Le Ponton
30 June 2007 | Martinique
Randy
Happy to be back in France, we went ashore in the morning to get some pastries and coffee. We found a nice place right in the center of town with wonderful croissants and apple pastries. After a short but enjoyable breakfast, Fred, Cindy, Jill, Hideko and I headed back to the anchorage to hop south.
On the way to the pier you walk through the farmers market. The islands in the Windwards almost all have great local produce. Some export but most have fresh fruit and vegetables for local sale. Mangos, Bananas, Papaya, Pineapple, Star Fruit, Sour Oranges, Sour Sop, Limes, you name it and all fresh picked. We stocked up a bit on our way through.
It was a quick trip down the coast to the huge Fort de France bay. Some nasty rain was chasing us the whole way but we managed to stay ahead of it. The wind was shrieking through the harbor right in our face as we eked our way to shelter. We had decided to stay in Anse Mitan away from the industrial side of things. It is a lovely beach area with a nice little one dock marina called Le Ponton.
After looking around a bit we decided to stay in the marina. Our friends the Mac Kenzies were flying in to Barbados today and we wanted to stay in touch to coordinate our meet up. The cheapest round trip tickets they could find were to Barbados. We knew we weren't going to be in Barbados but we weren't sure exactly where we would be. As it turned out, Martinique. Once in the area it is easy to arrange hops.
After a failed attempt to fly our friends to Martinique, and then fly them to Saint Lucia and arrange a ferry for them to come to Martinique, we decided to just meet them in Saint Lucia. We had charged our Orange cell service back up in Saint Pierre which was very helpful during the process.
It was sad to leave our friend on Kelp Fiction. We were also jealous that they were going to have more time to enjoy Martinique and the Le Marin area. They were going to meet up with us again in Saint Lucia though.
Le Ponton is a great little marina. It is the perfect size. They have everything you need, fuel, a nice restaurant, and a slick dock with an extra low platform making it easy to step on and off. All stern to of course. The Anse Mitan area is pretty in general and highly recommended. They have a ferry across the harbor to Fort de France if you need to get some business done.
We ate at the little restaurant on the dock with Fred, Cindy and Jill. The food was good but a little pricey. It is a charming atmosphere though and we had a nice last meal in Martinique with our friends.