank sailing to Grenada for the end of season with one sail is feasible, but the least efficient one. A new sail would cost about 2,000 euros (we’ll repair instead!). Telling our friends about it on WhatsApp, they immediately offered repair locations on the island and Laurie (boat: Cat Tales) offered a spare jib. How lucky we are to have such good, generous friends! Tomorrow, we’ll call some repair shop and decide the next step.
We need to get the replacement part of our dinghie motor in Dominica. If we sailed there, it would take about 12 hours one way. We would need to find an appropriate weather window. As I mentioned earlier, with all the rain and winds we get these days, the weather windows are sparse. And, we need to be back in Martinique before Feb. 4th. My sister Daniele and Richard arrive for a 2-week visit on Komeekha. Due to these time and weather restrictions, we decided that Frank would take the ferry to Dominica on Jan. 29 and come back the following day (the ferry doesn’t return the same day). I booked an AirBnb. I’ll have Komeekha all to myself for 24 hours! Yooohooo!
Many towns in Martinique only have a sort of convenient store to do groceries: limited product choice, high prices. We chose to spend a night at Trois Islets, where there is a big grocery store, to stock up for the next week. Today, we’ll move to nearby Anse Mitan until Frank returns from Dominica. We have friends anchored there who invited us for happy hour today, Maria and Hugh (boat: White Pearl). Then we want to discover the North and East shores of bays Genipa and Fort-de-France, near the airport. There are a few little rivers in mangroves. It’ll be full of surprises, I’m sure.,
