After an unrestful sleep in Walilabou, for fear of thievery all night, we were up early to get our Zarpe to leave for St Lucia. After finding out that the Port Captain is not in the office until 1700-1800 daily, we left, and headed to the bay of Chateaubelair to visit the efficient Port Captain there. We had a nice 3 nm motor up the coast, and popped our anchor down off the wharf so Colin could head in for 9 am to the Capitan’s office.

He got there and found that the Port Captain was to be out of the office until 10:30,… which ended up Caribbean time. At this point we are getting used to the laid back timeframes. If it were not 9 am, we would have had a beer. Lol At promptly 11:25 the Port Captain returned to his office with a wave to the nearby boats waiting on his return so they too could check out, or in. He indeed had apologies to all, which was nice.

Off we headed to St Lucia.

With a reef in the main we headed northward to the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands. Upon approach, we can see that St Lucia is lush and mountainous, with the Pitons reaching far up to skyward. We aimed our anchorage for this exact spot for the night, dropping our hook at exactly our
ETA ( or DR for the sailors in us)

It was a fine anchorage, costing us $20 USD to ANCHOR, as they claimed it was part of the Park system. As we lifted the anchor in the morning, we had an old fish trap hooked on quite well. Too bad there was no fish in it. We cut it off underway to the small village of Soufriere.

Soufriere was the set of the move WATER, with Michael Caine and has many charming old Creole buildings with balconies and gingerbread. It’s a quaint little town that I could spend many a night in. We did some vegetable shopping as Colin checked us in and out of the country in one go, so we would have three days to leave.

Our destination for the day was the completely sheltered, mangrove lines bay of Marigot Bay, famous to yachtsmen as a hurricane hole. It affords the perfect anchorage for the picturesque sunset photos and rum punch, which of both, we enjoyed.

Legend has it that once a British admiral his fleet by tying palm trees branches to his masts to disguise them and the opening to Marigot Bay. The bay now is a thriving attraction and native community, with a quaint laid back feel.
We enjoyed sunset Rum Punches at Doolittles bar while we watched the “local bus” take the locals across the bay.

I was lucky enough to pick up a teaching job on a Lagoon 450 for a few hours helping the female first mate learn some maneuvering of the boat, before heading to Rodney Bay for the night.

Rodney Bay was a fantastic sail upwind in 25 knots, and we finally hit the 10.2 boat speed we were looking for. GPS shoed only 9.6, but that was due to current… We took up anchorage in front of the white sand beach in front of the many resorts in the area while Sandals catamarans raced back and forth in front of the many boats here for the night.
This is definitely the land of super yachts.

After we all had a short nap, Darren and I headed to town to check out the “city side” of St Lucia. We were amazed at the inexpensive prices of things, great quality and friendly people. It was a great stop and a peaceful sleep in the anchorage.

Tomorrow we set sail for Martinique.