Martinique Revisited

Back to Martinique

Actually the next leg of our voyages took us to Rodney Bay in St.Lucia. It was here that we met up with our friend Peter who back in 2012 had helped us along with John, to cross Biscay. 

Peter is no stranger to sailing and competes in racing events on a regular basis, so it was great to have his experience on board.

Our time in Rodney Bay was short although we did manage a trip to the much acclaimed micro brewery, and had a delicious Indian meal. 

We left the next day for Martinique, to the Southern anchorage of St.Anne. 

Peter enjoying the helm

Here we went ashore in nearby Le Marin after a rough and very wet ride in the rib. Ashore we made a quick trip to one of the many chandlers, had a few beers, and managed a provisioning shop in the nearby supermarket before enduring another wet ride back to the boat.

We had been to St.Anne before, and it is a pretty place to go ashore however, we decided to do that on the way back and instead we headed North up the island to the anchorage at Grand Anse D'Arlet.

We stayed here a couple of nights and had a great time snorkelling over a reef, and a meal ashore at a beach side restaurant.

Evening meal on the beach front

Peter enjoying his prawns

 



Next, we headed to St.Pierre. We had really enjoyed this place on our last visit and were keen to show Peter around.

The anchorage is most interesting as a steep shelf means you have to get very close to the shore to anchor. We found a good spot, but ended up moving slightly in the evening as the yacht nearest us had a kedge (Stern anchor deployed) and we swung a little too close for comfort.

High Street in St.Pierre

High Street in St.Pierre

High Street in St.Pierre

 


Having had an early start to get to St.Pierre, it left us time in the afternoon to take Peter to the Depaz Rum Distillery.

Of course the highlight is the free tasting at the end of the tour, and Depaz make so many variations it was marvellous to try some of the ones we did not get around to on our last visit.

The following day we decided against a hike in the countryside as it had been raining heavily during the night. Instead we paid a visit to the local museum.

We ended up staying in town for lunch, and unknown to us our rib had managed to get trapped under the jetty. Huge thanks to Ian and the local fisherman who rescued it, we are very grateful.

Rib trapped under the jetty

Ian to the rescue

We covered some of the history of St.Pierre a while back, but for some reason had not made the time to visit this very interesting museum.

To recap, in 1902 the town which was a thriving place with a population of 30,000, was known as the Paris of the Caribbean and was the commercial, cultural and social centre of Martinique. On 2 May 1902, Mt. Pelee erupted. Poisonous gasses and 1000C temperatures, along with huge boulders of lava, destroyed just about everything, including ships at anchor in the bay.

The luckiest man that day was a prisoner called Louis-Auguste Cyparis. He survived the catastrophe due to the protection of his jail cell! He did suffer terrible injuries and went on to be a side show in the Barnum Circus, showing off his tortured wounds to all and sundry.

Louis-Auguste Cyparis

Warnings of a possible eruption had been given in the months leading up to the event however, only a 1000 or so people heeded them and left. It is hard to imagine the scenes of devastation that helpers would have encountered.

St.Pierre before the eruption

St.Pierre after the 1902 eruption

 





On a lighter note we rounded up the day with a visit in the evening to Le Reservoir beach front bar. We had been here before and the owner, Willy had made us most welcome and the food was simply stunning. If anything we had an even better experience this time around. Once again the food was without fault, although we all ended up slightly the worse for wear when Willy decided complimentary shots of Depaz rum would be the order of the day.

The place is slightly surreal. A lovely dog called Stan is always pleased to see you, and during the course of our meal, a cockerel and hen hopped up onto a rafter to settle down for the night.

King of the roost

Sunset and beer

The motley crew

We have some vague recollection of signing a boiler with our boat names!!

An unusual autograph

Sadly our time in St.Pierre was over all too soon. We left early in the morning and sailed back down South to St.Anne. It was a boisterous sail into a large swell as we came around the corner near Diamond Island. However, Peter enjoyed taking the helm and making the most of his time sailing in the Caribbean.

We nipped ashore soon after arriving in St.Anne for a quick beer and some access to wifi. Sadly in the bar on the beach the mosquitoes started to bite. Martinique is one of the many Caribbean islands that has witnessed the Zika virus, so we decided to go back to the boat, as in the anchorage we don't normally get any issues with mozzies.

For the final sail with Peter, we left St.Anne the following morning for a wonderful sail back down to Rodney Bay in St.Lucia. We went ashore soon after arriving to clear in with customs and immigration, having already cleared out of Martinique.

The next day Peter's flight was scheduled for an early evening departure. We woke up to torrential rain and thunderstorms. The rainfall was so great the anchorage started to turn brown with the run-off from the land. As we had to get ourselves and Peter with luggage ashore, we decided not to risk launching the rib. Instead we called up the dockmaster in the marina who kindly located a tour boat that came out and picked us up. It also meant we got to have lunch with Richard and Shelley from the yacht Ailsa, who took part with us on the Rally Portugal in 2012.

Fearing possible road closures and landslides due to the weather, Peter's taxi turned up early and we bade him a fond farewell. We are hoping that he will join us for our Panama transit and onward passage to the Galapagos early next year.

Our next blog updates will include a visit to Bequia, Tobago Cays, Union Island in the Grenadines and back to Grenada to coincide with a Cruising Association dinner, and an insight into our plans for the hurricane season. Strange to think most people in the Caribbean are laying up boats, whilst back in the Med some have only just left their winter marinas.