Martinique

The sail from Dominica to Martinique was fairly calm considering what we have done so far down the islands.  It turned into a motor sailing passage.

Our first anchorage was St. Pierre where the famous Mt. Pelee erupted.  We toured the town and museum as part of school to get the full effect and idea of what happened.  Some signs were in English but again, mostly French as Martinique is also part of France.  

The next day we walked to the rum distillery.  What a beautiful place!  Even the kids had a good time though they are too young to imbibe.  Paul called it the highlight of his cruise.  Ha! ha!

The kids in the prison cell where Cyparis survived the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee

We have found plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables along with plenty of butter filled pastries, chocolate pastries and new found apple filled ones.  Wow!  Just when I thought my girlish figure was not in danger.  

Next stop was Fort De France, a big city where you can find just about anything you could possibly need.  We walked to a couple of museums and found all the writing in French.  The library had great pictures posted of surrounding Martinique and fast free wifi.  The trip through town was interesting and fun to walk around.  The anchorage was a bit rolly so we took off for St. Anne the next day.  We had to sail straight into the trade winds so we picked a day that the wind was predicted to be light.  

Once we arrived we found a bazillion other cruising boats.  This is the place to be if you live aboard or just love sailing.  While we were anchored near St. Anne we did a short dinghy ride into Le Marin and found even more boats.  I can't even begin to tell you how many charter catamarans we saw at the marina.  They seemed to be stacked on top of each other.  

We also checked out St. Anne enjoying more butter filled pastries and French bread, Yum!  They have a cool church up a steep winding hill that we hiked to and a nice trail that goes around the end of the island along the water. 

The Yoles Rondes race came through while we were anchored out making water.  The racers were bailing as fast as they were racing.  So many boats travel along side the racing boats that it made the water in the bay look like a big washing machine.  We all quickly chose our favorites for the race and watched as they all went by.  The racers left the next morning going around a few marks close to our boat.  We watched as three boats went down for various problems or issues but got themselves back up and running in no time.  Wow!

One of the race boats being followed by every type of craft

Our time here is coming to an end and next stop for us will be St Lucia.