This morning we went ashore in Fort de France for breakfast and a quick shop. We got back to the boat at 1015 and decided to sail north to St Pierre. It is a short 15nm sail and we were lucky, dodging heavy showers at each end.
The wind was mostly E 20-25 knots but died as we approached St Pierre - probably the back end of a large rain storm which had just gone through. We motored in and anchored in 5m about 100m off the black volcanic sand beach. We don't plan to go ashore here so instead had a very pleasant swim off the boat and now are just watching the world go by. More boats are coming in and anchoring.
Here's our usual track and speed plots.
Zen Again Track
Zen Again Speed over Ground
The steady speed towards the end is where we gave the engine a good run at 2500rpm. We try to do that once in a while since the engine gurus say running at lesser revs all the time isn't good for the engine.
St Pierre looks like it was once a pretty little town. Unfortunately it is close to a volcano which has erupted several times in recorded history, the most recent being in 1902. It was once the capital of Martinique but lost that status after being destroyed in an earlier eruption which cost thousands of lives.
St Pierre with Montagne Pelee in the background
St Pierre
Before going ashore this morning we took part in the OCC's Caribbean HF net on 6227kHz. We discovered several boats we may meet in Antigua and will keep an eye out for them.
We plan to up anchor and set sail for Portsmouth harbour in Dominica early tomorrow morning. It is a 55nm reach which we should be able to complete by late afternoon.
Say Hi to John Lyttle who runs the radio net, or used to. He used to be an anaesthetist who I worked with in Plymouth. Enjoy the islands!. Cheers, Graham
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