In this episode, I land in the beautiful island of Martinique, Go though the coolest customs and immigration I have ever done, sample the delights of French ...

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we just I just cleared into a country

with a beard I put a few things into

computer rotation and we had to do it

this is the coolest way of ever coming

to anything Customs and Excise in a cafe

brilliant

and this ladies and gentlemen is the

reason I've come to Martinique it's such

a good food just look at that qua song

and a baguette in a in a dog bowl I bet

your idea of fun is not seeing a topless

middle-aged man eating food I got to

tell you I've got to share this moment

with you a class on this is a real

French classroom it's too warm

this is living boys and girls Martinique

it's a piece of Europe dropped into the

Caribbean ah this alone was worth twenty

seven hours of sea in rough weather

yesterday to get here this is next I've

got two of them as well

as you can see it's raining in

Martinique this morning that actually

over there is where the town is where

the shore is you can't even see the

island it's like being at sea in a

fertility aughts it is very very odd

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the only thickness because the anchor

was set in totally a different direction

we sort of backed on our anchor chains

so I don't need to know if the anchors

dug it anymore so and we're not stay on

board and all this is done it's so hot

yesterday I put the Bimini up and that's

now blowing all over the place so I've

got to get that down as soon as it stops

raining now the Bimini starting to leak

and that usually happens when it gets

like this it's absolutely torrential

outside can't see through the Bimini

windows at all look at

no big concern because a yacht behind me

you can just see him there and I'm not

sure if I'm actually pulling down on him

now it's looking a bit close to me right

before I got a stupid eye out for a

while

and it's yet another day here the

Anchorage in Martinique today is

particularly beautiful lot of rain yes a

lot of wind stayed on board indeed

editing followed by a couple of beers as

well I did yesterday but today's

different look at the color of that sea

I want to go there and explore a beach

and just enjoy myself but I can't

because I'm on the boat and I'm taking

apart the winch

she was playing up for a while and now

she's pretty much solid I can't crank

her over we'd only have the rope on

there and there's the gypsy wheel system

that goes on there which takes the chain

of course I've got everything tied off

elsewhere at the moment that's not doing

anything I've got that off it took me a

hell of a while there's a one of those

key things and fit in here it took me a

long time to get all that and apart and

I'm going to take this plate off and get

inside yeah it's taken me two hours to

get this baby off there's a key way in

there and it wasn't clear if I had to

take the key out before I could get this

off in the end the whole thing just slid

off well it didn't slide off it was

persuaded off and don't mind this is

this must be twelve or fourteen years

old this thing and it's very very worn

so I got to take it apart now and see if

I can fix it there are an awful lot of

boats in this Anchorage and that's

because with the Caribbean you don't

generally use marinas you anchor because

it's so beautiful and cheap of course

for free in most cases so something like

a winch on the deck is of great

importance I've been using that up to

ten times in one day just anchoring and

moving on a reoccurring what-have-you

and when there's bad weather you need

that thing believe me to get your anchor

up you don't be hand balling it hand

over hand

but look I'd rather be out there I gotta

fix this first having tasted the islands

excellent clients a few days before we

were eager to get off and go to the main

supermarket which was around the corner

in the big town an owner of a catamaran

gave us a tow all the way into town

which saved us a long journey in the

ding jeez I'm not really familiar with

modern catamaran so I was eager to have

a look round and I just really wanted to

have a bounce up and down on the

trampoline that felt better

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just got back in the dinghy Suns going

down so it's a good job we've got back

at this time it was so nice to go into a

real supermarket I got things like

tortilla wraps and another thing is a

French part a real French party Wow

that's great but of course the most

important suppliers are beer and wine I

tell you what at less than a euro each

for one of these you won't find anything

that cheaper anywhere in this area I'm

really that's the point of doing a big

shop here just put my hand in there and

I've got ham paté

I've got Gouda cheese so many places

I've been to in the last few months just

don't have things like it better corn on

radio and sweet sweet teas it's a hot

hot Dame with the help of my granny

shopper I've been out buying wine

because it's French wine it needs to be

on my boat and not in a shop before it

was put Gees wine that's long been drunk

south of here wines gonna be expensive

so stocking up the old cellar there that

should keep me going and a couple of

bars of chocolate just in case I get

hungry the only problem is I hope I can

get them all to fit in here so it's a

beautiful night tonight I can hear

people singing on shore all is well in

the world but this evening before it got

dark there were three guys in a boat

looking out

one might say checking out the yachts

now the Caribbean you've got to be a

little bit careful there is crime rating

figures available for different islands

and Martinique's pretty good very low

crime rate here but nevertheless

I've been around bad people many times

in my life and you get that little

feeling and today there were three guys

who just didn't fit in they didn't look

like boat people yachties or cruisers of

whatever you want to call them they were

hanging out they were circling and going

around and looking at different boats

and I don't think it's because they were

interested in boats and they came out to

my boat around it and I said did they

were looking and checking out my dinghy

which is hanging off the back and then

it went off and they did the same with

other boats so I called my friends here

in the marina in the anchorage and we

both decided to take our boats out of

the water tonight it might have been

nothing but nevertheless you got to be

careful here which is a shame because I

hope it was nothing to be honest with

you but better safe than sorry

shortly after that incident I decided to

do something about my dinghy security

leaving it in the water at night was

probably not the best option I'd noticed

that many other cruisers pull their

dinghies out of the water at night with

not having davits on the back of my boat

I had to find another way of doing that

I'd seen other people making a strop

system James had done the same thing

with his boat and he came over to give

me a hand and a little bit of advice by

using a spare halyard and a pulley block

we came up with a pretty good system

it was an unexpected turn needing

someone who gave my heart a third-degree

burn you might have seen this place

before but for me being a debutante it's

a little bit unsure so you must

understand if I try to get the lay of

the land

it's a lot to take in

can't seem to read your face don't know

where to begin

yeah

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if you

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if you just tell me how

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well

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well

you have a way about you now

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I find that I

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let some hair

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and that's the majestic fantastic Pitons

of solution

I won't be

sir

downstairs

figure you

but it does add a sort of author

authenticity but it does add a sort of

authenticity to the entire European

experience like a blue cheese blue

cheese nice very good

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