From Martinique to Cartagena, turquoise water and wind!

Starting from Martinique where I went back on "Minuit" early February 2008, we did several short trips to Saint Lucia, Domenica and Les Saintes.
If the water is really the exact blue you see on postcards, we didn't expect to have so much wind, and mainly on the nose as we crossed the "channels", the name given to the passages between islands where both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet. Wind was usually very strong with the waves "that go with it". I's not the sailing paradise we expected and being in the Caribbean Sea is quite challenging at times.

We will recall a few spots we really enjoyed such as the Pitons in Saint Lucia. We anchored close to the smallest piton and enjoyed snorkeling in an extremely clear water.

Les Saintes are also well worth a nice walk in the small town full of tiny houses in bright colours.nous ont, elles aussi charmées.
Martinique and Guadeloupe are two islands which are "too civilised" for us, having said that it was great to stay in the bay of Le Marin in Martinique, 5' by dinghy form a cybercafé, from a "hard discounter" supermarket and all sort of services, a dentist, an optician, well, all the "civilisation" we do need sometimes!

Leaving Martinique, we spent two weeks in Antigua which is our preferred island. Antigua stages the Classic yachts Regatta every year and we were there during the "Sailing Week" a major event during which it's great to see all these sailing boats racing in the trade winds. English Harbour in Antigua is a gem with the Nelson's boatyards still being renovated and the charming town.

One small "hop" in Saint Barth before arriving in Marigot, in the French part of Saint-Martin. The bay is well protected except when there is a northerly swell, so, we just crossed the bridge to enter the Simpson Bay Lagoon where we dropped our anchor on the "unseen" border between the French and the Dutch side of the island for a simple reason: we were right in the middle to go and see friends on both sides. Georges on "Iergès" sailing to France this year after 20 years and 2 circumnavigations. In the Simpson Bay Marina on the Dutch side, we went to see Lily and Philippe, Belgian friends we first met in South Africa and are now working on charter boats there.
We had the pleasure to go with them to Anguilla for a few days. It's a wonderful island with remote smaller pretty small islands such as Prickly Pear. It's great to snorkel there!

Mid-June, it was time for us to leave the Caribbean Sea since the cyclone season just started. We sailed directly from Saint Martin to Cartagena. We skipped Venezuela due to the latest bad news on armed robberies of boats both on the continent and in remote islands such as Los Roques, We had extremely good wing, sometimes very strong generated by the tropical waves coming one after the other. We arrived on June 22 just before another stronger wave. Cartagena is really a beautiful city and very very safe which is both great and unusual in South America so we are taking our time to visit the Old City at ease. On the boat, we constantly see the Coast Guards touring the large bay of Cartagena.

We will stay here for a couple of months, probably leaving "Minuit" to go back to work in Europe since we need to wait for the end of the year before heading to the Panama Canal, to cross it early 2009 on our way to the Pacific Ocean.