Le Marin, delays and more!

After almost eight weeks (yes, eight weeks!) why are we still here in Le Marin? Despite the fact that we like Martinique and here in Le Marin we are now recognised by locals – we are les Anglais – we didn’t intend to be here this long. It’s good for us that although Martinique is a department of France it isn’t subject to the Schengen rules which does make for an easier life…

So, back to the question – why are we still here? The answer is that we’ve been Caribbeaned. Anyone paying attention to us (if there’s anyone left, ha ha) will know what that means by now. Albeit, we’ve been Caribbeaned in a kindly French way.

Let me explain:

It all started when I said to the mate ‘weather permitting, where would you like to go this year, before hurricane season?’ A stream of different islands was the mate’s response together with some rather overambitious ideas. ‘Mmm’, I replied, ‘we’ll see…’ After that it all went haywire. The mate’s optician (who spoke good English) was on leave and we had a few language barriers with the others (not for the first time I wished I had kept up with my French – Mate). Contact lenses had to be ordered from France and on it went. In the end we enlisted the help of a lovely friend of mine, who’d I’ve known from school and who lives in France. She did the business dealing with the opticians and we are now back on track and waiting for delivery. Thanks P for all your help!

The next development occurred from an unexpected quarter (one of my favourite phrases) and caught me off guard. We had ordered (with the help of my old mate M – another school friend who lives in France) a battery to be delivered to our local agent’s warehouse near Orly airport. Our agent had previously assured us that flying an AGM battery to Martinique would be no problem and it would take two days to arrive. Now, our engine battery is kaput, it’s had it. We are on a mooring buoy near Marina du Marin. We currently have to leave the buoy on Saturday 8^th February. At the moment, we have no chance of being able to do so as the engine won’t start and there is no way any sane person would try and sail out as the moorings are just too packed. The mate has been dealing with the marina (she has an online portal) so I’m happy to leave her to ‘negotiations’ whilst I focus on the battery issue. We received a phone call from our agent telling us that his carrier refused to fly the battery (here we go, I thought…) but he said he’d find another carrier and it would be with us very soon. The mate was therefore surprised to receive another phone call from the agent, who, in a voice of almost panic, said that the ‘new’ flight had been grounded when they found out that the package contained a lithium battery. The package was removed from the plane and that was that. Except, we told the agent that the battery isn’t lithium (they can catch fire sometimes) but an ordinary AGM. On and on it went, but without boring everyone to tears, there is almost no way that we are going to get this battery unless it comes via ship (a three week voyage).

As it stands now, we are going to cancel the agent’s delivery and ask him to return the battery to the shop where we purchased it (these things are expensive). Being a very heavy item, this might not be cheap to return to boot. Nevertheless we have to have an engine battery and as Stargazer’s battery space is too small for a standard start battery we will have to do something. Currently we have two options. The first is to buy a second hand battery with a damaged terminal from a battery supplier here. This would fit, but it’s not an ideal battery and they want an extortionate amount for it. The next option is for us to fit a standard battery into a locker by the chart table. This option involves removing our largest fire extinguisher, drilling holes in stringers/frames, chasing cables through and reorganising the terminal connections in the current battery compartment. Added to this, we will have to construct a battery retaining box in the locker. Phew – this will take some time, I said to the mate (if I could insert the exploding head emoji here then I would – Mate). However, if we take this option then all future battery replacements will be easy. Obviously, it goes without saying that if we’d known we might have to do all this it would have been done by now.

We will keep you posted on what happens next. For now, there is a carnival in town and the mate loves carnivals, so it is that to which we must go – time to get beer out!!