We left the beautiful bay at Bequia almost two weeks ago and have been making our way north to Martinique. We had a long and breezy sail from Bequia to St Lucia, bypassing St Vincent. St Vincent looks to be a beautiful green island clad in lush rainforest but there are no natural coves in which to anchor and there are reports that some boats have been burgled whist anchored there. It’s a shame as they probably need income from tourism more than many of the other islands and the land based tours of forest, waterfalls and the volcano sound spectacular.
We made landfall in southern St Lucia at Soufrière Bay in the Piton National Park. It’s a protected area so, to prevent damage to the coral, anchoring is not allowed and instead you have to pick up a mooring buoy. Arriving just before sunset there seemed to be none available until a friendly local guided us to the very last one. This was right under the cliffs which were only 20 metres away! There was plenty of depth and we were completely safe but it was highly anxiety inducing. Under the water around the boat we spotted lots of brightly coloured tropical fish and we were soon distracted by a spectacular display of aerial acrobatics provided by six pelicans catching their supper. They launched like rockets from their perches on the cliff above us making perfect dives onto the unsuspecting fish below. With the view across to the other boat moorings and Petit Piton in the background this has to be one of our most memorable evenings.
Next day we sailed north to Rodney Bay opting to spend a few days in the marina there. We have a leaking dinghy and our alternator is not charging our batteries very efficiently so we hoped to utilise some of the recommended services there. Sadly the dinghy was deemed unfixable, although we then managed to find a leak and patch it ourselves. Hopefully this will work, at least for the time being. The town is relatively big and busy compared to the tiny settlements of the past few weeks and we had some excellent meals ashore whilst getting things sorted.
We are now on the beautiful island of Martinique – a friend described it as France in Paradise and it is, amazingly so. We are in the marina at Pointe du Bout, part of a series of beautiful bays in Les Trois Islets with Fort-de-France across the bay to the north. We are surrounded by excellent restaurants and boulangeries and Jonathan buys us fresh croissants and a baguette each morning just as he does in Ste Foy. For our first sightseeing day we took the ferry from our marina across to the capital Fort-de-France. There were not a huge number of sights to see so we ended up having lunch at a fabulous bistro with a vast collection of jazz records that the owner lovingly plays on a turntable by the bar. The food and wine were also excellent!
The past few days we have been exploring further afield and realising what a beautiful lush island this is. We have spent each day hiking into very different landscapes. At altitude it is a little cooler and forest walks have provided very welcome shade. In the Foret du Rabuchon, as we ascended, we had glimpses of the Pitons du Carbet and beyond the high volcano Mount Pelée. As the forest opened out it gave views south to Fort-De-France bay and east to the spectacular Atlantic coastline. The flora and fauna are plentiful and we have seen lots of beautiful birds including a green throated carib hummingbird – it was a brief sighting but neither of us have ever seen a hummingbird in real life.
We headed out to the Caravelle Nature Reserve on a long isthmus jutting out into the Atlantic. There were steep cliffs, wonderful golden sand beaches, crashing Atlantic waves and lots of mangrove forests reaching down into sheltered lagoons. Much of it reminds me of Cornwall – apart from the mangroves. As it’s the dry season much of the water had dried up revealing hard packed mud with thousands of crab tunnels, each occupied by various sorts of crab popping their heads out. Sadly they were too quick to get photos but we did get a few snaps of these beautiful green geckos..
Yesterday we went south of Trois Islets and walked up to the highest peak on the south of the island. Again the scenery is incredibly beautiful with so many bays and inlets. Driving along the coast we came to a very touching memorial marking the lives of all the thousands of slaves brought from Africa to Martinique. On a tragic day in 1830 a ship carrying hundreds of slaves was shipwrecked and many lost their lives. They were buried on a patch of ground overlooking the sea. There is now the Memorial de l’Anse Cafard with fifteen sculptures looking out to sea, remembering their deaths and that of so many others.