St Pierre
We left the Iles des Saintes in Guadeloupe and sailed on a close reach 30 miles south towards Dominica, in 12-17knots, where we anchored for 1 night, and didnt check in, as we intend to visit next season. We realized belatedly that our anchorage was opposite a garbage dump! Well it served our quick and dirty needs for the night.
The next morning, we continued on another 40 miles to St Pierre, Martinique. As we picked our anchorage, a local fisherman started yelling at us that he had a man in the water an we couldnt anchor there! Michael asked me to use my french skills to tell him to F-off. The French fisherman are relentless!
In this ancharage, we reunited with Tikibaja and met their buddy boat Roxy, a German couple with 2 girls onboard, heading to Grenada to sell their boat.
We visited the town, and it was a bit rundown. St Pierre is the original capital of Martinique but was destroyed by a volcano erruption in 1903, that tragically killed all the inhabitants except 1 person, a convict in solitary confinement. The capital was moved to Fort de France and the town was rebuilt, below the gorgeous volcanic peak once again. We toured the town and moved on after a couple of days.
Fort de France
We pulled the anchor up at noon and sailed south along the coast and then through the large bay to Fort de France, where we anchored up behind our old friends Wildly Intrepid.
We explored the town full of artful buildings, lovely churches and interestingly named boutiques. The marked had many local crafts, and delicacies. I picked up some fresh vanilla, raw cacao and we chose a few flavored rums, along with some fresh veggies. As the world cup was on, we searched out a pub to watch the game, and found an illegal laptop playing the game in an outdoor cafe. We enjoyed the game with some locals and I met a fellow who had sailed to Martinique from French Gyana where he bike toured. He had also biked from BC to South America! Very cool!!
We provisioned and did our laundry to get ready for our next leg. I have to say, French laundrymats are the best around. Many cruisers trade laundry tips and everyone wants to know where the best laundry spots are!
