Katie and Chris ventured ashore whilst the others enjoyed a swim off the boat to find a rather different St Pierre with a vibrant market and passengers awaiting the impending arrival of the fast cat ferry to Dominica and Guadeloupe. This coupled with visitors ashore from the Club Med 2 cruise liner made for a much more interesting place that had come to life

 

We visited the ruins of the magnificent theatre that had been destroyed in the volcanic eruption, the little museum that catalogues the event as well as the prison cell that one of the only two survivors was incarcerated when the catastrophe occurred - he survived by drinking the water running down the walls - they dug him out 4 days later and he later joined Barnums Circus in USA as a 'freak' showing his burns

 

We returned to the boat to bring the rest of the crew ashore. We had hoped to find a bar to watch the rugby but being unable to do so (there had been little evidence of sports bars in Martinique unlike St Lucia) we enjoyed a long lunch - of Alsace flavour - in a restaurant overlooking the anchorage. Only to find that the owner was going to watch the rugby downstairs - only repeated 4 hours later

!