Martinique

I went to Martinique once, it was closed..

Well pretty much.. there is a strike going on which means shops are closed and kids seem to be off school, and thus out all night and day. having cleqred customs in Fort de France we returned to our dingy to find one of three tubes somewhat deflated. Seeing all the kids on the dingy dock we assumed they had been playing in it while we explored town, it was not a huge problem so we ignored it.. bad idea.. we went back in the evening for a meal, upon once again returning to the dingy we found it deflated. Two tubes this time.. with twenty cuts from a knife. So Tim had to ferry us back out one at a time. I stayed ashore and waited, in that time 6 teenagers came along throwing glass bottles about (from which they had probably been drinking). Upon seeing Tim heading back to shore in the deflated dingy, they began to throw the bottles towards him, while one came up behind me trying to scare me by yelling something that I have no idea what was. Tim got to shore and picked me up, as I was getting into the dingy the one who had yelled tried to get close enough to push me over the edge (he was hiding his face with a scarf and chickened out when I turned my face towards him). We motored out of there slowly in a half sunk dingy under fire of glass bottles and a bag of rubbish that hit me (how does one dodge while in a sinking dingy where movement makes things worse?).

We spent three days repairing the dingy and warning outher yachties of what happened to us. During this time we watched as the kids on the dingy dock messed with more dingys.

Have to go, will finish later.

Back in Bequai

I'm back in port Elizabeth. Having gone as far south as we wanted to we are heading north, to Antigua.We started heading upwards two days ago but upon arriving in port Elizabeth we were informed the weather wasn't going to be good until Thursday, so we're staying here for a few days before continuing upwards. Which is lucky for me as I'm not sure I'm ready for overnight sailing, but the only way to find out is to try, so I'm halfway disappointed about the weather..

Anyhow, odds are I wont be able to post for some time, it'll take at least a couple of days to reach Antigua. We'll probably be going straight there, no island hopping this time round, although that really depends on weather and such. Sleeping on deck will be fun (actually I think it could be fun).. wonder where that life-vest is..

I still haven't made a map, and I don't have my camera with me so I can't upload pictures today, it's easiest to do that via Sam's laptop as the memory card will slot into it. Speaking of pictures, actually it's more of pictures not taken, we've seen Nurse Sharks (well.. they were in a pool and just sleeping on the bottom), Dolphins and Turtles, but every single time I didn't have my camera with me, which is such a shame (because small Nurse Sharks are really cute).

Now I'm sure you remember that the flag we have (the Union Ja-) is rather.. uhm, destroyed? But today we got hold of a Red Ensign, a neighbouring yacht had one spare, so finally we'll actually be flying the right flag (any bets on how long this one will last?).

Anyhow, Sandrine is attacking me on msn, so bye for now, miss you all!

PS: Happy Birthday Evert, at least I think it's today :P I'll call at some point. Have a brilliant day Evert!