Our first night in St Pierre was one of the worse nights we had at anchor since we left Italy. We had to anchor quite far out of town on the southern fringe, by the beach, as the anchorage was really crowded. The wind picked up during the night, massive gusts sounding like boulders being dropped in the water from a great height and we hardly slept at all. The wind generator was going absolutely mad and in the end there was a final unusual whirr and it fell silent. Another problem to fix!
Not wanting to spend another night in this spot and having made our mind up about leaving Martinique, we were ready to go early next morning. Ian had checked the wind generator and diagnosed 2 blown up fuses, not so bad and easily replaced as they are readily available in petrol station. We did not have spare ones as the wind generator is supposed to cut off when the wind is too strong. I guess it could not cope with the sudden gusts.
A few boats were leaving the anchorage, so we followed them up north. It did not take long for the wind to strengthen and the rain started. We got soaked and cold, it was not much fun, we had not sailed in these kind of conditions for a long time, felt like the English Channel on a good day. Still the scenery was beautiful, the Mont Pele shrouded in rain and fading rainbows. As we approached the channel, the sea became more unsettled and we could see that the waves were becoming threatening. It did not look like fun at all.
We were watching a bunch of boat ahead and we noticed that one of them which we had been following, was getting bigger rather than smaller, obviously coming back. They got to our level and very emphatically suggested that crossing today may not be the best idea in a force 6/7. We realised that this was Pepper, Hattie and Phil, and although we had not met, Lynn from Christine had mentioned that they had crossed 2 handed and were no push over. We were drenched and not really relishing up to 8 hours of being thrown about in the rain, so we turned round too.
We managed to anchor on the north side of town this time, a more sheltered spot and not so far from the town. Pepper who had preceded us was a few rowing stroke away. We went ashore to see if we could get some fuses and had a bit of a wander round. Given that the weather was really awful, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Volcano research centre, in the dry. Absolutely brilliant, we learnt a lot about the Mont Pele, the 1902 eruption and the volcanic activity all around the Caribbean. Well worth a visit.
On the way back we stopped off to see Pepper. We hadn’t met Hattie & Phil before, but heard a lot about them so it was nice to get to know them and share our experiences. We had a great evening, Hattie made pizzas, just like that!
We did go ashore the next day and explored St Pierre’s surrounding in the rain mostly, had lunch looking out over the bay which was stunning. We then had a long walk out toward the pitons, again great views from the top, a sea of sugar cane and the Mont Pele in the background.
The rain did not ease off and I was not feeling too bright (weird head cold) so we spent the following day on board, reading and sleeping. We knew Lynn & Peter were on their way back from Dominica and would be stopping at St Pierre and we were keen to catch up with them as they were going back to the UK for a few months. They arrived in middle afternoon, the crossing had been rough… glad we had not left with Pepper earlier in the day. We had a lovely evening onboard Christine, as per usual, the food was fantastic and so was the company.
What a difference a day makes, we woke up to a fabulous blue sky and full view of the mountain this morning. We made a picnic and took Lynn and Peter for a long walk. The waterfall at the end of the valley was quite impressive, but then again it had rained for nearly 4 days! We had lunch at the foot of the mountain in the sugar cane fields, walking between rows and rows of tall canes was quite eerie. We rounded up this lovely day by sitting on the seafront having nice fruit cocktails, watching the sun go down. Later on in the evening, we had some more guests, Anne and Roy from Serenity had caught up with us and it was nice to see them again. Anne had gone back to Belgium for a few weeks so she had loads of news. They were heading north too but needed to be in St Martin in April so they were on a mission. Chances were we were not going to see them for a little while. As Ian puts it, all we seem to be doing is saying goodbyes to people and places we have grown fond off.
That is it, Monday 13th March, we are finally leaving Martinique. Glad we spent that last day with Lynn and Peter in the sunshine, St Pierre at its best.