It was Sunday May 17, 2015 and we lifted the anchor very early in the morning at 5:15 to make the short crossing of 24 miles from St. Anne Martinique to Rodney Bay in Saint Lucia. There was no need to start this trip so early, but we wanted to have a full day in Rodney Bay Marina to start the cleaning of the boat after having been at sea for so long, either anchored or on a mooring ball. We only had a 3 day interruption in Jolly Harbor in Antigua for some repairs. So we were at our slip in the marina at 9:30 and did our custom and immigration clearing using a new digital system that Saint Lucia recently started. Then the work on the boat started with a complete wash down to remove all the salt. It is always amazing how much salt collects on the boat despite rain showers on a regular basis. This time it was even worse due to the dusty, windy conditions in Fort de France. Afterwards the polishing started and all the needed repairs were done both by me and a diesel mechanic.

When we did an engine check early in the morning before the departure from Fort de France to St. Anne, I discovered that a cooling water hose on our main engine was leaking. Since we expected that we needed to sail close to a breezy wind and into the current, this needed to be fixed. I had to cut a small piece of hose and forced it into a 90 deg. angle. It was a tough job, but we made it and after arriving St. Anne, in Marin the largest marina in the east Caribbean we bought the correct part and the needed gasket for the water pump. Since my emergency repair worked we decided to wait with the installation of the new part until we arrived in Saint Lucia. We have such an excellent experience in Saint Lucia for engine repairs so we considered it worth-while to have the proper repair done here in the marina. We were not disappointed and it took less than 2 hours to get all the engine work done on both our generator and main engine.

In the meantime two new neighbors arrived in the marina, both Island Packets like ours. The other boats are a little bigger than Island Girl. Their owners immediately started washing and cleaning like we did and it turned into some kind of competition about the amount and quality of our work; ‘boys with their toys’. It was very nice; however, to exchange stories about our boats and the cruising we are doing. We all are planning the last part of the season and we will all go to Grenada the first point in the east Caribbean that is officially outside the hurricane area. Although hurricanes do not always listen to this kind of human definition and Grenada was hit by a major hurricane in 2004. The good thing is that Trinidad is only 90 miles away and that island has no recording of recent hurricanes. But due to a weather system entering the east Caribbean today Thursday May 28, 2015 we all decided to delay the continuation of our trip until after the weekend. So next week it will be a short trip to the south side of the island to Soufrière and then an always rough crossing to St. Vincent.

We love Saint Lucia and I have a professional relationship with this island since it is related to my first job in the USA in 1985 as General Manager with “United Aerial Mapping”. The company was owned by “Stewart Title” one of the largest title companies in the US. UAM had a project to establish a cadaster in St. Lucia to be able to give people a clear title on their property and thus allowing them to get a mortgage. Most young people we met know nothing about this important development, but we spoke this week with a gentleman who owns a nice piece of land with a waterfall, who knew all the details and acknowledged the importance of the project for people like his parents, who owned the land in that time. During a day tour over the island we visited the “Fond Waterfall” on the east side of the island close to a town called “Micoud”. Besides charging an admission fee to visit the waterfall, the owner uses the waterfall to generate electricity for his own use, to pump to water into a fish pond with “Tilapia” a very tasty fish, his vegetable garden and for domestic use. He has used the wood and leaves from the trees on his property to build the buildings, fences, benches, stairs to the waterfall and bridges. He told us very proudly that he is almost completely self-supporting on this beautiful property.

Just like our tour guide the owner of this property is a follower of the Rastafari movement. Followers are recognized by their dreadlocks, wearing clothes with the Rastafari colors of green, gold, red and sometimes black. Music has long played an integral role in Rastafari, and the connection between the movement and various kinds of music has become well known, due to the international fame of reggae musicians such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. The Rastafari way of life encompasses the spiritual use of cannabis and the rejection of the degenerate society of materialism, oppression, and sensual pleasures. It proclaims Zion, in reference to Ethiopia, as the original birthplace of humankind, and from the beginning of the way of life. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 1930–1974), much in the same way as Jesus in his Second Advent, or as God the Father. Saint Lucia has a lot of followers of this movement and having a tour guide of the movement makes you connected to other members and since the car had no A/C and we had the windows wide open, greetings were loudly exchanged along our way. Vision, which is the name of our tour guide, also helped me to clean the hull of Island Girl and the bottom of our dinghy that was completely covered with marine growth and we built a nice relationship with both him and his wife. We love the people of Saint Lucia.

During our three previous visits we had never been to the east coast of the island. Vision offered us a day tour around the island and we accepted this private tour. We drove south from Rodney Bay through Castries the capital of Saint Lucia to Marigot to Anse La Raye and the waterfall east of this city. We crossed the island to Dennery and had a great local lunch with a gorgeous view of the Atlantic coast line. We drove south along the east Atlantic coast visited the Fond Waterfall described above, visited Vieux Fort on the south side of the island, the rain forest east of Soufrière and drove back to Castries and Rodney Bay over the most rugged and scary road in the Caribbean. The hairpin turns are sharp; the cliffs next to the road are very steep and scary but give beautiful views. We drove this road before, but my hands still get wet when you are in a car that needs to keep a relatively high speed to climb the steep inclines. The road from Vieux Fort to Soufrière brings you in the rain forest with beautiful views of The Pitons. The Pitons are absolutely beautiful no wonder they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The day prior to our island tour we went diving with the most amazing dive organization I have seen “Dive Saint Lucia”. This organization built a new facility in Rodney Bay and it opened last November. The facility is built around a swimming pool for diving practice. They have two 46 ft. boats that can be lifted out of the water. The crew is a team of local and English expatriates and they offer top of the line service. Other diving organizations typically do a two dive trip in the morning or in the afternoon. This organization makes it a day trip with lunch served on board between the dives. With less time constraints they are free to select every dive location along the west coast of the island. We dove to a wreck sunk as a reef without an engine and the fuel tanks etc. removed and made a drift dive along a wall close to shore in Anse La Raye. The boat was crowded with a group of 21 divers from the UK, 2 English doctors doing their residency here in Saint Lucia, Dorothy and I. I dove with the two female doctors and a lady from the English group and Dorothy had a private guide for her two snorkel trips. This day was more than just a dive trip; it was fun meeting all these people and of course the free beer on board after the dives helped a lot.

As usual when we visit Saint Lucia we take the bus a couple of times to visit Castries. We like it especially on Saturday when the market is expanded into the street. The amount and quality of produce is great and together with all the other articles for sale it is a fun place to go. After we visit the market we always have lunch in a narrow ‘food’ alley that is famous for the best local food.

We will leave Saint Lucia after this weekend having made again a lot of great memories and continue our trip to St. Vincent and The Grenadines.