We arrived in St. Pierre Martinique, which is in the northwestern section of the country, after a 32NM sail. It was a good sail with a 60 degree wind angle. We completed the trip in about 5 and half hours.
St. Pierre used to be the capital of Martinique of about 30,000 people, until Mt. Pelee erupted in 1902. Everyone in the city, except for two survivors, died from the superheated gas that consumed the city. One of the survivors was in jail, which protected him from the superheated gas. Guess its better to be lucky than good. The city still has remnants of the old buildings sprinkled about. There are a number of restaurants and bars that line the waterfront. A large section in front of the waterfront is a national park and no anchor zone. The relics of the ships that sunk in the harbor, when Pelee erupted are still there.
We anchored south of the no anchor zone and started our search for the place to clear immigration and customs. As I mentioned before, the process on the French Islands is really easy. You find a computer that is either in a retail shop or restaurant and enter your information. Someone in the establishment is an agent that stamps your form and sends you on your way. Pretty easy. They collect a small fee for doing this.
In St. Pierre, the computer was in a restaurant and shop L’Alsace A Kay. The restaurant is upstairs and downstairs the owner sold French wine and other French items in the shop. We made a mental note that we wanted to come back and try the restaurant.
We set about exploring St. Pierre and found a cool modern looking building that is museum that is primarily dedicated to the Mt. Pelee eruption and the town before and after the eruption. We were the only ones there except for a French family. That is the beauty of touring in the off season.
There were a couple of boats anchored further south of us and one morning we heard a commotion. It was pretty early about 6:30. One of the boats was anchored in the area where the local fisherman wanted to fish. They fish by taking huge nets that are dropped into the water and pulled back into another boat or onto the shore. In this instance the fisherman had a lot of help on shore pulling in the nets. It was fun to watch as the pelicans dove and ate some of the fish that were trapped in the net. This was little bit of foreshadowing for us.
We did make it to L’Alsace A Kay for a late lunch. It had to be a late lunch as opposed to diner as most of the restaurants don’t open until 7:00 PM for diner. We don’t like dinghying in the dark back to the boat. Plus, a two hour dinner is getting pretty close to our bed time. The restaurant had an interesting mix of French and German influence. What we discovered is that L’Alsace is an area in France that is close to the German border. The area changed hands between the French and Germans many times and was influenced by both. The food was fantastic and way too much in our stomachs.
It was time to make our way south and we needed to stop in a town Case-Pilote to pick up a part for our engines. Our engines are Volvo Penta and the dealer was located there. Case Pilote is a cute fishing village with a small harbor and a ferry dock. It was a Sunday and we anchored in front of a restaurant that looked pretty cool. We arrived late morning and went into town to look around.
We decided to eat lunch at the restaurant in front of where we were anchored. We sat on the deck overlooking our boat and listened to a live band that seemed to attract the local population. Since it was Sunday, the dealer was closed and we planned to spend the night and visit them on Monday.
About 5:00 that afternoon, we got some stern words from a couple of the local fishermen in French. We didn’t quite understand what they were saying, but based on what we saw in St. Pierre and the fisherman making a twirling motion with his hand, we knew we needed to move.
We were scrambling on trying to figure out where to go. We motored about 3 miles south to a town called Schoelcher. Schoelcher is right next to Fort De France, which is the Capitol.
We anchored next to other boats that were anchored there. Schoelcher is a fishing town and we figured we were safe anchoring with other boats. We were wrong. The next afternoon another fishing boat approached us and we knew we needed to move. This fisherman was very polite and even showed us where we should anchor to be out of the way. Oh well, we took the moving in stride. The fishermen need to earn a living.
We decided to move onto Fort De France as we were waiting for news from the dealer on the parts we needed. At that time we were anchored in Fort De France right in front of Fort St. Louis, which is an active military base. There were a number of large military ships coming and going from the naval yard of Fort St. Louis, including one of France’s aircraft carriers. Big ship.
Fort De France is the largest city in Martinique with lots of traffic and people. There are a number of ferries that come and go to other towns on the water. We had to take the ferry to Case-Pilote to pick up the parts that we needed for the boat. It was actually kind of relaxing being on a boat on the water when someone else is doing the driving.
We explored Fort De France including getting a much needed haircut for me. Probably one of the best and most detailed haircuts I had received. It was pretty easy to figure out how to say clippers with a 5 in French.
We heard that Anse Mitan across the bay was a cool area. Having our fill of the big city, we made our way 3 miles across the bay to Anse Mitan.
Anse Mitan is one of the three bays that make up Trois Ilets. A ferry runs from Fort De France to Anse Mitan on a regular basis. The town is dependent on tourists that come for the day, weekend or week. It has a very cool area of shops and restaurants that reminds you of walking in a European village on the Mediterranean. The town has a number of cool hotels that are directly on the beach. We had a great time exploring and wandering through town. The food was very good, but it was more Creole than traditional French food.
We contacted the Volvo Penta dealer in St. Lucia to see if they could install the parts we purchased in Martinique. They said no problem, they could install them when we arrived. It was time to leave Martinique and head to St. Lucia.
Until Next Time
Mont Pelee as we were coming in. I don’t think we ever saw the top of it.
Kay Dada in Case Pilote. Had a great salsa band. This photo is taken from our anchorage.
Fishermen showing us where to re-anchor so we could get out of their way. Large aerobics class in the background.
The Business Center at Pointe Simon in Fort-de-France
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