On the morning of April 17th, we motored out of the Careenage
in Bridgetown and into Carlisle Bay. After
three weeks in the stagnant water of the inner basin, Saviah’s hull had a
shocking amount of growth on the bottom.
So, we dropped the hook in Carlisle Bay to spend a few hours scrubbing
it and stowing things for the passage.
We weighed anchor just after noon and set sail for the 120 mile trip to
Martinique.
It was a pleasant sail in 10-15 knot easterly winds during the
afternoon and throughout the night. As
the sun rose the next morning, the island of St. Lucia came into view off our
port bow. We could also see Martinique, as
well as the biggest, darkest squall that we’ve seen yet, looming over it. After Di woke up that morning, we tucked in
the 2nd reef in the main, furled the jib, and waited for it to hit. The easterly winds died completely, and a few
minutes later, we had 50 knots of wind from the northeast and a torrential
downpour. Visibility was almost nonexistent
at this point, as we could hardly see past the bow of the boat. The swell changed direction from SE to NE and
quickly built to six feet.
The conditions stayed the same for half an hour before the winds
slowed down to 30 knots and visibility improved. At this point, we decided to fore-reach and
with a little bit of current were actually making a few knots of progress. Our original plan was to sail up the west
coast to St. Pierre on the northwest side of the island, another 38 miles
away. More squalls loomed on the horizon
and we were completely soaked, so we decided to just call it a day and head
into Cul-de-sac du Marin instead. This
was the closest bay, and the long narrow inlet is one of the most protected on
the island.
The island of Martinique is striking. Unlike Barbados, which is quite flat, the
rest of the Windward Islands are of volcanic origin with many tall peaks and
lush green landscapes. We worked our way
up to the head of the bay and anchored near the town of Le Marin. This is one of the biggest yachting centers
in the Caribbean with a big marina and several chartering outfits based here. We joined the hundreds of other boats, mostly
French, in the anchorage, and set off to shore to clear into the country.
The clearance formalities were easy.
In the marina office, we filled out the electronic form at one of the
computer terminals, printed it, had it stamped by the marina staff, and paid
five Euros. No visits to other offices
or any other fees were required. If only
it was always this simple.
The island of Martinique is an overseas region of France, and as such,
is part of the European Union. It has
been a French possession for almost 380 years, with the exception of about
twenty years where it was under English control. The currency is the Euro and the official
language is French, although many people speak a local French-based Creole.
Although this port wasn’t on our list of places to visit on the island,
we were glad we stopped. The next week
brought squalls and frequent downpours, and Marin was a good place to be. The heavy rains kept our water tanks topped
off, but unfortunately, some of that water was finding its way inside. We found several new leaks, primarily around
the chain-plates and portlights. Luckily,
there were plenty of chandleries where we could find supplies to make
repairs. Good grocery stores were also
nearby, making it easy to do some provisioning for the next few months in the
Caribbean.
There is a hiking trail
that leads from Ste. Anne along the coast to Les Salines, one of the best
beaches on the island. The trail
alternates between wooded coastal pathways and walks along the beach. The pathways were very muddy due to all the
recent rain, but it was easy to wash off with a swim in the sea. We had a leisurely lunch on the beach at Les
Salines followed by another swim before the two hour hike back to Ste. Anne. On
another trip we took the bus over to the base of Piton Creve-Coeur and did the
short hike to the summit, which had some great views of the bay and beyond.
 |
| view of Cul-de-sac du Marin from Piton Creve Coeur, around Ste. Anne |
Fort de France is the
capital of France's Caribbean overseas department and the largest, most cosmopolitan city in the French West
Indies. Approximately 135,000 of the
island’s total population of 412,000 live here.
The anchorage has great views of the city and the mountains
beyond to the north and Fort St. Louis to the east. The fort was built in 1640 and is still an active naval base.
A boardwalk runs along
the waterfront, with a park stretching out behind that. Within the
park, there is a statue of Empress Josephine, holding a locket with a portrait
of Napoleon on it. Josephine was from
Martinique, but is not very well liked, as it is believed she was responsible for
convincing Napoleon to continue slavery in the French West Indies in order to
help her family’s plantation. This is
most likely the reason the head has been lopped off the statue and red paint
splashed on the body.
 |
| Fort de France, statue of Empress Josephine, Fort St. Louis |
 |
| Cathédrale St. Louis, Bibliothèque Schoelcher, Palais de Justice, local hotel |
After three days in Fort de France, we sailed 14 miles north to St. Pierre. We dropped the anchor in about 40 feet of
water right in front of the town dock. We
thought the anchorage would have good protection from any easterly quadrant
winds, but the wind wraps around the mountains and funnels into the anchorage
from the south. This created two foot
seas in the anchorage with lots of rolling and pitching. It was uncomfortable aboard Saviah, and the
row to shore was very wet.
St. Pierre was high on our list of places to see while in
Martinique. The town sits at the foot of
Mt. Pelée, an active volcano and the highest point on the island at 4,583 feet. We wanted to stop there for a couple
reasons. Andrew wanted to hike up to the
top of Mt. Pelée, and we had a schedule of yole boat races that showed a race in
St. Pierre that weekend. It turned out
that neither of those things would happen, but we still a good visit.
St. Pierre has an interesting history.
It was founded in 1635 and was the capital of the island and the most important
city both culturally and economically on Martinique. It was once known as “the Paris of the
Caribbean”. That changed in 1902 when Mt.
Pelée erupted, and within a matter of minutes, the city was destroyed. Most of the city’s population of 30,000 were
wiped out, along with about a dozen ships that burned in the harbor. There were only two survivors, one of whom
was a prisoner serving time in a tomblike
solitary-confinement cell at the local jail.
The city was never restored to its old glory. The capital was moved to Fort de France, and
almost a century later, the population is only around 5,000. St. Pierre is still an interesting town to
walk around. Many ruins line the
streets, some partially
intact, while others are just foundations.
Many of the original stone walls have been used for newer buildings, and
some of these have been built with shuttered doors and wrought-iron balconies
that were common before the eruption.
 |
| St. Pierre, ruins of Quartier du Figuier |
The next day, we waited for signs of the yole race, but
nothing ever transpired. It was
disappointing, but that evening, we heard a big commotion on shore and looked
out to see the beginning of a parade. We
hopped in the dinghy for another wet ride to shore, which was well worth
it. Band after band marched down the
main street, with people dressed in a variety of colorful costumes. Apparently this was part of the weeklong
celebration leading up to Victory Day.
Our plan was to climb
Mt. Pelée the next morning, but the volcano was shrouded in clouds. We also didn’t feel comfortable spending the
day away from Saviah, as conditions in the anchorage were still a little rough. So instead, we left and sailed 17 miles south
to the more protected bay of Grand Anse d’Arlet.
Once in the bay, we tied up to one of the new mooring balls that the
town had recently added, which were free for cruising boats. There were also moorings along the cliff
walls around the south side of the bay where we tied up our dinghy and did some
snorkeling. It was nice to be in clear
water again, as our previous anchorages on the island were in mostly muddy
bottoms with murky water.
There wasn’t much going on in this tiny village, but we could have
easily spent a month here. The bay was
flat calm, and the village was very quiet and peaceful. The water was remarkably clear and great for
swimming, and ashore was a nice beach dotted
with brightly painted fishing boats.
The annual Martinique Tour
des Yoles Rondes (Yole Boat Race) was taking place over the weekend in Ste.
Anne. We really wanted to see these
boats in action, so after only a few days in Grande Anse D’Arlet,
we decided to sail south to watch the races.
It was a long holiday weekend, so we needed to clear out of the country
that Friday before things shut down. Di rowed
to shore to the beachfront bar/restaurant, where there is a designated computer
terminal used to complete clearance forms.
She filled out the forms, printed them, and the bartender stamped the
paperwork. If only it could always be
this easy.
The next morning, we headed
down the coast to Ste. Anne. Although we
had visited Ste. Anne by land, we hadn’t anchored here yet and were happy to
find a huge anchorage, with shallow clear waters and a sandy bottom that
stretched a long way off the shore. The first
race of the day started down the coast in Le Diamant, and from there, the course
followed the shoreline for about 10 miles and finished off the Ste. Anne town
center. It was already underway when we
arrived, but we made it to shore in time to watch the boats cross the finish
line.
 |
| yole boat races |
It’s hard to imagine a more difficult boat to sail than these
yoles. They don’t have a keel, dagger-board,
or even a rudder. Steering is done by
the helmsman who has a large oar off the stern, which he rows from side to side
to steer. As for ballast, that would be
the crew. There seemed to be 12-14 people
on each yole, and the job of most of them was to balance the boat. The sail is rather large for that size of
boat, which means that they have to hike way out. They have long poles to hang onto that can be
moved from side to side depending on which tack they are on. It takes a lot of coordination to get just the
right amount of weight over the edge.
If winds are strong or there is a big gust, just about everybody gets
out at the end of a pole. If there are
too many bodies out, or not enough, then the boat tips. There aren’t any decks on the hull, so it is
easy to scoop up a bunch of water quickly.
There are buckets on board for bailing, but if the rail goes in the
water for more than a few seconds, the hull can fill up and no amount of
bailing will help. Then the boat
sinks. We saw this happen a few times
each day, and it was usually during a tack or jibe where the boat switched
directions. People were scrambling to
move poles from one side to the other and did it either too fast or too
slow.
The next day, there were two more races. We rowed to shore and watched them set up for
the first race along the stretch of beach north of Ste. Anne. We weren’t the only ones – there were
thousands of people from all over the island out to cheer on the racers and
enjoy the big party afterward with food, drinks and live music. The course for
both races was the same, with a beach start and then zigzagging back and forth
around several buoys set up across the bay.
For the first race, the boats were rigged a bit different than the
previous day, with two sails held up by two slightly shorter masts. We stayed on the beach for the start, which
was a bit chaotic as the yoles were rigged with sails and held in place by
crewmembers in waist to chest deep water.
They were relatively close together and went the starting gun went off, they
all had to get on at the same time without capsizing it or running into their
neighbor.
For the
second race of the day, the boats were again rigged with a single large sail. There were many other vessels out trailing the
racers, but we decided to watch from Saviah.
We rowed back and re-anchored in a different spot to be a little closer
to the action. We ended up a little closer than intended and
had boats pass both in front and behind us, some within a few feet. It was quite an experience watching these
guys race and definitely a highlight of our stay in Martinique. The next morning, we weighed anchor and made
the 25-mile sail south to Saint Lucia.
