Sailing north… 30/03/2022
We left St Anne on Monday 28th, sailing west and then north around Martinique to the small town hich I’ve done twice. And although the water looks dark due to the sea grass on the bottom, it is crystal clear – swimming with goggles at the surface you can see everything on the bottom almost as clearly as if you were looking through air. Lots and lots of fish, mainly small ones who use the sea grass as shelter, but sometimes larger ones too. Some of them are quite unafraid – I had a small group of 20cm long fish coming right up to me and then following me as I swam. It’s always amazing how much life there is in the sea – yesterday I was completely engulfed by a cloud of little fish, thousands and thousands of them, swimming by.
St Pierre is historically interesting, as it was the capital of Martinique from the 1600s until the early days of the last century. Then, in May 1902, Mount Pelée, the volcano which dominates the town and had been rumbling ominously, exploded. The result was a ball of superheated gas, which roasted everything in its path. Of the town’s almost 30,000 population, only 2 people survived (one, the local murderer, protected by the thick stone walls of his jail). Numerous ships anchored off the town also caught fire and sank – only one escaped. The town still has the ruins of a number of old buildings, and lots of well-done information boards (which are even partly translated into English!). So it’s an interesting place to wander around, with a lot of attractive old houses dating back to the aftermath of the disaster. A lovely coastline too, steep hills plunging down to the sea and numerous beaches, which have fine grey sand, the result of volcanic activity over the last few thousand years.
Saw my friend Rob last night – he’d just sailed in and was anchored just south of the town. It was a case of goodbye – he’s sailing back to St Anne and leaving his boat there for a month while he returns to Canada. We’re hoping to meet up again late this year – possibly in Cuba.
Tomorrow we sail north to Guadeloupe, more specifically the island of Marie Galant which lies just south of the Guadeloupe mainland (Christopher Columbus named Marie Galant after one of his ships – having run out of saints to call things after by this stage of his explorations). The island is roughly round and only 9 miles (14 kms) in diameter. It’s not very far, about 80 nautical miles (92 land miles or roughly 150km), but too far to sail in the 12 hours of daylight, so shall set off at about 2pm and hope to get in after daybreak on Friday morning. Although you see people sailing into anchorages at night, it’s something I’m reluctant to do – it’s very difficult to judge distances at night or to see any obstructions or gauge where prohibited areas are. Daylight makes all the difference. So it will be a heavy night, sailing up the east (Atlantic) coast of Dominica, where winds should be more consistent than on the western side. Shall head for the bay of St Louis on the west coast of Marie Galant, a large sheltered anchorage fringed by beaches.
(I had meant to upload a couple of photos, but unfortunately my internet connection here is not great, so it wasn’t possible! – subsequently fixed!!!)
