It never rains in the Caribbean

It squalls. One minute you are baking in the sun, sitting in the shade with all the windows open for ventilation pleasantly sailing along with 15 knots of wind. Then a squall hits for only 5 minutes and the heavens open, it goes dark and the wind gusts up to 35 knots. Everyone runs around shutting windows to prevent beds and stuff from getting soaked. Then the squall passes and it's back to baking and you dry out in minutes. It is quite a laugh, someone shouts squall and we all jump up and start the routine. This happens many times a day and this is supposedly the dry season.

So as the wind goes from 0 - 60 in a few seconds we sail around with half a gib out like below. So we don't get battered when the wind gets up suddenly.

Nick and Jen joined us in baking Barbados where we spent a week sailing up and down the coast enjoying Bridgetown, Holetown and Speightstown where I celebrated my 64 orbit of the sun.

Birthday boy, tequila and wine. Wine being the more expensive in Barbados.

The Caboose, Speightstown. A great place to spend your birthday, great rum punches and fish cutters.

These beauties are everywhere.

It was hot

It doesn't get more Caribbean than this. On the beach with Reggae music, Shaun the Rasta and rum punches.

The taxi journeys were wild. Mad reggae music at a million watts travelling at close to the speed of light and anywhere on the island for £2.

We had an amazing time on Barbados, I have never been to a place where the locals are so friendly. The customs officials, taxi drivers, market stall vendors, bar staff and drug dealers were all so cool and at no point did I ever feel threatened. The most dangerous thing was the trees.

Nick and Jen decided to sail across to Martinique with us, stay a week and get a flight on a puddle jumper back to Barbados to get their flight home. Well they wont forget that journey in a hurry. It was 110 miles and one of the worse sails we've had. 4m waves off our beam. Gusts up to 47 knots for 20 hours. I think Mandy and me where a bit too.... "We've sailed the Atlantic, how bad can it be?" Every day is a school day. Anyway we eventually arrived in Sainte Anne, Martinique, the largest anchorage we have ever been in. At least 500 boats. Apparently there are usually around 25,000 sailing boats bobbing around Martinique at any one time. We've learned to head as close to the shore as possible when entering a crowded anchorage and we manage to get a space close to the dinghy dock. 

Sainte Anne is a lovely well kept little French town and there was a carnival celebrating Lent. The place was full of locals dancing, singing and drumming until the early hours of the morning. A wonderful atmosphere.

After a few days we moved up the coast to Grand Anse de Arlet to meet our friends who we haven't seen since Almerimar, Spain. So great to see all these people again.

Everyone in this picture has just crossed the Atlantic for the first time.

We had a few days in Anse de Arlet, snorkeling, cleaning the hull (Thanks Nick), swimming with turtles and visiting our friends on their boats. Then it was on to the capital of Martinique, Fort de France. It was a bit of a shock after Barbabados and the south of the island, suddenly we are in a French city with French road signs, well kept infrastructure and Le MacDonalds. Another great anchorage near the cruise liner terminal, busy but flat and close to the centre of town.

As it was Lent the partying continued, the drums started at about 10pm and finished around 2am it sounded like the drums in King kong on Skull island. Very loud but not unpleasant. 

Then it was time for Nick and Jen to leave, again!! So sad to see them go.

Time to get on with a long list of boat jobs and prepare for Richie's mate, Matty to arrive.