Marigot Bay, St. Lucia

---

Geo: 13.904, -60.9742

May 12th, 2016 – Nevis to St. Lucia

Hello from St. Lucia!

We are in the land of MANGOES and boy! is it mango season! We've loving it! Yes, we've moved a fair ways south since the last time I wrote. Here's an overview of the past six weeks.

(Please forgive my point form...but there's a lot to tell you and wifi is trying my patience. I'm also working from my ship's notes, so I realize I'm going in and out of the past and present. Not my best work.)

March 30th:

Attempt number one to leave Nevis for Montserrat. Winds were right on our nose and we were only moving forward at 2 knots. Said forget it and returned to the mooring field. It was a one and a half hour round trip. By 8:30am we were relaxing in the cockpit with a second cup of coffee.

That evening, we celebrated our seven-year wedding anniversary with a bottle of bubbly that Sandy and Michael had given us when they were leaving St. Maarten. Thanks guys! We toasted us…and we toasted YOU! Xo

We stuck around Nevis for a few more days. Found the bakery in Charlestown and hit up the grocery store and produce market a couple more times. We were well stocked with fruits and vegetables for our next passage.

April 3rd:

At 6:55am we left the Pinney Beach mooring field again with the mainsail reefed as we motored around the corner towards Montserrat. This time we partially unfurled the foresail, turned off the engine and we were underway. Attempt number two was a success! We anchored, for the night, in Old Road Bay, Montserrat with our Q-flag up.

April 4th:

Leaving Montserrat at 7:15am we sailed past the south side of the island where the volcano is still active. We could see the steam as we approached and then we were in it – a strong sulfur smell. From a mile and a half offshore, we were able to see the buried city of Plymouth. The ash flows were very visible. We decided not to stop here this year, but I'm looking forward to checking into Montserrat next year and doing a full tour of the island.

As usual, the winds were 22-25 knots - stronger than forecast – but what a great sail it was! We were slightly pushed off course by wind and currant and turned on the engine for the last six miles once we were in the lee of the land. Landfall was made in the quaint little fishing village of Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

While here I responded to friend's email note saying this:

We are back in the land of the French. I've been practicing and it hasn't taken much to get back into my French groove. Although it's funny, after being in Puerto Rico for so long at the start of this season, French was first coming out as Spanish! We'd throw in some Por Favor's and Hola!'s and then wonder why locals were staring at us!? After 8 days here we are getting into the hang of communicating solely in French while on shore. I'm loving it so much that I've starting speaking French to Tony when it's just the two of us. He, too, just gives me "that stare". LOL.

I often look back on the notes that I made and have a bit of a laugh. Here are some of my notes from Deshaies:

Ship's notes from Deshaies, Guadeloupe:

• Customs check-in/check-out is at Le Pelican gift shop. Computer is in back of the clothing racks. (French formalities!?)

• Spar grocery store has the BEST pâté.

• There's a book exchange at the Wine Store. (Who'da thunk?)

• Lulu's (suggested restaurant/bar in our guide) is now "Le Croisière". Wonderful wifi – once they turn it on!

• “Le Madras” does crèpes on the sidewalk in the afternoons after 4pm.

• ALL stores, most restaurants and bars CLOSE over lunch. (Some restaurants are open during lunch but shoo you out by 2-3pm so that they, too, can have their turn to close!) The majority of restaurants in town only open for dinner at 5:30pm.

• This town is lively at night.

• Found bugs in the flour and peameal. Toss it all.

• No place to watch soccer in town – except the television in the grocery store. Odd.

• Dinghy engine won't start.

• Clean carb on dinghy engine. Yay! It starts again!

• About to go into town – dinghy engine won't start. Didn't go into town after all.

• Clean carb again. Find crud in fuel line. Filter fuel. Yay! It starts again. But there's a gas leak.

• Took carburetor off, checked seals, and put back on.

• Still leaking.

• Repeat - THREE TIMES.

• Dropped one of the two screws that holds the carburetor in place into the water. Oops. Now we're rowing.

So we rowed ashore for the last two days we were in Deshaies. It wasn't too bad. There was very little wind, and lots of other boats around offering us a tow.

April 13th:

We left Deshaies at 7:45am on a windless day and arrived in Les Saintes at 3:15pm. Motored the whole way. Les Saintes are so pretty…must spend some time here next year.

April 14th:

Zero wind again. Five hours of motoring got us from Les Saintes, Guadeloupe to the top end of Dominica. (Domi-NEE-ka) We are anchored in Prince Rupert Bay (Town of Portsmouth) near the PAYS building. PAYS is the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security. They are a non-profit group offering services such as; nightly security patrols, mooring balls, and trusted advice on tours, taxis and help in general. They fund themselves with a Sunday Beach BBQ for cruiser's which we attended and was absolutely delicious!

Our time in Portsmouth was the hottest week of my life. The temperature was only bearable until about 10am at which point breathing made you sweat. There was finally some relief around 5pm in the last hours of sunlight. We spent a lot of time in the water and when we weren't in the water we were laying down in the cockpit either reading or sleeping.

Despite the excessive heat we walked into town (which probably wasn't far, it just seemed far because we were moving so slowly). We tried every hardware and marine store, NAPA, and ever a lumber yard in hopes to find the “special” screw we needed for the dinghy engine. No luck. Then, as we were walking down the main street, the guy from the lumber store came running over to us. He had an idea. He took us to meet Don, one of the PAYS security guys. Don's father is a mechanic and he figured that if anyone could help us, it would be these two. We left the “sample” screw with Don and later that night he stopped by Inspiration with a matching set of screws in hand!

We awoke the following day with a spring in our step, with much anticipation that our rowing days were behind us! Tony used the new screw to put the carburetor back into the dinghy engine and it was a match! The screw was the right one! And as he turned it, and turned it, he didn't realize the strength and muscle power he had achieved during our days of rowing. He over-tightened the special screw and cracked the aluminum manifold. Oh-no!

Now we were REALLY screwed. (Ha Ha….I even made myself laugh with that one!)

So we spent a few more hot, windless days in Portsmouth, rowing ashore and back to Inspiration to with jerry cans to fill our water tanks (PAYS provides a free town water spigot). We walked to town a few more times to stock the boat full of fresh fruits and vegetables from the market. We enlisted the help of our “boat boy” Jeffrey to help us fill our diesel jerry cans because the gas dock was just too far away from where we were anchored.

April 22nd:

Depart Prince Rupert Bay at 8am and motor to Roseau, (Pronounced RO-ZO with two long OH's), the capital of Dominica. After taking a mooring ball at the Dominica Marine Centre (since they are a Mercury dealer and we've got a Mercury outboard engine manifold and gaskets that we need to order!) we row ashore immediately to talk “parts”. We're on a mission. Rowing is putting a damper on our cruising lifestyle. Rowing wasn't so bad at first, but it ain't fun. It's hard not haven't a “car”. We need those parts and if we can't get them here we've got decisions to make...try the next stop? ..make a B-line for Grenada? This is why we don't like “plans”. For us, being extremely flexible is key.

We decided that indeed, this was the best place for us to place the order. So we stayed on their ball for three days to be close to the marine center for the ordering process and then moved about a mile south to the more popular anchorage to escape a bit of the roll. At some point on our second day in Roseau we figured out that it was going to be a long and trying process to get the parts we need. But waiting “in paradise” can't be a bad things right? We'll stick it out.

It took five days just to ORDER the parts! We had to go online ourselves to find the part numbers and do the research. Once ordered everything was supposed to arrive that Friday. Friday passed and the parts weren't in. We knew we'd have to wait the weekend, so Monday. But wait! We are told Monday is a holiday. So Tuesday. Nope. Wednesday morning. Nope. Wednesday afternoon. Poor Tony walked back and forth to the Marine Center to hound them – sometimes twice a day. Even Tony, who normally has all the patience in the world, was getting frustrated. He would return to the boat exasperated – handing me different fruits and vegetables he had purchased at roadside stands. Retail therapy, island style.

Ship's notes from Roseau, Dominica:

• “The Loft” is a lovely restaurant and art gallery displaying local talent. Tiffany makes the most delicious veggie Roti. At $9.00 EC (that's $4.50CDN) you can't beat the price!

• Booked boatyard in Grenada for haul out on June 6th.

• Booked flights to Toronto for June 8th.

• “Saturday Market” in Roseau is almost town-wide. Not only do all the local farmers come in to sell their produce, they sell flowers, plants, herb starters, etc. Also, the storeowners bring their merchandise out onto the sidewalks.

• Tony did an oil change on the big engine.

• 5 gallons of diesel added.

• After the full moon we started to see phosphorescence in the water. Similar to the “glow worms” that we saw in the Turks and Caicos.

• Found a Laundromat that let's me do my own laundry! Busy Bubbles is just south of the Anchorage hotel – just past Evergreen - $8EC per load (brand new front loaders)

• Sea-Cat and his guys are super nice and helpful. (We are on one of Sea Cat's mooring balls now that we moved south)

• Water at Sea Cat's house – spigot in the backyard. Free.

• Sea World guesthouse – cheapest beer and juice - $5.00 EC, good wifi.

• Anchorage hotel – pay per use showers: $15EC (they give you the use of a guest room) Day pass for use of the pool: $20EC, open wifi – can get signal at Sea Cat's.

• Evergreen: very luxurious.

• Dive Dominica/Castle Comfort hotel: down to earth, outdoor bar, friendly staff, great wifi.

May 4th:

May the Fourth be with you… Well, the force WAS with us! Our Engine parts finally arrived at 4pm! Yahoo!

May 5th:

We must get further south! Wasting no time, we leave Roseau at 6:45am and practically FLY to St. Pierre, Martinique, arriving at 3:00pm. With the winds at 20-22knots, both sails up, but reefed, we have an excellent day of sailing with speeds of 6.6 and even 7 knots. (This, for us, is excellent.) We raise the Q-flag and stay the night.

May 6th:

We depart St. Pierre at 8am and do a short motor down the west coast of Martinique to Petit Anse D'Arlet. We are in the lee of the island, so there's no wind. At 1:30pm we anchor just south of town in Anse Chaudière. Q-flag still up…but we go for a refreshing swim/snorkel in the calm, clear water.

May 7th:

We're heading for Rodney Bay St. Lucia, today! Waking up early, we have a discussion about whether or not to go. Tony thinks that perhaps we should wait a day. I suggest that we go while the winds are up. I feel that we need the stronger winds to get us there. We decided to try it, knowing we can always turn back. We are underway at 6:20am with both sails reefed. Winds are 20-26knots and are heading us. (We can't point directly into the wind. To keep the wind slightly on our side we have to point further south than we want.) The waves are right on our nose. The swell is directly on our side. Oh, how this makes for a choppy, rolly, mish-mash. We sailed the whole way, in fact we let out most of the foresail in the afternoon, but with an extremely strong currant against us, we were at times only moving forward at 2 knots.

Instead of Rodney Bay, we sail further down the coast of St. Lucia to Marigot Bay. It adds time to our day, but with the need to get ourselves further south we are okay with the change in arrival point.

After 3 days of travel, and the last day being an 11-hour day, we both decide to check into St. Lucia and stay for a few days. We have breakfast for dinner (corned beef hash and eggs) and go to bed.

Even though we are anchored on the outside of Marigot Bay it's not rolly at all. (There's also an inner “lagoon” that is dead calm but with the lack of wind it's hot and buggy.) We have a great sleep and the following morning we put the dinghy engine back together with all of our new parts and it starts on the first try!

We've hiked up to town here – which is an incredibly steep climb, but a rewarding one. Not only is the view from the top spectacular but the beer is cheaper, and the trees are positively dripping with fruit. We've returned to the dinghy with our knapsack overflowing with mangoes and papaya that we found along the way. As well, we've met a local guy named Noel, who paddles out to the boats in the harbour several times a day with all kinds of different goodies on his surfboard each time. We've been buying what we can't find ourselves, from him for next to nothing.

Marigot Bay is known as the “prettiest bay” in St. Lucia – or at least that's what every tour boat says as they pass us on their way in. And there are a lot of them! We are getting such a kick out of all the tourists aboard seeing our Canadian flag and shouting affectionate comments our way. It's the same twenty boats that come in each day, and now that we've been here for three days, they are getting to know us. They know to whoop and holler and that we'll give them the “thumbs up” or the big wave back. We figure we've been in more tourist photos in the past three days than we have been in the past three years! Once again, we're part of the scenery! I love it!

So we continue to make our way south. As I mentioned above, our haul out in Grenada, is booked for June 6th at Clarke's Court Boatyard, Our flights to Toronto are booked for June 8th.

Folks, I am having so much trouble with internet....I'm on the verge of climbing to the top of the closest building, computer in hand, or pulling out my hair....haven't decided yet. Either way, I might scream in the process.

Love and kisses to you all - less than a month of our cruising season left!!!

---