We certainly did not want another night in the crowded hot city marina, so we set off south bright and early to enjoy calmer waters while motoring into the wind. Rowan found a big bay on the south of the island called Baie Des Anglais, known for its tricky navigation around reefs and small islands. There are no shops or homes and some of the small islands are bird reserves, so we were half expecting to be the only people there, especially as we’ve been warned it is illegal to be sailing around.
Sunrise departure
Luckily we started our journey sailing in the Bahamas so Rowan has become very comfortable manoeuvring around shallow reefs and small islands. We had to come in between two islands with a hurly burly of breaking waves and once through, it was a calm oasis. To our surprise there were 5 other boats, luckily it is a huge area so we were able to tuck right at the end among the mangroves away from everyone and still benefitting from a very welcome breeze.
This is the flat more remote area of Martinique, Diamond Rock in the far distance.
Bird reserve island
Coming into the bay between the islands
After lunch we went out in Jeldi Jeldi to go and snorkel near the bird reserve islands. I have to say it looked too scary for me with crashing waves. We tied onto the reserve buoy and Rowan went on his own and confirmed it wasn’t great coral and the visibility was not good, much to my relief! We explored a little further and found a lovely beach on an island that had an abandoned dock, so we went ashore. It was rather creepy as it obviously used to cater for tourists but pretty much abandoned. We were greeted by two very scrawny chickens who were obviously very disappointed we didn’t have food for them. Then we noticed wooden traps everywhere and holes, it obviously has a terrible rat problem we assume, although we never saw one. We found an old board with a map that showed a path all around the island and decided a walk would be good for us. We set off along a path up the rocks amongst a lot of prickly cactuses. We hadn’t gone far when we got an awful stench and discovered huge mounds of sea urchin shells. Reminded us of a horrific sea urchin pasta dish we had at the ferry dock in Naples (their famous signature dish!), still scaring for most of the family! They are obviously fishing for them, and hope we never have to sample it again. Rowan spotted something he thought was a mongoose, I’m sure it was something like a chipmunk, and maybe that is what they are trapping. We had some lovely views out on our walk along this tiny path until we took a wrong turn which got us deeper and deeper into tall cactuses, which was not fun. You certainly could not attempt to bundu bash your way out here without a machete! We finally backtracked and found our way back down to the beach.
The white waves where Rowan wanted to snorkel
Very disappointed chooks.
Traps everywhere
On our walk around the island
Forests of spiky cactus
Smelly Sea Urchin shells
They look like South African thorn bushes …… impenetrable prickly bush, not good for getting lost in!
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