We finally left St. Lucia, it was hard to leave as we really enjoyed it, and headed for Martinique. Despite the “book” telling us all the woes of crime, boat boys etc. we did not experience any issues that made us feel unsafe in St. Lucia. We got an early start and as soon as we were in the middle of Rodney Bay we set full sail. The winds were 10 – 15 kts and out of the East. We had plotted a course to Grand Anse, but as we rounded Pigeon Island for Martinique, we ran into 15 -20 knot winds out of the ESE and a 3 foot chop with 6-8 foot swells. With the slight South wind we close reached and close hauled towards Le Marin. It was a good sail with flying fish all around the boat and we sailed close to an old Dutch square rigged wooden schooner that was headed South.
We had 21 miles to go and did it in 3 hours. Of course as we got into the lee of Martinique the wind shifted North and we turned on the iron jenny to motor in. The harbor is huge with several fingers off and we motored around in search of less than 20’ of water to anchor. We found it in one of the little fingers that is surrounded by mangroves and a score of boats tied to them. The bottom is mud so visibility is poor.
We lowered the dinghy and went to check in. There are several Marinas in the harbor and each have long docks full of boats. We finally found the dinghy dock and asked about checking in only to find they close at 12:30 PM and most businesses, except restaurants and bars, close from 12 to 2. Oh well we just explored the town. It is a small dense town with old stone walls and buildings built into a high hill. The narrow streets and steep winding roads with small shops, stores, and houses on them are interesting to explore. Le Marin is a yachting city. There are 4 different chandleries, 2 engine stores, multiple riggers and sail lofts, and of course the bars and restaurants on the harbor. The Marinas are separated by a long beach and point, and the left side has a nice dinghy channel through the mangroves to a dock by the chandleries and shopping center.
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| The Market |
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| Kids in parade |
The next day was Valentine’s Day and we went to check in. There was a parade going on of small children all dressed up in shiny costumes practicing for Mardi Gras. Each school class seemed to have a different colorful costume. Martinique is a French speaking country so checking in had its problems as they used the French name for the countries and cities, and of course the customs agent speaks very little English. This also made for exciting meals at the restaurants. However, the people try to help you get what you want. That evening I disassembled the port jib winch as it had failed on the sail over. After examining it and not finding anything obvious, I started to put it back together. As I put the drum and self tailer on the spline, the self tailer gears didn’t match and the self tailer part popped off the drum, bounced on the cabin top over the towel I had put down to catch any wayward parts, on to the deck where it bounced twice as I chased it and then flipped over the toe rail into the water. Noooooooo! It was sundown so the water was too dark to dive in and it was time to go to Lateral Thinking, a catamaran with and Australian couple we met in St. Lucia, for dinner. CarI tried to be a good guest. We compared boat shake down problems as they were just taking their boat out of charter also and we all seemed to be shaking out the nuts and bolts so to speak. The next morning Carl let the sun rise a bit and donned snorkel gear and dove overboard. He almost ran into the bottom. The visibility at 12’ was 2’ and the bottom soft mud. After 30 minutes he was discouraged and prayed please God help me find the part. Another 15 minutes of searching and examining a couple of shells and bottles, he realized I don’t even know what to look for. A few more dives and he noticed a small white line in the mud, reached to see what it was and IT WAS THE SELF TAILER!! surfaced with a resounding YES! And thanked the Lord for his mercy. Told Leslie I do not work on deck hardware in water deeper than 15’ and must have a sand bottom with full visibility.
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| Inflatable water toys at a beach club |
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| Carl at the Les Salines beach |
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| HMS Diamond Rock |
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| Leslie on the Beach |
Carl enjoyed some body surfing. We got back to the village in time for the fish market and bought some great fish. We headed out the next morning for Grand Anse. We passed by Diamond Rock which was accutally commisioned as a ship by the British because they put cannons on it and attacked unsuspecting French ships.
Grand Anse is a deep anchorage except close to shore so we were looking for a hole near there. Two cats pulled up anchor as we were perusing the shore and we were able to drop anchor in 10ft., Carl’s favorite depth. As we were dropping anchor off this dock, the owners went by in their boat and said, “Watch the house for us…” Carl yelled back, “Is there beer in the fridge?”, and they said later. We went to check out of Martinique, great, you go to a bar fill in the info on a computer and then the bartender stamps the papers, all quite civilized. As we were coming back from checking out and watching for the elusive green flash, the owners of the dock also came back and invited us to their deck overhanging the water for drinks and typical French dinner of fish terrine and te-te pain. The setting was lovely and Serge and Alison were incredible hosts and suddenly it was 2300 and time to get some sleep. We pulled the anchor at 1000 and waved good bye to our night time hosts with promises to connect next time we come thru. We were going to St. Pierre. Serge is the great, great grandson of the Deputy Mayer of St. Pierre when the volcano erupted in 1902. He and Alison live on the family plantation as it was not wiped out in the disaster. Serge grows sugar cane as this is a major crop on Martinique. St. Pierre was the Paris of the Caribbean in the late 1800 hundreds with 30,000 residents. It is now much more of a Caribbean village. At one point it was wiped off the French books and considered non-existent. In the 1930’s the people living there reapplied with France for reinstatement as a town.
Sunday when we arrived, Mardi Gras was getting started and we got to see many elaborate costumes and the church as the parade wound its way there.
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| Church |
The church minus the top of its steeples was also saved from the 1902 eruption. The only person to survive was a prisoner in the local jail. This will be our jump off point for Dominica.
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