Grande Anse D'Arlet Martinique

Diamond rock – formerly HMS Diamond   

We left the anchorage at Sainte Anne at 1100hrs on Friday 9 March and after so long at Le Marin/Ste Anne it was almost a bit of a shock to be under sail again. Our route took us almost exactly downwind so, to alleviate the shock of sailing, we only unrolled the genoa. With 20+knots of wind we had a good turn of speed and after a few miles quickly eaten up we turned onto a slightly more northerly course up the western side of Martinique at Diamond Rock. This distinctive rock sticks 570 feet out of the sea and is just a few hundred metres south of the Martinique coast. During the Napoleonic wars the Royal Navy captured this rock, hauled a few cannon and supplies to its summit and commissioned it as HMS Diamond. It was a significant headache for ships approaching the French stronghold which incensed Napoleon, causing him to charge his Admiral Villeneuve to recapture Diamond Rock and to destroy Admiral Nelson whilst he was at it. Villeneuve did recapture Diamond Rock but failed to engage with Nelson’s fleet which upset Napoleon even more. Villeneuve was ordered to return in disgrace but, instead, he set off to fight Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. The rest, as they say, is history.

Approaching Grande Anse D’Arlet   

Just 5 miles beyond Diamond Rock we approached our destination, Grande Anse D’Arlet. This large bay offered good shelter from the swell although, we noted, it did funnel the wind somewhat. We were clearly not alone in thinking that it was a good destination because, as the bay opened up, we could see a multitude of masts. So many, that we wondered if we would find a space to anchor.

Anchored in Grande Anse D’Arlet   

Fortunately for us we did find a space just large enough for BV in between the other anchored yachts and a mooring buoy or two. In true French style, almost immediately a chap arrived alongside us in a dinghy assuming that we would want to eat. He was one of the chefs living on a nearby yacht who cooked takeaway gourmet meals for yachts anchored in the bay. As delicious as it sounded, we had both food on board and other priorities. Instead of a lazy afternoon eating we wanted to go snorkelling because it was supposed to be very good in Grande Anse D’Arlet.

Garden eels   

We had seen lots of dive boats around the headland to the south of the bay and so that is where we aimed for. Unusually the sandy bottom below BV was populated with garden eels. They stick their bodies and heads out the sand looking for a passing tasty morsel but then retreat back into their holes if a Reg dives down on them to try to get a close-up picture. After a couple of attempts, rather than taking a photo of the sandy bottom, I took the photo looking down from the surface. Not the close up that than I had originally planned [Ed: well done PhotoShop for the enlargement!]

As promised in Doyle’s Sailors’ Guide to the Windward Islands, the snorkelling along the southern headland of the bay was excellent.

There were loads of small reef fish, plenty of live coral and lots of interesting boulders to view.

 

And, it was all within snorkelling distance of the surface so the colours were good too and not greatly washed out by the filtering effect of deeper water.

Rebuilding the starboard lazarette after the work on the DuoGen    

The next day (Saturday) was a day of work. I tried to catch up on the backlog of blog entries whilst Nicky spent an hour or so snorkelling on BV’s hull, scrubbing the bits I had missed or not got to a couple of days previously. Whilst we recovered from the exertions after lunch we noticed that the Duogen had suddenly started rumbling even more than it had done for the last few weeks. We could put off changing the bearings in it no longer. Unfortunately, that means disconnecting the wiring in the aft end of the yacht, lifting the heavy unit off its mountings and into the cockpit [Ed: an ‘interesting’ moment as the unit is suspended on a line over the sea held by someone balancing precariously on one of the pushpit seats] and then a full strip down and rebuild. It took the rest of the day to do the service and, in addition, the mounting bracket needed to be left overnight for a chemical metal repair to a badly worn area to set fully.

The turtles resident in the bay took a keen interest in our progress, popping their heads up every now and then to see how we were getting on. They didn’t stay on the surface long enough for me to take a good photograph of them but I did managed to quickly catch this one (left) before he escaped below the surface.

And whilst we were busy fulfilling the definition of long distance cruising (carrying out yacht maintenance in interesting and exotic places), others in the bay were busy enjoying the latest watersports gizmo – a cross between a step-machine and a stand-up paddleboard (and they all looked as if they were auditioning for Gladiators too)!

Grande Anse D’Arlet   

Grande Anse D’Arlet, Martinique