Martinique

The morning after the ARC+ prize giving bash we headed off to Martinique, a sail of about 28 miles.

Quick note to anyone not in the know (US!!!) if you check out of St Lucia on a holiday or weekend the rate is tripled!!! We won’t make that mistake again so what should’ve been 35ecd ended up costing us 110ecd 🤦🏻‍♂️

Back to Martinique, & a beautiful sail up to a small bay called anse d’Arlet which reportedly had a cyber station to check into. Once anchored we all went into the small sleepy village to find the cyber base closed even though Doyle’s guide said it should be open… hey it’s the Caribbean. We went back the next morning and the process was self service and cost 3 Euro’s only!

Nick & Carol said they’d like to go up to the north of the island to see the town of St Pierre. This area is dominated by mount Pelée, a volcano which last erupted in 1902 killing over 30000 locals There were only 2 survivors. We were a little disappointed with the town to be honest, but there was a well stocked supermarket and local market. After anchoring for the night we headed back towards Fort de France the islands capital where we would say goodbye to Nick & Carol as they would be flying home.

The anchorage isn’t big but is protected from the winds by the fort. However the ferry boat terminal is just behind the anchorage and they leave quite a wake during the day making the anchorage very rolly, but equally calm at night. There’s a really good dinghy dock right by a large park giving easy access to the shops and bars.

At 5:30am I took Nick & Carol ashore for their taxi and we said our final goodbyes with hugs and kisses… what an adventure they and we have had together during the last 7 weeks. They will have many tales to tell friends and family whilst preparing for their next adventure on their own yacht to the Baltic in 2019.

As Christmas is so close, we did a big shop at the Leader Price supermarket in Fort de France which was by far the cheapest place to stock up, then eased back down to Le Marin over a couple of days. On our way south we passed Diamond rock, which has quite the history. The Royal navy “commissioned” the rock calling it HMS Diamond Rock and put cannons and crew permanently on it to upset the French during the Napoleonic wars. It certainly worked and the British held the rock for nearly 2 years before the French finally brought in big ships!

Once in Le Marin we anchored in the harbour but it’s a soulless harbour with dirty water and abandoned yachts at anchor looking very tired. There were many yachts clearly with live aboards that are unable to move from where they are as their boats are completely unseaworthy. We stayed at anchor for 1 night then quickly left and now we’re anchored in Ste Anne with lots of boats around us all having a good time. A beautiful beach is 2 minutes by dinghy and the water is crystal clear meaning we’re happy now.😊

Even here we see abandoned yachts, the floating one has no boom, no steering and its anchor chain thick with weed. The dinghy is also very sad, filled with water and just left. As for the yacht on the beach, it looks like its been there for some time as there’s graffiti all along one side and completely stripped of anything of value!