We were ready for a change, and sailed over to Martinique. When we visited the island three years ago, I didn’t love it; however it definitely deserved a second chance! We had a lovely trip down with a gentle breeze, and arrived in Ste Pierre mid-afternoon. Last time we were here it was crowded, with a narrow anchoring field wedged between sketchy moorings and shipwrecks. The moorings have now been updated, with an on-line system for reserving them, and once I’d managed to understand directions from the Capitainerie we were able to tie up to a mooring quite close to shore.

View from our mooring; view of the anchorage and Ste Pierre

Sainte Pierre is located at the foot of Morne Pelée, which famously erupted in May 1902, killing almost 30,000 people, and leaving only one survivor, who was in the town jail at the time. We visited the Memorial de la Catastrophe, which is a small but interesting museum about life in Ste Pierre immediately before the eruption, and the event itself. As we walked around the town afterwards, this gave us a feel for how vibrant a place it was before.

Ruins of the old jail (the sole survivor was in the cell top right); ruined warehouses by the waterfront

Morne Pelée looms over the town and is a tempting hike; I tried to arrange this but wasn’t successful in booking an early taxi ride to get up to a good starting point. Memo to self: you can’t get much done on a Sunday in the French islands! This one will have to remain on the Wish List.

Continuing down the coast, and with big swells developing, we came into Trois Ilets. This anchorage is wonderfully protected and felt a little like ducking into Seal Bay in Maine to escape from bad weather. It poured with rain for almost an entire day! We caught up with a few Salty Dawgs while we were there. The anchorage is popular as an alternative to busy Fort de France, just across the bay, but oddly the town does nothing to welcome sailors – there’s no dinghy dock and really very little development along the waterfront. A little effort takes one to an excellent bakery, wineshop, cheese shop and butchers, and we were able to replenish key supplies. We also took the dinghy over to a nearby harbor where there are some old pottery works. This is where the red tiles on the roofs of houses all around Martinique and Guadeloupe were made. Nowadays it is evolving into a collection of rather chic artisanal stores, restaurants and a seashell museum.

Next stop was Anse Noir. We tried to get in here three years ago and were chased out by rather aggressive fishermen. I don’t know how this situation was resolved but apparently it has been! We tucked into this lovely little anchorage which has room for only a few other boats. The water was clear and we saw plenty of turtles around. We took the dinghy ashore to the excellent dinghy dock and followed a path up to look-out point with views over Anse Noir as well as its neighbor Anse Dufour. Although these two bays are only separated by a thin headland, they have a totally different feel, since Anse Noir has black sand and none of the usual beach bars, whereas Anse Dufour has white sand and plenty of life!

Finally, we moved round the south-west tip of Martinique to Ste Anne. We hadn’t been there before and didn’t know quite what to expect, since there were hundreds of boats there. However there is plenty of space to anchor, and a pleasant town. We spent several days here, catching up with more Salty Dawgs and visiting the town. Carnival was in full swing, so every evening loud music pumped from the waterfront. There is also a strange custom of making cars and motorbikes backfire in unison, which kept me running up the companionway to look for fireworks! I followed a pretty hiking trail along the shore for several miles, passing numerous lovely beaches. One of them turned out to be the local nude beach; I walked briskly with eyes straight ahead, but have to admit that it all looks better when it has a good suntan.

On our final day, we took the boat into nearby Le Marin to fill up at the excellent fuel dock. We then picked up a mooring for a couple of hours and I took the dinghy in to the supermarket dock. Le Marin is famed for having a dinghy dock to which you can wheel your shopping cart! Just before sunset we left for an overnight passage back up to Les Saintes, with the bass notes from Carnival music still audible miles out. We enjoyed our time in Martinique and hopefully will be back again in a couple of weeks as we work south.