Thursday, July 21, 2022
Bonjour!
It's been awhile since we've been able to get any decent wifi. Apologies for the long delay. Thankfully, we found a café with delicious treats, snacks, ice cream, and beer. Speaking of ice cream, it has been amazing! We were expecting the great French wine, cheese, and bakeries, but who knew Martinique had such delicious ice cream all over the island?! Even the grocery store brand ice cream is airy, creamy, and full of flavor!
We are happy to report, albeit a little late, that the storm we last spoke of was relatively mild and short-lived. We did see gusts up to 40 knots while at anchor, but we were well-protected and never needed to worry. The weather since has been wonderful. A few short rain showers here and there, but generally sunny. We hopped along the West coast of Martinique from the Fort-de-France area down here to Le Marin, stopping at a few lovely anchorages along the way. We had some fun snorkeling, hiking, biking, and kayaking. We recently purchased a two-person inflatable kayak and foldable bicycles, which have all already been worth the cost. We've had so much fun recently using the new toys! And we are way more active thanks to them too.
We went on a bike ride through the mountains along the coast (postcard above is from the ride). While it was a very intense workout, it was also very beautiful and let us see the island differently than by boat or car. Just two days ago, we took Bosun on a 13 mile hike and were amazed at the landscape here in Martinique. Bosun seemed to enjoy it too, though he didn't bother getting out of bed yesterday while recovering.
While we've been enjoying Martinique itself and all the food it has to offer, we also have been squeezing in boat projects here and there while we're here. The chandleries (stores that sell boat parts & accessories) are abundant here, so we can get most of what we would need. We just finished up reinforcing the v-berth hull. The Pearson 424 is known to flex in the v-berth above the waterline between the bed and the shelf. People tend to call it 'oilcanning', though this term is generally used when referring to the same flexing phenomenon with metals. The area in the v-berth is still very strong as the fiberglass is incredibly thick, but since it is not cored with a more rigid material, it flexes. Over time, this could potentially lead to damage. We did sail incredibly hard this past season beating east into the winds and waves, so the flex did cause the shelves in the v-berth to break away from the hull. That being said, they were poorly secured with tabbing on the topside of the shelf only. Our bulkheads have shown no signs of stress. Regardless, we decided to reinforce the hull to provide some rigidity. The Pearson 424 has a very active owners group that shares all kinds of awesome information. After scouring the forum and reaching out to other owners that have undertaken the same project, we felt ready to tackle it ourselves. We took some video and will share hopefully soon when we get more editing done to help you all visualize the project. Essentially, we created vertical ribs against the hull with wood, then fiberglassed over them making fiberglass tubes/ribs for strength. The wood acted as a template and allowed us to screw in horizontal slats of redwood for aesthetics. We also reinforced the shelves by tabbing them on the undersides. We are quite happy with the results! We have a few more projects in mind while we're here.
As of now, we aren't sure how long we'll stay in Martinique. We aren't in any hurry to leave as we really like it here and have what we need to do our hurricane season boat projects. We are watching the weather closely and will move further south as needed if a storm kicks up.
While we've been here, we have put together a few more videos. And thanks to finding some decent internet today, we got one uploaded before the laptop battery died!
We'll have to get back to the boat, charge it up, and come back another day to upload another. Keith has also been updating our sailing route map. He's even been inputting information about our passages and anchorages for those curious about the details of our locations.
Lastly, but absolutely most importantly, tomorrow is Keith's birthday! We are so excited to find a fun way to celebrate on this beautiful Caribbean island. Happy 38th birthday, Keith!
Wishing you all well. Be sure to reach out and give us some updates of your own lives.
Much love,
Keith & Becca
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