Rodney Bay Marina, famous in the yachting press as the arrival point of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), is now a quite a large, 600ish berth, marina. It is our first port of call in St Lucia, having gotten here in early May. We only stayed in the marina for a few nights, marinas are the exception rather than the rule. They are handy because you can just step ashore, unlimited supplies of water and shower power (like normal 220V electricity rather than the 12V we normally have which we can run through an inverter and get maybe half a kilowatt – but drains the batteries, and wouldn’t boil an egg!), however we still prefer to anchor, because it’s cheaper (like free) and you’re not squeezed together with other boats like sardines, it’s cheaper, more private, and cooler cause you’re that little bit further away from land, oh yeah, and did I mention it’s cheaper!
Anyway Rodney Bay is more like a lake, you enter it through a narrow channel, so it’s very protected. Around the shoreline there are houses, boatyards and various other marine related businesses, and bars and restaurants. There’s a supermarket which has its own dinghy dock, so you can wheel your trolly right up to your dinghy when you do the shopping (we had one of those in Martinique too). The houses vary from the affluent looking (if twee) terraced town houses with parking in the front garden for the car(s) and private dock in the back for the boat(s), to the ostentatious (and very twee) detached 6+ bed roomed yolks with a mini marina at the water’s edge for a private fleet of shiny fifty foot sailing boat, fifty foot stinky (stinky = motor boat, stand downwind of one when engines are running & you’ll know why), and the inevitable speedboat. I didn’t see anyone actually using these particular houses or boats, but presumably they are owned for trophy purposes.
I was initially impressed on our arrival at the marina, two well dressed polite young men addressed me as “Sir” and helped with our lines. However once I'd handed over the money in the marina office the young lady behind the counter quickly became bored with my tedious questions about the location of showers, shops, laundry, etc. The kind of thing that we'd gotten used to being given in a data sheet on arrival. No such thing here, more like “we've got your money, go fend for yourself. It didn't get any better in the chandlers, when I bought a few items. Prices advertised in US dollars, so it wasn't immediately obvious on my receipt in local currency that I had been overcharged (by up to 50% on some items), when I went back to see what the error was I met with shrugged shoulders from the younger shop assistants, who eventually directed me to a sign that wasn't completely hidden behind the cash register, to the effect that the price is what we charge you, not what we advertise!!! All this was explained to me while an older gentleman stood behind the counter chuckling quietly to himself.
OK, so I'll stop there before I descend into a rant about all the negative things we've encountered, because there's lots of good stuff too, and let's face it, I'd rather talk about that.
Like when we took a stroll outside the marina compound, and there was a few young guys with a truck full of young coconuts. These are coconuts cut from the trees before their shells have hardened and the “meat” has formed, and they are full of juice. One of the guys has a machete and with three strikes he has chopped off one end of the coconut and then nicks a hole with the pointy end, sticks in a straw, and there you have it, nature-fresh. Add rum, ice, or anything else you want. In our case we drank it neat there and then, through the straw.
Outside of Rodney Bay is Admiral Bay, which is open to the west, but sheltered by Pigeon Island to the north, and the curve of the bay to the east and south where it is punctuated by (I kid you not) by Barrel of Beef rock. While there we shared the anchorage with none other than the "Pearl" of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame. We were planning on staying there for a couple of nights after leaving the marina. The first night was a bit of a trial, during daylight you are irritated by the wallies whizzing around on their jetskies and speedboats knocking you about with their wake, and when the sun goes down the various holiday hotels around the bay who equate sound volume with music quality. We wanted to visit Pigeon Island, which is a park, but when we went there yesterday morning we were told that the park was closed for the Jazz, although apparently if you bought tickets to the jazz you were allowed look over the fence into the park!
So we left Admiral bay and went to the more sedate (am I getting old?) Marigot bay. This is a tiny place by comparison, and the marina village and small peninsula beach is equally twee. There are steep cliffs on either side as you come in, with a dozen or so very affluent looking houses perched on the top. The occasional tourist boats are not much of a nuisance, one of them came through earlier today & I heard the guide tell his passengers that George Foreman owned one of them. Well George, you might own the fancy pad, but I’m the guy on the yacht!
An interesting thing about Marigot Bay is that it's a kind of a double bay, in that you come in to the first bay and then, right at the end, it narrows, and then opens out again into another bay. This is supposed to be good in a hurricane, because the shelter is doubled. However the best place to be in a hurricane is somewhere else, make that anywhere else.
From there we continued on South to Soufriere and the Pitons. While we were checking in at Rodney Bay, one of the officials (Customs, Immigration, Port Authority, I can't remember which), told me that there was a tax we'd have to pay to visit this area, and offered to take it from me there and then, telling me that our boat would be confiscated if we breached regulations. However, at the time I wasn't able to predict the date that we'd be there I was unable to pay the tax. Later we checked the guide book, but that just confused me, so we eventually decided that, since Soufriere is a port of entry we should be able to pay whatever tax there. But when we got there the local officials had never heard of the tax! Maybe I mis-understood what I was being told in Rodney Bay!
The “Pitons” are two volcanic steep cone shaped mountains, covered in greenery, and quite spectacular. They are across the bay from the town of Soufriere. The entire area is a national park and anchoring in the park is not permitted to protect the delicate coral. Instead they provide moorings, for which Park rangers collect a modest fee ($40 EC for us, or about 12 Euros), and for this we could stay up to two nights. The snorkeling in among the coral made it well worth it. We took the dinghy along the coast to a recommended dive spot, where we were able to snorkel along the remote and totally isolated coast. Between the fish and the coral it was like swimming in our own giant aquarium, and was really quite spectacular. Before we left Ireland we bought a cheap waterproof camera (in LIDL) and we gave it its first outing here. Regrettably it's not digital, so it'll be a while before we have the film developed, and before we'll be able to see if the pics are any good.
This was to be our last stop in St Lucia, but we had a decision to make. By now it was the middle of May, the hurricane season begins officially on 1st June, although in reality, the chances of any tropical storm before July this far south are pretty slim. Nevertheless, if you want to sail the return trip to the east side of the Atlantic, the best route to Europe is via the Azores, and the time to do it is Mid May.
It really only occurred to us while we were in Soufriere, but it would only take us a day to sail back to Martinique, where we could prepare and provision for an Atlantic crossing in a few days and be on our way by the 20th.
This idea had quite a bit going for it. First of all, it gets us out of the hurricane zone. Another thing is we are having difficulty getting our insurance sorted out, then there is the culture shock, things like the aforementioned consumer rights focus (or lack of), and the fact that in most of the harbours we come into we are “greeted” by an army of “Boat boys” in small boats offering “goods” and “services”. The goods are excessively overpriced, e.g., a “baguette” for $12EC (4 Euros) – the baguette more resembling the roll that you'd get with your soup at lunch time than the Cuisine de France thing we're used to. The “services” like “protecting” your boat or dinghy, or maybe just going away and leaving you anchor in peace without being harassed onto the rocks. Then there's the heat, the humidity, and the mosquitoes.
However, we had seen very little of the Caribbean to date, and all those negatives only add up to a minor hassle, the boat boys back off when you talk firmly to them, we are well stocked with essentials, Catherine recently learned to bake bread in the pressure cooker, and we have no need to buy at their excessive prices. The heat and humidity are tolerable when you can jump over the side and swim with the fishes through the coral to cool off, and well, having come this far, we're not going to be stopped by some insects!
So after two nights in Soufriere we dropped the mooring and continued south. Next stop St Vincent and the Grenadines, and then on to Grenada. If truth be told, at time of posting we've already reached Grenada, so I've a bit of catching up to do on the blog writing. I'll try to get it done over the next few days. We weren't that long in St V & the Gs, but theres plenty to tell.
Until then, fair winds and safe harbours to you all.
Margot Bay
The view back to Admiralty bay
Twee houses in Rodney Bay
The Pearl
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