Treading water in Martinique

So in a frenzy of arriving & boat maintenance Chris left for Europe last week. So now we are 3 for a while. Fortunately our good friends on Nomadica are anchored just in front of us & cuddles with 8 week old Gael are pretty special. Lily has declared as she has a baby to play with she has no need to seek out kidboats which is just as well as there are very few in evidence right now!! So we’re adapting & hit the skatepark up in le Marin with some success. The kids happily made attempts to speak some French with local kids (there is usually big time resistance to this from our Anglophiles).

In terms of adapting I’ve realised boat-life has caused us to adapt. For sure we are more aware of the finite supply of energy and water we have onboard, so we naturally adapt to accommodate that. Showers are definitely thin on the ground in relative terms! My new definition of getting up is having put a bikini on. Our evening film culture has been replaced by books that we don’t need to charge when the invertor is switched on and hours of old school card/board games. Eating in is most definitely the new eating out to keep cruising budget vaguely on point. We also actually empty the fridge and concoct odd meals out of nothing until we really really need to restock so we waste a tiny proportion of food relative to our land lives. Fortunately for my fussy eater pasta rarely runs out!

What is frustrating me on the Islands is the amount of plastic that we still get sold at every shop we find & the seeming lack of awareness of the damage single-use plastics are doing on these islands as highlighted by so many campaigns in the UK including a friend’s “final straw Solent” project in the UK. I get the irony that we live on a plastic boat and appreciate its highly likely a cost implication in many places to find/use alternatives but please don’t offer me plastic everywhere we go!! One of Harry’s long term projects has been to get a leaflet printed up so we can hand it out to each bar we go to. Until that happens I have to guiltily admit that saying no to plastic isn’t always on the tip of my tongue with every order in a new place. I’m only then annoyed with myself and the merchant who hands a plastic water bottle or straw etc! I’d love to arrive in a marina or cruising area one day where you can only refill your bottles & not be served plastic at every turn. Since we all seem to have phones on us I’m thinking a phone cover or sticker with a “no plastic” message might remind me to flash the message….going to get the kids on a design.

Spontaneity and flexibility of plans is another sign of our adaptations. Stuff changes all the time for all manner of reasons. What we decide now may be different tomorrow. This is put into sharp focus recently by people who clearly think we’ve lost our minds! Yes we go up and down the Eastern Caribbean like it’s the M27 but that’s how it rolls right now. Also yes generally there is no plan on a daily basis…. If we achieve the laundry in one 24hour period that is a bonus.

Our slowed pace takes me back to having a newborn when achieving any 1 thing in a day is a massive achievement. This approach often does not apply to boat maintenance though. Every cruiser knows that the reality of cruising is boat bimbling in nice places.

The big news this week has been Harry turning 8. We were hoping to find him a cheap oppie to allow him to sail around the anchorages and go all “Swallows & Amazon”, but it seems cheap knackered oppies are tricky to come by in the Caribbean!! He was pretty excited with a mini multi-tool instead as well as the chance to go on his first scuba-dive. As a budding marine biologist this has been a dream we thought would have to wait until he was 10+ but in both Antigua & the French islands it seems 8 is fair game.

Nathalie of Kalinago plongee, who a friend remarked looked like an original baywatch cast member, was his instructor. A warm enthusiastic lady, she promised to guard him with her life! He had basic mask and equalising skills to learn on the beach before he took a boat trip out to a shallow reef. Having thoroughly enjoyed it, I feel like I’ve now opened Pandora’s box!!

Socialising the kids, like new puppies, was part 2 of the birthday. We’d managed to connect with seemingly the only other boat cruising with kids in the anchorage via a marginally named group called “Kids4sail”. A useful source of all things kidboat related, we’d not actually meant anyone via the page before.

Richard and Rafaella are a UK/Italian couple who’d been living in the US with 2 boys 8/11 until they set off cruising from Canada last year. Better than just being in the same anchorage they are a great couple & we had a great time hanging out on the beach followed by homemade Italian pizza & cake (Harry heaven). The kids were delighted to have new friends to wrestle with on the beach and show around. Harry’s first words every morning since have been when can we see Matthew & Sebastian!

It would seem utterly alien these days to knock on a door in our neighbourhood in the UK invite the family out for the afternoon & then back to ours for the evening, then see them everyday for the next week!

The other great thing that we’ve been making use of is “People beach” just by the laundry dock. A chilled area that is rarely busy, we can do school here, play and dip in the plunge pools.

Also at the weekends a water park has opened right by the anchorage which even caters for those of tiny stature- Lily was thrilled after being denied entry in St.Lucia!

We’ve kicked back into school -after 2months of visitors we desperately needed to get back on track, having done the bare minimum with people here. When we had planned a 18month trip I was slightly more blasé about the curriculum, but now that seems to rapidly be turning into 3 years….. Time to up the game & start planning for next year.

We headed to a local botanical garden, I’d say it was more like a nursery but nether the less a very kind worker gave us a guided tour and we tried to keep up…

This morning the kids started their first French lesson with the lovely Marianne!! If nothing else they will be having to pay attention to another adult for 5 hours a week. As you can see Harry was delighted, while Lily had prepped her bag and lunch by 7am….