We've Left Le Marin - Off to St Pierre - Martinique

We've finally left Martinique. We were in Le Marin for about two months and while we would have liked to take off on our journey earlier, waiting gave us more time to learn about our boat's systems and make improvements. On Saturday, we filled our tanks, set sails and headed for St Pierre, at the northeast end of Martinique.

Au revoir Le Marin....

And hello, St. Pierre! St Pierre lies at the foot of the Mt Pelee volcano, not far from where European settlers wiped out the last of the Carib residents in 1658. Legend says that before the last ones died,
they uttered horrible curses, invoking the mountain to take revenge. Mt Pelee, as you would expect on Caribbean time, waited until Ascension Day, May 8, 1902. At that time, St Pierre was known as
the Paris of the Caribbean. The wealth of the island lay in the plantations and the richest surrounded St Pierre. Minor rumbles started in early April and the volcano spewed ash on April 23. In the meantime, thousands of people who had left their villages came to the capital thinking they would be safer. Evacuation was not an easy option: roads were primitive and ferries did not have the capacity. Once the volcano erupted fully, 29,933 people had died from ash, rock, mud, lava and boiling gasses. Twelve ships were destroyed in the harbor. Only two people survived: a cobbler and the famous Cyparis, a murderer in a stone cell.

Many ruins remain and supposedly, structures built after the disaster were built with a wall from pre-eruption. The town was ultimately rebuilt but the capital was moved to Fort de France, and St Pierre never regained its status as social, cultural and commercial center of Martinique. Here is a picture of the old fort ruins.

There is a beautiful church in St Pierre that still holds services and is open for visitors. Built in the mid-1600s, it was nearly destroyed by the volcano in 1902 but has been slowly renovated and restored. My pictures don't nearly convey how stunning it is inside, with its stained glass, carved wood, arches and inlaid tiles.

Our next destination is Les Saintes, the a group of very small islands north of Martinique and south of Guadaloupe!