2024-06-22 Tour of St. Lucia and on to Bequia

Monday we took an all day tour of St. Lucia with our friends on Matcha.   Our driver Richard picked us up at 8:30, and we did an almost complete circumnavigation of the island.  To be honest, the roads are so twisty turny, it was hard to tell where we were without constantly consulting a map.

Beautiful views, and Richard was a wealth of information.

West coast of St. Lucia, town of Dennery

Our guide Richard telling Dean about the history of the town.

Just a random photo as we drove along the southern side - beautiful island

Town of Soufriere on the east coast.  The west coast has more flat lands for cultivation than the east coast.

We stopped at the Tet Paul Nature Trail, and walked up to a viewpoint with great views of the Pitons, which St. Lucia is known for.  Gros Piton and Petit Piton.   You can hike the Pitons as well, but that looked to be a bit more than we wanted.

Quite a few steps to go on the nature trail

Panoramic of Gros Piton (left), and Petit Piton

The tour gang, Matt and Charlie off Matcha

Anchorage at the base of Petit Piton.  We did not anchor there, gusty winds, and some reported boat boy issues made it a place to avoid for us.

Bananas growing alongside the trail.  Bananas grow everywhere on the island

Pineapple.  Takes about 7 months to grow to maturity, several can be on one bush.  

After the hike we headed to the Diamond Botanical Gardens, Mineral baths and waterfall. We had a nice tour, and our guide pointed out and named a lot of plants and trees, and their common use for medicinal purpose- which we will never remember the names of, let alone what they were used for.  For use, just a beautiful walk.

Common name for this one was red hot dreadlocks

Beautiful blooms

Mineral fed stream - never clear

Waterfall.  Minerals have stained the rocks

The mineral baths

We did not partake in the baths.  It is hot water baths, which sounded unpleasant on a hot day, and we were getting hungry, so headed to a restaurant serving "authentic" St. Lucia food, for lunch with an incredible view.

Lunch

The view from the Beacon restaurant, where we had lunch

Back to the dinghy dock by 4 p.m. so we checked out of St. Lucia planning for a first light departure in the morning.

We thought we would have good wind, us and about 6 other boats all with the same plan.  We all ended up motorsailing, so bit of a bummer, but had 70 miles to the next stop, so could not go too slow.

Dropped anchor in Bequia, just as the sun was setting.  Bequia is a cruiser favorite. Protected anchorage, small laid back town, with some groceries, restaurants and hikes.  

Large anchorage, so boats are fairly spread out.

We walked up to Fort Hamilton for the view.  Fort Hamilton is really just a gazebo and some cannons, but quite the view.

View of Port Elizabeth, Bequia

We found another trail, and walked part, but were not sure where it went, so backtracked, but got some good stair exercise.

Amazing how steep some of the roads are.

Many colorful houses on the hills 

Admiralty Bay, main anchorage in Bequia.  

What's a walk in the Caribbean without some goats

We took a 2.5 mile dinghy trip out to the far west point on Bequia to see the Moonhole.

The Moonhole

Other buildings besides the Moonhole - all deserted.

On the way back we stopped at a couple of spots for a snorkel.   So nice not to have to wear a wetsuit, as the water is about 86 degrees.  Still not a lot of coral, or color, but some places look to be making a comeback.

Ocean surgeonfish (Thanks Monica)

Lots of variation in a small area

Swam through a ton of small fishes - they were about 1" long

Saw lots of white sea urchins

Couple of Ocean Surgeonfish (Thanks Monica)

Spotted moray hiding down in the rocks - we let him be

Dean spotted this peacock flounder - this photo is zoomed in.  

Same peacock flounder, do you see it?

We will be in Bequia for a while longer.  Still have another walk, another snorkel, and ice cream to try before we leave.

2024-06-16 Week at Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

We had a nice sail from St. Anne down to Rodney Bay, St Lucia.  Only one reef needed this time.   For those not familiar with sailing or Caribbean sailing, the island create wind shadows so when east of the islands, you can have 1 to 10 knots of wind, then you will approach the end of the island, the seas will build, and the winds increase significantly, and you can also have strong currents.   It pays to be ready for rough seas and high winds before getting to the open stretches between islands.    

If sailing very close to the islands, then also be prepared for strong gusts than can funnel down the valleys between the islands peaks.  Gusts near shore up to 40 knots is not unusual.

Rodney Bay is a large protected Bay, with a couple of resorts on the beach, so we do get loud music on occasion, but not bad, and generally just Friday and Saturday nights.

Not many boats here, so boats are quite spaced out.  We anchored somewhat in the middle of the bay.

Looking Southwest in the bay, more boats anchored in the south section

Looking north, a few more boats, resorts on shore, and Pigeon Island.

There is a nice walk and views from the peaks to the north on Pigeon Island.  There is a nice walk up to see the views and the remains of Fort Rodney,  but there is no place to leave the dinghy nearby - dock under construction - so will save this for next time (we did it 11 years ago with Derek)  

Looking Southeast toward the Marina entrance - A few  boats, and resort on shore

Our first order of business is always checking in.  Nice dinghy dock provided for free at Rodney Bay Marina.  Check in was easy.

Quite a few boats in the Marina - its off season so rates are cheaper

Nicely landscaped grounds by marina, with several restaurants, and a Gelato shop

The marina is inside a large protected bay.  There is a narrow entrance channel, and that is where the local fishing boats are kept.  Every time we go in, there are always guys working around the boats.

Local fishing boats in the channel leading to the protected bay.

St. Lucia is a large island with a large population that supports some "American" stores.  We took the bus (van) for $2.25 EC per person (less than $1) south about 4 miles to a bulk food store, similar to Costco, but smaller and no membership.    

The Massey Mega Store - half groceries, half home goods

We did not get too much, only about $150 US dollars in groceries.  Then back on the bus.  Had to cross over a pedestrian bridge to get back on the bus.  You know there is lots of traffic, and walkers if a small island puts money into something like that.

Pedestrian bridge by the Mega store.

Next day we headed in again, as there is a mall nearby with "American" stores.  We walked just a bit less than a mile down.    Kris was looking for some quick dry shorts for hiking, and some more fresh fruits and veggies.

Saw quite a few folks set up on the side of the road selling fruits and veggies

Wandered through the "malls", they were quite empty, but all the stores were open

Two malls, across the street from each other.  Empty but open.

Kris found a pair of shorts, and then we headed to the grocery store and got a few fresh items, then back to boat.    

Our friends on Hahalua are in the marina, so we stopped and visited with them briefly.  Our friends on Matcha also came into the marina  later in the week, so had a nice visit with them as well.

A trip in to get Gelato was also needed after cleaning the bottom of the boat.  The bottom paint is at the end of its life, so a twice a month scrubbing is needed to keep the growth off.   We will put on new paint in Trinidad, so only about 4 or 5 more scubbings to do.  - It is good exercise.

Will take a short island tour with our friends on Matcha on Monday, so looking forward to that.

2024-06-09 Another week at St. Anne

Still at St. Anne, but plan on leaving after lunch to sail down to St. Lucia.

St. Anne is a sleepy touristy town but not too touristy which is great.  There are two main one way streets in town lined with some tourist shops, restaurants, a grocery store, and not much else.  Of course there is a French bakery as well with great pastries.  The "BEST" ice cream shop in all the Caribbean but it was closed for the month of June so can not confirm this :(

One of the main one way streets

Town square, right off the dinghy dock

One large church in town, can hear the bells every 1/2 hour from the boat

Nice church inside as well

Off the main streets, the streets look normal Caribbean

The other main street

Near the tourist and police station, odd decoration.  Fake grass with decorations.  

Subtle but nice rock work

Not a busy week, but did go on a couple of hikes with our friends Matt and Sharlie on Matcha.  First hike was about 5 miles round trip along the SW coast on the Les Salines trail.   A nice mostly shaded hike along a well marked trail that's relatively flat.  Lots of scenic views of the ocean and some nice beaches, and lots and lots of crabs.

Lots of the Blackback land crabs along the trail

Had to watch where we stepped in the shady leafy areas due to so many crabs

Nice little bridge on the trail

Nice coastline and beaches

One thing about the beaches in on the west side of the Caribbean islands - no shells to speak of, just lots of soft sand.

Very scenic walk with overhanging trees giving shade

Some roots to avoid, but most the trail not like this.

This crab was plentiful as well, but mostly in rocks, and hard to spot

This little hermit crab needs to find a bigger shell soon.

An old road across a marshy area, no longer used

After our hike, we stopped for a nice lunch at Pirates Beach restaurant.

Pirate themed restaurant

Got a kick out of how the bill was presented in a pirate chest.   

We did go into the main town of Le Marin, picked up a new boat hook as since we had lost one overboard and wanted a replacement.   Le Marin has more chandleries than anywhere else.  There are 17 listed supplies for work - sail lofts, welding, electronics, engine work and more, and 6 decent sized chandleries.  Its only 1 mile from the two furthest away from each other, but there are 5 dinghy docks you can use to easily access all the stops.  It is truly a mecca for boat work.

We went on a short walk with Matcha later in the week.  There is a switchback road we can see from the boat, and Kris had to walk up it before we left.   It is  called the Monuments Rue du Calvaire a path dotted with monuments describing the crucifixion of Christ, and at the top is the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de la Salette  built in 1731.   Walk had great views of the harbor.

The zig zag walk going up

Markers at each turn

Great view at the top of the anchorage

Looking down, you can spot Dean and get a better perspective of the incline

Some pretty flowers along the way

First snail we have seen in the Caribbean.  Wonder if this one will be someone's dinner at some point.  We have seen Escargot on the menu at a couple spots.

We will leave later today, and head down to St. Lucia.

2024-06-02 Martinique

Sunday we had intermittent rain, we just had a lazy day of just hanging on the boat, doing laundry, baking some breakfast bars, and putting the bath ceiling back in.  Monday we got ready to hoist anchor.  Just about when we started to hoist, we saw a couple in a dinghy struggling to start their outboard motor, and then giving up and starting to row.  Winds were against them at 15 knots, with some stronger gusts. We dropped what we were doing and launched the dink to go help.   

We gave them a tow back to their boat and they were very appreciative, but they had limited English, and we had no German - so we ended up with a bottle of fine French wine because they would not take no for an answer, and we could not explain that we don't drink.   Oh Well, we will find someone to pass it on to - perhaps someone will do us  favor and we can re-gift it then.  

Our gift for helping