BUKET AND ENDER AND THEIR YACHT "ISTANBUL"

Ender, his wife Buket and Ender's friend from BOGAZICI UNIVERSITY, Tugrul crossed the Atlantic in "15 days and 3 hours", and tied to the Le Marin marina a couple of days before. As soon as they reached land, Buket, who had not  been able to eat anything during the crossing due to her sea-sickness, urged them to find the Turkish kebab house called Nasrettin Hoca in Le Marin. Apparently they had read al the Turkish sailing guides before taking off in June from Marmaris, Turkey, and had been dying to eat a donair lunch. Buket later told me that they had walked all the way into the town and back, but could not find the said place, but came to Elite Kebab across the street from the marina to ask. When Buket saw the chicken donair turning, and Guylaine at the register, she made a derogatory remark in Turkish about her quality expectations, and  wanted to pursue the search; however Levent came out from the back and the rest was history. Buket also said that Levent was mentioned in  the Turkish guides, since both of the writers had been to Martinique, and met Levent, who has been living here for some time.

Ender indicated that the most valuable cargo of their 40 ft steel mono-hull Istanbul was 100 bottles of raki, which he graciously shares with his acquaintances. I think in Le Marin, five or six bottles evaporated, three of them on Ruyam II in a week.

After returning from Graande Anse, we directly went into Le Marin and anchored for a night, to get water and groceries. We went to see Levent of course, and met with the sailors and Tugrul's wife Leyla, who had flew to Martinique for a few days, and was going to return to Turkey with her husband. They were about to take off by the rental car for the airport, so we could only spend a few minutes.

A couple of days later, Levent called us to inform that Istanbul yacht was coming to St Anne to spend a few days. We were on the look out and spotted the Turkish flag a couple of hours later. It was dark green with yellow bands at the deck sides. They came and anchored right behind us. After a short time, I saw Buket pumping the dinghy on the front deck. Then they lowered the dinghy to water, and Ender tried to start the engine. After ten pulls, Al could not stand watching and went over to bring them to Ruyam II. They had not used their dinghy for almost five months, since they had spend time at the marinas in the Mediterrenean and Capo Verde etc.

Ender, who is full of stories, told us that they were thinking of sailing north up to the US east coast, visit their friends living in the Washington area, leave their yacht in Virginia for the summer, fly to Turkey and come back after the hurricane season. Then spend another year in the US / Caribbean or wherever that takes their fancy.

Buket mentioned, that all the guides that they had read never said anything about the hardships involved in making the Atlantic passage. She beleives that they were bending the truth, considering her own experience. I think she is the extreme case of suffering from sea-sickness, but she is brave enough to keep her husband company.

As well, she is a good sailor, having completed all the courses in Turkey. She seems to be able to endure short sails, with the help of the wrist-band, but could not lift her head during the long passage. She did not want to go any further into the Pasific ocean, so Ender changed his plans, and started to think about other solutions for bringing his yacht back to Turkey, like using the boat transport. Since we had thought about the issue for some time, and decided that we would never do the crossing, we had found while visiting Turkey, a company called Seven Stars, who had reasonable rates for transporting a yacht form New York, US to Istanbul or Izmir, Turkey. So we passed along the information to Ender.

Ender decided to get his dinghy outboard to be repaired before starting their voyage north. So we put the engine in our dinghy, and hosted them in Ruyam II for a night, which we spent anchored in Le Marin. On Saturday morning we called Levent to find a contact to do the repairs. Of course he had somebody, so he told us to come to his kebap house (Elite) and meet the mechanic.  In a couple of hours, the small Mercury engine was totally dismantled, cleaned from the particles that clogged the carburator and ready for use. Ender was quite happy with the cost as well, 50 some Euros. As in north America, France is a haven for mechanics, their hourly charges are astronomical.

GRAND ANSE D'ARLET

For the last two months we have been waiting for the storms to ease up. Every day, Al checks the app that shows the strenght of wind by a colour scheme, from very light gray (less than 5 knots) to red (hurricane). I remember our Norwegian friend Norton, who had showed the app to Al when we all were spending time at Fajardo, Puerto Rico. He was waiting for his wife and daughter to arrive from Norway; we, for our dear friends Deniz and Zeynep from Canada. As a matter of fact, they all came on the same night, our friends being  on a later plane. So when Norton could not find his family after the arrival of their plane, he came to us in panic for help.

Anyway, Norton showed us how to install the app, and said "do not sail when you see green! (20 - 25 knots)" Whenever we see green while checking , we remember him. And it had been solid green for the last two months. Enough is enough. We are kind of bored of being stationed at the shallows of St Anne, staring at the Bucanneer Beach. However, I have to admit that St Anne proved to be everything I had hoped for when I looked at the map of the Windward Islands. Its different shape protects this bay from northerly swells; the wind comes down to us with its full force, but the sea stays calmish (!), with small waves, which do not translate into rolling. As well, the water is relatively clean, albeit full of algae, which get stuck to my baby's bottom. However, we regularly wipe off the greenery with a cloth, so that they do not grow long and dense.

After so much rain and wind, the forecast promised some blue winds (15 - 20 knots), and we decided to take advantage by sailing a bit, up to the Arlets or beyond. Al briefly thought of going to Anse Mitan or Anse Alain , which are located at the south coast of the large bay of Fort De France, but I could see no point in it. The water is very dirty at the protected areas, and getting there a challenge, the wind being on the nose, after turning into the bay. We had observed during our visit on land that the small communities at those bays are geared toward tourists, who started to come in drones lately. It appears that major discounts on air travel from Europe are in effect, so mostly retired people are filling the vacation properties on the island. All in all, going further than Grand Anse D'Arlet seemed unnecessary, so we checked our map to estimate the arrival time.

We weighed anchor on January 22nd at 8:15 and went underway. Actually most of the course was visual, the first target being the Diamante rock, directly west of us, less than 8 miles away almost at the south west corner of Martinique. After that, the land itself protrudes a bit to the west, so the course to Arlets is slightly northwest.
The wind was mild but favorable and directly from our back, so we set the sail wing on wing, and reached the Diamante in less than two hours, and turned north, where wrap around winds picked up, and flew us, 7-8 knots for a while. It was quite exhilerating really, but did not last too long. It turned out to be a very pleasent ride.

We passed by first Petit Anse, a small bay where anchoring is not suggested, and Anse D'Arlet (also known as Petit Anse D'Arlet, confusing or what), then reached the Grand Anse. It was a beautiful day, the water a bit dark, due to most of the bay being deep. For that reason, the south portion was covered by mooring balls, no way of anchoring, and most of them were taken, since it is the most protected part. The easterly swells were somewhat reaching into the bay, and hitting the north portion, where also many balls were installed. The remaining anchorage in the middle was quite tiny, and I got prepared to pick up a ball. But no, Al wanted to anchor and got me quite worried, when wedged us between two mono-hulls, and backed up, almost to the anchor chains of two more. We were cosily surrounded by other boats, but thankfully not swinging too wildly. He claimed to have checked that we would clear all of them with a small margin, so we stayed. It was a good spot, not too far from the pier.


It was interesting to watch the resident turtle who was swimming around us in circles, taking a couple of breaths, and diving in afterwards for a long time.  I know that turtles eat jellyfish, so I am a bit apprehensive when I see them. However, I did not see a sign of any jellyfish there, so the turle must be feeding on some other stuff! Or maybe it ate them all so far.

First afternoon we swam and took it easy, but the next morning it was time to explore. Hoyle mentions that Anse D'Arlet was not far from Grand Anse on foot, so we put it to the test. We took off from the pier to the main road, which had some kind of a pavement at the side, and it was almost level, without any ups and downs. Al did not complain much, and we reached the turn-about at the intersection for Anse D'Arlet and Petit Anse in about half an hour. The sign indicated that Petit Anse was 3.5 kms from the intersection, so I figured that Arlet was not far. The road went right into the small town, which really was a short strip of shops and restaurants along the beach, and turned up into the hills to the east and south. Petit Anse being the next bay to the south, I wanted to check it out too, but first we had to stop for a drink (it was hot). We saw a sign on the road that a restaurant called Littoral was located at the hill 100 m away, which had "feet in the water" (in French of course, but I started to understand a lot, especially in writing). Intriguing, so we pushed a bit more, and saw that it was a very charming restaurant, open deck style on the water, with stairs going down to the beach for swimmers. Perfect stop for lunch, but the French do not start serving a minute before "midi" (12:00 sharp) and it was 10:30 am.

I ordered coffee, but the server decided that I was Spanish for some reason, and came back with half a page of a response in Spanish. When she saw our blank stares, she turned to body language, and brought the coffee after all. She wanted to know if we were planning to have lunch, and when we kind of said yes, she showed us a smaller table for two. People come and  reserve their tables for lunch, and go off to other pursuits in the meantime. So we did the same, and took to the road that was winding around the steep hill. We had about an hour to kill, so I thought we could go to the top of Petit Anse to have a peek down and come back. But Al started to complain after halfway, and the road was not safe at some places (nobody is expected to walk on mountain roads), so we turned back, went into the town and walked to the other side.

The main beach was at the nort side of the small bay, and everybody was there. The strip of beach bars and restaurants were full, and much cheaper than the place we reserved, but we returned, keeping our word. It was almost  time when we reached our table, and the view was great, with a lot of activity going on at the shallows below to keep us entertained. There was a nautical school next door, teaching teen-agers how to paddle double kayaks. They had a set course to go around and return backwards, racing with each other. They were having so much fun, it was a pleasure to watch.

Despite the food being mediocre but expensive, the restaurant get filled, and we had a good time looking around. On the way back, we passed by a boulangerie, and bought an amazing county (campagne) bread and returned to Grande Anse in no time.

That evening, while we were having dinner, our friend Levent from Le Marin called, and bragged about having an elaborate raki dinner with some Turkish sailors. We were curious, so promised to pass by Le Marin to meet them.

CRIMINAL ELEMENTS IN MARTINIQUE

The other day we received a call from Simone and Oguz, who live and work partly in Geneve, Switzerland and Ansy, France. Simone advised having seen a short news bulletin on their local tv about some incident that killed two and injured about six people in St Anne, Martinique. They immediately thought of us, since they took it as an explosion of some sort and wanted to know if we had been affected. Of course we had no idea about the life on land, but we had one source in Le Marin, Levent of Elite Kebab, who is quite in touch with the locals, due to his occupation and personality.
We in turn called Levent. He and his wife Guylain had spent the afternoon and early evening of the day before (being Sunday) with us on the boat. He declared that the incident occured about three hours after they had left, at a restaurant very close to Club Med, locatd at Buccaneer Beach. It was a group of people killing each other during a private party, one of whom had just got out of prison. It seemed to me that a group of drug dealers or other criminal elements carrying guns, dealing with some dispute.

We are anchored just across the Bucanneer Beach, and our favorite restaurant La Ronde Des Yoles is five minutes away from the crime scene. It gave us a chill to learn that a seemingly serene and tame tourist destination could be rife with those people.

When we visited Fort De France in November this year, we visited all the places that we had seen the first time around in the year 2012. We went to the chandlery, to the promenade of shops and restaurants, and ate at the kebab place owned by Mohammed, from Lebanon. We were amazed that the everywhere showed some signs of deterioration and poverty. We were the only customers at the kebab place for instance, which had been thriving before. Al was intrigued and stuck a conversation with Mohammed, while I was sitting at the balcony, overlooking the street corner. There was an older islander, standing at the corner and appearing to sell something in his hand to the people walking past him. While I observed him for about an hour, he had not been successful in attracting any attention from the pedestrians, but he was sorrounded by some young bad guys, who can be picked out anywhere in the world, trousers sweeping the ground, gold around their necks and some ears, cap to the side and a mean gleam in their eyes. From my vantage point, the flash exchanges of small packages and money were completely visible, not that they were trying to hide anything. Some youngsters were rolling their hash cigarettes in their palms immediately after acquiring them, and lighting up. Even while the two police patrolmen were walking around them! I also saw some kind of negotiation going around a couple of pretty and young girls. Drugs, prostitution, you name it.

Al learned from Mohammed that Fort De France started to attract fewer sailors lately, and his business declined so much that he was thinking of getting out of there. With all those neighbours, it was little wonder that his customers were not venturing to that area any more.

We observe but do we learn? While we were going around with Oguz and Simone on their last day, before taking them to the airport, Al suggested taking a turn in Fort De France, and almost got mugged at the beginning of the promenade, which was completely taken over by the bad guys, since it was Sunday, all businesses being closed.

We had never encountered any other dangerous situations in St Anne or Le Marin, but we saw some idle youth in small groups spending the evening away, apparently doing nothing. As we do not go fon land often at night, we do not feel threatened. However, we try to take all the precautions necessary to save our boat and dinghy, like locking everything and taking the dinghy key along etc. The rest would be a matter of insurance, heaven forbid.

We had also heard about some minor incidents at the dinghy dock of Leader Price, one of the major grocery chains in Le Marin. For example, we heard about gasoline or some groceries left in one of the dinghies being stolen.  I suspect that those would be perpetrated by fellow sailors, since that dock is only used by sailors shopping in the town, and it is quite a secluded place, surrounded by mangroves, and only accessible by a short footpath from the grocery parking lot. Doesn't it make sense to reach over to another dinghy when in need of gasoline? Some of the dinghies around here have very small engines and tiny tanks, and it is difficult to reach a gas station on foot from there.

We do not leave groceries unattended any more (in Grenada we sometimes would leave our purchases of local produce in the dinghy, while shopping from the grocery stores. Not a single tomato went missing!)  Grenada we miss you.

MEETING OTHER TURKS IN ST ANNE AND MARIN

Two days after Oguz and Simone left, I thought I heard Al speaking Turkish with somebody, while I was busy in my cabin. Then I had a glimpse of a white head, and thought that the Swiss guy we had met earlier came to visit after all. Not really, this was a tall and lean stranger (Selcuk), actually in deep conversation with Al in Turkish. He said that he had been anchored in the bay for almost a month, and recently saw a mono-hull, anchored very close to us, flying a Turkish flag. This morning he went over to say hello, but was not received too warmly. However he saw our Turkish flag from that boat. Al raises the Turkish flag whenever we have visitors and presently did not have to time to take it down. After making sure that the flag was Turkish, Selcuk came directly to us. Of course we were delighted to meet him, invited him on board and spent some time together.

He has a 58 ft Catana called Orient Express, which he is sailing single-handedly at the moment, his wife and young baby are in Maine, USA.  He is getting ready to join them after Christmas. He is a most interesting person with an incredible life story.

Selcuk was the younger son of the owner of the  Bebek Hotel in Bebek, Istanbul. Bebek is where my mother was born, at my great grand parents' home, which was turned into an apartment by my grand father, where my mother's extended  family lived all their lives. I sold my share of the property ten odd years ago, so we had a connection there almost all my life. Bebek Hotel was built before I was born, so it had always been a landmark for us, one of the most prestigious hotels on the Bosphorus.
Selcuk related that his parents died when he was 16 years old (in 1968), and he and his  brother, who was five years his senior, were left alone to deal with the hotel for some time. It appears that he had enough of it after he married somebody and had a baby, and decided to immigrate to the US in 1984. He said he sold some properties, rented the hotel out, and landed in Florida, with US $100,000.- in his pocket, which he used to buy a mono-hull, and learned how to sail it from the vendor. He said he had always been interested in sailing, thanks to Sadun Boro, the Turkish sailor, who sailed solo around the world in our youth.

Selcuk said that he went up the US east coast by boat, and decided to buy a property in Maine, but never stopped sailing.  He said since then, he sailed around the world twice, demolished two boats until he got his present Catana built to his specifications about nine years ago.

Selcuk also told us about another Turk, Levent, living in Le Marin with his wife Guylaine, who is from Martinique. They own and operate Elite Kebab together, which is located across the street from the new marina. Selcuk offered to take us to Le Marin in his mega dinghy to have lunch there.

It was an interesting experience. It took him less than ten minutes to fly us there with his 60 hsp engine (as opposed to our 9.8). Levent is making a mean chicken donair, which he serves in sandwich or wrap, and making a lot of school children happy. I was really impressed with the taste of the chicken, which I ate with a salad. Apparently Levent uses a marinade before pressing the chicken pieces together around the donair skewer himself, rather than buying frozen from a supplier. But it is a lot of hard work from beginning to end. When I asked him if he knew that trade from before, he laughed, that in Turkey he only knew how to eat donair,  but never dreamed of making it himself. He said that he had met Guylaine in London, England fifteen years previously, at a language school, and they ended up in St Anne a few years ago. Apparently he has been labouring at this business for the last three years, but it looks pretty good.

Selcuk became a good friend of  Levent , and is planning to take him and Guylaine on Sunday to a sailing trip down to St Vincent an the Grenadines. Selcuk asked us to join him, but no thanks, I don't think we can keep up with him. He has little care about the weather or sea conditions to start sailing. His monstrous catamaran can handle anything it seems, and he is fearless. We are everything but. For the time being, I can hardly listen to the howling Christmas winds every night and day, let alone bring my nose outside of the bay.

They are due to come back on the 31st of December, and I invited them to celebrate the New Year's Eve together. I am to cook, and we are to gather at his boat (more space and ice making capability) for that night. We are going to anchor side by side at Le Marin, since Selcuk is leaving for Maine the next day. He needs a ride to shore to catch his plane.

There was only one year in most of our lives, that we celebrated new year alone (our seed family). It was our first year in Canada (1981). We had felt extremely sad. I had left my mother alone in Turkey, we knew nobody in Canada, except Al's professor at the University of Alberta. Al had done some work at somebody else's  lab, and earned an extra $1,000.-  that month, so I cooked an elaborate meal, but that was no consolation.

Now I have to find something new to wear. Last two years, our very good freinds Deniz and Zeynep had been keeping us company for the new year, and Zeynep was bringing me nice blouses to wear that night. It is a pity that they did not come this year, but I am hoping that we might lure them here a little later in the season.

BACK AT ST ANNE

After we left the airport we drove back on the highway (Al memorized every turn by now) and found the last parking spot close to the Jumbocar branch office at St Anne. We realized that we were tired, and happy to find our dinghy at the dock.

As we were busy trying to untie the painter etc, a young man asked if he could hitch a ride with us, indicating that he was at a boat close to the fuel dock. Of course we would never say no. We started talking to him. He said that he had been living in Le Marin on his boat, for a number of years, and he was earning a living as a skipper for hire. Now that his wife and children had moved away, he was trying to sell his 2000 model Fontaine Peugot catamaran for 190, 000 Euros and join his wife. We felt encouraged that Martinique prices are higher than US, when it is time to sell the boat (I hope many many years later).

He showed us his boat, and I recognized the pennant of the mooring ball. It was the mooring ball we took by mitake on our first day in le marin. I exclaimed that we were from the boat that had used his ball to moor, about a month ago. He got surprised, and apologized for inconveniencing us, which we shrugged off. He said that he had just returned from the Tobaggo Cays, Grenadines that evening. Of course we understood; we did not know that it was a private mooring.

Anyway, we felt good that we paid our debt by doing him a favor. Apparently he always left his dinghy secured at his boat's davids, whenever he went away, probably not to show that the boat is unattended. He said that he had been waiting for half an hour at the dock, until we showed up that evening. Unfortunately there are no water taxis in Martinique, unlike Grenada, Dominica or even St Vincent. Here one can only rely on fellow sailors to get any kind of help.

TROIS ILETS AND GRANDE ANSE D'ARLET

A couple of days earlier, Al went on the web and reserved a car from Jumbocar, in order to take our guests to the airport. While he was making a selection, he accidentally chose a two door Renaut (instead of our four door) and ended up paying 27.- Euros for the day, exactly half price of getting it from the office.
Anyway, Christian from Jumbocar had told Oguz the last time that Les Trois-Ilets was the St Tropez of Martinique, a major tourist area, and should not be missed. We had all day on Sunday, Christian was to bring the car to Marin, and was to allow us to leave the car at their branch office there the next day. I am really impresses by the service we got from Christian. I guess we became a major client after renting three times in ten days.

At 10:45 am Al and Oguz took the luggage to the dinghy dock at the main port, and took the car from Christian. Al came back for Simone and I, while Oguz waited at the car. A little after 11:00, we were all in the car, heading towards Les Trois-Ilets. It is located at the south coast of the bay of FDF, very picturesque, but at this time of the year, almost deserted. We got there, and searched a nice restaurant with a view. A few people recommended Creole Village, but it was closed on Sundays. Go figure. We found another one, which was not bad, in the nick of time before it started pouring down in buckets.

We had lots of time to kill, and St Tropez did not prove to be that interesting, or the beach very attractive, so we thought of going to FDF. We asked about the ferry, which starts from Anse a l'Ane and Anse Mitan, right across the bay, but no go, they do not work on Sundays.

Back to the car, and drive to FDF. It was a dead city! No traffic on the streets, the promenade of shops was deserted, but some scary looking guys. One of them quite agressively asked for money, and we went back to the car, and got the hell out of there. We checked out a beach at Schoelcher, immediate north of FDF, facing west. Nothing interesting, everything closed for winter (!) Hard to believe.
Al decided to take us to Grand Anse d'Arlet by car this time. We went all the way back to Les Trois-Ilets and took to the road that passes over the mountain to get to the west coast. It was after 4:00 pm, the road narrow and winding up and down. When we got to the bay, the view was spectacular, but watching the sunset at 5:30 pm would mean getting back on the dangerous road in the dark. Oguz agreed with me that we should not spend too much time there, but stop for a drink close to the main road to Lamentin, where the airport is located.

We passed the mountain road in daylight, and stopped at Anse a l'Ane at a beach cafe. Nothing interesting, except a bunch of drunk guys making loud noises imitating music. As soon as the sun set, it started to get chilly (are we spoiled or what?).
By the time we got to the airport it was around 7:00 pm. We spent some time together, but they were busy changing into their winter clothes and getting their boarding passes. There was a big crowd in front of them, so they insisted that we should be on our way. We felt sad to leave them there. I hope they would come back!

SAILING TOWARDS THE DIAMANT

About a week after our guests came, we had to take water from the Le Marin fuel dock, so we thought we could sail in the morning towards Grande Anse D'Arlet at the west coast of Martinique first, and come back to Le Marin to anchor. Al thought that the major storm was stalled until the evening, so we would have time to turn the corner of the south coast of Martinique, which sticks out straight to the west, and come back. There is a small rock island called Diamant at the Pointe du Diamante, the major landmark visible from a long distance at the corner.

We weighed anchor in the morning, and started towards the rock.  As soon as we got to the safe waters (from fish traps), Al ordered the genoa to be unfurled, and on we went with 4.5 - 5 knots. It was not all that smooth sailing though, the wind was quite strong, with a forecast of 30 - 35 knots in the afternoon. As we went half way down, having wind on our backs, I started thinking that it would be much harder and longer to come back in the afternoon against such force. If we would go as far as the Arlet, we would have to stay the night, which is not advisable in high winds, the seas get quite rolly and untenable with north swells. We know, since we had been there the last time around. We were amazed to see how the Martinque sailors tie their dinghies to the high dinghy docks; they bring the nose of the dinghy almost to the deck, while only the back side touching water, so that they hang from the side of the dock, for them not to swing with the swells.

We turned around before reaching the rock, and had a short swimming stop at St Anne, before going in to the lagoon to take water at the fuel dock. While we were busy with the water, a  mono-hull came and tied to the back to get fuel. A young lady and a man started talking to Al, asking about our Swiss flag.  We told him that we had visitors from there, and Oguz struck up a conversation with them, who were also from Geneva. Small world. My mother used to say that if one had a bad reputation, there would be no escape from it. Thank God.

A little later, an old man, whom we had seen before at St Anne, came to ask about the same flag. He said he had seen our boat before, but the flag was not there, why now? We had to explain about our visitors. That man was from Bern, Switzerland, and was waiting for his wife to arrive in Martinique.

After our social interaction, it was time to anchor, somewhere close to a safe dinghy dock, since their departure date was around the corner. They only had one more day, before taking off on Sunday night. So we were planning on spending time in Le Marin, and let them taste the poulet boucane. I asked Simone what boucane meant earlier, but she had no idea (it must be a made up word). She was intrigued, and asked a vendor at the market. The vendor was surprised, "what do you mean? Boucane means boucane!" We laughed a lot afterwards, imitating him "c'est boucane!".

Le Marin is not very interesting, but well protected. So we were ready for the storms. As we do not know how St Anne would be affected by the storm, I would rather be in a protected place, especially while hosting guests.