Ruins from the 1909 eruption of Mont Pelée, in St. Pierre.
Written January 31, 2016
The days have flown by. From Grand Anse d’Arlet, we sailed around to Fort-de-France to wait out some strong winds in the lee of Fort Josephine. This is a fort that you are not allowed to visit despite the fact it is featured prominently in just about every post card you might come across while visiting. Peu importe*.
Fort-de-France hasn’t changed much from last July, when we were last there. But this time we knew where the bank machine and chandlery were. We also happily crossed paths with Cape Crusader in the anchorage, friends from the boatyard in Grenada.
When the wind calmed after a couple of nights, we made our way up to St. Pierre, my new favourite place. It is comfortable, quiet and has everything you need: a grocery store, a market, cafés, historic buildings, a volcano and the ruins it created (when it erupted in 1909 and destroyed the whole city). It also has some adult-time, as we caught up with the Striders again and the kids were always getting together. They even hiked up to the top of the volcano, Mont Pelée. Not bad, guys!
We did a hike ourselves with Strider and new friends aboard S/V Kantala along the “Canal des esclaves.” This is an aqueduct, built by slave labour in the 1700s, with an 18-inch (at its widest) stone walkway that snakes its way along the sides of various lush, green mountains. A 600 foot drop and no hand rail. Good times. It was enough to bring on some real dizziness, not that I’m afraid of heights much**. Moss took a video of the whole thing.
*Whatevs.
** I am afraid of heights.