Windward Islands

St. Pierre

Martinique is the most northern of the Windward Islands and St. Pierre is the first harbour on the eastern shore when headed south.  In 1902 St. Pierre and about 30,000 of its inhabitants were obliterated in a matter of seconds when the east side of volcano Pelee blew out releasing a giant fireball of superheated gas.

Dominica

(last of the Leeward Islands)

To get to Martinique we motored past the lee side of Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic).  Dominica is one of the islands we plan on exploring next year when we can travel at even more of a leisurely pace.

Right off of the dinghy dock in St. Pierre is their market featuring fresh vegetables and other locally produced products.  Our stores were replenished with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and desert figs.  Desert figs are smaller and sweeter bananas than the ones imported to the states.  Other banana looking fruits readily available like plantains must be cooked.

St Pierre is a bustling little city that is in the process of being restored.  Everywhere we went we were dodging heavy equipment and large trucks.

There was no fuel dock in St. Pierre, so I had to Jerry can gasoline for the dinghy down the beach.

While there were merchants selling a large variety of goods, there really wasn’t much for the cruiser and we couldn’t find a taxi to take us to the local sites of interest.

So, we did what cruisers do.  We pulled anchor and moved on.