Saint Pierre

We sailed from Dominica to Martinique on Monday the 21st. We encounter gusts of wind of up to 40 knots. It was an uncomfortable beat in a moderate to rough sea with squalls, not what I had hoped for in the Caribbean.

We anchored in Saint Pierre in the shadow of the volcano, Mount Pelee, which last erupted in 1902 destroying the town and killing 29,000 people. The town has since been re-built. We visited the ruins of the theatre and local jail, in which a prisoner was one of the few survivors due to the thickness of his cell walls. We walked to the Depaz rum distillery and had a tour round seeing how rum is produced from sugar cane. I bought a bottle of coconut punch, which is a very nice liqueur. We walked to a very interesting garden devoted to the conservation of indigenous species of butterflies. The main species we saw flying around was the monarch. There were a number of musical instruments made for carnival, dotted around so the men had a go at playing them. There was a tree house with hammocks and a stage where soirées are held. There was a calibashe tree, the fruits are enormous and used for making bowls and bags. Paul and Alex went exploring, following a path from the butterfly garden. The path started to disappear and reappear until eventually it completely vanished, at which point they turned round and found that not only had the path back completely vanished, but someone appeared to have moved all the trees. They found their way back to civilisation eventually.

The weather has been very wet so we decided to move further south.

Anse Mitan

Anse Mitan is across the bay from the capital Fort de France. It is the most touristy part of Martinique with lots of boutiques, cafés and restaurants. It is almost like being in France. William and I treated ourselves to a meal in one of the local restaurants and the food was very good. I had a brochette of prawns and William had steak. The weather is better here. We have been snorkelling but its not wonderful. I trod on a black spiny sea urchin called Diadema (not Norman) and got a spine in my toe, ouch!

Anse d'Arlet

We moved a bit further down the coast and anchored at Anse d'Arlet. This is a pretty little place with far less tourists. We had two meals here but neither was very good. We went for a walk round the nature reserve. Other than that we did some snorkelling.