Last time you left us we had just crossed the Atlantic. We had only a few days to wait until the rest of the family flew out for Xmas to come and visit us for a two or three weeks. Whilst we were waiting for Vinnie, Ethan (our other two sons) and Judith (Ailsa’s Mum) to arrive, we spent a few days in the Anchorage at Fort de France and had a look around the town.
Fort de France was really buzzing in the build up to Xmas. Lots of music at night, and people partying in the day including this great “Santa Beach party” where loads of boaters and jet skiers turned up in santa outfits!
The guys arrived on the 22nd December in the evening and we met them on the beach and dinghied them back to the boat. The travellers were pretty tired after their journey but managed to stay up for some food and a few drinks!
The next day everyone got acclimatised to the Caribbean with their first swim off the back of the boat, however, not before we were all rudely awoken at 5 in the morning by a Caribbean Carol concert???! Crazy. We were really sad to say goodbye to Tom too after a month at sea together. He was heading home to the UK to be with his family for Xmas.
The next day was Xmas Eve and we decided that we would leave Fort de France and head somewhere more remote for Xmas Day. So we went to town stock up on supplies of food and drinks and headed round the corner to the little Bay of Anse Noire.
It was a very pretty bay, just big enough for a few boats to anchor with a beach lined by palm trees and some really great snorkelling.
A perfect place to spend Xmas day and not a flake of snow in sight! Infact the temperature was about 30 degrees!
Ailsa managed to cook a Xmas dinner for 6 with all the trimmings. No mean feat in a boat galley!
We moved a couple of miles down the coast to a pretty little bay called Anse d’Arlet.
And then we had a fun sail round the South of Martinique to a huge anchorage called St Anne’s which at times was quite lively. We had to sail up wind and it was quite gusty. At one point the sheets got caught on our stay sail. I went down to sort it out only to get “whipped” by Azimuth as the wind picked up further! Another boat injury….
We had a lovely lunch out at St Anne’s and visited the shore to stock up on lots of bread products … Martinique being French meant lots of croissant, pain au chocolat, baguettes … none of which was good for the diet!
Another sail took us right up to the North of the Island to visit the town of St Pierre, nestled beneath Martiniques active volcano. It last erupted in the 1900’s where only one person survived in the town, and that was only because he was locked up in jail!
St Pierre was definitely a favourite with everyone. A visit to the local zoo. Meals out and a chance to chill in a very pretty anchorage
Oh and the celebration of New Years Eve. I will let you decide how silly that got from the pictures….
Two weeks was over all too soon, and we were very sad to say goodbye to Vinnie and Judith. But we had a nice meal out in Fort de France for their last night
Caleb and Ethan stayed on for another week, so we sailed over to another pretty bay called Anse Mitan for a few days before returning to Fort de France.
It was time for all of us to head back to the UK. Not before a quick final night out in the local resturant.
We will be back again soon with more news of our travels.
Lovely to see all
your travels and so brilliant to have you home againxxxxx Mumxxx