Last time we left you, we had crossed the Atlantic, and had our family out to visit for Christmas and New Year in Martinique. Life has been relatively hectic since then. Very Sadly, we flew back to the UK for three weeks in January for my fathers funeral, and then headed back to Martinique where we have been ever since, but this time just the two of us.
Its been a lovely two or three weeks. We have pottered about Martinique and revisited some of the places we previously visited in a bit more detail. There has also been a huge todo list of jobs to get through on Azimuth, but unfortunately I have been somewhat lazy in addressing those.
We got back to the boat at the end of January, and were relieved to find her still where we left her on a swinging mooring just outside the marina in Fort de France.
The marina staff were lovely and even though their service dinghy was out of order, and it was outside office hours, they arranged for another of the marina dwellers to give us a lift back to Azimuth. I was all setup to go and swim to the boat, but was grateful I didn’t have to after enduring a whole day of travel from the UK!
We had to leave the mooring the next day so we decided to head back to St Pierre, the amazing anchorage under the brooding volcano Mt Pelee. It was a lovely place to unwind, and the heat was great for a speedy recovery from the snivels that we had both picked up in the UK. There was a few of things we both wanted to see that we hadn’t seen the first time around, and these related to interesting history surrounding the eruption of the volcano here in 1902 and the destruction of the town.
St Pierre was actually a very important port at this time. The town was a bustling place dating back to the 1600’s and was one of the primary ports in the whole of the windward isles. The French had built a cosmopolitan town in its own image with fancy buildings and a splendid theatre. All was destroyed at 8am on the 8th of May 1902 by a huge explosion and a resulting pyroclastic flow that swept across the town killing all the inhabitants, some 28000 people apart from two people, a priest and a prisoner in the town jail.
We took a great walk up the foothills of Mt Pelee, where there is a geological visitors centre with a display all about the eruption and the geology of the windward isles. We also got to watch a great film which bought the whole story to life. At that time, there was little understanding as to what a pyroclastic flow was. In the aftermath of this eruption, the whole area was intensely surveyed by a visiting professor from France, and the facts were established leading to much better classification of volcanic eruptions. The residents of St Pierre thought they were safe from harm. There had been a smaller eruption a few days prior to the main event and this had triggered a huge mudslide further along the coast that wiped out a sugar cane factory and killed a few people. Since then the mountain had been rumbling, and a huge cone had developed in the volcano’s crater, but the mayor of the town was still telling people not to leave. Apparently there was an election in the coming days, and he wanted people to vote for him!
Of particular interest to us, was the surprising fact that over 350 boats and their crew were anchored in the bay that fateful day. All ships and crew were lost in the explosion. So any thoughts of us being able to do a runner should the mountain fancy a rerun would seem to be unreliable!
Our next pit stop for the day was a walk further up the side of mount Pelee, past the sugar cane fields to the Rum distillery called Depaz. There we had a very interesting tour of the works, and stopped by the shop to taste the local product, and the chance to fill the rucksacks with as much Rum as we could carry. At those prices, it made sense at the time…. they sold the stuff in 2 litre wine boxes at 15 Euros each! Any one that joins us on Azimuth in the near future will be welcome to try some, subject to stocks lasting!
A few days later we made an attempt to sail around to the windward side of Martinique. We did quite well, it was pretty rough off the North end of the island and the wind was on the nose. Eventually we gave up returned to St Pierre defeated!
Instead the next day we sailed south again back to Anse d’Arlet. A very pretty anchorage that we had visited before. one day we took a walk around the headland of the bay over a very rough path through the jungle and mangroves. The views were worth the effort as was the cold drink in Grande Anse, a very pretty and relaxed holiday resort. The walk back along the road to Anse d’Arlet was a lot quicker and easier than the crazy footpath.
It was whilst in Anse d’Arlet, whilst reading the guide book that we realised that the Martinique Carnival was due any moment now, so we decided that was something we should not miss. It is said to be one of the best of the Caribbean Carnivals.
That in mind then, we set sail and headed back to Fort de France. It looked way too busy in the anchorage there so we headed two miles across the bay to Anse Mitan, another resort town.
We thought we could get the ferry from there to Fort de France for the carnival. Of course in typical Dom and Ailsa fashion, it turned out we were completely wrong with our dates for the carnival. At this point it was still over a week away! Oh well such is the sailing life … we are lucky we can just sit around and wait. What to do in the meantime?
Well the town of Trois Islets is just near Anse Mitan. Trois Islets is where the sugar plantation and home of the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, where she grew up. So we took a (long hot) walk to go and visit. It was worth the effort, except that the town itself was somewhat disappointing having been described in the book as a photogenic town not overrun by visitors. There turned out to be nothing to see at all! Still lunch was provided by a pleasant restaurant with traditional creole cooking. Jumping in the sea on our return to the boat is always the best way to refresh after a hot day too!
Some of you may have read my previous post, where Azimuth appears on YouTube. Worth a watch we think. Anse Mitan was where we met the guys from Sans Souci and Jessica did the interview with us.
So after killing a few days in Anse Mitan, we decided now was the time to go and attempt to get a decent place in the Fort de France anchorage still some 4 days before the carnival started. We are glad we did! The anchorage was already rammed when we arrived, but we managed to stick ourselves in a decent spot right on the edge of the approved anchorage area. Having arrived and secured our space, much of the entertainment over the next few days was provided by watching people arrive and also try and secure a space in this already overloaded anchorage.
Here’s a little piece that Ailsa wrote that describes the crazyness!
“Watching the Anchoring in Fort de France, Martinique”
We arrived on a Wednesday and dropped the hook at the edge of the anchorage, a nice safe space, a bit bouncy with the ferries motoring to and fro all day but not too rough for a 58 foot sailing yacht like ours. Yachts came and went over the next couple of days, but Martinique Carnival starts with a vengeance on Sunday so we thought it would get busier towards then. On Saturday we were able to spend a happy morning watching the soap opera that is other people anchoring. It has all the drama and pathos, the tension, anxiety, farce and joy of a good soap opera and we enjoyed a good couple of hours of it!
One after another yachts arrived and we watched their masts weave through the obstacle course of other boats. I’m a little ashamed to say I used binoculars at times. There was a USA flagged monohull, 45 feet maybe, charged into the forest of masts dropped his hook, twice, in a space that may have accommodated a 35 foot boat at best, struggled to extracate himself, succeeded, moved to the rougher outer part of the anchorage, dropped his hook a total of 4 times, gave up and left Fort de France heading for Trois Islet or somewhere. We watched a 45 foot Swedish flagged boat head towards us at a scary 40 degree lean, full sails up in at least 25 knots of wind, then expertly lower sails and head into the centre of the anchorage. They dropped their hook, once, into a tight but safe spot most people would not have contemplated. They deserved a round of applause for that.
A British flagged boat and another USA flagged yacht anchored and then pulled up their hooks, motored around a bit and then swapped places and dropped again. One yacht dropped anchor in a perfectly reasonable space only to pick it up five minutes later and head deeper into the forest looking for a better spot, give up and headed back to their original place only to find that another yacht had arrived and taken it. One boat next to us pulled up their anchor and left and two boats immediately motored into the space and dropped their hooks, it was close but just tenable. I guess neither skipper was prepared to give ground. A french flagged boat parked just as close as he could get to two other boats whose skippers, stood on their decks watching nervously, must have spent anxious hours wondering if the frequent swinging would lead to collision. And of course the audience of people on safely anchored yachts, just watching and enjoying.
The wind is generally from the same direction, but the sea bed undulates and parts of this anchorage might be fine for catamarans or shallow draft vessels but not for anything with a two meter draft or more. There are yachts with plenty of scope out and yachts with less, and the potential for anchors to get tangled is not insignificant. However, I love this anchorage, it can be busy and noisy but Fort de France is a lovely place to be when you want the amenities of a large town. My advice, just don’t try and anchor here on a the Saturday before Carnival! Having read this account back to myself, I have decided that watching people anchoring is a pastime that is only acceptable when I do it to other people. Thank goodness my anchoring is always perfect and never provides entertainment for the rubber neckers…..
Nice! She has submitted this one of the boating magazines, which might print this in their letters section!
So the lead up to the subject of this post has been a long one. Sorry about that! Carnival day(s) finally arrived! The build up in Fort de France over the last few days had been huge. Lots of street stands had been erected, and there was a real buzz about the place. We pulled up that afternoon in town and the place was already heaving with people, all dressed up in the most extravagant of costumes. There was a huge amount of effort that went in to the event. The parade consisted of different groups of people from all over the Island with their own banner explaining where they are from, amazing outfits, dancers and drummers that made for a stunning sensory experience. Each group bought their own take and style to the carnival. We joined the melee and let the whole experience wash over us. Its difficult to describe the level of noise and how the madness increased throughout the day! Hopefully the video below does some justice. It felt great to back in a huge crowd of partying people. Good riddance Covid!
So the carnival actually ran for four days in total. The pictures and video above are just from day one. We went to three of the days, each of them with a different theme and coloured outfits. The last day was probably the craziest of the lot. And so here are some pictures and another video to try and capture the mood. We end up on what we are calling the “craziest corner” in the carnival. As the evening progressed, we found ourselves surrounded by a sea of people and being attacked by swarms of marching bands from all angles! There was no defined route for the carnival, it was just a free for all on all the streets of the town!
Here’s some of the pictures from the day!
That’s all for now. Join as next time as we loiter a little longer in Martinique and try and get soime boat jobs done and then sail south to St Lucia!
