I left Minuit on October 13, 2007 for a 3 months and a half contract as Events Manager in a company based in Mechelen, Belgium and I consider it as one of the best I ever had in my consulting years.
In the meantime, Benoit went to the shipyard of Chaguaramas on the island of Trinidad, one of the most industrialised islands in the Caribbean. It was time for the yearly maintenance of "Minuit" and Trinidad is the place of choice for many "yachties" although the prices there are also increasing like in any other place in the world.
After cleaning the hull of the hundreds of barnacles which are really slowing us down, Benoit sanded the hull and choose a black anti-fouling paint this time. He heard that barnacles tend to "stick" less on black paint, so let's just cross our fingers!
The rigging also needed some revision. Benoit also order a new pump for the water maker which will prove very useful in the Caribbean but mostly for our crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
End November, it was time for Benoit to sail north, to Martinique where I was going to join him early February 2008.
Leaving Trinidad, he headed to Grenada, Prickly Bay then Carriacou, Bequia, St Lucia and finally the large bay of Le Marin, south-west of Martinique which he reached end of January.
The bay of Marin where I joined him on February 3, 2008 is huge and it's one of the major nautical bases in the Caribbean. It's a perfect shelter to allow him to continue working on his game GeoEdu and for me to finish a few paint and varnish "jobs" inside the boat.
At anchor like us, we met some friends we've known for years like Georges of "Iergès" (76 years old and finishing his second circumnavigation) and Jean-Louis and Christiane of "Ty Mor". Our social life became extremely busy with lots of invitations for a drink based on the well-known Caribbean rum and nice meals that we can "end" with a great French camembert. We must say that provisioning here is very easy with plenty of supermarkets. We can even get to one of them by dinghy and there is a pontoon just for us a couple of meters from the entrance!
To move around we use the "Collective taxis", nice vans that clearly specify destinations and prices. That's how we visited small villages such as Rivière Salée, Rivière Pilote but also mainly Sainte-Luce and Sainte-Anne with their lively fish markets, covered fruit and vegetable ones and the small restaurants serving the local "accras" and fish "sauce chien" (a fairly spicy sauce).
We didn't visit the north of the island yet with the well-known mountain "Montagne Pelée", nor did we visit any rum distillery yet but we will surely do so when our only passengers will come in March and April.
There are plenty of boats in the Caribbean no doubt, a paradise for "yachties" from mainly France, the US and Canada. You can see the most fabulous yachts, old riggings and sailing boats like "Minuit".
As an example, here in the Marin, there are 600 boats at the many pontoons of the Marina and one hundred more anchored in the bay. There are plenty of retired people from France who usually sail here for 6 months and leave the Caribbean in this safe marina during the Cyclone season to go back to France.
There are also plenty of Charter companies which are really competing hard in terms of prices. Benoit met a couple of Belgians who have been chartering in the Caribbean for 20 years but who recently gave up as they were facing the harsh competition of large companies offering hard discounts and also facing the new restricted regulations in the British Virgin islands for example.
In other words, we just think we didn't find yet a "base" yet for us to stay a while so we are already talking about crossing the Panama Canal early 2009 which means that we will only stay here a few months.
In March, we will sail north to Dominique, Guadeloupe, Les Saintes and then St Martin for a last stop in May before heading south to Venezuela.
