St Pierre’s carnival celebrations were more muted than those at Fort de France, and we were able to do our customs and immigration clearance and re-provision the boat.  We also paid a visit to the town museum which contains mementos of the impact of the eruption of Mount Pelee on the town, including the ship’s bell from the vessel “Le Tamaya”, whose namesake we knew as a good local restaurant, particularly for its Coupe Antillaise dessert of ice cream, rum and Chantilly cream!

 

Having identified a Jardin des Plantes on the map, we set off in search of botanical treasures, only to find that the Jardin des Plantes is the name of a local suburb!  We were, however directed to a nearby waterfall which we found at the second attempt after a local man pointed out where the path would have been if it had not been overgrown. Although the 20m fall was modest by some standards, the setting was pure jungle just ten minutes walk from the road.

 

Where the small river was intersected by the main road was an incongruous looking car repair shop surrounded by verdant growth.

 

Back at the boat, we decided to invite an elderly lady named Shirley Carter who appeared to be sailing solo on a neighbouring small bright yellow boat of less than 10m length to join us for dinner.  The boat was originally made of teak and named Speedwell of Hong Kong.  It had been bought by Shirley some 15 years earlier in South Africa and sailed first to the Caribbean via St Helena and Ascension Island and Brazil, then on to the Caribbean.  On the way, she had stopped in Chaguaramus, Trinidad, to spend 8 months renovating her boat, including encasing it in fibreglass and converting it from a sloop rig to a junk rig.  She did nearly all the work herself. We also met her black kitten, Sparky, which had learned the hard way how to use a boarding ladder out of the water, and now appears to be fully at home on the boat.  Sadly, Sparky’s predecessor, Sinbad, is no more.  Shirley’s current plan is to sail up to Nova Scotia for the summer.  A measure of her doughty spirit is that the boat typically only manages 2-3 knots through the water, making all voyages long voyages, and frequently necessitating route changes to what is possible rather than what might have been planned.  But this has become Shirley’s way of life – and she loves it.  Long may she do so.  See her blog at http://speedwelladventures.com/

 

The path to the jungle waterfall

 

The waterfall

 

Vehicle repair shop in the jungle

 

Panorama of St Pierre

 

Shirley’s boat - Speedwell of Hong Kong

 

A trumpetfish swims past sponges by the boat anchorage