GSB On Board

Sunday, December 31

St. Anne, Martinique

Greg Burd arrived just before Christmas, and we enjoyed a few quiet days of sailing, swimming, and eating pain au chocolat while Greg battled the nasty cold he acquired on the Green Line a few days earlier.

On Christmas Day we had a short, mostly downwind sail to Grand Anse D'Arlet, a small fishing village and tourist beach on the southwest coast of Martinique. We had planned to stay for a few days, but the morning weather forecast threatened a big increase in the tradewinds. We halted breakfast preparations and immediately set sail for St. Anne, which, from any anchorage in Martinique, requires a ten-mile motorsail directly into wind and chop. Not fun, but we got it over with before the wind and waves picked up.

Now we are enjoying St. Anne again, and yesterday we took Greg to our favorite beach, Grande Anse des Salines. The beach is an hour away if you walk to it from the town of St. Anne, but we have found some terrific hiking trails that follow the coastline pretty closely. The beach itself is well worth the walk, with great waves for body surfing, beautiful powdery sand, and plenty of shade. According to our friend Gilda, Salines is the best beach in Martinique, and it is popular with residents. There are a few vendors behind the beach selling beer and barbecue, but my favorite vendor is the ice cream lady, who walks along ringing a bell and wheeling a wooden tub full of homemade ice cream.

After two hours of hiking and three hours of playing in the surf, we were too tired to cook on the boat, so we went into the town for a meal. St. Anne has been hosting a week of festivities between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and last night on the stage in the square there were drummers and dancers dressed in traditional costumes. We watched until the restaurants opened for dinner (never before 7 p.m.; Mom and Dad would die), and then had a delicious meal in the open-air restaurant overlooking the anchorage. Not bad for a winter day!