Mt Pelee eruption and VE day anniversaries

We decided that we would go further north and explore the old town of St Pierre. Strictly speaking we are not meant to be sailing around until Monday when the lockdown officially ends but everyone is doing it, so we will just claim ignorance. Rowan was delighted to have a good 2 hour sail up to St Pierre.

Sailing past villages/towns on the coast

We arrived mid morning and put down anchor and saw a man gesticulating and going crazy, by the time I stopped the anchor noise and made it clear I didn’t know what was wrong, I realised it was a very flat chested topless woman! She did not like the fact that we were anchoring nearby, so we decided to move. Then her fully naked man appeared grinning like a cheshire cat – not sure if that was because we were moving or that he was rather proud of himself baring all! We reciprocated his effusive waving and moved closer into town, where we thought we may have more of a swell to deal with, but it turned out just fine. The town is wonderfully unspoilt, with lots of history and no tourist resorts. Looks like a genuine town for locals…. a little run down! There are some lovely old buildings on the water’s edge which we look forward to exploring tomorrow.

We were melting in the heat so we didn’t feel too energetic, we enjoyed catching up on messages and lots of VE celebration posts. By coincidence today, 8 May, is the 118th anniversary of the eruption of the volcano Mt Pelee which is behind St Pierre town. The lava flow killed 30,000 people in the town, in a few minutes and is considered the worst volcano disaster of the 20th Century. There was only one survivor in the town and that was because he was in jail! The mountain is 1,397 m (4,583 ft)  high and covered in clouds most of the time, we have been lucky enough to have had one peep at the top.

Mt Pelee covered in cloud

Less cloud

A lucky 5 minute break in the clouds

A relaxing evening finishing off my Zimbabwean book Mukiwa, which was a horrendous insight into the conscription of young white school leaving males. So hard to be unaffected after what they went through in the terrorist war. The author became a journalist for the English papers after squeaking into Cambridge.

A very restful but extremely hot afternoon, with loads of dive bombing pelicans about to keep us entertained.

The moon was spectacular again, rising behind the cliff behind the town.