It didn't take 24 hours to get to St Lucia. We left Barbados at 5pm, not long before dark and had to keep slowing down to avoid arriving in the morning dark at Rodney Bay, St Lucia. This downwind sailing is a lot of fun. The wind has rarely dropped below 15 knots since we arrived in Barbados. Great for sailing, but a bit of a fight hanging out laundry.
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| Pitons, Soufriere |
While Barbados looked like Surrey from the sea, St Lucia is much more exotic and green with towering volcanic peaks. Much of the island is still undeveloped, but Rodney Bay in the north is a very rich area, full of bars and restaurants to cater for the many Americans who spend the northern winter here.
It still has it's raw side and we were to see it at the Friday night Jump-up at Gros Islet, where you can get street food, rum with anything, and watch the locals dance. It was not the sedate dancing that we saw in Barbados, more like sex with clothes on!
Gros Islet is the local village to Rodney Bay, and the houses are glorified shacks, but again, everyone was friendly and we didn't have any problems – well Stu did remove a prostitute's hand from his wallet in his jeans pocket – so you do have to be alert!
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| Becca, Dibben, Malista |
Becca duly delivered to St Lucia, she went off to 'couch surf' in a local house. If you haven't heard of it, look it up on google. It is a really cool concept for independent travellers. Becca's couch surf host was a interesting local lady, and we took Becca and Malista on a short day hop to Soufriere 15 miles down the coast. This is a really special area, that St Lucia is best known for – the volcanic Piton peaks give the island's beer its name.
It was fascinating to hear all about the local culture from a well-educated, independent and sassy lady, who runs her own wooden furniture workshop. She was educated in the US, so she has a lot to say about the good and bad of her native country, St Lucia. She had never seen her country from the sea before, so it was really great that we gave her a ride. It was very interesting to see her reaction to the boat boys that charge to 'help' tie you to a mooring buoy, even when we need no help, and to 'mind' your dinghy while you are ashore (read that your dinghy might not be in good shape if you don't pay) and the ozone-layer high taxi charges for foreigners. It was also interesting that we attracted the police boat, for a 'safety search' The boat boy said it was only because we had a local person on board.
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| Friendlier boat boys selling fruit, Rodney bay |
Sport was on the agenda with 6 nations live rugby and then the experience of our very first Superbowl. In the words of a good friend. “It can have it's exciting moments but first you must lower your intellectual expectations of sport”. We were thus enthralled for all 3 hours it took to play the 60 minute series of throw and catch routines, surrounded by armoured supermen intent on cuddling the nearest opponent and the latter trying to retain their dignity by running away. Some adorned with a tea towel tucked into their waist band, presumably to wipe their hands after touching the ball which could not be guaranteed free of contagious disease. After which excitement, an advertisement or 5, were required to calm the hysteria. Still the biggest excitement came near the end when, I guess, a highly paid professional, caught the ball and fell flat on his ass over the score line, disaster, You see its all about tactics and sitting down on your ass on the try line apparently wasn't the tactic required at this precise time. We know this because just before that play (that's the speak) the guy throwing the ball, opened a plastic case strapped to his arm and consulted the instruction page written for that round. Maybe I missed the point but surely If the opposition need to know the tactics of the opponent, they should target that little grey plastic flip card holder!! More study may be required but I will need a mild sedative first.
Well it was a little taste of American 'culture' to help us understand them!
The most amazing aspect of St Lucia is the snorkelling opportunities, both on the reef at Pidgeon Island and at Soufriere. I didn't know the names of anything we saw, but a few hours of education on the internet helped with identification. I was very excited to be pottering about, head in the rocks, and find my first real live sea-horse. Having worked in epilepsy research, we had a bit of a thing about hippocampus- the bit of the brain often affected. Our work unit was adorned with all things sea-horsey, and now I got to see real one close up – about 6inches long and working his way along the weeds with his tail.
I also found a large ray sleeping/hiding in the sand just behind our boat, 2 flying gurnards checking out our anchor chain, a sea snake checking out our anchor. Also, sanddivers lurking menacingly in the sand, and large squid doing the the swimming forward/backward thing. Bigger fish lurked at the end of the reef. I always find it a bit freaky to find something fishy as long as a metre in the water with me, but I'm learning to desensitise to the 'aaah, run away' temptation.
I have to keep pinching myself, to assure myself that we are really here, and we don't have to go home after a week, like the cruise-ship passengers and Sandals' resort sun-worshippers. There was a wedding every day on the beach in front of us at Sandals. Why would you choose a ground-length white frock for that? It must be caked with yellow sand by the end of the photo shoot. And sand in the wedding bed can't be all that comfortable.
Rodney Bay has excellent stocking up options, some of it very expensive. Luckily we are still working our way though the boat supplies, including veg and cured meat from Spain. So far we have found prices for staple foods to be about the same as Uk. Some veg is very expensive, especially tomatoes and peppers, £3-5 per kilo. £2 for a small lettuce. The smaller the island the more expensive it gets, but then that's not so surprising. Some things you just have to learn to live without or eat less, or convert an area of the cockpit to a vegetable patch and grow our own. They seem to have rain, sun and volcanic soil in ample amounts here, so not sure why it should be difficult to grow good local food,Rodney Bay has excellent stocking up options, some of it very expensive. Luckily we are still working our way though the boat supplies, including veg and cured meat from Spain. So far we have found prices for staple foods to be about the same as UK. Some veg is very expensive, especially tomatoes and peppers, £3-5 per kilo. £2 for a small lettuce. The smaller the island the more expensive it gets, but then that's not so surprising. Some things you just have to learn to live without or eat less, or convert an area of the cockpit to a vegetable patch and grow our own. They seem to have rain, sun and volcanic soil in ample amounts here, so not sure why it should be difficult to grow good cheap local food, and certainly no reason to import it from California.
Cruisers see below for information about mooring etc. We anchored by Pidgeon Island, Rodney Bay, hard sand, good holding once in. Better shelter than the main anchorage but a long dink ride to the marina in town. Fab snorkelling on the reef just off the boat - saw seahorse, flying gurnard, sea snakes, big wrasses (1m), sanddivers, pipefish as long as my forearm. Excellent bar/restaurant ashore with wifi, Jambe de Bois - Saturday night guitar and fiddle, 7-9pm, all the tunes you would know. Sunday night Jazz.
You can also anchor off the marina entrance, but we took several attempts to get a good hold, and the wind does blow.
Inside the marina charge 0.70c US per foot for a berth plus water and electric, or 0.35c US/ft for a mooring in the inner lagoon. Through the inner lagoon is a dinghy dock, go through the alley and there are 2 supermarkets in a modern mall. Foodmarket has christmas pud, sugar free juice, Fray Bentos pies and much more at a price. For better value run of the mill stuff, SuperJ on the main road has an excellent selection, and some local fresh veg at good prices.
Bus 1A to Castries, 2.50EC, from the main road. Interesting markets with local food stalls in the veg market.
We went to Soufriere on a Sunday - avoid the weekend, weekdays are quieter. We took a mooring buoy on the left as you approach Hummingbird anchorage (it was blowing). A boat buoy assisted and we paid 15EC(should have haggled to 10EC). Amazing snorkelling under the boat - huge fish. It is too deep and shelving to anchor here.
We went ashore and boys on the dock wanted 10EC per hour! to mind the dink. They were a OK but a bit intimidating.
The town is a bit raw, everything directed towards extracting your cash. The SMMA marine park wardens should come around at dusk to collect 40EC for the mooring (even if anchored), but they never visited us.
In Castries we bought a Digicel SIM for the smartphone (EC$15 inc $5 credit) and then they enable a data bundle $12.50/week. It is slow and often not up to 3G speed, but OK for basic internet. The Digicel shops in Rodney could not help with this, but the shop in Castries knew their stuff. Since then it has worked in St Vincent & Grenadines, but not at all in Martinique(goes onto roaming and data will not work).
Cruisers see below for information about mooring etc. We anchored by Pidgeon Island, Rodney Bay, hard sand, good holding once in. Better shelter than the main anchorage but a long dink ride to the marina in town. Fab snorkelling on the reef just off the boat - saw seahorse, flying gurnard, sea snakes, big wrasses (1m), sanddivers, pipefish as long as my forearm. Excellent bar/restaurant ashore with wifi, Jambe de Bois - Saturday night guitar and fiddle, 7-9pm, all the tunes you would know. Sunday night Jazz.
You can also anchor off the marina entrance, but we took several attempts to get a good hold, and the wind does blow.
Inside the marina charge 0.70c US per foot for a berth plus water and electric, or 0.35c US/ft for a mooring in the inner lagoon. Through the inner lagoon is a dinghy dock, go through the alley and there are 2 supermarkets in a modern mall. Foodmarket has christmas pud, sugar free juice, Fray Bentos pies and much more at a price. For better value run of the mill stuff, SuperJ on the main road has an excellent selection, and some local fresh veg at good prices.
Bus 1A to Castries, 2.50EC, from the main road. Interesting markets with local food stalls in the veg market.
We went to Soufriere on a Sunday - avoid the weekend, weekdays are quieter. We took a mooring buoy on the left as you approach Hummingbird anchorage (it was blowing). A boat buoy assisted and we paid 15EC(should have haggled to 10EC). Amazing snorkelling under the boat - huge fish. It is too deep and shelving to anchor here.
We went ashore and boys on the dock wanted 10EC per hour! to mind the dink. They were a OK but a bit intimidating.
The town is a bit raw, everything directed towards extracting your cash. The SMMA marine park wardens should come around at dusk to collect 40EC for the mooring (even if anchored), but they never visited us.
In Castries we bought a Digicel SIM for the smartphone (EC$15 inc $5 credit) and then they enable a data bundle $12.50/week. It is slow and often not up to 3G speed, but OK for basic internet. The Digicel shops in Rodney could not help with this, but the shop in Castries knew their stuff. Since then it has worked in St Vincent & Grenadines, but not at all in Martinique(goes onto roaming and data will not work).
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