CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia CommonsAnchorage· Martinique· Windward Islands
Le Carbet Anchorage
14° 42.5′ N · 61° 11.3′ W
An open roadstead off the long grey-sand beach of Le Carbet, where Columbus landed in 1502 and Gauguin painted in 1887, with Mont Pelée filling the view to the north. It is a fair-weather lunch or overnight stop between Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre.
Practical
Position is the Doyle Guides waypoint (corrected to 14°42.5'N, 61°11.3'W). US sailing directions (via ActiveCaptain) call it a mostly unprotected anchorage for small craft. They list a conspicuous church in the village, an L-shaped jetty about 0.3 mile south of the village reaching the 10 m contour, and a 100 m mast with red obstruction lights about 3 miles SSE. Martinique tourism: the water is usually calm, but the beach can be violently battered in the infrequent N or NW gales. Fishermen haul beach seines in the early morning (Martinique tourism), and an Anse Turin reviewer was moved on at 5 am because his chain was in the way of a net, so keep well clear of seine areas and gommier moorings. Turtles are often seen (Martinique tourism). Ashore: beach restaurants, a U Express, a CAP fuel station (by road, jerry cans), the Galerie d'Histoire de la Mer and the tourist office (OSM).
Best for
A calm-weather stop under Pelée with beach restaurants and the Neisson distillery
Season
Settled trades only; untenable in N–NW swell