Blogs from Saint Lucia, Central America Caribbean - page 16

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

Sorry for the rather long gap since my last post, it has been a busy week on Ocean Star, with the shipmates exploring St. Lucia and learning how to do underwater surveys. St. Lucia is an extremely beautiful island, particularly when you approach it from the south: there are two mountains called Grande and Petit Piton that rise vertically from the sea and form part of a World Heritage Area, which means it is protected from further development or construction. We moored at the base of Petit Piton in the clearest turquoise water I have ever seen. Below us the reef plummeted almost straight down and then in front of us the cliff skyrocketed upwards to a height of 2,600ft. I made the most of our three day stay to snorkel and dive as much as ... read more

We woke up this morning & enjoyed some St. Lucian cuisine...very good! The milk isn't warm so that's always a plus... We wanted to spend our day laying & swimming over at Marigot Bay, but when we got there, well, let's just say it wasn't very nice... Sooo we took a 'water taxi' over to the Northern tip of the island. We passed Castries (the most populated city here) and saw Rodney Bay, and finally docked at Pigeon Island. Our water taxi driver knows everyone so said he would stay around the island and take us back whenever we were ready... so we ate (met a nice family from NY), climbed up a moutain to see the French Fort Ruins (where we had the MOST AMAZING view of the island, actually on a very clear ... read more

Hello Everyone! I have decided to become a travel blogger! This way, I can try to document as many things that I do while I am on vacation! (For those travelling with me in the future - sorry!) Anyway, I will be landing in St. Lucia tomorrow - and can't wait to tell you guys all about it! Love you all! xoxo ... 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