“After our Atlantic crossing in December, with storms of up to 64 knots (!) and an annoying flat calm which lasted almost a week, our friends from France arrived in Le Marin, to sail with us to the south and its cayes. ‘Everyone’ knows St Lucia’s Two Pitons and the exceptional transparency of the waters which cool their feet. ‘Everyone’ knows about the sea and the wind’s tantrums in the channel between St Lucia and St Vincent. ‘Everyone’ knows about the discreet charms of Bequia, Canouan and Mayereau. ‘Everyone’ knows about the iguanas on Baradal and the Polynesian calm of Petit Tabac or Morpion. On the other hand, who knows Pépé at Tyrell Bay, on Carriacou? The ginormous lobster, with its sister, for next to nothing? Our friends aboard had come with an enormous black truffle, and I still had some Château Simone white wine in the hold. Guess what happened? Pure pleasure and discovery, the combination was original, tasty, uncommon and succulent. And the recipe, invented from start to finish, will be published in a future episode.
Our Outremer, with its capacity to sail well to windward, allowed us to sail to windward of the islands and thus cast our lines in little-fished waters. During our first passage a few miles to windward of St Vincent, we landed a big jack which we put back in the water, closely followed by a big barracuda which also regained its freedom, as the risks of ciguatera are too high in the big examples of these two species. On the other hand, the 1.8-metre blue marlin, landed in the following quarter of an hour (with a struggle, as fishing under sail at 10 knots in the waves is quite acrobatic), finished cut up into fillets and stocked in the freezer, which we switched back on for the occasion!
