14:44..64N  61:10.64W

 

Distance Run  11 nm

 

Saturday 12 to Monday 14 April 2014

 

In the afternoon on Saturday we made the short sprint north to St Pierre near the top of Martinique.  This would shorten the next jump north to the island of Dominica.  It was only a 2-3 hour sail but the nicest this year so far.  The wind was steady, not too strong and from a good direction (on the beam or just aft of it).

 

 

The view forward from the wheel, heeling gently to the wind:-

 

 

 

 

The approach to St Pierre.  The organised and well tended fields look more European than Caribbean:-

 

 

 

 

St Pierre lies at the foot of a volcano, Mt Pelee, which erupted in April 1902 covering the town with ash.  In early May there were three more eruptions with some loss of life.  Some people evacuated but despite the increasing intensity of the volcanic activity and deaths most people stayed having been convinced by local interests that all was now safe.  Three days later the side of the volcano burst and all but two people in the town, nearly 30,000 people, were killed and only a few ruins remained.  The survivors were a cobbler working in a cellar and a man in a stone cell imprisoned for murder.  Twelve ships in the bay were destroyed and some of the wrecks remain on the seabed with ‘No Anchoring’ buoys over them.

 

St Pierre is a small, quiet place now and we went ashore on Sunday to look around.  It was disappointing given the the rave reports we had heard but perhaps Sunday was not the best day to be looking!

 

 

View from the boat including the Cathedral:-

 

 

 

 

Someone had made a small playground on the beach using whatever was available.  The head of this dog is a plastic water container:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went ashore again on Monday and things were a little livelier and we could start to see what the fuss was about.  Lin found the laundry and I went to Customs to clear out of France and we met again later for lunch.  We can highly recommend ‘Tamaya’, which reminded us of the small restaurants in Brittany, where we had a inexpensive but very nice lunch.

 

 

One of the old buildings:-

 

 

 

 

A closer view of the Cathedral:-

 

 

 

It was a very hot day and we were glad to return to the boat for a swim.