St. Pierre, Martinique

We managed to get away at 06:30am ready to try and make it to Dominica in one hop if we could and we made a great start across the now familiar channel to Martinique, this being our fourth crossing of it since we arrived in the Caribbean last November. The swell was relatively slight and we managed a good 7 knots most of the way across, we decided to run up the lee of Martinique which was somewhat slower arriving at St. Pierre the last anchorage in the north west about 2.30pm. It was going to be hit and miss whether we would be able to make the anchorage at Roseau in Dominica in daylight (18:30), so we decided to anchor up for the night there and cross in the morning. We weren’t able to reach Lawrence on VHF or pick up any Wifi to email him, so we hoped we would get him the next day.


The famous Mount Pelee which erupted in 1902 levelling the town of St. Pierre and killing an estimated 29,000 people the only survivor was Cyparis in the town jail

The water along the coast of Martinique had been noticeably clearer than we had seen elsewhere, perhaps due to there being less sandy beaches and despite the water being quite dark at St. Pierre from the black volcanic sand there the water was crystal clear when I got in to check the anchor. It is a pretty little town with the very French architecture of dormer windows, shutters and balconies but with the slightly more rustic edge of the Caribbean. Like all the towns we saw along the shore there was an ornate predominate church in the centre of town and we were in the company of about 15 other yachts in this very sheltered and quiet anchorage overnight.


St. Pierre today


French architecture in Martinique

We did not go ashore and so cannot say what the current situation is in Martinique, however we did see smoke from several fires in different towns including apparently in the centre of Fort de France the main town so we decided to stay away, the customs office in St. Pierre by all accounts being rarely manned and our stay being less than 24 hours without going ashore.