St. Lucia (with a side trip to Ireland)

Tuesday 8^th March (International Women's Day), Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

Anchored in Rodney Bay at the northwest tip of St. Lucia, a lovely big shallow anchorage just perfect for storing a fleet of ships which is exactly what the British did in the late 18^th century. Then they climbed a hill on Pigeon Island and built a fort from where they could keep an eye on their French enemies just across the channel in Martinique. As Caribbean islands tended to, do this one got batted back and forth between the British and French before eventually ending up British. And now independent.

View of Rodney Bay from Fort Rodney

Spot Gráinne at anchor

Photographer Karl explores the fort

We're just coming to the end of our time in St. Lucia and plan to sail up to Martinique in the next couple of days to start a period of indulgence in French cheese and wine. We've had a pretty low key sort of time here, taking the opportunity to take a trip back to Ireland and to get some work done on the boat after the neglect of the Christmas season.

So back in late January we sailed from Bequia to Rodney Bay, a nasty little overnight sail. An argument that had been going for weeks along the lines of “the autopilot isn't working” (me) vs. “the autopilot is working fine” (Karl) was quickly resolved when it became apparent that I was right. My satisfaction in victory didn't really make up for the fact that we had to hand-steer all night. And the wind vanished so we had to motor up the lee of St. Lucia. But once the sun came up we actually had a really good sail for the last couple of hours into Rodney Bay and all was forgiven.

Checking in went smoothly. We arrived at the health office to see a big whiteboard entitled “Expected Arrivals” with just one name on the list – Gráinne Mhaol. After double checking with us that we were in fact Gráinne's crew we passed the health test and got slapped with a white, hospital patient-type wristband that we were instructed to wear for the duration of our stay, conveniently marking us out as tourists to any would be muggers. The immigration officer was so efficient she even decided to do the port officer's job when it looked like he wouldn't be turning up anytime soon (ditto when we were checking out).

The main point of coming to Rodney Bay was to pop Gráinne safely in a marina so we could have a little visit back to Ireland. Karl's first plane flight in two years! He was very excited. Just before we arrived in Ireland the parcel of my mother's Christmas cake that had failed to be delivered to us in Durban two years ago was returned to Tuam! So there you go. Post will reliably not arrive in South Africa but will reliably, eventually, make its way back to the sender. 

Oh the adventures it's had....if only cake could talk.

Ireland's covid restrictions had just lifted so we were able to complete the traditional pilgrimage to very empty McDonagh's (fish and chips), Neachtain's, Garavan's & Reapy's (Guinness, Tayto, bacon fries) and Charlie Byrne's bookshop. And some bracing walks with Karl thoroughly enjoying being cold for the first time in two years.

Grand day for a walk in Connemara

Occasionally there's even a view

Lovely creamy pints in Neachtain's

And then after a brief blast through London it's back to St. Lucia to thaw out. St. Lucia is a typically sized island, population around 180, 000. It's more developed than the islands further south and has definitely got a bigger tourist industry. We're not completely enamoured of the island to be honest. A lot of the sailors here are freshly arrived from Europe and bring with them a certain big city attitude of hustle and bustle and a lack of willingness to say hello when you pass them on the dock. The locals are very pleasant and friendly but there is more frequent hassling/begging than we've had anywhere else. Rodney Bay itself has been a good spot to get some overdue boat work done (I've been chained to the sewing machine), the anchorage is comfortable, the beach is perfect for morning swims/walks, there's a good supermarket across the road from a dinghy dock and there are a couple of decent bars and restaurants for treats (sushi!!!). And there's a bar that shows the Six Nations. And there's a good spot for Sunday Beach Day. And we've been able to catch up with old friends from St. Helena days on Starcharger which was lovely. Actually, I suppose all in all St. Lucia's not so bad.

Our favourite Sunday afternoon beach spot, Marie's. World's strongest rum punch - I don't know if the rum she uses is legal but it probably shouldn't be.

The hub for the local fishing boats and water taxis at the town of Gros Ilet on the north side of the bay.

Gregory, our fruit and veg man, in his distinctive delivery vessel.

Sunday Beach Day with a floating bar called Pink Panther.

The crew of Starcharger have taken on this lovely old boat. It's going to be beautiful in the end but oh my goodness it's quite the project in the meantime.

One day we took the bus into the capital Castries for a look around. Not the world's prettiest capital but there is still some nice old architecture left. We realised that St. Lucia's only microbrewery has its only bar in Castries so obviously we couldn't leave without checking that out. It's in the cruise ship terminal area so we had highly entertaining people watching as well as an insight into the life of a cruise ship passenger.

Some of the old buildings still left around Castries.

How cruise ship passengers spend their afternoons ashore.

We also spent a few days down at the town of Soufriere, a major St. Lucia tourist attraction. The sail down was fabulous, our first downwind sail since arriving in the Caribbean, ah the joy of downwind sailing, I was even able to make a proper lunch. But just as we were approaching Soufriere I noticed we were towing a crab pot line and float. Bugger. Chances were it was wrapped around the prop(ellor) so we couldn't risk starting the engine. But our skills aren't up to taking a mooring under sail so we were going to need the engine. So the only thing for it was for Karl to have a hero moment. He donned his snorkel, tied a rope from the boat to around his waist, warned me very sternly to keep the boat stationary (good test of a marriage that) and went over the side to investigate. The rope was indeed wrapped around the prop so Karl got to extend his hero moment by taking a knife down and cutting it free. And it was hard and took some time – a proper hero moment. Free of our entanglement we continued on to pick up a mooring in the bay. My last words to Karl before he went forward to take the mooring were “remember only to take the official moorings – white with a blue stripe”. We moored. I wandered forward to help secure a second line. Hmmm. White mooring ball, no blue stripe, in very dodgy condition. Instant loss of all hero points as we unmoored and remoored.

Gráinne bottom right, Piton top left.

Soufriere and the Pitons are very beautiful. It's a pretty stunning location and the town has some lovely old architecture. The air does have a certain hint of sulfur though from all the volcanic springs/mudbaths etc.. The classic greeting when you step ashore is “welcome to paradise!”, quickly followed by “what are your plans today?”. It seems tourists are expected to have firm plans. Then the offers of taxis, restaurants and tours. And when that fails offers of ganja/“Bob Marley” (in common with all the other islands St. Lucia firmly claims to have the best ganja in the Caribbean). [Karl adds - St Lucia also pushed coke less subtly than other islands; "Oh! you're sailors! Sailors love coke!" said one gentleman pulling out a bag in plain view on the beach.] We declined all offers and instead concentrated on tracking down the local Piton beer at a local's price (FYI EC$4 or 3 for EC$10 versus the tourist price of EC$8-10). 

Some pretty architecture around town.

We had pitons at the Pitons.

A metaphor for something or other.

So we just had a few very chilled days wandering around ashore and enjoying the views and the snorkelling. One day we buzzed over to the neighbouring bay where the big fancy hotel and the superyachts hang out (including MV Flying Fox which you can charter for a mere 300,000 euro a week) and what did we come across but a Waterford boat, Viente (not a superyacht). We stopped by to say hello and had a lovely afternoon aboard. Irish boats are few and far between around here.

And now we're back in Rodney Bay waiting for some suitable weather to hop across to Martinique. And amusing ourselves watching the filming of a new series of the (really quite terrible) reality TV show Below Deck - the crew are doing alot of flouncing around but there doesn't seem to be much actual charter work happening, the boat (St. David) barely leaves the marina.

Inspired by my cousin's fantastic Lego flora collection when we were back in Ireland I grabbed a little something when we were passing through London.

Ta-dah!

Yah mon.

Flickr Photo Album