Meeting new friends in St. Anne, Martinique

On March 5th, our guest left from Fort de France and we headed further south to St. Anne, Martinique. It was an uneventful 2 hour motor sail, except that we passed close by Diamant Rock, which we had seen the previous day from land. It was quite a site to see the 40 - 50 foot sailboats dwarfed by the giant rock that had been thrown 2 miles off shore by an ancient volcano.

We arrived in St. Anne to see hundreds of sailboats at anchor across a bay spanning a mile and a half wide. We heard that some friends of Billy Ruffn’s former owners were here so we went looking for a blue hull named Capers. Amazingly, we found the boat and anchored right behind them, although no one was on board. Later that afternoon, a dinghy pulled up to Billy Ruff’n and Jim and Pat, who had recognized their old friends’ boat, introduced themselves.

The next morning, we were treated to hot croissants delivered to the boat by the local bakery. After breakfast, we took the dinghy to the town dock, which like many of the towns we’ve seen in Martinique, led to a pretty church and was flanked by a nice park. We walked through town, passed some of the best, albeit touristy shops, I’ve seen in Martinique and the pre-requisite bakery and then continued to the next town over called Caratin. There was supposed to be a fellow running an operation that supplied ice & water to boats in the harbor and would take, clean & return laundry, but we found his shop closed and out of business.

Next door, was a great lunch spot called Pirates Beach Cafe, where we had one of the best lunches (Salad de Mer and a burger) that we’ve had in a while and ate in the company of all kinds of skeletons and creative pirate decor.

The next day, I went for a walk with our new friends to Saline Beach, which is purported to be one of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. It’s a bit crowded but we were entertained by the visuals at the gay and nude beaches along the way and met up with Andrew for beers, Poulet a la diable and ice cream at La Dunette in town afterward.

One of our favorite habits we’ve adopted in the French islands has been to purchase a baguette every day and use the leftovers for French toast in the morning. We’ve also become accustomed to walking miles for great Cajun spiced chicken or the latest find, a Magnum Double Caramel ice cream bar! Somehow, despite this, we manage to stay fit and healthy in the midst of the omnipresent news about Corona virus.

Waiting for a calm day, we held off a 3 mile dinghy trip to Marin, where we hope to visit the well stocked chandleries that are in that town, to knock off the list of boat supplies that has been growing. Despite 10 knots winds, we made the trip the next day only to discover that finding the chandleries was something of an adventure. Wandering down a creek that look like it was going nowhere, we found a place called Clipper Ship that wasn’t in our guide but we didn’t find Le Ship or Caribe Marine, at least not where the guide had them.

After two scouting adventures, we finally found the last two shops near the Marin Marina, checked off about 80% of our shopping list and found a nice place for lunch (another burger & grilled fish). While we were in Marin, the technician we’d been working with to order a new windlass called and happened to be in town so we got together with him after lunch to get the bad news about shipping a new windlass from New Zealand... it’s expensive!

While in St. Anne, we’ve seen some really beautiful sunsets including a few with the dramatic green flash (not captured here), enjoyed meeting new friends and finding our favorite burgers.