St. Pierre and the Mt. Pelee volcano. On May 8, 1902 erupted releasing a giant fireball that destroyed the town and 12 ships at anchor in the bay. Only two people survived. Several minor eruptions and grumblings from the volcano in the preceding weeks had been ignored resulting in the deaths of nearly 29,933 people. As the town was rebuilt they tried to preserve a part of the old buildings in the new structure. The ships still rest at the bottom of the sea and are visited by divers. Most are at a depth greater than 100 ft. Most of the bay is very deep leaving a narrow shelf near the town dock for anchoring.
Canal de Beauregard. We went with our friends Shadowfax and Spirare by bus up into the mountains to the small town of St Denis. We had lunch at a small restaurant overlooking the valley full of lush greenery. After lunch, we parted ways and hiked down the road to the start of the canal walk as our friends went to catch the bus back to town. IB was intent on walking the canal, I was much more reluctant but agreed to go along. The guidebook warns that you should be comfortable with heights to walk along the 18-inch wide canal wall. Not quite so comfortable with heights, I have a good idea of what I’ve gotten myself into as IB tries to assure me the areas will high drops by the wall are only a few feet long, I didn’t believe him. I was right. The walk starts off easy as it meanders through a tunnel, but we do eventually get to the drop-offs, they are long sections and a long ways down. The view is breathtaking… if you can manage to look. I don’t think I saw anything but the wall and my feet, until I took that last step off the canal, and started breathing again.
The following morning we had planned to hike to the top of Mt. Pelee, however as we looked up toward the volcano all that could be seen were the clouds surrounding it. As we drank our coffee and contemplated what to do, the winds began to shift to the WSW, blowing us toward shore and blowing in waves. That made our decision for us and we pulled up anchor and headed south to Fort de France.
Fort de France may have been a nice place to see, stores to actually go shopping, but as it was we arrived on Saturday afternoon. The one inconvenient thing about French islands are the opening times for businesses. Weekends are not a time they like to open, just forget about Sunday, I think you are really supposed to stay home and rest then. And restaurants… well I’m still trying to figure out their hours, I think you are supposed to eat dinner after 9 at night. We enjoyed the evening on the boat in a calm anchorage and headed on south the next day.
On our way to Le Marin, we made a brief stop at Anse Noir where the guidebook claims there is really good snorkeling. Really good is really relative. There were certainly some creatures to see, some coral alive and a wall, just a little too deep for snorkeling, but it was definitely a big whatever. Just after pulling into the anchorage we spotted our friends on Elsyium.
Our one-day in Le Marin was spent getting checked out at customs, spending some time with our friends and making a huge mistake we wouldn’t realize for several days yet and would regret for islands to come. Having been hop-scotching down the French Islands we got quite comfortable with good cheese, inexpensive wine and a variety of other goodies from the grocery. Somehow we didn’t stop and think that this was our last French Island and we chose not to go to the grocery store. In two days we will realize that the great selection of really good wine at really cheap prices does not exist after Martinique. The great deli cheese and fresh goat cheese .. forget it. We won’t even talk about olive oil. We’ll just mark this down as cruising lesson #243.
