More Dawgs in St. Pierre, Martinique

On Valentines Day, we said goodbye to Portsmouth, Dominica and hello to Roseau, our last overnight stop in Dominica, before heading off to Martinique where Dawgs were gathering for Carnival. Roseau has a nice supermarket but gets a lot of cruise ship traffic, so for us little boat cruisers, there’s no reason to stop except to break up a long day or to provision  in town.

We set sail for Martinique the next day and had a lovely voyage under a single reef & jib with 3-4 foot seas for the ~25 miles between the islands. Things got a little sporty when we arrived at the anchorage (puffing up to 30 knots), which always makes dropping sails and anchoring fun but we found a spot off the beach in St. Pierre. In short order, we had no fewer than 4 Salty Dawg boats (including Roxy, Kalunamoo, Pandora and Frog’s Leap) right next to us.

We put the motor on the dinghy and headed into town to check-in but found everything closed. We ran into another couple, Lisa & John from s/v No Wahalla, also looking to check in, but instead decided to have a beer together. Turns out, they were Salty Dawgs that happened to run into the group in Dominica and decided to join the gang headed south to Carnival.

After a leisurely morning the next day, we went to town, checked in, found a Digicel store for Andrew to get his Wi-Fi booster working and picked up a baguette and quiche from the bakery. That afternoon, I walked to the zoo, which was the most exquisite environment I’ve ever seen for a zoo. This little gem, built on the ruins of an old mill, had a decent collection of animals but the real treasure was to see them on such beautiful and natural grounds. Hopefully, my pictures tell that part of the story:

That evening, Andrew and I had a deferred Valentines dinner at Le Tamaya in St. Pierre. It was delightful! Peggy and her husband (the chef) have owned the place for about 10 years. We were the only customers in this tiny (maybe 6 tables), nautically decorated space attached to the kitchen. We ordered escargots to share (a brilliant choice) and dorado to be prepared in two different ways; Andrew’s in a vanilla sauce and mine in a sauce made of the locally grown green lemons, both yummy and all at a very reasonable cost.

Peggy spoke excellent English (and accommodated my attempts to speak French), so after dinner, we had quite a lengthy conversation about their sailing voyages from Europe and around the Caribbean along with an espresso and flan.

Early the next day, we took off (with the rest of the Dawgs) for Carnival in Fort de France, right after I took this picture of Roxy, with a lot of her bottom showing and her telltale pink flamingo flipped over off the stern, in what turned out to be a very rolly anchorage.