Our time in Martinique was great. We arrived at St Anne's from Dominica and set anchor in the beautiful spacious bay.
'Checking in' on the French islands is super easy. We went ashore and found the little coffee shop that had a small room off to the side, where we went onto a computer, put in all our boat details and crew list, printed out our official document, paid the €3 for the shop owner to stamp and sign it and viola, we were legally in French territory. No immigration or customs officials involved👍.
St Anne's is a beautiful little place with a historical church at its center, and 2 little beachfront streets of stores and houses. The residential area expands up the hill from there.
We did a bus ride into Fort-du-France to go to the Decathlon outdoor warehouse type store that didn't disappoint. It's an incredible store that has everything from rollerscates to diving equipment to dingys, fishing, and camping equipment. It was amazing to see. It was also a great way to see a bit more of the island where they have expansive banana plantations and hills of sugar cane as far as the eye can see.
From St Anne's we headed around and into Le Marin, a very crowded anchorage, but it put us closer to the shopping area that has large Leader Price and Carrefour stores, perfect for reprovisioning the yacht. We were also able to get to the fuel jetty to stock up on water and fuel. The water here is some of the least expensive we have experienced in the Caribbean, so that made a nice change.
We then headed up the coast to St. Pierre. What a 'historical' treat. We got to explore the beautiful old town that still shows so much of the original damage caused by the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelee. From the old theater and adjacent prison to the original old cobbled roads, it was a beautiful place to explore.
For Robin's birthday, we headed up the long and winding uphill road🥵 to the DePazz Rhum Distillery where we got to tour the distillery and adjacent beautiful villa, ending off in the Rhum store. We went in saying that we wouldn't be buying much, but that didn't last when we saw and tasted 🤪 the amazing selection of rums and rum based liqueurs that they have on offer.
Martinique was a beautiful stop, with some great memories to and to our ever growing memory bank.
7 сен 2024
