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Published: February 20th 2009
Pitons
Watching the sunet between the Pitons at Ladera- amazing!St. Lucia is one of the many islands that we had to skip on the way down to Trinidad last year and as we sailed by the Pitons we wished we hadn’t. St. Lucia is so lush and beautiful- we could tell that it is worth exploring as we passed by. So now that we are on our way back up through the Windward Islands we made it a priority to stop and spend some time on the island.
Our first destination was Rodney Bay Marina, on the very north end of St. Lucia. Not only did we have some necessary boat repairs and upgrades that we wanted to install before continuing further north, but we also wanted to rendezvous with our good friends Pete and Sari on S/V Gattopardo who were also there for repairs. There is a great saying in the sailing world, but I forgot where we heard it first. “Cruising around the world is really just an opportunity to fix your boat in a foreign port.” Sadly, it is very true. So we spent the first couple of weeks at the marina working on the Rum Runner and Gattopardo. Luckily we only had minor repairs (installing
Helping Friends
Jay helping Pete take off the coach roof on s/v Gattopardo- now that's a big job! a new battery charger and link monitor) whereas Pete and Sari had major repairs. They had to cut open and take off the top of their boat in order to replace their generator, which blew a piston in December. Holy cow!
But it wasn’t all work and no play. One day we rented a car with our friends Chris and Kelly from the s/v Verna Breeze to explore the island. We made the assumption that we could circumnavigate St. Lucia in a day, seeing that it is only 25 miles long and 13 miles across. But boy were we wrong! The roads twist and turn and it took us the whole day just to drive along the East coast of the island- and we didn’t even make it to the far southern end. It has to be one of the few places in the world where it is actually faster to sail than drive to the other end of the island. But the drive was beautiful- up and down steep hills, past lush rainforest and seaside villages, and of course thru banana plantations galore! Bananas are the number one export of St. Lucia, so there were bananas just about
Seaside Village
One of the many seaside villages we passed on our drive along the St. Lucia coast. everywhere you looked. But don’t ask us why all the bananas are wrapped in blue plastic bags- we never figured it out. Maybe pest control? Or UV protection so they don’t ripen too fast? Who knows?
The highlight of our island tour was a stop at Ladera resort which is located between the two Pitons, where we enjoyed a couple of rum punches and watched sunset- it was absolutely breathtaking! The pitons are one of the most dramatic and picturesque land features of St. Lucia. These two volcanic spires were formed by a lava eruption some 30 to 40 million years ago and were named on UNESCO World Heritage list in 2004 based on two criterion: I. “Outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history” and III. “Superlative natural beauty and aesthetic importance”. There is no doubt that the Petit Piton and Gros Piton are not only remarkable but also strikingly beautiful. We could easily spend hours admiring the Pitons, and that we did.
After all of our repairs and adventures around the island, we then moved out to the anchorage just off Pigeon Island. We dropped the hook in a beautiful spot at the base of the
Bananas!
Bananas, banans, everywhere we looked. Which makes sense because bananas are St. Lucia's #1 export. fort, which was the main headquarters for the British Navy back in the old days. The fort is now a national park of St. Lucia and we spent a day hiking up to the top where we were rewarded with stunning views of the island. But mainly we spent our days just relaxing on the boat, going for quick swims, fishing for our dinner, and watching as the Black Pearl from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” sail by. Funny enough, the real name of the Black Pearl is s/v Unicorn (but that doesn’t sound like a good name for a pirate ship- does it?) And the tall ship Unicorn, which was used in all three films, is now based here in Rodney Bay and goes out for day trips along the St. Lucia coast. As it approaches the fort there is a big show, where fake cannons fire back and forth until the fort waves a white flag in surrender. I guess the pirates always win- yar! But it was very entertaining to watch from our cockpit.
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Greg and Kris
non-member comment
Banana Plants
The plastic bags are partially for pests, but mostly to speed up ripening; faster turnaround makes for a more efficient banana plant. Also, they aren't trees, which my children love to point out to me when I say it wrong. Our public schools are getting more efficient, too, I guess.