We arrived into Rodney Bay, (north St Lucia) from Martinique, in time to clear into customs and immigration, get our favourite chicken rotis in the Caribbean, and have a swim in the marina pool. We soon bumped into people we knew. By May, most boats have either headed north already, to USA/Europe, or like us, heading south to Trinidad or Grenada before the start of hurricane season 1st June. May is always a month for meeting up with a lot of cruisers again. Islands like Antigua are very quiet by this time of year.
Soon our social calendar was getting busy: Thursday sunset cocktails on Mick and Sue’s boat Breathless, Friday, all off to Happy Hour at the Landings Hotel, Saturday everyone over to us for lunch and Sunday lunch at the Yacht club! Although we had met Mick and Sue over the years, this trip to St Lucia we got to spend quite a bit of time with them which we enjoyed.
On Tuesday Hilary flew in from London for a week. We rented a car and did a tour of the island on the way to and from the airport, (in the south of the island). We stopped at Ladera, a beautiful spot between the Pitons. Along part of the west coast is one of the most mountainous roads you could imagine.
Jimmy flew up to NY for 3 days, so we took the boat into the marina to make things easier.
On Friday, Hilary, Charlotte and I did
a day trip on Endless Summer – the same boat that we had rented for Jimmy’s birthday week - a great trip sailing right down the coast and stopping for a 3 hour land trip –waterfalls, drive through sulphur volcano and the coco-plantation for lunch. On the way back a stop for swimming and snorkeling and also a walk through the picturesque Marigot. Hilary also got a chance to see Charlotte waterskiing behind the dingy – especially funny when she tried to show off to kids on another boat by going no handed (the skis are also attached to the rope) – she waved and then promptly fell flat on her face!
On Jimmy’s birthday, Mick and Sue kindly offered to have Charlotte over for a sleepover, so we had a nice, rare, dinner out for 2! Finding babysitters in the Caribbean is not easy.
We are usually in St Lucia when the Jazz festival is on. This year we made it to the Saturday and Sunday shows, that started at 2pm until about 10pm – a good day of entertainment in a lovely park type setting on Pigeon Island. Artists that we saw included James Ingram, Michael McDonald, Jeffrey Osbourne, Shaka Khan, Patty La Belle, (many I knew their songs rather than names ……..) and for us the highlight was Chicago – it was great seeing a group of aging men having a good time and exhibiting a lot of talent with their versatility in all the different instruments each could play, and switching who sung lead. I would not have thought of Chicago as “jazz” but with their 6 piece brass band, I changed my views. They surpassed our expectations and put on a great show. Even Charlotte enjoyed it!! The only shame was that they did not play my favourite hit “If you leave me now”.
We missed Friday night’s performance, where Amy Winehouse lived up to her reputation by falling over on stage, forgetting lines, appearing stoned, told the audience she was so bored, then to F*** off and finally left the stage before her act had finished! She later blamed it onto the rain but that hadn’t stopped all the other performers. She had been hanging out in St Lucia for a couple of months and gained the nickname “Amy Wino” with plenty of stories of all her antics flying around in the almost daily “Wino Report” – how she exposed herself in front of tourists, puked in the breakfast buffet, at least 2 trips to the hospital, including burning all her leg with pasta, walked around in the same dirty shorts for days on end etc etc… Such a shame to see so much talent wasted.
It’s also entertaining watching all the Martinique’s sailing down to the Jazz Festival on rental boats - the norm is for about 20 of them to rent a catamaran similar size to ours and then party all weekend – usually one person on the boat might knows a little about sailing…. Whilst entertaining to watch, it’s a nightmare for someone with their boat in bareboat charter to watch! This year Jimmy saw them tie a catamaran up to the small dingy dock!
Hilary commented on how a lot of people seemed to know us – I guess that’s one of the advantages of spending some time in the same place. The marina staff haven’t changed in years, so the dock guys always welcome us back. Even Shane at the fuel dock asked after my niece Claire (the long legged “blond”) from 4 years ago! I guess we tend to stand out a bit more than the regular cruising couples – not many 60 year olds with a 5 year old child!! Tom the fisherman, who we swopped a bottle of Bermuda rum for a tuna a few years ago, caught a massive marlin the day we arrived, hanging over both sides of his boat – we weren’t planning on swopping anything for that! Maggie, who worked at the marina, came over again and helped us give the boat a good clean and also braided our hair. The guy that owns/works at the roti restaurant welcomes us back, the Endless Summer crew remember us…..
After 3 weeks in Rodney Bay, we finally pulled up the anchor and headed down the coast where there are some lovely snorkeling bays. Charlotte and I saw lots including some sea snakes. We spent our last 2 nights on a mooring between the Pitons – one of our favourite anchorages and probably one of the top 10 most beautiful anchorages in the world.Sunday 17th May, at 6am, we left St Lucia to do the 50 miles sail to Bequia. We had a good sail across the 30 mile passage between St Lucia and St Vincent – winds 15 knots on the beam.
Only one squall, when we are reminded how quickly conditions can change – I was on watch, relaxing listening to my ipod, perfect sail – saw some darker skies off to the side and within about 5 minutes it looked more like a scene from The Perfect Storm, as the winds shot up to 35 knots, and we were soaked. Once we got to the lea side of St Vincent, as expected the winds dropped to almost nothing, due to the influence of the mountains. Sails down, motor on, down the coast. The last 8 mile stretch across the Bequia Channel, the wind was on the nose so we just continued to motor, no sailing.St Vincent is not a good or popular stop due to crime – we read of many incidences of boats being boarded at gun point there. We arrived Bequia at 1.30pm. Mick and Sue had left the day before and they were there to welcome us onto the anchorage (a popular stop with over 50 boats).
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