In the last post, we didn’t include pictures from Fort Napoleon, located in The Saints, Guadeloupe. It was built in the 1770’s by the French and destroyed by the British in 1809. The French rebuilt it and never saw further action. Later it was eventually used as a prison.
On the way to Le Marin, Martinique, we realized as the day went on that we would not get there before dark, so we dropped the hook for the night in a little bay off the town of Les Anses-d’Arlet. The town looked charming and we vowed to come back another time as we were in a hurry to get that second engine fix (see prior post). The next morning we passed a huge rock, just a mile off the SW corner of Martinique, called Rocher du Diamant. In 1809, the English finally captured it from the French and built fortifications, a hospital, barracks and a cistern. The English had 200 men stationed here and could easily resupply it from St Lucia, just 20 miles south. From this rock they caused a lot of problems for the French who spent 17 months trying to recapture it. It’s hard to imagine that many people living on something that has no flat surfaces.
Martinique was lovely, so we decided to spend the week. Initially getting the engine fixed and then enjoying the mental freedom of being close enough to Grenada that we were no longer concerned about when the first hurricane might appear. Fun fact: at the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France had the choice of keeping Canada and most of North America west of the Mississippi or they could get back their profitable sugar islands of Guadalupe and Martinique, islands that England had only recently captured. Obviously, they opted for the islands. While the islands were obscenely profitable for the next 100 years, in the long run this has to go down in history as one of the worst political decisions ever made.
Anyway, we rented a car for two days and explored the southern half of Martinique. Before we could even get out of La Marin, we were pulled over and told to wait. Wait for what? About 10 minutes later, after a flood of police and media motorcycles, we found ourselves in the middle of stage one of the Tour de Martinique.
We stopped in Fort de France, which has a big fortress that we absolutely will go back to explore another time. (No, you can never see too many old forts!) Otherwise it’s just a big city. We also visited Habitation Clément, a beautifully restored 1700’s sugar plantation. In 1887, Homer Clément, one of the first black doctors on the island, purchased the plantation and then started distilling rhum in 1917 due to government demand for alcohol for soldiers in World War I. Today, the place is both a history of the cultivation of sugar/distillation of rhum, and beautiful grounds with substantial modern art and even a couple of museum buildings.
Next was the beautiful little town of Les Anses-d’Arlet, our first anchorage in Martinique. On the southern coast we stopped at an intriguing little church in the town of Le Diamant. It turned out to be a magnificent wooden structure built in 1829.
Once the engine was fixed, we moved out of the main bay of La Marin to anchor off of Sainte Anne, a quiet little town just around the corner. The Moulin Val D’or, an enormous restored “beast“ mill that was used to crush sugar cane with animal power was within walking distance so of course we had to go. It was closed and we couldn’t go inside but still impressive and far larger than any other that we’ve seen. Catching up on laundry and boat chores before heading to St Lucia was in order, as you can see time is never spent idle.
Yea, about that. We set out on Thursday morning to head to St. Lucia as noted previously. Dodging fish pots is extremely difficult and sure enough we caught one with our starboard rudder. We had one reef in the main with a full genoa at the time and it was as if we were on a skateboard and reached out to grab a pole as the boat swung around violently in a 90° turn. We completely lost all ability to steer. Quickly dropped our sails, started the engines and drifted off the line that had caught us. We are pretty sure that the float went on the outside of the rudder and the line went through the little gap between the rudder and the hull, catching the rudder post. Whatever trap was on the bottom had obviously become firmly lodged in rocks or coral as it did not budge at all with the force of our 20 ton boat moving fast. With the sails down the steering seemed to be fine but with the sails up we could not control the boat so we assumed something bad happened and returned to the anchorage. John dove in but found no evidence of anything wrong and of course we examined the steering mechanisms in each hull in great detail. We collected ourselves, had a stiff drink and tried it again the next morning. Nope! Same issue of not being able to steer when the sails were up. This time we returned to the inner anchorage and asked the previous mechanics to come take a look. They did so and found nothing wrong. They suggested we dive again and do a few specific tests to see if there’s any indication of the rudder post being bent. Finding nothing, we tried again on Saturday and succeeded in sailing to Rodney Bay, St Lucia. The only difference was that Saturday’s wind was half of what the previous two days had been. We have determined that this was nothing more than the boat becoming overpowered – meaning too much sail for the conditions. We undoubtedly needed to start with a second reef in the main but given what had happened with the fish pot we mentally didn’t realize the real problem.
Rodney Bay has a reputation for very loud music from some of the bars booming out over the water until late at night. Ok, got it!! What we didn’t expect was the sudden vibrations of the boat at midnight that continued until 7:30 in the morning from a rave party on the beach! There was very little sleep had for the both of us as the electronic dance music literally pounded our bodies in bed. After that first night, the beach bar music really didn’t bother us and we spent several more days in this beautiful and well-protected spot. There are a number of excellent restaurants and a large marina with a well stocked chandlery. So excited to find a sushi restaurant, Theresa ordered a cup of miso soup. It was chock full of seaweed and she couldn’t decide if the smell or taste was worse! Thankfully, the rest of the meal was excellent. And of course, there is a well preserved English fort protecting the bay. Panga boats stop by several times a day selling goods and veggies. We patronised the local fresh produce boat, quite expensive but hey, very convenient and fresh.
A stop in Castries was next up. This town has a wonderful and huge market for crafts and another for fruit and vegetables. We purchased a breadfruit, among other things, and as John carried it through the labyrinth of stalls, we had at least a dozen locals stop us (we were the only white people) and say in their West Indian lilt, “Ahy white boy, what you gon do wi dat? You know what you got dere? Come let me tell you how to cook it.” Always said with a big smile and at least five ladies and one man brought us in close and whispered the family secret for the best way to stuff it with salt fish, bake it, boil it or whatever the preferred preparation was. It became a bit of a game as so many people commented. I’m guessing we might’ve been the first white people to buy a breadfruit in the history of that market. They were all quite intrigued when we explained that we learned how to make french fries with it in Panama. It seems no one in the West Indies prepares it as fries.
There was a beautiful Anglican Church (Holy Trinity), built in 1846, up on the hill that we wanted to visit. As we weaved our way through the town and up the hill, it became obvious that it was closed up tight. In the hall next to the church was a lady and her son, attending to the parking lot. The church sells parking spots during the week to help raise funds for church repairs. Speaking to her about the history of the hall and church, John asked if it would be possible for her to open the church for us to take a peak inside. She was more than kind, and not only opened the church but gave us a tour and history of the structure. Knowing the church community was in need of immediate repairs to the roof, we made a small donation and said a couple quiet prayers.
A couple days in Marigot followed and a friend boat, Maka, caught up with us. We all bought passes to the big resort pool one day and hit a couple of the over-the-water bars for happy hour another day. On July 19, we sailed on to St. Vincent and then on to Bequia, a small island south of, but part of, SVG. And you know what? We didn’t see a single fish trap anywhere in the vicinity of St. Lucia on the way in or out! The Pitons, two massive volcanic plugs on the south end of St. Lucia were free of clouds and we took some nice photos as we left.
Next time, a visitor in St. Vincent and the Grenadines!
