Petronella's Voyages: The Many Facets of Martinique

Current Location: St Anne Anchorage, Martinique

Well, we are still here. This week has been the story of a water pump, friends and boat ownership.

First off, the water pump. Regular readers (I do believe there are some) will know that the water pump on Petronella has been a problem since we bought her. This is the pump that bolts onto the crankshaft. Rotation of the crankshaft turns an impeller that pumps water from the sea through a heat exchanger and back into the sea via the exhaust. The heat exchanger plays the same role as the radiator on a car, cooling the fresh water that keeps the engine from overheating. We have two of these pumps, neither of which is really functioning any longer. Each time one breaks I try to rebuild it using replacement parts and bits from the other one. This time I think it is past mending. Just when we are trying to sell her too. So, you might think – buy a replacement. Yes and no. These pumps it seems have been out of production for more than 25 years and I can’t find a second hand one either. So we need a new type. Boaties love this sort of problem so everyone has been chipping in with their chosen solution. In the end we opt for a Johnson F6B-9 as the solution. Here’s a lovely picture of them both.

Old pump still in place on the crankshaft

New pump in St Martin prior to shipping (thanks Alex!)

The Johnson had to be sourced from St Martin further up the island chain. At present Fedex tracking system tells me it has arrived in Martinique but is stuck in customs. This is silly because it is “Yacht in Transit” delivery which should mean no duty payable. We shall see. Even once it arrives I have to find a chap who will build a circular plate to go from the new pump to the crankshaft pulleys. More expense, and more chance that it won’t all fit together. Thanks to Dave and Vera for transport and consultancy, to Dick and Jack for ideas and to Alex and Carla for organising the shipping from St Martin.. Now I just need it to come together.

Meanwhile things are moving forward with boat sale although unfortunately we have withdrawn from our purchase of Tiger Lily as the owners were not prepared to do the required investigation work. Our mate John A though still seems very keen to buy Petronella. It’s all looking promising but we still have the water pump, survey, insurance and registration issues to finalise. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile we have started sorting out documentation and things that we will need to take back to the UK if and when she sells.

Finally we’ve had Dave and Vera over here for the week. D+V live next to our house in Cumbria and are frequent visitors to Petronella. This could be their last time aboard her. They hired a car for the week which not only allowed us to take the liferaft into Le Marin for service and to chase up waterpump bits but also to explore the island a bit. Martinique is tres, tres Francais (sp?) and very varied. Fort de France the capital feels more like an extremely busy western European capital and with the petrol drivers’ strike on Wednesday we could have been in France itself.

Outside of the capital though it’s a mixture of beaches, small rather scruffy small towns, the famous St Pierre with its volcano, and super green, jungly jungle. We’ve seen it all this week. Mount Pelee is the third most dangerous volcano in the world – well that’s what they call it because in 1902 it erupted after weeks of rumbling, killing over 30,000 people. Even today it looms over the town. Only one guy, so the story goes, survived. He was in solitary confinement in the town gaol. He was rescued 4 days later when people managed to get to him and let him out. He subsequently became a star act with Bertrams circus, displaying his burns and recounting his story.