Snorkelling in crystal clear water, drinking very expensive Bajan cocktails, hiking through dense tropical vegetation to splendid waterfalls, mingling amongst hundreds of sailing boats and finally enjoying Caribbean vibes in Barbados and Martinique.
Turtles in turquoise water
We chose Barbados as our first Caribbean experience. For the 2 months we still have, this seems the best option. Our general plan is to head up to Martinique before making our way slowly down the windward islands to Trinidad.
At sunrise we approach our anchorage in the south of the most windward island of the Caribbean, populated by Bajans, who eat Bajan and talk Bajan (pronounced Bay-jun, more about that further down). After all these months in muddy waters, the colours of the bay in the morning light are simply breathtaking! White sandy beach and turquoise water.
It doesn’t take long; we see the first turtles sticking their heads out of the water to take a deep breath and dive down elegantly under the boat to pop up 10 minutes later at another spot. Before even having breakfast, we’re in the water snorkelling above white sand, watching the turtles feeding on sea grass and other fish in their camouflage coats. The tiredness of the 4-day crossing is quickly forgotten.
Bajan check-in
After breakfast, as fines are known to be very high if you “forget” to check in within 24 hours, we make our way to Bridgetown on a long dinghy ride across the bay. Checking in is supposed to be quick in Bridgetown (we read these things beforehand on one of the sailor apps Noforeignland or Navily).
But we’re not lucky that day, as the lady at the customs was clearing a cargo ship, which takes an uncertain time. In the meantime, we get our health certificate. First step. After waiting over an hour, the customs lady gives us some attention and we get the boat cleared. Step two done. We then get informed that the lady in charge of the immigration is ill and therefore need to wait for her replacement to arrive… And when Miss replacement finally arrives, after another hour, she is not in a good mood. On top of that, she literally snorts like a …, like a…uhmm, well the way your Mummy and Daddy told you not to, when you were small. And constantly! But she stamps our passports, that’s all we want. Step three, over!
Other than that, we had only good experience with the Bajan people – that’s the name of Barbadian people. They always greet with a big smile, are super friendly and very open for a chat. Not that we understand anything when they talk to us in Bajan, their pidgin English…
Underwater world
So, we decide to reserve the exploration of tropical forest for the greener islands. We are simply happy to have a few days of routine, with schooling, snorkelling and meeting up with our friends from Touka, who had arrived a couple of days before us. The vast bay has several shipwrecks just a few metres under the water, used by a huge variety of fish as shelter and hence being excellent snorkelling spots, obviously not only for us. I won’t go much into the details of the underwater world, as you can see that on the various boy’s youtube videos. Enjoy.
Link to Oliver’s videos: snorkelling highlights part 1 and snorkelling highlights part 2, as well as NEW: snorkelling highlights part 3
Link to Alexander’s video: Best of snorkelling in the Caribbean
To drop your anchor in crystal clear water, in front of the exclusive Hilton, what a setting! 
Our friends from Touka are already anchored in the bay. On the picture: Alexander, Leo and a turtle 
The esplanade between the centre of Bridgetown and the cruise ship terminal. All very neat, but it was a long way to walk. 
During our waiting time at the customs, we were entertained by a military ship coming in and other mouvement in the harbour. 
The town centre of Bridgetown is very lively and there are quite a few colonial buildings, some of which are renovated. 
We wanted to look a little further than “our” beach, in fact where most hotels are situated, but found it difficult to have a swim… 
The boys were eager to fish, and very quickly caught this unfortunate flying gurnard, poor thing. 
According to the books it’s supposed to be good to eat. But we found it too beautiful to eat and it was not hurt, so we let it go again. 
A plan of the ship wrecks in the bay. A super spot for snorkelling, as they ley just a few metres under the water. 
Wrecks are always full of live: shelter for the little fish, hunting ground for the big ones. 
It’s the most wonderful feeling to snorkel and swim next to a turtle. Green turtles in the bay. 
Pretty angelfish, they come in all colours. 
A spotted eagle ray just beside our boat. 
The white sandy beach of Carlisle bay stretches all the way from Bridgetown to the Hilton. The wrecks ley in the middle of the bay.
Money won’t bring back the trees…
We realize quickly that we won’t be going to restaurants and bars very often; prices are out of this world… But even the supermarkets are expensive. We resist visiting the probably quite interesting George Washington house with tunnels leading to Bridgetown, but the entrance fee put us off! 35 USD per person for a 45-60 min. visit… We even decide not to rent a car, we find 100 USD too much for one day! It might have been worth it, but we’ll never know. We can’t resist the odd “roti” though from the road side huts (inexpensive, spicy and yummy!- in fact a cheap, spicy and delicious Indian dish, served with a large chiapati, which we discovered in Suriname).
We find Barbados much less the palm-treey type of place we expected. In addition, the island looks quite bare, which is not surprising as all the forest was taken down by the colonists, first for tabaco and cotton, later for sugar plantations. This has now caused erosion problems on the island, which is basically formed from coral reef and limestone, unlike its volcanic neighbours. Global warming of the sea and excess of nutrients has also caused sargassum outbreaks to become more and more frequent. Not only in Barbados, but on all the windward islands it gets washed ashore mainly on the east coasts. And the smell is not very pleasant for the tourists that have booked a seafront hotel !…
Heading north
In Barbados we make 2 stops on the way north, one of which is in Speightstown, where we take in more of the Bajan vibe in the village and enjoy a sundowner in an exclusive beach bar (because it was happy hour, 2 for 1!). The other stop is to check out at the posh Port St Charles Marina before sailing to Martinique. Looking at the prices to spend a night in the marina, we prefered to anchor in the bay.
In Speightstown the little beach offers many bars and restaurants “feet in the sand”, but prices are exorbitant. At the beach they all look pretty. 
Some of them are beautifully decorated. 
Even the washrooms are worth a visit, as well as their wine bar… 
Evening atmosphere in Speightstown 
Our two boats anchored outside of Speightstown 
Some food we could have afforded at the supermarket with pig snout and pig tail…… 😂 
This is what we allowed ourselves to order at another restaurant. They were very yummy! 
Most meals we had on the boat. We’re getting used to the lovely mangoes… 
Port Saint Charles, another exclusive place. We stopped there to make our exit papers. 
Luxury holiday flats in Port Saint Charles: along the inlet, some of them have their own pontoons. 
On the other side, the beach is reserved for those same holiday flats.
Overcrowded Martinique
It’s not that we’ve been missing the company of other boats. We quite like having a bay for us alone. But there are a few technical issues, more or less urgent, to get settled. Le Marin in Martinique is known for getting parts or having work done. Illika’s main sail needs to be repaired in a more serious way than what we can deal with ourselves. We still have a problem with the freezer as well as the propeller shaft leak (that is getting worse) and Jean-Luc can think of at least 50 other things…
So, we sail to Le Marin, a small town with an enormous marina in the south of Martinique to check out what can be done and bought there. We drop the anchor in the enormous bay amongst about 300 other boats – and we’re not high season! Days go by quickly jetting back and forth to shore with the dinghy, looking around, shopping, laundry.
One week sailing
After nearly a week, and only one week to go until Jean-Luc flies out to Switzerland (for job reasons) we sail to the north of Martinique. We make a few stops on the way up and a few on the way down in various bays. At the most northern anchorage called Anse Couleuvre ( in English) we spend 3 nights; wild and beautiful! Snorkelling, hikes, ruins, waterfalls, campfire, picknicks… Another stop we like is Saint Pierre, a small town with a tragic history and a couple of shipwrecks to snorkel. Staint Pierre in fact used to be the islands capital until the destructive eruption of 1902, which flattened the whole town, took tens of thousands of lives and sank numerous ships (hence the wrecks to snorkelled at). One of the very few survivors was a prisoner, protected by the walls of his cell. The whole story: eruption of Mont Pelée
In over 2 years of sailing and seeing harbours and marinas, we had never seen so many boats… hundreds and hundreds in the marina Le Marin in Martinique 
Several specific dinghy docks make it easy for the sailors to get to the shops, restaurants and shipchandlers they need to. 
And the bay of Le Marin provides space for several hundreds of boats. It’s a huge industry. 
We did have some days without rain, but during rainy season you can be pretty sure you’ll get rinced at least once a day (or night). 
Before arriving in Martinique, we had taken the decision, that we will stop our sailing adventure this summer. Maybe the boys do have a moment of thought about it… 
The little church in the anchorage of Sainte Anne. A month later, Beryl’s waves went over the pier and market place right up to the church, leaving a mess of sargassum. 
Our first two weeks in Martinique, the hills were still quite dry. Rainy season had just started. 
Expedition in our Kayak, in the bay of la Grande Anse d’Arlet 
Another nice anchorage, this time just to meet up with our friends from Touka 
… who came sailing in a few hours later, to have a nice evening together before sailing in opposite directions the next day. 
A few pictures of our snorkelling in Martinique. Here a cushion seastar, diam. 30-40 cm. 
Anemones, corals, lots of little pretty fish 
Trumpetfish come in different colours. 
This scorpionfish was visible. But sometimes you don’t see them, camouflaged between rocks. 
The common sea fan is very beautiful, as it moves with the waves. Behind it, a slit pore sea rod. 
When snorkelling up to this octopus, he still had the colour of the stone. It then changed colour and rushed over to a close rock where it changed colour again. Amazing! 
The north of Martinique is quite wild, hilly and full of vegetation 
Our favourite anchorage was Anse Couleuvre, where we stayed three nights. 
One can never get enough of sitting in the sand, looking out to sea. 
Ruins of a former sugar and cocoa estate just above the beach. After production closed down, nature has taken over. 
Coconut palmtrees belong to the picture you expect in the Caribbean. 
One evening we made a camp fire on the beach, but not without stress: the wind had picked up. So we made it rather short. 
A 45 minute walk brought us to the waterfall 
We all had a nice and cool shower! 
Alexander grilling chicken on our boat grill. 
This stunning rainbow over Anse Couleuvre. On Jodie’s wedding day 🥰 
The little town of Saint-Pierre at the foot of Mont Pelé, which erupted in 1902, distroying Martinique’s former main town. 
The anchorage of Saint-Pierre, a long dinghy ride to the pier.
Jean-Luc out, we’re about
During the time Jean-Luc is in Switzerland, we are moored in the marina of Le Marin. It becomes a habit to have music till late at night or early in the morning… a bit too much for our taste. We suffer from the heat in this extremely wind protected harbour. Fortunately, the frequent rain showers, and the access to the clean marina showers, bring some relief and as we rent a car for 2 weeks, we are not at the harbour on quite a few days.
Highlights of our Martinique exploring days:
1st day: the so-called “most beautiful beach of Martinique” Plage des Salines, which the boys find utterly boring except for the ribs we eat at the little beach restaurant, the adjoining mangroves and the wild beach on the east coast.
2nd day: Martinique’s colourful main town Fort-de-France with it’s cathedral, classy water front and it’s beautiful old library (dismantled in Paris and rebuilt here!), the disappointment that on exactly that day we can’t visit the fortress, a fruitful shopping tour at Decathlon (skimboard!) and the book shop on our way back to the harbour.
3rd day: the openair museum “Savanne des esclaves” about the Slave trade and the ethnic mix of the Martinique population, meeting up with Touka on the beach of the Anse d’Arlet (whereas they are at anchor and we come by car), snorkelling together and taking the scenic route home via the coastal road.
Note aside about our lunch that day: It’s Sunday, and we get the feeling all islanders have come to THIS beach to have lunch! After approaching several beach restaurants without getting anybody’s attention, we find a free table in the furthest restaurant, feet in the sand. We are a little surprised that the sweat-dripping waiter chucks a little paper block and pencil on our plastic table ordering us to write down what we want to have. But when the food comes, after endless waiting, and I have to organize the cutlery, get our ordered bottle of water as well as the plastic beakers at the bar myself, we find that the 3x 19 € dry chicken dish is a bit overpriced… A little compensation comes when I go to settle the bill: the smiley owner comes personally to the counter, completely high and/or drunk, and makes me a delicious virgin piña colada for free (because he has the feeling, I’m not the kind of person who drinks alcohol…🤣).
4th day: the popular “Route de la Trace” twisting through dense vegetation up north towards the highest mountain in Martinique, Mont Pelée (named after it’s naked peak due to eruptions), stopping at the Balata botanical garden, changing plans in order to enjoy the fresh water of the Alma river. The change of plan meaning not to climb Mont Pelée.
5th day: our long tour up the east coast to the peninsula of Caravelle, an over 2 hour hike, picknick and visiting the ruins of the Dubuc sugar-cocoa-coffee estate from the 17th century before enjoying the picturesque beach of Tartane and, after me tasting, buying a bottle of Rum.
The wild east coast of Martinique, very often with piles of sargassum and alot of waves. 
Manchineel trees are all over the island. They are marked with a red ring to make people aware of their presence, as they are one of the most toxic trees in the world: all parts of the tree can cause blistering and bad rashes. In spanish they are called “manzanilla de la muerte”. Their the apple-like fruit are toxic. 
On our south tour of the island we went through mangroves. 
Swam at the so-called “most beautiful beach” of Martinique: Les Salines. 
Waiting endlessly for our pork ribs, we decided on the itinerary for the rest of the day. 
The maps not being very clear about the importance of the road, we ended up on roads like that… 
The Cap 110 memorial, a tribute to the victims of slavery, was set above the shore where a ship sank with hundreds of slaves on board. 
La Savanne des Esclaves, a very interesting outdoor museum, showing where the today population of Martinique comes from, the slave trade and after the abolition of slave trade. 
Fort de France, lively and colourful main street. 
The covered market of Fort de France. 
The famous Schoelcher library. The building was originally in Paris, then moved by boat and rebuilt in Fort-de-France in the late 19th century. 
The peninsula of Caravelle is on the est coast of Martinique and declared as a nature reserve. Very popular for hiking. 
At the end of our hike we visited the Fort Dubuc on Caravelle, which used to be a sugar, coffee and cocoa estate. Most buildings are ruins but all explanations on the audio-guide were very interesting.
6th day, when Jean-Luc was back: hiking for 2 hours up along and in a riverbed to the exceptional waterfall of the Rivière Blanche in the rain and in the mud, picknicking, watching sweat water crabs and cooling off in the river, feeling like at the beginning of time.
To get more of the Caribbean vibes, we obviously also went to see a rhum distillery. After an interesting tour around the factory, we tasted a couple of exclusive rums and bought the less exclusive one for making Ti’punch or Daiquiries (which is basically a caipirinha made with rum instead of cachaça).
All together we spend 1 month on Martinique and were able to see the change before and during rainy season. A month ago, the island looked basically brown-grey, with some shy bushes and palm trees giving it a little colour. Now, 2nd half of June, this French island has taken on a lush green. It’s indeed, stunningly beautiful!
Before leaving
During our stay in Le Marin, our main sail gets repaired, another fridge specialist comes, and Jean-Luc brings back a new sealing system for the propeller shaft, which we will change when the boat is out of the water. So, after our last big shopping tour at LeClerc, we are ready to sail south! High time to leave the harbour and the hundreds of boats! But not without another evening in one of the restaurants in Le Marin. By chance it’s the evening of the jam session, where musicians come together and play. A bluesey evening to remember…
One of our 4 bikes we had left to someone in Mindelo. Rust is a pain and even if the bikes are greased and covered (and mainly in aluminium), rust gets its way. We haven’t managed to find any replacement wheels for those bikes… So, after checking the state of these two, we dumped another one close to the bins. 30 min. later it was gone. It’s surely useful to someone. 
It was nice to meet up with another family, from a boat called Plume. The children spent alot of time playing games. 
Cows in Martinique, quite different to the central European ones. 
The bay opposite Fort-de-France which is also considered as an anchorage. The water looks nice and blue from far, but close up it’s far from being transparent. 
On one of our last outings, the Sacré Coeur overlooking Fort-de-France 
Another hike in the rain forest. Old trees, lianes, humid soil and…. mosquitos! 
Amazing vegetation 
In the little stream we even found fresh water crabs, shrimps and fish. 
The beautiful waterfall and natural pond of la Rivière Blanche 
Martinique Rhum is supposed to be one of the best. The different distilleries have joined together though to optimize production. Trois rivière here on the picture is still there with a shop, but no prodution site anymore. 
La Mauny still produces and distillates the rhum for other brands. 
The sugar estates bring the sugar cane and get payed according to the sugar content and the weight. 
For distillating the rhum, each producer has a different distillation procedure. 
The “older” rhum is kept in barrils, which gives the old rhum it’s golden colour. 
They also make coffee in Martinique, but import the beans. 
Our last evening at the marina of Le Marin we, by luck, fell on the evening all kinds of musiciens got together to play. It was great!
Vielen Dank für diesen tollen und informativen Bericht! C&A
Vielen Dank ihr Lieben. Liebe Grüsse
Wonderful and as always, interesting.
All these shipwrecks somewhat worrying, until reading that some were caused by an eruption! These islands have had and still have (Beryl) a lot of stuff to deal with, poor people.
I’m going to miss your blog,, but hope there’ll be one last one!
Thank you Mum, yes and it will not get better with global warming…
Will try to write one more article, not sure though if I’ll manage to post it before coming home 😀