Continuing North

From Bequia we traveled with Nauti Dog headed North to the bay and anchorage of Chateaubelair on the main island of St Vincent, it’s very well suited to checking out but not a lot to do so we planned to check out only. We had a heads up and interesting insights into the customs officer from other cruisers visits. So it was with just a little surprise we found the officer came out via dinghy to ensure we checked in/out as required. Since we were already checked in both boats just did our free check out. It might appear that people don’t bother with paperwork here given the officer is chasing all the boats in the anchorage so aggressively! So the following morning we left for St Lucia and Rodney Bay.

Raising the Q-Flag in Rodney Bay

We really liked Rodney Bay, very good anchorage with lots of room and very easy to check in at the marina, since we were only there a couple of nights we checked in and out at the same time saving on hassles too. We did find a couple of good supermarkets a short walk from the complimentary dinghy dock in the southern lagoon. We also visited the large bulk buy store and found some reasonable deals on a several items.

Christmas already?

The next day we took a local bus to Castries and visited the local markets. On Saturdays there are lots of stalls selling fruits and vegetables as well as fish, meats and souvenirs. We had a very good look at all the stalls and Liz even found several dresses to try on and eventually bought a very nice one.

The very good market

Shame about selling Hawksbill Turtle here

The butcher shops

Our next stop was Le Marin on Martinique a very large bay at the southern end of the island. This was to be a major provisioning stop for us as it’s our first French port of call and we love French foods and wine. They couldn't plan a better situation either as the store we like for prices has its own dinghy dock and you bring the carts back to within feet of your dinghy! We bought a huge cart full of goodies like wine, cheeses, pate, sausages and chocolate. We saved a fortune on buying these in the French stores versus Grenada or Trinidad.

After our shopping day we moved Moosetracks to St Anne just outside the harbor for better scenery and to Join our friends Nauti Dog, Truant III and Barefoot Life. We enjoyed a nice walk around the south of the bay to the beaches at Les Salines with the other crews and had a wonderful lunch there.

The local fish market with a huge Tuna in today

A fabulous lunch

 They have lots of lovely beaches in St Anne and some you can walk the dogs on, but unfortunately not this one by Club Med.

The dogs allowed ashore at last - thank you France!

Liz enjoying the walk to the beach

The side streets of St Anne

 We also walked the zig zag trial with Micheal, Karen and Chester. Chester really liked the long grass we found at the top and the cooling puddles in the shade.

We love long grass!!!

Even cooling puddles in the shade for Chester

The zig zag path

 We had a very nice downwind leg artound the bottom of Martinique with Truant III and Nauti Dog when we left St Anne.

Truant III downwind

Our next stop was St Pierre on the north of Martinique so we could visit the ruins of the town which was devastated on May 8th 1902 by the eruption of the volcano Mt Pele and all but 2 of the 30,000 inhabitants perished in the firestorm that destroyed the whole town. The walk around the museum gave us a good insight to the town both before and after the eruption and it was truly deserving of the title “little Paris of the Caribbean” with a very vibrant community.

St Pierre beach - volcanic grey sand

The town of St Pierre

We toured the site of the Theater and jail where one of the two survivors was imprisoned which was so damp and un-ventilated that he escaped the worst of the firestorm. Apparently the prisoner went on to be a circus act in the USA displaying his burns. 

Devin turning heads clean off now!

The Theater steps still very good

The rest not so good

The prison cell, Devin escapes alive!

Typical Old Town streets

Later that day we snorkeled the sculptures by our boat that Micheal had found. What an amazing discovery.

Unfortunately lots of lion fish on all the structures

One of two large anchors around our boat

We also toured the existing church in town and read about history and the rebuilding of the town.

An impressive building 

Beautiful interior

Wonderful stain glass windows

The next day we visited the ruins of the old Fort church on our way to the rum distillery, it too being totally lost in the firestorm. It is fascinating to see the lack of magma around the ruins and this shows just how devastating the firestorm must have been on its own.

Old Fort Church ruins

It was only rebuilt 3 years prior to destruction in 1902

The Depaz distillery was also rebuilt after 1902 and is a beautiful site in lovely grounds that are all very well maintained. 

The beautiful grounds of Distillery Depaz

The tour is self guided and has English and French plaques to tell you about rum making process and the equipment they have used over the years. Clearly they continue to develop as they went from Water powered wheel to steam powered wheels and also generate electricity from their water supply now. We were also very impressed by the eco-friendly facility which uses the crushed gain to power the boilers for steam and then scrubs the smoke and ash for use as fertilizer. 

The stream supplying copious amounts of water

Jeff & Devin calculating water volume

The equipment archives - lots of replacements in 100 years

Some of the larger replacements 

The finished product

Since Devin was the only liquor drinker the apres tour sampling was quadruple fun for him! It was even convincing enough to buy a 3 liter box of the amber rum.

The non-drinkers

Our next jump was an overnight hop to Deshaies on Guadeloupe a stop we thoroughly enjoyed on our way down but somehow omitted the Botanical Gardens so we are not making that mistake again, more from that on our next blog. We were surprised to see lots of mooring balls in the harbor as there were only private fishing balls previously, however since there was room to anchor we chose to do that. We found out later they are free at present but there are only a few for boats over 40 ft so we probably did the right thing anyway.

Checking in at Deshaies

Well that’s us all up to date, we missed the traditional USA thanksgiving celebration as we were on our overnight passage and then in a French island where it was not celebrated. We hope all our US friends celebrated in style and with their loved ones.