Blogs from Castries, Saint Lucia, Central America Caribbean - page 5

We sailed to St. Lucia, picked up Donna's sister Debbie at the airport, and visited Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. Pigeon Island is conserved by the St. Lucia National Trust. We walked to the top of both peaks on Pigeon Island. We went to Rainforest Sky rides and rode their gondola up to their zip lines. We went to the fish fest in Anse La Raye. On Friday nights they set up tables and stalls in this picturesque fishing village and serve fish, lambi, lobster, and plantains. There's an atmosphere of peace, goodwill and good seafood that is enjoyed by the locals and tourists. We're in Bequia now. We plan to spend June in the Grenadines. Our boat insurance carrier requires us to be south of 12 degrees, 40 minutes latitude before hurricane season starts on ... read more

And so, to St Lucia, a sovereign island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. The island was previously called Lyonola, the name given to the island by the native Amerindians and later, Hewanorra, the name given by the native Caribs. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 square kilometres and reported a population of 165,595 in the 2010 census. It's capital is Castries. We last visited here five years ago when we did the standard touristy things of the Pitons, Soufriere, the volcano and sulphur pools, botanic gardens and waterfalls. We felt neither the need nor the requirement to do this again and ... read more

Rodney Bay was very interesting. When Pete checked the transmission fluid, he found it was milky. Ouchy...I am thinking, tranny is gone. Miles from anywhere. We were fortunate that a cruiser we knew, Second Millennium, was anchored behind us. Melody new a mechanic in this island. Pete called him right away, he was able to look at the tranny next morning. So Pete took dinghy into marina, brought him back. Turned out to be the oil cooler. Went looking for one, Temptress, had 2 on board. We bought one from him. But want to tell this experience for posterity. While at anchored, not having found the part for a few days. We could not move. Here comes a tropical wave, we prayed the anchor would hold. We tossed, turned, heeled and what not. Fortunately the anchor ... read more

It is almost time to change our cruise run to the new ports and this week are our final stops in St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Maarten. Yesterday we were in St. Kitts. I spent another day on the beach at the Marriott Hotel. Though this time, they wanted us to pay $125 US to go on the beach. The beaches are all public, so we’re allowed on the beach, but they wouldn’t let us walk through the hotel to get there. So we walked around the entire resort, then down along the beach. An hour or so later, we were told we couldn’t lie on the beach chairs either without paying the $125 day pass, so on the sand we moved. All this even though we were spending money on food and drinks! That ... read more

I decided to make St. Lucia a beach day. The next time we’re here will be my birthday and I’ll do some sort of exciting excursion that day. Today I just wanted to relax. Many people at home have commented to me about how great it must be to get to lie on the beach all the time. But it hasn’t happened as much as I would have thought, considering how long I’ve been down here. And for some reason, it’s never really felt relaxing. It’s more been just what I was doing when there wasn’t something else to do. Today was like the best days of any vacation where you lie on the beach. St. Lucia is gorgeous. The beach reminded me of the Dominican - brown sand, pebbly, brownish water by the shore. But ... read more