Circumnavigating the Island of Martinique
Have you ever wanted to sail around the island of Martinique? Art Hartinger had just that idea.
Last year we took a Moorings 46 cat from Guadeloupe to Martinique, visiting Dominica along the way. I realized I had not really explored Martinique, and our last anchorage there, Grand Anse d’Arlet, was superb, with great snorkeling, turtles and a beach lined with cafés. I vowed to return and explore a bit more.
We chartered a Lagoon 42 from Dream Yacht Charters (DYC) based in Le Marin in the south part of Martinique. I am pleased to report that we saw many turtles, hundreds of flying fish, dolphins and more. These are our trip notes.
We were a crew of six. My wife Yumi Wilson and I were joined by good friends Brian and Lis Walter from Los Angeles, and Tomek Stec and Paulina Karbownik from Warsaw, Poland. We met earlier and had a wonderful meal at a restaurant in Trois-Îslets called L’Antares — off-the-charts great food by a couple (he cooks; she works the front of the house).
There is a Carrefour market less than a mile away from the DYC base. We had rented a car from Europcar from the airport (Fort-de-France — FDF), and returned it to Le Marin. The marina at Le Marin is about a 45-minute drive from FDF. But having a car made provisioning easy. They simply asked that we deposit the keys in an envelope through a slot across the street from the marina at the Europcar office. We boarded the boat on May 2, 2026, at 5 p.m. Our boat was Violet, and it looked to be in great condition, very new with a generator, AC, inverter, watermaker, freshwater toilets, four cabins and everything working. The program called for an overnight; then we would receive a briefing the next morning and shove off approximately noonish. For the dinner before shoving off from Le Marin, I highly recommend Pizza Steff across the street from the marina. Very casual but excellent pizza.
On May 3, our tech Maurice showed us the boat. I must give him a shout-out. I have done many, many charters, and this was by far the most thorough and informative checkout. We shoved off about 11:30 a.m. for about a 10-mile easy sail up to Grande Anse d’Arlet.