We leave our mooring at Le Marin Marina and make our way carefully to the mouth of the bay, taking care to avoid the shoals that are peppered throughout the way. We are on our way to participate in the 2024 edition of the Echappée Belle (meaning Beautiful Escape), an event where some Nautitech Catamaran owners gather in Martinique for an annual Regatta organized by Nautitech and Neo Marine, a boat dealer and service provider. This year is the fourth annual gathering and includes several of the newer Nautitech 44 Open catamarans like Jajabor. Some of the boats are based in the Caribbean, and some like us have recently arrived after a transatlantic crossing. For Jajabor, this is our first Regatta, and we look forward to connecting with other owners and sharing stories and experiences.
This year the event is based out of St. Pierre. This small colorful town has a tragic history. Situated at the base of an active volcano-Mount Pelée, St Pierre was the main hub in Martinique and known as “the Paris of the Caribbean”. All that changed on May 9, 1902 when it erupted and its pyroclastic blast wiped out the entire town and all its estimated 28,000 inhabitants. All the ships in the harbor exploded and sank as a result of the heat blast. Today, you can see the ruins of the once grand town that existed, now intermixed with newer structures.
St Pierre beach
We travel north along the coast to St. Pierre where the boats are gathering for the first day of the meet up. Disappointingly, the day is still, with not a whisper of wind which means having to motor the whole way up the coast. Martinique has a breathtaking coastline, with steeps cliffs diving into the ocean punctuated by quiet coves and bays. The coast is also rich fishing grounds and we keep a vigilant eye for the many fishing buoys that are little more than clear plastic bottles, tied to the lines, and glitter in the sun. We pass Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, also a large harbor, and soon arrive at our mooring in St. Pierre.
St Pierre Anchorage with Mount Pelée in the background
St Pierre dock
One by one, the participating Catamarans arrive in the harbor and are shown to their moorings by the harbor master. There is Nam Phong and Roccatea- both boats we have met in Cape Verde before our crossing. Next to us is Chico Blue, a Nautitech 40 Open with a lovely Beagle on board. We will meet them all at the beach later that evening at our first Meet and Greet event.
Jajabor is the closest boat to the beach
Most, if not all of the sailors gathered, are French or French speaking, but several speak English as well and the evening passes with rich conversation about sailing and boat repairs.
The organizers have arranged a tour of the area for the following day, and we gather at St. Pierre dock to meet Nico who will be our guide for the day. We set out at a brisk pace through the center of town and Nico alternates between French and English as he points out various monuments and landmarks along the way.
Striking murals in town
The Memorial de la Catastrophe is a very well curated museum dedicated to the 1902 volcano eruption and the ensuing disaster
Ruins of Maison Coloniale de Sante
Our primary destination that morning is a visit to the Depaz rum distillery. The route to the distillery is a meandering hike through a sugarcane field with broad vistas of row upon row of sugarcane as far as the eye can see. The day is hot, and Chico the beagle pants heavily alongside me as we climb one more steep rise on what seems an unending trail to a mysterious destination.
Depaz is one of at least a dozen rum distilleries on the island. The grounds are beautifully tended around a stately Chateau. After multiple tastings of rum we are happy and leave with a couple bottles of rum punch and a bottle of premium rum.
The grounds of the Depaz distillery
Botanical Gardens
Martinique boasts many “botanical” gardens that are stunningly beautiful. We visit one such garden.
The northern part of Martinique gets a lot of rain due to Mt Pelée and is very lush with densely layered vegetation. This is unlike most other Caribbean islands that lack rainfall and have arid landscapes.
Back in St. Pierre, we gather at a beach bar. We share a table with Nam Phong and Chico Blue. Conversation flows freely as Laurent, Kieu Hanh and their friend Farid speak clear English having lived and traveled outside their native France for many years. Similarly Chico Blue crew until recently, have lived in Hong Kong.
While the event includes a Regatta, it is more of a social event than a race. It’s about meeting people, sharing drinks and having a good time. Racing one’s boat is much lower down on the totem pole or so we think. There is a saying that one boat sails but two is a race! In fact we find out later that some had emptied their water tanks and managed their fuel so as to lighten their boat in order to race. Jajabor on the other hand, has full water and fuel tanks plus an extra 80 liters of emergency water and fuel in jerry cans. Rather than a regatta – we are ready for an expedition!
After dinner, the organizers brief us on the next day’s sail. Accompanying each vessel will be crew from Neo Marine/Nautitech. The course will take us from Fort-de-France and finish at Grand Anse d’Arlets. Our wind map App, Predict Wind, predicts no wind for the next day, and this is foremost on my mind as we do not have a light wind sail like the other boats. Will we be dead in the water while everyone sails past us – since starting your engines is not allowed. We do some trash talking with our fellow sailors- “Will wait for you at the finish line- don’t be too long” while Laurent threatens to shoot down our Parasailor if we raise it. There is little chance of that happening since we will be going upwind, and a Parasailor is a downwind sail.
We wake up the next morning to the predicted quiet wind day. Joining us on our boat will be Hoelenn and Jonathan from Neo Marine. We meet them at the town dock and dinghy back to Jajabor. Within a few minutes, lines are thrown and the boats leave the harbor in procession. Our destination is the official start line at Fort-de-France.
Course for the regatta
While the winds are still very light, the boats raise their sails and do a few practice loops waiting for the official start. There is a five minute warning blast and our excitement mounts with the count down. And then we are off. One loop around two buoys in the bay and then straight to the finishing line at Grande Anse d’Arlets. We start strong but I watch with envy as the boats raise their gennakers, and their colorful Code 0’s and Code D’s that give them a huge advantage in the light 10 knots of breeze.
Even though our standard solent is not suited for light winds, we use our combined expertise to trim it as best we can. Seems like the race is progressing in slow motion. There is plenty of time to dig into lunch, take a break and just hang out. In the meantime, Chico Blue starts catching up on us using their bright orange and blue striped sail. With virtually no wind, the last 100 yards are excruciating as Chico Blue and Jajabor drift slowly towards the finishing line neck to neck – and in the last 2 yards Chico Blue overtakes us for a photo finish.
With Jonathan and Hoelenn
We meet at a local beach bar for the finish ceremony. The first three finishers are each awarded a bottle of some fine spirits. While we did not win a bottle we are happy to report that we have finished in the top 10! In some small measure it might have helped that there are only 8 boats in the regatta 🙂
MultiHulls magazine covered the event. You can view their video and read the full article here.
Sailing Jajabor 
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