We had a quick run around the Baie De Fort De France then straight to Ste Anne.
Trying something new here. This is taken from our cruising guide and gives an overview of the island. We have been from top to bottom on the west side.
This is the Bay of Fort de France.
We spent two nights anchored off of Pointe du Bout. Which is in the bottom, middle of the with the North Cardinal bouy and red navigation bouy. We didn't get off the boat except to swim. It was quiet and peaceful. We decided to take a motor tour of the bay so we went due north to the Fort and entered the harbour. Other than watching over your shoulder for ferries about to run you down it was uneventful. Once in the harbour it was a bit congested but we wanted to see where the marina was located. It's not likely we'll ever go there. Since we were in the industrial harbour we were dwarfed by container ships, bulk carriers and of course a monster cruise ship. (Sorry photos seem to be lost) We proceeded along the north coast and the water got rather shallow so our wariness got deeper. You can see a line of red bouys in the upper right of the chart. We motored as far as the northernmost then turned, threw out the jib and sailed across at about 5 knots. It was great with next to no fetch and no other traffic. Once across we angled ourselves into Trois Ilets. There to stay for one night. We thought we would have a great night's sleep with the wind blowing into the fore hatch like air conditioning. Wouldn't you know it would go dead calm! Then we were concerned about mosquitos as we were close to the mangroves. But the screens in and the coil burning we were fine.
Trois Islets is a quaint town that hasn't been overrun with tourists.
The anchorage seems to be filled with boats that are left to die!
Maybe not so old? Sure makes you wonder.
Moving on, we heard the weather forecast for more wind and building seas for the weekend so we decided to leave Trois Islet and sail directly to Ste Anne. The reason being that to get there you have to come around the end of the island and beat your way into the prevailing wind and sea. As mentioned before it was dead calm and that lasted until we cleared the south end of the Baie de Fort de France. As we motored along we were overtaken by a horde of jet skis. It looked like a scene from Water World! (I don't think too many people saw that movie with Kevin Costner) there were 20 or so.
We managed to sail down the West coast on a nice reach out past Diamond Rock then tacked (yes we tacked) a couple of times to close on Ste Anne. All-in-all a great day.
Since we have been here we have played dominos on Bay Pelican with Aquarelle. Walked to Pointe Saline and toured in a rented car with Dream Maker. They had to pick up a part in Forte De France so we hitched along and spent the day going out to Presquile de la Caravelle (the long peninsula on the East coast) where we had a fabulous lunch at a beachfront restaurant, visited a rum factory and went shopping at a huge mall!
Ours is the silver one.
Bougenvalia, love these plants. The white dot in the middle is the actual flower.
Waiting for our table on a swing.
Bill and Cathy of Dream Maker, A little sampling of the product with Lorna.
Same vintage as me! At a fraction of the price! Lorna wouldn't let me buy it. Actually it's rum Agricole made without molasses. Can't say we appreciate it so much!
By North American standards this is a large mall. Largest in the Caribbean. We don't plan to confirm that.
Keep on keeping on!
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