Exploring Martinique by car … The Eastern Shore 5th March 2018
We are anchored in a sheltered bay off the town of Trois
Ilets, about 5 miles south of Fort de France. We came in here to avoid
potential westerly squalls associated with a rare passing cold front, but it
turns out to be a very peaceful and pleasant anchorage that reminds us of
Potters Cove back in Rhode Island. When we first arrived on Friday there were
only one or two other cruising boats here (as well as a few damaged boats
presumably from hurricane Maria), now there appear to be about 30 boats. The
cold front did cause the wind to veer from the east through south to west, but
it remained light (< 10 kts) and there were no squalls in our area. However,
the weather yesterday (Monday) after a clear start turned mostly overcast with
occasional showers. Not the greatest weather for sightseeing but you take what
you get.
I left in the dinghy at 8am with my folding bike, planning
to cycle over to Anse Mitan and pick up a rental car. I expected all this to
take a while and told Gloria I would probably be back about 11am. In fact it
all went incredibly smoothly and I was back on Cotinga just after 9am having
driven back from the Avis office with the bike in the trunk and parked near the
dinghy dock. Gloria barely had a chance to do the sewing she had planned. We
decided to use day 1 of the car rental to explore the east coast and day 2 to
head up north. It was interesting to drive across the island – the roads are
good and well sign posted and you get a different perspective than from the
water. We saw lots and lots of sugar cane which I think is mostly used in rum
production and also banana plantations, the products of which are primarily
exported to France. The country feels a lot like France and is very different
to St Lucia. Martinique is the 23rd largest economy in the world and
as a department of France is part of the EU. The east coast has some beautiful
bays, but it also has a lot of reefs,
and these, coupled with being open to the Atlantic ocean, make it a somewhat
treacherous coast line to sail. Nonetheless we did see a number of cruising
yachts.
We stopped for lunch at a café / restaurant on the front at
Le Robert. There were two specials on offer – Cote de Porc grillee which Gloria ate and
something else which I bravely ordered not knowing what it was! It turned out
to be salt fish marinated with onions – served with rice and lentils. It wasn’t
horrible but it’s definitely not the best meal I’ve had on this trip! In the
afternoon we continued up the coast to
the Reserve Naturelle de la Presqu’ile de la Caravelle. This is a
spectacular location which seems to have some good hiking trails (as do other
parts of the island). Unfortunately, we were too limited on time to do any of
the longer walks but we did get to hike around the Chateau Dubuc which are the
ruins of an old sugar plantation overlooking the Baie du Tresor. We had a
little electronic gismo that when pointed at the appropriate position on a map,
gave us lots of information in a seductive French accent, after which we felt
non the wiser!
All too soon it was time to head back and we drove round the
outskirts of Fort de France on two-lane highways, stopping to buy fruit and
vegetables from road side stalls and then other groceries at a large Carrefour
supermarket – what luxury. It was pretty much dark by the time we parked the
car and shuttled all our provisions back to Cotinga.
Mike
Please note we only have intermittent access to WiFi so apologies for the sporadic posting of blogs. We had an awesome day 2 driving up to the northern part of the island which we'll try and post soon.
Fishing boats at Ilets Tartane on the east coast Martinique
Cleaning fish at Ilets Tartane on the east coast Martinique
The lovely Xanadia Dove
An abstract combination of three photos of the inside of a fishing boat --- I had to climb into the boat to take one of these shots and the owner showed up and didn't seem too pleased ... I apologized in my very limited french!
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