It was early April when I stepped aboard Kokomo, a Leopard 47 catamaran that I was to call home for the next few months. The big plan was to sail from Martinique through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos, before undertaking the 6,000nm hike across the Pacific to Marquesas. Then, through the Toumataos and French Polynesia in July, New Caledonia in August, and down to Sydney.
My skipper Hosso and I had already moved Kokomoko from New York to Martinique and she was waiting where I had left her four months earlier in Le Marin Bay. When Covid dented Hosso’s charter plans. It would be a crew of three; Hosso, myself and an old friend, Boomer. Both lovely guys but I was somewhat dismayed that both were vegetarians.
Back for the fourth time in just a couple of years, I inhaled the balmy Caribbean air. It felt like I had just gone ashore for stores. Hosso met us at our favourite Le Marin restaurant, Indigo. As we sped out to Kokomokoin the bay, the need for provisioning and hull cleaning, brought us back to earth.
Carrefour Le Marin was always going to be a disappointment provisioning for two vegetarians. I was thankful they ate fish! No rum this