Tuesday we were up pretty early feeling completely shattered as this anchorage is so rolly…. We stayed in the tiny sleepy village of Anse D’Arlet and did a few boat jobs in the morning and went ashore in the afternoon. This town is a strange mix of local lads hanging around looking really bored and loads of French tourists who either turn up for an hour on the bus and run around manically taking photos or are here for the day – presumably staying close by…..
Tried some more local food on the beach – but we found it pretty disappointing. The food here is more Caribbean than French in flavour and is largely chicken and fish. Poor service appears to be the norm here too… Oh yes, and the beers are tiny!!! Had a short alcohol-free bobbing session and went back on board to watch the sun go down and then had a movie night. Richard isn’t enamoured with this sleepy place so although the forecast is rough again for Wednesday we are going to move down the coast.
Wednesday morning up bright and early and off we go. When we left Anse D’Arlet the wind was only about 10 knots in the bay. We were reefed down in preparation for stronger winds and, of course, the minute we shook the reefs out the wind picked up to 26 knots and stayed pretty much at that level for the rest of the day! As we headed out to sea to get the required distance from the very rocky and shoal-strewn coastline the sea builds and we are regularly hitting 10 foot waves with many of them larger and breaking before they get to us.
So pretty challenging conditions especially as the wind is coming from where we want to go – this was supposed to be a really nice reach instead we are reefed down, close-hauled, and having to tack way out to sea to get to our destination. We spent a couple of hours bashing to windward and then when we thought it was the right time to go about to miss the huge rock and the shoals you can see from our track that the building seas and strong winds swept us back to shore pretty quickly. So off we went out again and then back…. All looks very weird!!!
We were in no hurry…. were not being beaten up even though sailing hard…. and actually we were really enjoying ourselves. We were accompanied again by flying fish and a brown boobie flying alongside us for a while. Alas still no elusive whales… We eventually arrived into the anchorage at Sainte Anne having covered almost 30 miles. Our hook set straight away in a lovely shallow and wide bay so we got ourselves cleaned up and went ashore to explore.
Sainte Anne has a large dock which had loads of dinghies on but not sure where all the people go!!! Anyway wandered up into town and straight away came across the beautiful church which had people spilling out all dressed in black and white finery… Stood and watched for a little while and then realised that it was actually a funeral. Oh no… we quickly moved on…
Wandered around the little main street – which is just a sleepy lane really – came across the town hall before sneaking back into the church for a quick look at the amazing chandeliers…. We had another quiet night on board enjoying the sunset
During the night it poured with rain and carried on all morning on Thursday so we stayed put, did a few jobs down below, and Morphie enjoyed getting rid of her salt overcoat…. Thursday afternoon we went out in dink to explore and went along the shoreline. Sainte Anne is blessed with a lovely white sand beach which goes on for a long way right up to a Club Med resort – so we are looking to see where we can land dink and have ourselves a few beach days…
Whilst we were out there pottering around we came across some lads sailing one of the local boats – wow, this takes some skill and strength. Wouldn’t fancy being ballast on one of these!!!
We then went ashore to the local restaurant which has its own dinghy dock and sunbathing platform to catch a few rays.
Ended up trying out the food – and the service was lousy, the food was cold and we didn’t get our bread. And did I tell you Martinique is really expensive???? Anyway, we won’t be eating there again that’s for sure – but we’ll definitely drink there again as they have free wifi… No internet available for us to pick up in this anchorage which is pretty common with most of the French places we’ve been to so far. Back on board for a quiet night and another sunset… The colours are so beautiful here.
Friday we run ashore to do a few internet things in the morning and explore the town a bit more. Nothing much to it really and the tourist office is shut so we can’t even find out whether we can hire a car here. Never mind, we’ll try again another day. But we did go into the church and light some candles for some loved family members who are no longer with us. Anyway we are heading off to the beach. We have found a place that we can land and chain dink to a tree…. and it is only a few steps away from a beach bar / restaurant with sun loungers. So that’s our destination. It was lovely!!!! Not quite the Soggy Dollar bar but it will do. Good food, albeit only BBQ offering unless you fancy a fresh lobster out of the tank, combined with great service. And we finally got bread with our meal……
We had a really nice afternoon chilling and plan to return there tomorrow. Back on board for another quiet night….
Bye for now