Martinique – Its French!

Martinique………….I must confess this has been my least favourite island to date! Why? To be honest I am not sure! They are so French with the typical French attitude.

Let me explain briefly what I mean! The French Yachties or Frenchies as they are known, have a reputation of being very unfriendly, to the point of rudeness and seriously unsociable! (My apologies to the few we have met who have been great!) The people of Martinique fit this profile very well. They make it clear they don’t actually want or need you there, unless you speak fluent  French, trying to speak it is not good enough, they won’t try help at all.

We did still have fun. Would you expect different?

The Empress Josephine grew up on Martinique on a 200 acre 150 slave plantation. Both Martinique and Empress Josephine are linked to the Battle of Trafalgar. In 1804 Napoleon was master of Europe but the British still had naval supremacy. But ships were still scarce and then someone noticed that Diamond Rock on the south coast was where the British would position a vessel, if they had one. So they commissioned the rock as a ship. Dragging cannons, supplies, water and a full crew to the barren snake-infested pinnacle was a feat in itself and for 18months the HMS Diamond Rock was a nasty surprise for ships sailing into Martinique. Napoleon was incensed this was the birth place of his beloved Josephine. Although he was brilliant on land Napoleon never fully understood the workings of the navy or their problems. He labelled all sailors shirkers. He ordered his Admiral Villeneuvre to free the rock and destroy British Admiral Nelson while they were about it. Villeneuvre slipped through the British blockade of France and headed for Martinique. Lord Nelson smelled blood and bounty and set off in hot pursuit. However poor information sent him in the wrong direction to Trinidad and Villenuevre liberated the rock keeping clear of Nelson and returned to France. Napoleon ordered him to report in disgrace as he had left Nelson still in control of the high seas. Villeneuvre preferred death to dishonour and put his ill prepared fleet to sea to fight Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar. Ironically Villeneuvre, who wished to die, survived the battle and Nelson was killed. 

Grand Anse D'Arlet

Our first anchorage was in Grand Anse D’Arlet. It is a picturesque little village set on a white sand beach. It used to be a fishing village but no concentrates on tourism. We went ashore to check in on a computer, you then print your check in page and the bar lady at the venue stamps and signs it. We had plans to draw some money and have dinner. We had no Euro’s on us. There we discovered the nearest bank was in Anse DÁrlet and were told it’s not far; about 20 minutes! An hour later we finally arrived there. We could find nothing with any cash sign on not even Visa or Master. The only machine we could find that looked like an auto-cash machine and fitted the directions we had got from a shopkeeper nearby, asked; in French ONLY; if we had pre-paid or contract? (We understood that much) We pondered for a while and decided our savings account must be Pre-paid??? So we tried that option but no luck. Confused we tried again, maybe I had clicked the wrong button! Nope! It asked the same again. Nervous it would swallow our card we gave up and walked further. There I asked a woman in very, very broken French, a little Portuguese with Afrikaans and English thrown in where the bank was. She indicated we shouldn’t bother it wasn’t working. We smiled politely thanked her and decided we had had enough, we were walking back. It was getting dark anyway.

Then as we approached the same machine we had tried there were other people busy with it. She stopped and told us we should try as it seem they were using it. Luckily he spoke English and explained it was out of order but you could top up your mobile phone on it! So much for French efficiency! So the long walk back to our boat. There we asked if they would take a credit card for 2 beers but were informed only if the bill was over E20.00 so dinner was on the cards.

The next morning at 08h00 we lifted anchor and sailed to the next bay called Anse Noir (Black Beach). The beach sand here being of volcanic origin is black, it doesn’t look very pretty when you are used to white sand beaches. The black sand gives the water a different colour, because the sun cannot reflect off of the white sand below instead of the turquoise blue it’s the deep blue colour of the deep ocean. One of the advantages is the black sand is it is heavier and doesn’t stir up so the visibility it better. 

Anse Noir is a tiny bay with a palm lined beach. The other sides of the bay are edged with cliff walls. We were the only boat there. We anchored and minutes later were joined but 3 other boats. We had heard the snorkelling was great and that was our intention. We off loaded the kayak and decked out in our snorkel gear paddled around the headland to the next small bay. The snorkelling was pretty. Lots of reef fish. At one place I dived down about 4 meters to see some sea cucumbers and saw something shiny sticking out of the sand. At first I thought it was a piece of a fisherman’s anchor chain he had lost down there and almost ignored it. But curiosity got the better of me and I waved the sand away and pulled; a silver ID bracelet! I searched for a name as would have walked the beach asking names in case it was recently lost, but there wasn’t one. Andre assured me that being so far under the sand it had probably been there some time. My plan is to bead it into an ankle chain. J

After 4 hours in the water, we lifted anchor and set off for Fort de France. This is the capital of Martinique. I must confess the guide book descriptions of delightful city and a great place for shopping, people watching and restaurants seemed a little exaggerated! However in town we found there were preparations for some sort of carnival. On further investigation we had struck gold. It was the second day of their carnival and the parade was starting at 15h00, just an hour after we arrived.

 

Here in Martinique they have a theme for each day, unlike the carnival we saw in Brasil. On this day it was “Devilish”. (The previous day was “the wedding”). The colour theme was red and black. The float trucks trundled down the boardwalk road followed by different groups. It seems cross dressing is big in carnivals. We saw the most gorgeous “woman” with the neatest butts who were not women at all...  It finally ended at 19h00 and weary and footsore we fell into bed.

The next day’s theme was “in mourning” and colour black and white! We decided we were not going to be the odd ones out and did some quick shopping before the start at 15h00. We had a good laugh and bumped into our German friends on the Dean catamaran named Twika, (German for Giraffe)  they too had dressed the part.

After a later start the next morning (we wonder why?) we lifted anchor at 13h00 and sailed to St. Pierre. St. Pierre lies at the foot of the Mt. Pelée volcano. This is not far from where the European settlers wiped out the last of the Carib residents in 1658. It is said that as the last ones died they uttered horrible curse invoking the mountain to take its revenge on them.  As is Caribbean custom time was not an issue and Mt Pelëe waited until Ascension Day on the 8^th May 1902.

At that time St. Pierre’s residents numbered 30 000 and was known as “the Paris of the Caribbean”. The mountain had given some warning, she had rumbled in April and erupted covering the town in ash. Refugees from the surrounds flooded into St. Pierre. On the 2^nd May she once again warned the town of her ire and erupted covering the city in enough ash to kill some birds and animals. Later the same day an estate owner just south of the city went to inspect his crops and he and his workers were swept away by an avalanche of boiling volcanic mud. On the 5^th of May it an estate just north of the city one of the richest in the area was completely buried including most of the family and workers.

Still the people of St. Pierre ignored the mountains warnings. One of the reasons was evacuation posed a huge problem, the roads were rough and primitive and the ferries did not have the capacity. The Governor at the time had been there less than a year and desperately wanted the problem to “go away”, had they left the business leaders would have suffered financial loss and he could not go against them. Governor Mouttet formed a committee to assess the risk, it was led by the schools science teacher, and they concluded there was no danger at all.

Despite the local papers assuring the people they were in no danger several hundred of them decided to leave anyway. Most of these were eyewitnesses to the disaster. People were approaching for the Ascension Day church service and saw heavy red smoke coming from the volcano. Instead of approaching they climbed surrounding hills to see what was going to happen. At 08h02 it happened! The side of the volcano facing St. Pierre exploded spewing a giant fireball over the town. The explosion released more energy than an atomic bomb. There were only 2 survivors of the 30 000. One was Cyparis who was at the time incarcerated for murder. The thickness of the walls of his cell as well as the fact the only small entrance faced away from the explosion saved him. He was discovered three days later badly burnt. He had survived licking the water that ran down the walls of his cell. Twelve ships were destroyed on anchor in the bay, all hands lost.

 

Many of the ruins remain. Left over structures have been used to build the new city. Many buildings in the city share at least one wall with the past.

We wanted to dive one of the 12 wrecks left by the eruption. Most of them lie close to the anchorage in between 10 and 60 meters of water. The wreck of Roraima is considered one of the best wreck dives, so we set our sights on this. The top of the wreck is a no decompression dive and is all we are qualified to dive. The bottom lies at 55 meters and is a decompression dive. As one is not allowed to dive without a guide in Martinique we approached a dive shop. Here we discovered French authorities require a full medical and letter from your Doctor that is not more than 6 months old giving permission for you to dive! No luck, but the owner was a great guy, he said based on this he could not take us out with him or take money for the dive however we were free to follow their dive boat out and dive with them, we were not to make any indication we knew or were diving with them and he would look out for us. As we were diving to 40 meters our time at that depth was limited to 5 mins before we had to ascend. Apparently this ship had burned for three days before it sunk and evidence of this could be seen with twisted metal and most of the upper structures burned away.  There was not much to see, but we can say that we have dived the Roraima. 

The Cell the prisoner survived in.

 

We visited the botanical gardens were the old Rum distillery was. The large water wheel with all the boilers and the still are located in this beautiful garden.  You wander through the gardens along the old aqueduct that channelled the river to the distillery. The gardens have been beautifully set out using the remains of the old building walls as dividers between different sections. Each section is planted with a different species of plant. Meandering between them are tributaries of the river that every now and again tickle into a pool filled with water lilies. This is a private garden open to public and there is no rum made there anymore, so when we got back to town we found some rum to sample. It was a Box of rum, (soos in… ‘n Doos  vol rum….) for only 18EU.  So now we drink rum out of the “doos” at sundown every day. We either mix it with lime juice as learnt in Brasil, we figured if it worked for Cachaҫa it would work for rum, and it does. Otherwise rum punch with fruit mix is the order of the day!

We had had enough of St. Pierre and Martinique by now and up anchor to Dominca. As expected we had a horrible passage bashing smashing and slamming all the way!  

St. Lucia – Simply Stunning

We awoke having not slept much. The anchorage was super rolly and we bounced bumped and rolled all night! Ocean Spice, also a catamaran; a Maxim; had the same problem. We lifted anchor at 09h00 and made our way South East to Vieux Fort.

We anchored, picked up Sharon and Bruce from their boat as their dinghy was on their deck so much more difficult to launch and made our way to the harbour.

Vieux Fort on the southernmost point of St. Lucia is known for “not having a tourist bone in its body”, even so the people were friendly and welcoming, helping us to tie up our dinghy when we went into town to check in with the authorities. Even the customs and immigration were friendly and efficient. It’s a quaint little fishing town and as suggested with no touristy traps. We enjoyed our walk to customs and back and stopped for Roti’s at a local café on the way back.

Although we enjoy the less touristy destinations we did not plan to stay in Vieux Fort and by one o’clock we were lifting anchor and set off to “The Pitons”. We had heard the anchorage between the Pitons was stunning and we were not disappointed. The Pitons are classified as one of the World Heritage Sites and it is obvious to see why as it is extraordinarily beautiful piece of Real Estate.

The rainforest fills the valley between the Pitons ending in a beautiful white beach. The beach is part of the “Jalousie Plantation”. It is the epitome of elegance and luxury. We went ashore and wandered around the grounds and the hotel. Tucked into the rainforest is their spa.  Every conceivable spa treatment is available to the sounds of the birds in the trees and the bubbling creek that runs between the treatment rooms. The main hotel looks like it was a colonial homestead and is decorated as such. Heavy furnishings, four poster draped beds etc. The newer “cottages” right on the beach each have their own Jacuzzi, you walk out the door and your lounger is waiting already draped with a towel, right on the sand. A few steps further and your toes are in the Caribbean Sea! Of course we had our own “luxury” accommodation on the water so we didn’t need theirs. Boo hoo!

The next day we took the dinghy over and snorkelled the base of the Pitons. It was very pretty with many reef fish of every description.

After two nights off of Jalousie Plantation we had had enough of all the luxury and decided to move on. Once again we left our mooring buoy and we motored around the Northern Piton past Soufriere Town and on to Anse Chastanet. It is named for the cottage hotel that is built on the slopes of the hill down to the sea. Their beach bar sits on the southern corner of a pristine white beach. Did I say enough of luxury? This was not to be, not quite as large and diverse as Jalousie but elegant and very pretty. They too have a spa with the rooms built on stilts into the side of the hill and are open to the sea view and sounds. Sadly none of us experienced the spa other than in our dreams!

We had read about Chester of Action Adventure divers. Their shop was at the Humming Bird Hotel anchorage off of Soufriere town. As promised his price per dive was half of the hotel dive schools tariff to all Yachties with their own dive equipment. In St. Lucia, as in many of the Caribbean Islands, you are not allowed to dive alone and have to use a dive school. We booked our dives with Chester and his brother Vincent, who is known as Bones. Chester is the Dive Instructor and Bones the skipper. They collected us from the boat with our gear and we set off to Fairyland dive site. Man did it live up to its name, the colours of the corals and fish, plants and rock were simply mind blowing. We saw a HUGE old grand-dad turtle swimming along watching us, strange creatures swimming in his garden.

After returning to the dive school to refill our tanks and use our decompression time before returning for our second dive of the day. Devils hole held no devils other than a Stonefish or two. But it had beautiful coral gardens teeming with fish of every shape and colour.

We were hooked and booked another two dives for the following day. The first dive of the day was Anse Cochon that finished in Fairyland to once again gaze awestruck at the colours in the reef. Superman’s flight a fast drift dive was to be our last dive with Chester and Bones.

At three that afternoon we moved on to Anse Cochon. Arriving at 16h30 we went ashore, had a drink at the hotel and found out about diving the Lesleen wreck. Firstly they were not diving it the next day and secondly they were too expensive. We knew Chester was able to dive the wreck the next day as they are allocated days but when we contacted him he already had booked a course for the day. It is quite a way for him to have come in their boat which is why we considered doing it with the local group, but it was not to be. We watched where another dive boat dropped their divers the next day and snorkelled the wreck. It was quite deep but we were comfortably able to reach the bridge deck.

The next day Marigot Bay was on our agenda. This is a completely sheltered mangrove-lined bay. The Bay is “split” by a sand bar on which there is a hotel and restaurant. We spent one night on a mooring just in the first part of the bay. Then we discovered JJ’s Dock, where if you have a dinner you can moor for free. In addition to this for only EC$30 you could use as much water as you like. This was a God-send. I had forgotten to tell you that on our passage over hells cauldrons we had left the hatch above our bed open a fraction. Well it was closed but not latched. Halfway through the journey I went below to find we had an indoor seawater pool on our bed! The water running over the deck every time we dived into the swell had been running right into the hatch! Everything getting wet with fresh water isn’t a problem you simply dry it! However seawater is not as simple, we had to rinse out all the salt or every time there was a little damp around our bed would be wet again! We turned on the hose first thing the next morning and they finally wrestled it away from us (well they almost had to) at about 5 pm. The boat looked like a Chinese laundry.

We had discovered another South African boat at “The Moorings Charter Dock” and that night Johan and Jeanne from Southern Blue joined us for dinner at JJ’s. We had a wonderful evening with far too much Rum punch and plenty of laughs.

The last port of St. Lucia was calling and the next day we motored into Rodney Bay.

While on JJ’s Dock we had swapped anchored from our Delta to the Fortress anchor as being mangrove it had a very muddy bottom and the fortress holds better in mud. As we approached the anchorage in Rodney Bay we decided to keep the fortress on and just adjust the setting from mud to sand. To do this you have to loosen the shaft from the head of the anchor and turn it so the blades have a wider angle with which to dig in. Andre quickly changed the setting and lifted the anchor over the front of the boat so it would be hanging on the anchor chain and ready for me to drop. As he got it over the side the head of the anchor dropped off and into the water he was left holding the shaft. I would have given anything to be in the water below him at that moment to see his face. It must have been an absolute picture. Both of us gaped open mouthed at the now bare shaft and the head of the anchor now slowly descending down into Davy Jones’s locker before simultaneously shouting, “do something, mark the position, stop the boat”! Andre quickly placed a way point at the place it fell and we circled around. I donned my snorkel and fins ready to retrieve sunken anchor. Sitting on the sugar scoop with Andre steering, he moved as close to the position as he could and then I jumped in. Slightly to my left and about 10 meters away in about 5 meters of water lay the anchor. One anchor retrieved. (Saved R5000 thanks to the accuracy of GPS)

After re-attaching the anchor we tried to lay it but it was not to be. The bottom was full of coral chips and rocks mixed with sand and we kept dragging. At one point it stuck and then suddenly bounced loose. When we brought it back aboard we discovered the blades had bent on the hard bottom.  Eventually we had to change back to the Delta anchor and finally managed to find a secure holding spot. The Captain awarded me an extra shot of rum for my retrieval efforts J

Rodney Bay is over a mile long and connected to Pigeon Island on its Northern side by an artificial causeway. This provides the bay anchorage with protection. Pigeon Island used to be the main base for the British Navy in the area. There used to be a fort, hospital, barracks and storerooms. Now it is a park where you can hike to the top and see the whole bay and Martinique in the distance. There is also a Geocache on the top of the peak which we just had to do!

 

We spent the first two days shopping and exploring the beach and town of Rodney Bay and day three we hiked to the top of the mountain on Pigeon Island and found the cache. At the top of the island is a fort, which the English used to fight off the French who were trying to invade the island from Martinique to the North. The canons are still there and they show how the sailors hoisted the ships cannons all the way up the mountain to mount on the fort, very interesting……, they received an extra shot of rum for there efforts.  (Mmmm I see were my Captain got that from) . That night we returned to the restaurant there called Jambe de Bois as they had a live Jazz band. Dinner was a repeat of lunch as Andre fell in love with the Roti’s they made. Delicious!

The following day we put out to sea to slam, roll and bump our way to Martinique!

St Lucia. Diving