Week 37: Martinique to Guadeloupe (104 nm)

We continued our progress northwards to the Leeward Islands and had company most of the way from our friends on Seahawk. Travelling as a fleet had a host of benefits that helped us stay positive as we wrestled with some unexpected fiscal constraints.

Seahawk reunion

Having spent the last couple of days of the previous week at anchor in St Pierre, Laura and I were starting to get itchy feet and so Laura had checked us out from Martinique to allow us an early start the next day in our sail to Dominica. It was during the checkout process that she stumbled across an amazingly fast internet connection (that we are finding to be few and far between since reaching the Caribbean), that also had the potential to reach us on Serenity (at anchor in the bay). On her return to Serenity, she raised the WiFi booster and validated her hunch by setting up what felt like a fibre broadband connection! Gobsmacked by the speeds we were getting, I went to the bow to check that she hadn’t run an Ethernet connection down the anchor chain when I wasn’t looking – but it genuinely was coming through the booster from a restaurant around 150m away. Soon after this discovery, we also learnt that the Sam and M (the English couple we had met in Lanzarote on Seahawk) were also headed up to St Pierre that day, so making the decision to stay was then a no-brainier. This was a great example of the increased flexibility available within our Caribbean cruising plan (vs. The Med) and it felt really good to be able to take advantage.

The WiFi gave us a chance to catch up on some of the blog and life admin backlog that had built up during and since the Atlantic crossing. Top of the list was the boat insurance, which had been causing us all kinds of difficulty (more on that below), but we had managed to make good progress on most fronts by the time Seahawk dropped anchor 20m off our stern. They were joined by Alex, who was one of their crew that had completed the Atlantic passage with them, and we immediately made plans to join them for drinks that evening.

As we mentioned when we first met Sam and MA from Seahawk in the Canaries, we had quickly bonded over shared experiences of 30 year-old, relatively inexperienced sailors (from a live-aboard perspective at least) dealing with the highs and lows of a life afloat. Catching up with them that first evening about each of our Atlantic experiences was unbelievably refreshing, and we were delighted that our route plans were aligned for at least the next couple of days. We discussed the various anchorage options and agreed to break up the long c.80nm sail to Guadeloupe with a quick overnight stop at Dominica. What then followed were a couple of truly special days where easy trade wind day sails were followed by alternating evenings between the two boats. Sailing with like-minded cruisers offered a whole host benefits, including:

• Sharing of accumulated cruiser knowledge and tools – Sam and I brainstormed some of their electrical challenges, M introduced Laura to the wonders of pressure cookers, and Sam lent us some pipe to help fix our tender paddle
• Taking pleasure in small home comforts, as we brought over home made guac and ice when visiting them, and they reciprocated with curried popcorn and fancy spiced rum
• Working through our collection of board games, where Sam was able to finally win a game of Catan and we explored one of the more surreal games of Secret Hitler that we’ve played as policy began to take precedence over party
• Discussion of fishing strategies, lure placement and how to deal with the challenges of weed

On the last point, after an almost nibble-less first day with the lines up to Dominica for both boats, we pulled into the Illes des Saintes (part of Guadeloupe) on our second day still with nothing on our hooks but seaweed. Seahawk had taken a slightly different route on the final approach, but we were surprised by how much time had passed before they joined us in the anchorage…the Mahi Mahi currently in their fridge turned out to be the source of the delay and they kindly invited us over for sushi that evening. We were able to offer my recently acquired (but still very much rudimentary) sushi skills from Master Udon, and working as a team with Alex and M, we were able to deliver a wide variety of sushi styles. It turned out that they had sacrificed almost all of their electrical capacity that day in order to refrigerate their catch and Sam was determined that the sizeable fish should be eaten in its entirety that evening to give the batteries a break. As a result, when we finally returned to Serenity that evening, we were stuffed to the gills (:P) and ready for bed.

The next day, Seahawk departed for the Guadeloupe itself in order to drop Alex off at the airport and find some solar panels that would help solve some of their electrical difficulties. They had been surviving without a fridge since arriving in the Caribbean, and we were impressed with their stoicism in the face of what felt to us like a pretty big burden. They were then planning to head up to Antigua for most of February to host various family members, before setting their sights on the Panama Canal with the hope of getting across the Pacific and to Fiji by July – a journey of over 7,000 nautical miles! This high mileage cruising plan had been jaw dropping when they first explained it, and driven by a variety of factors including a desire to complete a full circumnavigation before their savings ran out. It certainly went against the experiences that Laura and I endured in our first Mediterranean season, and it was really interesting debating some of these pros and cons with them. Based on the short time we had spent with them thus far it was clear they had the deep reserves of commitment and endurance that would be needed to achieve this plan, and we are excited to track their progress…but we also know based on our last 12 months that we need a slower timetable in order to get the most out of this trip, which means we will be parting ways with them at some point soon. The good news is that it’s clear our routes will be overlapping for at least a while longer and it will be good to enjoy their company whilst they do.

Financial headwinds

Another benefit we found from our time sailing with Seahawk is that they are also cruising on a limited budget, and are therefore as excited by opportunities to sail frugally as us. This means choosing your marina days carefully and anchoring whenever possible; it means eating on board at least six days a week and understanding how grocery prices vary from place to place; and it definitely means hours of careful internet research before making boat investments and undertaking all possible maintenance yourself. I suspect there is a reasonable correlation between the age of cruisers and their available budgets (almost certainly at the younger end of the spectrum) and spending time with them helped us reduce our daily spending – a welcome side effect given how our financial situation was evolving.

To provide some further context, we had been hoping that our move to the Caribbean would give us an opportunity to reduce our expenditure compared to our season in the Mediterranean. Our first year on Serenity had been significantly more expensive that we had expected for a number of reasons:

• Optimistic estimates on the costs of preparing the boat for the Atlantic to a sufficient standard
• An aggressive route plan that went too far East before turning West, which set an ambitious mileage target (even discounting the number of days where sailing was limited by the maintenance / enhancement work) and meant we spent far more on fuel than expected
  • It’s worth flagging that this decision was itself impacted by funding, as the VAT saving from US registration had implications on Laura staying in the EU
• Finally, linked to the previous two, we then struggled to find affordable mooring options along the route (outside of Greece) and good anchorages seemed to be few and far between

By contrast, Serenity wouldn’t need any more upgrades in order to cruise the Caribbean, our fuel usage would benefit a far more conservative route plan alongside reliable trade winds, and the natural geography of the Caribbean means that anchoring is a way of life. As such, we were excited to finally live within our means (i.e. the income from renting the flat) and better preserve our savings.

The good news has been that we are already benefitting from all of these factors – fuel is down 50%, mooring is down 70% and our maintenance spending on Serenity has been limited to small odds and ends. On their own, this would obviously have given Laura and I cause to jump for joy; however, life is rarely that easy and it is with a wry smile that I recall the consultancy speak I would have used in describing this situation when at Credo:

Unfortunately, these savings have been offset by a combination of unforeseen market headwinds

Our biggest problem has been the boat insurance, which has essentially tripled despite our increased sailing experience and year of no claims. We still don’t fully understand the reasons behind this, and for a while we considered reducing our coverage to just third-party liability (which is apparently a common route taken by long term cruisers); however, at the end of the day we decided that we had too much money invested in Serenity to take this route. The likely outcome would have been sleepless nights any time it was windy and a reluctance to leave the boat for more than a few hours at a time, which was at odds with our desire to enjoy a more laidback form of exploring the world.

On top of this, health insurance and flights costs are well above what we had expected (although for each these it is poor planning on our part that is the main cause and the horse has now bolted), and we have also been amazed at the price of groceries here. Thankfully this last one is within our control, and we have just been slow off the mark at changing our diet to limit the proportion of imported ingredients. Meat is dear on most of the islands and so we are ramping up our proportion of veggie meals, but even these need to be tailored towards local produce. As an example, we’ve seen bell peppers selling for over £1.50 (c. $2.00) in some supermarkets, where as the local christophine is a fraction of the price and you can save even more at the local fruit and veg markets.

If we are able to get the grocery spend back down towards our previous levels, then balancing the books in the short term will become possible. Obviously, changing to more local options is well within our grasp and can also be part of the fun of exploring, but it takes time (and often internet) to source the appropriate recipes and ingredients. Thankfully, time is something that we now have as a result of our lower pressure cruising plan, and meeting other like-minded cruisers like Sam & M gives us an opportunity to share recipe and cooking ideas. Our target is to get back to an even keel (:P) by next month and once that is done we can work through any changes to our longer term plans.

Iles des Saintes and Pointe-à-Pitre

After our night of sushi, Laura and I decided that we wanted to stay a couple more nights in the Iles des Saintes to explore, especially seeing as we still had a third of our water tanks left. The main town on Terre de Haut is a wonderful blending of French and Caribbean aesthetics, and is reknowned for its boulangeries. After a morning wander and delight in getting our first proper cappuccino since we left Europe, we headed back to Serenity to make the short hop round to Marigot Bay (different to the Marigot Bay on St Lucia…it turns out the French islands have a very limited repertoire of available names).

Marigot was a smaller anchorage and we had it to ourselves for the vast majority of our time there. There was a small fishing town on the beach that we visited, which gave us access to a nearby nature reserve. The snorkelling there was the best we have enjoyed and furthered our commitment to getting some underwater camera equipment. The only downside was the sargassum weed, as the bay was on the windward side of the island and so most of the beach was swamped by the incoming green tide.

The smell of the rotting weed was nauseating to say the least, as it seemed to capture the very essence of decay in a particularly pungent way. One of the locals seemed to have a full time job working a tractor to clear the beach, but the task was reminiscent of a Greek hero. We suspect that many beaches throughout the Caribbean will be facing this problem, and were wondering about the impact on the islands economies (especially in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes). The local fisherman should have better luck than us seeing as they don’t rely on trolling, but even so I’d be surprised if it didn’t make their lives harder.

We finished our land tour with a hike up to Fort Napoleon to get some views of the bays. Whilst the fort was only open from 9-12, we found an enjoyable hiking trail that circled it upon and afforded us a glimpse of a few local iguanas (who turns our are fast and wary of humans!). We then spent our second night in Marigot (both really enjoyed watching Garden State for the first time) and the departed the following day for Point a Pitre – the capital of Guadeloupe. We booked into the marina and completed the typical shoreside whirlwind of food, water, laundry and showers, and even managed to squeeze in a pizza at a marina side cafe. We always sleep well after these somewhat brief bursts of activity and we awoke the next day looking forward to planning our next few days on Guadeloupe.