Back to St. Lucia, Jan 28th

Mustiques local fishing boats (taking pictures FROM the boat)

Sure, we relax sometimes!

Leaving Mustique, we headed for St. Lucia.  Passing St. Vincent, a 10 hours motor sail.  Wet and very bumpy.  I don’t get sea-sick often, but I would say this was a close to getting sick as I want to experience.  Plus, being wet at a moments notice is not fun for 10 hours!  Thank goodness for the sun being out (most of the time)

This time on our long sail, we did not have anything go  wrong, however, due to the wind direction and the dark cloud that hovered over the Northeast edge of St. Vincent, our trip was quite dreary, and occasionally wet!  Again we truly appreciate Autopilot on days like these.  We tried to “sail” at one point, but the wind direction was not constant and proved to be a mess!  Better to head straight to Soufriere Bay.

We called on channel 16 as we approached the moorings on the south end of the bay, and asked for the local listed in our Windward Island book, we were approached by another local that
said they would help us tie up.   The five moorings along shore were stern tied to shore and bow on the mooring.  We decided we did not have a line long enough for the shore tie-up and so we were redirected to a single mooring a bit away that was reserved for very large boats or Catamarans.   This was a great spot for us.  No neighbors and close to shore.    SMMT (their marine management) arrived to get their fee of 40 EC’s (about $18 US dollars).   You are required to use the moorings and not to anchor because of the restoration projects for the reefs in the area.   We are beginning to appreciate the moorings, however have heard stories of mooring balls not holding.   There is always something to worry about.

Doesn’t look like much, but pictures don’t always paint the true picture!

The Piton’s as we left Soufriere

We took showers on the boat again, not worrying about our water supply knowing we would be in Rodney Bay the next day.  We actually washed our day clothes in the shower which we thought was a good re-use of the water!   Today’s sail tossed our cabin around a bit so I spent some time re-establishing the domestic bliss as it was! Tonight we bought a tuna from a passing local, and with some
fresh green beans I had, dined in style.  We drank the last of the Gran Canaries Red wine that Jack and crew picked out as the “house” wine, and will now have to drink some of the “lesser”
preferred wine on board.  On Sunday, We woke early due to the mild “roll” of the boat.  When we were preparing to leave, we realized that our two mooring lines were tangled into knots and impossible for us to release.  We called the marine management boat and asked for assistance.   When he arrived, he suggested after several attempts to release us, that we untie from the boat and just stay in the area while he took our lines, now off the boat, and unknotted them.   With no tension on the mooring ball, it was still a battle, but he was able to get then undone and motored them over to us.

Again, we were faced with a straight into the wind motor to Rodney Bay.   I know I watched the winds gust over 30 knots.  No boats were sailing today.  After a 4-hour motor sail, we tied up, washed down the boat, and ate the rest of our tuna for dinner.   Tomorrow, Ken would plan his departure and make contact with our local marina contacts for any work that wewould have done in the next 2 weeks.

Entering Rodney Bay Harbor

1 reply
  1. shotandabeer
    shotandabeer says:

    What fun!

    Glad to hear the locals were somewhat flexible during lockdown,especially to sailors.

    Madison
    e’re actually getting tired of all the iceboating this season. Monday will be 50 degrees. Trout season opens next Sat.

    Wishing you good sailing…
    Peter and Maggie

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