Sainte Pierre

This blog is a wee bit delayed due to comms issues but will update with another shortly.

Got out of Rodney Bay on Friday (24th) and decided to spend the weekend at one of our favourite spots - between the Pitons on the western side of St Lucia.  Its about 15NM south of Rodney Bay.  We had stayed here before on the way down and it is an absolutely stunning location.  The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Figured we would probably not get the chance again so need to make the most of it.  The weekend was spent soaking up the scenery, catching up on school and lazing around the boat.  Almost everyone is still trying to shake of the remnants of colds brought back from NY.  Sam had got a sea scooter for x-mas and so was dying to try it out

Sam and his new toy

The Beautiful Bay between the Pitons

The weather is a bit showery now which is suprising as the wet season is supposed to finish around Oct / Nov.  Still it keeps the boat washed down and us on our toes at night tending to the hatches.  Its also got a lot cooler at night and we have had to drag out some blankets out of the lockers for the first time in a year.

Monday we said goodbye to St Lucia, cleared out at Marigot Bay and had a good sail across to Martinique.

One benefit of aquatic travel is the customs clearance procedures.  In almost all of the countries we have visited clearance into or outward is a pretty simple procedure which takes little time once you know where the offices are located.  Generally you have a pleasant exchange with the officials, crack a joke or two and in relatively short order you are on your way.  This is the opposite for any airport which we were rudely reminded of during our recent flight to New York.  We had not flown for a while and whilst we are well aware of the procedures at the airports the magnitude of the security screening procedures and amount of wasted time spent in queues either waiting to get screened, waiting for immigration or waiting for your flight because you have turned up 3hrs before as advised is very frustrating.  We will take arrival by boat any time.  Its far more relaxed.  

We checked into Martinique at a place called St Pierre.  Here all we had to do was fill in a form on a computer, sign it and hand a copy to the tourist office clerk.  Not even any money involved.  Love the French lack of procedures in these islands.  Once checked in we headed for a coffee and a croissant.  It is great to be back on a French Island.

The now quiet Mt Pelee above Sainte Pierre

Sainte Pierre is small town on a big exposed bay at the north end of Martinique.  We missed this place on the way down but it looked interesting for a stop over on the way North and has an interesting history.  Behind Sainte Pierre the land rises through beautiful fields up to the sides of Mt Pelee.  Mt Pelee is volcanic.  In the early 1900’s Sainte Pierre was a thriving port town and considered to be the Paris of the Caribbean.  In 1902 the volcano started rumbling but no one took much notice of it.  Eventually it erupted and basically wiped the town out.  Around 29,000 people died and even 11 ships in the harbour were sunk due to the violence of the explosion and the ensuing pyroclastic cloud.  Only two people survived - one was a cobbler and the other was an inmate in the gaol who was serving a life sentence for murder.

The Bay at Sainte Pierre

Today the town is a bit ramshackle and you can still see the remnants of some of the old buildings.  It could certainly do with some investment as it is far from what would be considered a Caribbean Paris.  Still, it’s a nice enough place, the setting on the bay is spectacular and you can get a decent cup of coffee and a pain au chocolat so life is pretty good.

Comment from Calley: "We went out to dinner at a restaurant called "Le Tamaya" which is named after one of the boats that sunk during the eruption of 1902."

We are taking it pretty easy and hammering away at the schoolwork while sneaking in trips ashore, or kneeboarding excursions where time permits.

We have got a rough plan for the rest of the journey north.  Over the next week we will head up past Dominica to get to Marie Gallante, an island off the South east corner of Guadeloupe.  We will spend some time there and then at the nearby Isle Des Saintes which we really loved on the way down.  We will then head north west towards the chain of islands that extends from Monserrat to Saba and which we did not see on the way down and spend a few weeks sightseeing.  After that we will probably visit St Barts again, stay close to a week in St Maarten to get ready for the Atlantic and then head over to the BVI’s.