Martinique: C'Est Magnifique!

More Fun Times in Martinique
​Now that we have a functioning autopilot and 2 new MDIs we can finally leave the Le Marin area and enjoy the rest of Martinique. Keith’s shoulder is still a work on progress and physio is helping. Our spinnaker is awaiting an inspection by the sailmaker so we can get a quote to repair it, so we leave it in their safe hands.

---

Passing Diamond Rock on our way north

Pelican vs Fisherman

Finally we cut the umbilical cord and leave the south of Martinique after morning coffee. We are heading north on the leeward side of the island. The breeze is coming from behind us as the Easterly trade winds that brought us across the Atlantic are wrapping around the bottom of the Martinique. We goose-winged the Genoa and head away from the coast as the breeze shifts. Eventually gybed back in and reefed as the wind strengthened closer to the shore. Our next stop is only 13nm away and somewhere that we visited when we hired the car - the lovely bay of Petite Anse D'Arlet. We anchored in the south (Anse Chaudiere) and it is a great spot, a little bit away from the busy town. It’s a popular anchorage and one of those where everyone ends up facing opposite directions when the breeze drops and swirls around the bay. Sadly anchoring has since been banned in that spot, to protect the sea grass that the turtles love to feast on.

I went for a snorkel - the bottom is sea grass over sand and there are a lot of sea urchins and starfish as well as some soft corals and small tropical fish closer to shore. There are also a couple of large, diving pelicans here. They are brown and a little smaller than their Australian cousins. In the late afternoon we watch a fisherman in a small wooden boat throw sticks into the water, then cast a large net in a wide circle. Pelicans come out of nowhere seeking a free feed. The fisherman beat the water with an oar as they pull the net in. He seems to be getting quite a few small silvery fish and tossing them into the boat. A couple of times he jumped into the water, fully clothed and with goggles on. Not sure what he was doing but it was interesting to watch. A tough way to earn a living.

---

Underwater scenes

​The next morning went ashore in search of bread and found a nice little bakery, one of the best things about being in “France”. Of course we had to have a Pain au Raisin as well as a lovely fresh baguette for lunch. Had a wander around town and along the town beach past the pink mangroves swamp (the water is pink not the mangroves, hopefully a natural phenomenon). There are some lovely, brightly coloured buildings here and local fisherman have their colourful boats up on the beach. Looks like there is some sort of swimming carnival happening as there is a DJ setting up and some extra buoys ready to be placed in the water. The town beach is quite popular and lively with lots of cafes and well as a reef for snorkelling off the beach. We will come back later for that.
 
We took the dinghy around to the next bay to our north, Grand Anse d’Arlet. The town is not as pretty and the bay is full of mooring buoys. On the way back we have to take a detour around a group of swimmers, the carnival is now in full swing and those brave souls are heading out around a buoy and back to shore.  After lunch we go for a snorkel on the reef in the bay. It’s quite interesting and the water is reasonably clear. Lots of colourful fish around despite the number of tourists. We have had a few rain squalls today and ITIKI has turned every which way. When we get back from our snorkelling we take a look at the anchor and decide to reset it now that the wind direction has changed.

Fond Boucher

We move on the next morning after breakfast intending to head into the main harbour of Martinique and anchor opposite Fort de France, but sometimes things just don’t go to plan. We put the main up to first reef and full genoa initially, but ended up reefing it as the breeze kicked in. Quite strong winds and swell coming out of the bay at FdF so we soon go to second reef, we crossed the bay and continued north as we had the water maker on and wanted to top up the tanks. It seems to be a bit slower than normal. Also conditions are a bit rough with strong winds funnelling out of the FdF bay. Maybe we have gotten soft since our Atlantic crossing but we can’t quite face turning right and banging into it. We spotted a few boats anchored to our north in Fond Boucher and decided to take a look, maybe stop for lunch. Well anyway it was quite nice so we decided to stay the night. We are only 12nm from our previous anchorage. Some local fishermen came into the bay and again were tossing sticks in the water to attract the fish to the surface. We had a chat to them in broken French/English and they offered us some of their fish that was floating around in the warm, dirty water in the bottom of their dinghy (we politely declined) but we gave them some beers.​

---

Dodgy dinghy dock!

After breakfast we head off and motored all of the 10nm to our next anchorage at Anse Mitan. We are in a wide bay and due south of Fort de France. Having changed the sediment filter in the water maker it is now much quicker so we could finish topping up the tanks.
 
Anchored near some Aussies - Karen and Neil from Perfect Timing who have been cruising in Europe for quite a few years now and finally took the plunge to head home. Took the dinghy ashore to check out the beach and town. We did swing by here in the rental car but only visited the touristy Creole village, which at least has yummy ice cream! We dinghied to the next bay, Anse l’Ane (=donkey bay). A nice anchorage but a little more developed and crowded but no sign of any donkeys! Went for an afternoon snorkel under and in front of the boat. When we anchored I saw what looked like a big flat squarish rock under the water, we managed to avoid dropping the anchor on it, but it turned out to be a submerged pedalo boat! There are some other small “wrecks” close into the shore and reasonable coral and fish around, but nothing spectacular.

---

The cathedral at Fort de France

Fort de France
For something different we took the ferry across the bay to Fort de France, which is the capital of Martinique. It is lively and clean with a bit of street art and plenty of shops. We visited the beautiful and unusual cathedral, checked out the covered markets and a number of the old colonial style buildings. The Bibloteque Schoeler is another amazingly decorative building, although not open to the public to go inside. As always we visit the any half decent supermarket we pass by and Keith had an incredibly bad, and very short haircut here as well. This one is going to take a while to grow back! Had lunch in town to commiserate before taking the ferry back to our anchorage.
 
The following morning we motored across to FdF and anchored under the Fort St Louis in the Baie des Flamands. It’s not a particularly nice anchorage, which is why we visited by ferry. It’s quite crowded and with boats swinging every which way, you get the glare from the incumbents as you arrive and start motoring around with intent, looking for a spot to drop the pick. We went ashore for a few more errands before heading further north to St Pierre, on the north west coast.

​We raised the main with 2 reefs and Genoa with 1.5 reefs. Saw gusts of up to 30kts at times, before we came into a wind shadow approaching St Pierre and its down to 2.5kts! Finally put the motors on after we involuntarily tacked a couple of times. The anchorage fairly large and spread out along the beach, but it is packed and difficult to find a space between other boats, many of them on local moorings. It’s also a narrow shelf with a steep drop off to the west. This end of the island is dominated by Mt Pelee, the highest peak on the island and also a volcano. We took our time to make sure we were dug in well and positioned so as not to swing into any other boats. Its uncanny how just as you come to anchor you get the day's strongest gusts. We had repeated, short, sharp squalls come through as we anchored and me on the foredeck got a bit wet!

Colonial building, now tourist office, Saint Pierre

St Pierre
Sainte Pierre was the first town established in Martinique and was once a thriving shipping hub of great significance in the Caribbean. This all changed in 1902 when a volcanic eruption all but wiped out the town, leaving one lone survivor. This was a prisoner who had the good fortune (!) to be incarcerated in a very thick walled prison cell adjacent to the town’s theatre. I went ashore and checked out the memorial to the  “Catastrophe of 1902”. Hundreds of boats were lost in the eruption and wrecks are still strewn around the bay today. I also visited the ruins of the Theatre de Petite Paris and the Cachot Cyparis where the lucky prisoner was held. We spent the afternoon watching boats coming and going and trying to find space and then we are twisting and turning on our anchor as the wind dropped out. We put lots of fenders out just in case things go bump on the night.

---

Anse Couleurve

​Well it is almost time to leave Martinique so in the morning I went ashore to do the check out. It’s such an easy process in the French islands. You find a computer in a café, tourist office or marina and fill in a one page form, get it printed, stamped, pay a couple of Euros and voila! You are ready to go. On the way back to the boat I got some lovely fresh tuna from the fish markets, we still haven’t managed to catch any ourselves, and of course some fresh bread from the bakery.

Underwater scences

We left around 11am and headed north, motoring all the way as it was a relatively short distance and the wind was wrapping the north end of the island and coming at us on the nose. The bay we have chosen for our last night is only 9nm from St Pierre, but as we are bypassing Dominica on our way to Guadeloupe it gives us an extra hour and a half of sleep before we set off early morning to arrive in at our destination daylight. Anse Couleurve is a stunning place, a small bay with a little  beach surrounded by steep hills and thick jungle. One other cat arrives just as we did, Keith had met them in St Pierre. Went for a snorkel to the north of the bay and it was pretty good. Lots of fish and coral. We are treated to a beautiful sunset over the sea. As advertised in the guide book it is a very rolly place and we swing around on our anchor but we are really well dug into the sand. There is a lot of hull slapping from the waves during the night but we sleep through anything these days. We wake early the next morning to leave at first light. There have been some rain squalls overnight and we make our way towards a lovely rainbow, passing along the west coast of Dominica towards Les Saintes a small archipelago just south of the main island of Guadeloupe. Check out our YouTube video below for more on Martinique.

---

Morning rainbow