{"id":12381,"date":"2022-03-06T09:19:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T14:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2022-03-06T09:19:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T14:19:26","slug":"can-you-hear-me-now-yes-sort-of-yippee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12381","title":{"rendered":"Can you hear me now? YES, sort of. YIPPEE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we are, hanging out in St Anne, Martinique, a charming spot that we enjoy visiting.\u00a0 It’s a very nice rural sort of village with a church that dominates the downtown scene.\"\"To call it a “town” perhaps overstates things a bit.\u00a0 This is just about all of it and after dark, it’s even smaller when many of the businesses close. \"\"Saturday, yesterday, is market day, with all sorts of vendors showing their wares. \"\"The Caribbean is known as the “spice islands” and the vendors do not disappoint with a huge variety to choose from. \"\"The diminutive scale of the town is not proportional to the size of the harbor, perhaps the largest anchorage in the Caribbean, about 1.5 miles long and a half mile wide.\u00a0 Without a panorama to show all the boats, perhaps a shot of the town dock gives a feel for how many boats there are.\u00a0 You can’t see the other side, but it’s just as packed.\u00a0 In the distance, part of the fleet, several hundred strong.\u00a0 I’d guess that this view is about 10% of the total.\u00a0 \"\"Nearby, perhaps a 30 minute run in a dink at high speed, is La Marin, home to a huge marina with more than 1,000 slips.\u00a0 The number of charter boats is daunting. \"\"Just one of many piers lined with dozens, no hundreds, of cats and monohulls, standing by and ready for you to jump on board and head out on holiday.<\/p>\n

Don’t want to head out for a week long charter?\u00a0 Not to worry, you can charter a motorized floating barbecue for a few hours.\u00a0 We have seen these in the past but never out and about.\u00a0 In the wind, nearly 20kts today, I can’t imagine that these would be a whole lot of fun with the\u00a0 umbrella propelling you along in a way that makes the tiny outboard useless.\u00a0 \u00a0\"\"Don’t like the idea of a black umbrella in the tropical heat?\u00a0 There are other colors to choose from.\u00a0 Problem solved, or as some local T shirts advertise, “Pani Pwoblem”.\u00a0 \u00a0I am trying to imagine what happens if the grill won’t light.\u00a0 “Roberto, just squirt more lighter fluid on those, sort of smoldering coals. ”\u00a0 Wooosh!!!!\u00a0 Run away!\u00a0 Run?\u00a0 \u00a0On second thought, SWIM AWAYYYYY!\"\"Anyway, St Anne is a nice place to hang out in a less commercial environment and yet still close enough to La Marin to be able to buy most anything you might need.<\/p>\n

I’ve been reading about the price of gas in the US going up because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and everyone is stressed by gas over $4.00 a gallon.\u00a0 Here in Martinique it’s a lot more expensive than that.<\/p>\n

I purchased about 5 gallons of gas for the dink and our Honda generator, and the total came to over $50,\u00a0 about $9\/gallon.\u00a0 So there, you spoiled Americans!\u00a0 \u00a0One way to get energy gobbling Americans who seem to think that 15mpg is fine for their family car, would be to charge what the rest of the world does for energy.\u00a0 That would sell a lot of compact cars, PDQ.\u00a0 \u00a0The folks that say they are fine with cars that get terrible mileage often say “I can afford it!” or “You only live once.”\u00a0 Perhaps they would feel differently if it cost $200 to fill that guzzler up every week.<\/p>\n

Anyway, off of my soapbox and back to cruising.<\/p>\n

On my way back in my dink from shopping and gassing up in La Marin, I passed these unique sailboats racing in the harbor.\u00a0 It seems that they are called Yoles boats and there is a very active racing fleet.\u00a0 These races draw thousands of spectators.\u00a0 \u00a0Follow this link for a brief overview of their history.<\/a>\u00a0 They have an interesting sprit rig.\u00a0 It looks like sailing them is pretty energetic with a large crew working hard to keep the boats upright. \"\"Note how they are steered.\u00a0 No fancy rudder, just an oar sticking way out the back.\u00a0 \u00a0With all that sail way up in the bow, I expect that the boat has a lot of weather helm so having the long oar way out back will give it a lot of leverage.\u00a0 \"\"Better yet, check out this brief video that gives a pretty good feel for how exciting the races are.