Martinique: Time to see some more of the Caribbean

Well the human’s are healthy enough to ‘get a move on’ and leave Martinique for the rest of the Caribbean.

Before leaving they ‘of course’ had to go visit one of the islands many rum distilleries for a tasting section.

At the foot of the volcano is the rum distillery Depaz.

The original distillery was destroyed in the volcanic eruption, but luckily one of the family members was out of town that day.  He rebuilt the distillery that exists today.

You may have thought the boat was in danger crossing the atlantic, but nothing compares to how in dangerous other anchorers are.  Check this out!

This is just the guy we caught of film.  You should have seen some of the others!   I was too busy barking and the humans too busy with fenders to snap off a shot of them.

But, back to the run distillery.

They left me behind to watch the boat, while they walked up to the distillery along country roads.  They walked past a few more ruins on the outskirts of town.

Then up through the cane fields.

 

The harvester puts the size of the sugar cane into prospective.

Amazingly flowers and fruit trees grew along the sides of the fields.

Finally we reached the distillery and had a walk around the grounds.

Depaz rum is made from crushing whole sugar cane (not using molasses).  Originally a water wheel was used to grind and press the chopped cane.

Now they use a steam engine instead.  It may seem antiquated, but it is in fact very environmentally sound.  They burn the waste fibre from the sugar cane as fuel for the steam engine, that grinds and presses the sugar cane.

 

 

 

The waste fibre is also used to heat the fermented sugar cane and distil the alcohol to make rum.

The burnt ash is then used as fertilizer for the fields.

After distillation amber and dark rums are then aged in oak barrels.

The longer the rum is aged the more flavour it takes from the wood.  More of the rum is in the barrels the more evaporates as well, so the price greatly increases.

Unlike the port houses of Portugal, we were free to wander the estates ‘unrestricted’ areas.  We found this lovely huge rubber tree.

After the visit to the rum distillery it was time to say good-bye to friends we had made in Saint Pierre and start travelling again.

We decided to make our way slowly (like we have done anything fast lately) south to other islands in the Caribbean.  But first we had to stop into Fort de France for one more doctors appointment to get the ‘all clear’ for the male human.

The weather turned a little rainy, so it was time to test MOCK 3 of the rain catcher.  (Warning: boring stuff for other cruisers or want to be’s)

Many of the islands get brief rain showers that are excellent sources of clean, free water.  If you have something quick and easy to put up, you can capture a lot of water in a short down pour.  A rain catcher can also double as a rain cover for your hatches.

Winds usually accompany the short squalls, so you want your rain catcher to be strong and tight.  We whipped a piece of hose to ours that is long enough to reach all our tank fills.

 

We found the wind got under our rain catcher and spilt out the water before it could drain down to the hose.  So ‘Mock 3’ has straps so we can tie the hose part down to the deck.

We add a few drops of ‘Aqua Sol’ (www.cleantabs.co.uk) to keep the water fresh as we have a large water capacity and use it conservatively.

We also found an extra water fill cap, so we drilled a whole into it just large enough for the hose to fit into.

The humans complain I drag a lot of sand onto the boat, so the cap stops that sand getting into the water tanks in a down pour.

(End: of boring technical stuff)

We have left Fort de France and are now at Grande Anse de Arlet.  This beautiful sandy cove is where we made our first landfall after crossing the Atlantic.  The sailing, along the lee of the island has been fantastic.  We were doing 7.5 knots with barely a ripple of waves in the water yesterday.  We will have a short passage between Martinique to Saint Lucia to do, but it will be exposed to the full force of the Atlantic.

 

We will probably wait here until Monday. The weather looks good and we will not have to pay any weekend ‘over time’ charges when we clear into a new country.  We are all a little excited to be arriving at a country that speaks English for the first time since leaving England!

We have so many questions to ask!!!

 

To finish off, for all those that need an excuse to have a drink…get the rum punch ready…here is your sundowner.