Martinique & Guadeloupe
Two French départements, one Caribbean water: Le Marin's charter fleets and Fort-de-France's Creole quarter, a ghost town under an active volcano at St-Pierre, and — over the water past Dominica — Les Saintes, ranked among the world's finest bays.
Martinique and Guadeloupe run the same charter week two different ways. Martinique is the hub: Le Marin holds the largest concentration of charter yachts anywhere in the Caribbean, Fort-de-France carries the Creole-colonial architecture, and St-Pierre sits hushed under the volcano that erased it in under two minutes in 1902. Cross north past Dominica and the water turns quieter — Les Saintes' horseshoe bay ranks among the world's finest, Marie-Galante still turns its cane fields into rum at three working distilleries, and Deshaies, a fishing village long before it was a television detective's fictional patch, closes the week on Basse-Terre's calmer coast. All of it under one flag and one currency, and, since 2019, a charter VAT waiver found nowhere else in the French Caribbean.
“The bay at Terre-de-Haut is inducted into the Club des Plus Belles Baies du Monde, the world's most beautiful bays — some rank it third of all of them.”
Signature anchorages
South to north across two French islands, Dominica's peaks passed abeam somewhere in the middle.
- Le Marin & Fort-de-France BayLe Marin, deep in a sheltered cul-de-sac on the south coast, is the largest yacht-charter base in the Caribbean — some 800 berths and around 100 moorings, up to 60m LOA (length overall) and 4.8m draught, with 15 berths held for superyachts. Fort-de-France Bay, 30km north, anchors under the walls of Fort Saint-Louis in a bay ranked among the world's most beautiful since 2011; holding is sand and seaweed, and the only marina on the bay, at Pointe du Bout, takes nothing over 19m.
- Grande Anse d'ArletA church aligned dead-on with its pier and the horizon — one of Martinique's most photographed views — over a bay thick with seagrass where green turtles graze; holding can be patchy, so give the anchor time to set. Diamond Rock, the 175m islet the Royal Navy commissioned as a sloop-of-war in 1804 and held for a year against the French, stands offshore to the south.
- St-Pierre, under Mont PeléeAnchor over the wreck field itself — a dozen or more vessels sunk in the pyroclastic flow (a scorching avalanche of gas and ash) of 8 May 1902, which killed close to 30,000 people in under two minutes and left three survivors. The volcano still stands directly over the anchorage; the Frank A. Perret memorial museum tells the story ashore.
- Les SaintesA horseshoe bay off Terre-de-Haut inducted into the Club des Plus Belles Baies du Monde — some rank it third of all of them. Around eighty white mooring buoys fill the bay for a nominal nightly fee; anchoring is possible only beyond the marked field. Fort Napoléon, a 19th-century fort turned museum and cactus garden, watches over it from the ridge above, iguanas included.
- Marie-Galante“La grande galette” — the big pancake, for its flatness — anchor off Saint-Louis (4–8m, sand, good shelter) or Grand-Bourg (5–10m, sand, more exposed); there is no marina anywhere on the island. Three working distilleries — Bielle, Bellevue and Poisson — still turn the cane fields into rum among a hundred-odd surviving windmills.
- DeshaiesA working fishing anchorage on Basse-Terre's calmer north-west coast, sand and rock in 9–12m, sheltered from north through south-east but prone to hard gusts off the hills. Real life doubles as the fictional Honoré here for the BBC's Death in Paradise; the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies, used for several of its scenes, is worth the walk regardless.
Beyond the anchorage
Rum, volcanic history, a marine reserve and the two biggest fixtures of the French sailing calendar.
Habitation Clément
A 17th-century Creole plantation house on a working sugar estate near Le Marin, home to the Clément rum house since 1887. Sixteen hectares of garden — awarded France's Remarkable Garden label in 2015 — now share the grounds with a contemporary art foundation built for Caribbean artists in 2016.
The only AOC rum in the world
Martinique's rhum agricole (cane-juice rum, distilled straight from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses) has held a French AOC — Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, the country's protected-origin label — since 1996: the only rum, anywhere, to hold one. Marie-Galante's three distilleries work the same method without the same paperwork — for now.
Tour des Yoles Rondes
Martinique's own sailing tradition: round-bottomed, keel-less yoles (traditional wooden working boats) crewed by ten or eleven sailors balanced out on planks against the wind, a UNESCO-listed intangible heritage since 2020. The fortieth edition runs the island's coastal towns 26 July–2 August 2026.
Route du Rhum
A solo transatlantic race from Saint-Malo, founded in 1978 and finishing, every four years, at Pointe-à-Pitre. The thirteenth edition starts 1 November 2026 with a record fleet — the first boats due into Guadeloupe in mid-November.
The Réserve Cousteau
Jacques Cousteau surveyed the seabed off the Pigeon Islets in 1959 and asked that it be protected; the marine reserve he wanted became law only in 2009, now the core zone of Guadeloupe's national park. Anchoring is forbidden outright — moorings only, one boat per buoy.
The Memorial of 1902
Founded in 1933 by the volcanologist who helped rebuild the town, and renovated in 2018: the record of the morning Mont Pelée killed close to 30,000 people in under two minutes, and the three who survived it.
Table & stay ashore
No Michelin inspector has yet made the crossing, but the addresses hold their own regardless.
Le Zandoli
The gourmet table at La Suite Villa, overlooking Fort-de-France Bay — refined plates alongside the more relaxed O Ti Zandoli next door.
Le Petibonum
Chef Guy Ferdinand's Creole-French kitchen, built onto the black-sand beach at Le Carbet — the village where Columbus is said to have first set foot on Martinique in 1502 — a short run below St-Pierre.
La Suite Villa
A five-star boutique address across the bay from Fort-de-France — six suites and nine garden villas, each with its own plunge pool or jacuzzi terrace.
Cap Est Lagoon Resort & Spa
The only Relais & Châteaux resort in the French Caribbean — eighteen villas and fifty suites on a lagoon a short drive from Le Marin, open since 2002.
Hôtel Bois Joli
Twenty-nine rooms on the west shore of Les Saintes, run by the same family since 1969, with the horseshoe bay in view from the pool.
Langley Resort Fort Royal
Basse-Terre's only beachfront hotel of any size, just outside Deshaies — the fictional Honoré's real-world neighbour, and a regular stop for the detective show's admirers.
A week, sketched
Le Marin & Grande Anse d'Arlet
Embark at Le Marin, the largest yacht-charter base in the Caribbean, deep in its sheltered cul-de-sac on the south coast. A short first run round Cap Salomon — Diamond Rock, the 175m islet the Royal Navy once commissioned as a sloop-of-war, passed to starboard — to Grande Anse d'Arlet for the evening: an eighteenth-century church aligned dead-on with its pier, and green turtles over the seagrass beyond the reef.
Fort-de-France Bay
North into Baie des Flamands, anchored under the walls of Fort Saint-Louis in a bay ranked among the world's most beautiful since 2011. Ashore for the Bibliothèque Schoelcher and the old quarter around La Savane; the Pointe du Bout marina across the water takes small craft only, so anything larger stays on the hook.
St-Pierre, under Mont Pelée
On up the leeward coast to St-Pierre, anchored over the wreck field — a dozen or more vessels sunk in the pyroclastic flow that killed close to 30,000 people on 8 May 1902 in under two minutes. The Frank A. Perret memorial museum tells the story ashore; dinner at Le Petibonum, on the beach a little south at Le Carbet.
The crossing to Les Saintes
The week's one long passage — Dominica's green profile to starboard for most of the way north, the trade winds compressing hard through the channel — onto a mooring in the horseshoe bay off Terre-de-Haut by evening.
Les Saintes
A full day in one of the world's most celebrated bays — ranked third by some counts: Fort Napoléon's ramparts and cactus garden, iguanas included, then the beaches at Pain de Sucre and Anse Crawen.
Marie-Galante
South to “la grande galette” — anchor off Saint-Louis and tour Bielle, Bellevue and Poisson, the island's three working distilleries, among a hundred-odd surviving windmills.
Deshaies
Round Basse-Terre's southern end and up the leeward coast, pausing on a mooring at the Réserve Cousteau off the Pigeon Islets, to Deshaies — Death in Paradise's fictional Honoré in real life — for the Jardin Botanique and a last night at anchor before disembarking through Pointe-à-Pitre.
Ten days, unhurried
Le Marin & Sainte-Anne
Embark at Le Marin and go almost nowhere: the anchorage off Sainte-Anne, with the long white crescent of Grande Anse des Salines a short run south — the beach the week never has time for.
Grande Anse d'Arlet
West about with Diamond Rock abeam — the islet the Royal Navy commissioned as a sloop-of-war in 1804 — to the church aligned dead-on with its pier; green turtles over the seagrass, and an anchor that wants time to set.
Fort-de-France & Habitation Clément
Baie des Flamands under the walls of Fort Saint-Louis; the Bibliothèque Schoelcher and La Savane ashore, then Habitation Clément by road — rum house since 1887, sixteen hectares of garden, a Caribbean art foundation on the same estate.
St-Pierre
Anchor over the 1902 wreck field beneath Mont Pelée; the memorial museum ashore, the Depaz distillery working below the volcano, dinner on the black sand at Le Petibonum in Le Carbet.
The crossing
The one long day — Dominica's peaks abeam for most of it, the trades compressing hard in the channels — onto a white buoy in the horseshoe bay off Terre-de-Haut by evening.
Les Saintes
Fort Napoléon's ramparts, cactus garden and iguanas before the heat, Pain de Sucre and Anse Crawen after; across the anchorage, the ruins of Fort Joséphine on Îlet à Cabrit for the restless.
Marie-Galante
South to anchor off Saint-Louis: Bielle, Bellevue and Poisson, the big pancake's three working distilleries, among a hundred-odd surviving windmills.
Petite-Terre & Pointe-à-Pitre
East to the twin islets of the Petite-Terre reserve — day moorings only, no anchoring, Lesser Antillean iguanas under one of Guadeloupe's oldest lighthouses — then west into Marina Bas-du-Fort for the night.
Round Basse-Terre
The Mémorial ACTe on Pointe-à-Pitre's old sugar-works site in the morning, then round Basse-Terre's southern tip to a Réserve Cousteau buoy off the Pigeon Islets — anchoring is banned outright — and the last miles north to Deshaies.
Deshaies
The Jardin Botanique above the fishing anchorage, a last swim between the gusts off the hills, and disembark through Pointe-à-Pitre.
Three days, concentrated
Bas-du-Fort to Les Saintes
Board at Marina Bas-du-Fort, twenty minutes from the Pointe-à-Pitre runway, and run south to Terre-de-Haut; a buoy in the horseshoe bay, the evening in the bourg, a tourment d'amour from the quay stalls before dinner.
Les Saintes, whole
Fort Napoléon early for the iguanas and the view of the bay it guards, Pain de Sucre at midday, Anse Crawen late; dinner back in the bourg, the mooring field quiet by ten.
Marie-Galante & out
Across to Saint-Louis early for one distillery before the heat, then the run back to Bas-du-Fort to disembark. Martinique, from here, is a week of its own.
Pair with
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The gallery
The year, measured
Monthly means at the heart of this water — daily maxima averaged, wind as mean daily peak.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air, day °C | 27 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 27 |
| Sea °C | 27 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 28 |
| Wind, peak kt | 18 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 18 |
ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo · 2019–2023 means · sea temperature 2022–2023
The yachts that run these waters
Profiles from the record — introductions via the harbour desk.
Read on: WAKE — the magazine · the guides · the glossary