Our quest for the best beach and best ice cream continues on board of Mr X this time. Moving the family on the Saturday afternoon is a scream…Carole amongst other things, has a nice big heavy suitcase full of clean clothes (as in not been worn!) and we need to get all this onboard in the dingy. We only made 4 trips and had to use the spinnaker halyard to get the suitcase up on deck! We end up on in the beach restaurant having our well earned aperitif when suddenly Ian decided that his injury is now worrying him and he needs to go to see the pharmacist! Both Carole and myself have been plaguing him to seek advice on it. We had been 3 times to the pharmacy already for other stuff over the last few days and he had not wanted to talk to anyone. So there we are, Saturday around 6pm, having a drink, and he decides that he should see someone…no pharmacy in l’anse a l’ane, the nearest is in pointe du bout a good 4 km away, the hire car has gone back, no bus or taxi available, the pharmacy will be shutting in an hour and a half and it will be dark soon. Jean Charles knows the way by foot, he has been running along the coast so both of them set off. It took them a good 2 hours for the round trip but it was successful as in they had some advice and products to get his leg fixed. And they told us amazing stories of daring does on the wooded path in the dark.
We set off from our anchorage next morning to go to l’Anse Dufour. We had a bit of wind so we had a nice sail down to the bay. We saw turtle and the snorkelling was good. Very nice spot for lunch. We decided to spend the night at l’anse d’arlet which would be more sheltered for the night and apparently there are showers ashore. We arrived just in time for an ice cream (too late for the showers much to Carole disgust!) and before the pharmacy shut. We were lucky this was the pharmacy “de garde” open on Sunday. Ian’s leg had worsened during the night it had swollen up from the knee to the foot and I was getting quite concerned. The pharmacist was very understanding and gave us some antibiotic but advised to seek medical opinion soonest. Ian agreed to see the doctor first thing.
Next day we motored all the way back to l’Anse Mittan where a taxi would be picking up Carole and family to take them to the airport. Last swim, showers, leisurely lunch and a few dingy trips with the luggage and they were gone! Can’t believe how quick the time went. As per usual, very pleasurable to have them around, and off course without them we would not have see and enjoyed so much of Martinique. So glad they came, we had a ball!