A few days in Anse a L'Anne

Love to be at anchor, this spot is one of our favs here in Martinique. Take the ferry to FDF or take the tender to Anse Mitan.

TOP SECRET!

Spotted in Martinique. Is this the Kadey Krogen Mega Expedition yacht? Kadey Krogen Expedition 286?

Windwards?

Are they called the Windward's because it always seems to blow? It sure seems that way, an excerpt from Chris Parker's morning weather briefing:

Brisk ENE-E trades with little day to day change will continue indefinitely due to repetitious RIDGES moving E thru the CAtlantic from the E Coast. Only deviation may be today with some E-ESE winds possible.

and then the forecast winds..........

StLucia-Guadeloupe: 080-100@17-23g30/6-8' thru overnight; 090>070-060 @17-23 g30/6-8' Friday 23-Mon 26


they then go on to state that this trend may continue well into January. What to do, what to do? We need to travel to Rodney Bay to change out batteries, looks like we may be forced to suck it up and deal with a rough crossing.

Out with the Old, In with the New

The old Batteries get pulled and the new Oasis FireFly batteries get installed. Fingers crossed they work as advertised!

168 lbs each, these things are a real pain to handle. We hired a couple of big strong guys to pull these.

68 lbs each, we can manage that.

Oasis FireFly, an AGM with a twist, carbon foam technology.

Battery Upgrade?

Our house battery bank needs replacing, the battery guys tell us no battery survives very long the way we use our boat and the heavy AC load from the refrigerator does not help. So we are sticking our neck out and trying a newer AGM technology. Nigel Calder has been testing these and so far (year 2) is impressed. These batteries we are told can operate at PSOC for extended periods resisting sulfation that combined with high temperatures (our batteries are in the engine room in the tropics!) has been killing our batteries in 3-4 years. There are some important considerations though, the new batteries benefit from a balanced bank and you most have programmable charging sources as the float charge must be 13.2V or less. Below is our plan to balance the battery bank.

Important, all cables interconnecting must be the same length and gauge.

Launch Day

Always exciting, we splash today. Carenantilles Boat Yard, Martinique.

Busy Place

Yesterday the area around Sylken Sea  got quite empty, by 9 am this morning......this

And I thought they were tying to clear a path to launch us...........?

Very busy yard, haul, scrape, paint, launch.

Any Blogger Pros Out There?

I could use some help using some blogger features, layout, formatting etc. our blog,

If you are interested let me know how best to contact you.

Local Road Side Produce

After Carrefour  with John & Paulette where we pick up some nice stuff imported from France we stop at the roadside produce stand.

Martinique

Back on board but still on the hard in Martinique, we need batteries so really can't cruise too far until we get them replaced. Launch on the 14th, hoping the marina in Marin can find a place for us, Seamantha and Partners are there, we are planning to have a get together for Christmas.

It has been a real treat to be in a boat yard that is concrete rather than mud! we have had plenty of squally weather, one minute it is sun and the next the wind kicks up and you have 10 minutes of POURING RAIN! But it's a "warm rain" 30C here every day, 10pm now and its a comfortable 26C.

Sammy liked the yard's 440 Ton  lift, they have two here, a 440T and a 110T.

Besides getting the boat ready we have been enjoying Martinique, love this place, France in the Caribbean. Great food, hiking, and super friendly people, very helpful, always a smile for you.

Lunch

This is France in the Caribbean. My lunch today, on Sylken Sea, still in the boat yard. but on concrete. Those of you who know, will know how sweet that is.

On to lunch, a bed of  local hydroponic lettuce in a simple lemon, olive oil, thyme, dressing (we learned this from Nicole while in France).

Lettuce: Martininque
Lemon: Espansa
Trout fume: raised in Espansa, Fume en FR
Cantalope: Martinique
grating of black pepper, say bon! say tres simple.