On June 6 we left Marin in Martinique for St. Lucia. We started to raise the anchor at 6 o’clock in the morning. Since we were anchored in over 30 ft. of water we had a long scope out and the chain was very dirty with mud. To prevent that all that mud comes in our bilge we use a water hose to clean the chain. However, that took some time and in the meantime a very big squall came over the hills and we had to wait to raise the anchor. Since we already took a lot of the chain out we had to keep the engine running in case the anchor came out. After the rain stopped we maneuvered out of the bay around the markers indicating the shoals. Just as we passed the last green marker the engine alarm went off indicating that the engine was overheated. We had the main sail out and while I tried to find the problem Dorothy sailed out of the bay with a nice wind. Unfortunately that wind completely died after about half an hour and we started drifting into the Caribbean Sea instead of in the direction of St. Lucia. The engine was completely out of cooling fluid but still did not want to start after I had filled the reservoir. Fortunately the wind picked up again after some big squalls passed by and we sailed with wind up to 26kn and a speed over the ground of 7.5 kn. to St. Lucia. I was lucky to be able to start the engine after we arrived in Rodney Bay to find an anchor spot. But afterwards the engine did not want to start anymore and we had to be towed into the marina. We found a great mechanic who found the problems, a hole in the heat exchanger manifold and water on top of the cylinders. We were lucky that a replacement manifold was found on the island and Saturday afternoon we did the first test and the engine was running fine again.

Rodney Bay has a lagoon which was dug out and the recovered material was used to build a causeway between the mainland and an island north/west of the island called Pigeon Island. On this causeway the Sandals Resort of St. Lucia was built which gives a lot of activity in the bay with kayaks, Jet Skis and hobby cats. Pigeon Island is now a very nice National Park with trails that take you to the top of the two hills. As is customary in the Caribbean on top of the lowest hill a fort was built and the highest was used as a look-out position. The fighting between the French, Dutch and English did not change the flags on these islands a lot but scattered forts all over the islands. We took a bike tour around the bay, visited a lot of nice places and found the new tax free shopping mall that can also be reached from the marina with the dinghy. We went several times with the dinghy to the mall to buy groceries and a couple of nice tops for Dorothy. The extension of the lagoon allowed the development of a lot of nice condos and large private homes and everyone has a private boat dock or can use a mooring ball in the lagoon.

We took the dollar bus to the capital city of St. Lucia, Castries. This is like on all the other original British Islands a privately organized bus system. The busses are vans with every space filled with a seat. The route is indicated with a number and the turning location. In Castries all the busses arrive and depart from a central location near the market. A third of the population of St. Lucia lives in or close to Castries and this is evident. In 1948 a huge fire destroyed a big part of the town and only very few historic landmarks remained. The large and elaborate cathedral has brightly colored interior frescos covered walls, but the outside definitely needs some work like most of the buildings in the rest of the city. Even the Derek Walcott Square, dedicated to one of St. Lucia’s Nobel Laureates, the Hon Derek Walcott who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 is poorly or hardly maintained. If you check our pictures you see one of the buildings with a sign “Registry of Deeds and Mortgages”. I took this picture since it is related to my first job in the USA 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 clear title on their property and thus allows them to get a mortgage. So this building reflected some good memories to this project done from 1985 to 1988. New buildings along the cruise ship dock are built to give the typical products you see in every town in the Caribbean where cruise ships are visiting. The open market is large and fun and I even purchased a new shirt.

We changed the oil in the engine, checked the cooling fluid and we were ready to continue our trip on 06/12/13. We left the marina and started our best sail ever. We had a broad reach with wind from 15 to 25 kn. with gusts to 32 KN and our speed was between 7.5 and 8.7 KN. Unbelievable but very true, we sailed half of the time with speeds of over 8 KN over the ground. We have a nice mooring ball from a private person and not from the SMMA (Soufriere Marine Management Association). The SMMA balls are very close together and in spots that are very roly. We took a tour organized by the same man and we really enjoyed it. The Pitons are absolutely beautiful no wonder they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the botanical garden, the volcano, took a mud bath, soaked in the warm sulfur water and visited a small waterfall. Peter, the owner of the botanical garden loved the way Dorothy responded to all the fruits and plants in the garden. He gave us fruit from nearly every kind of fruit in the garden. Our driver ‘forced’ Dorothy to say goodbye to Peter so we could continue our trip. The visit to the volcano is great for people who have never visited an active or sleeping volcano. For Dorothy and me who have visited active volcanos in Indonesia and Guatemala this site was not very impressive. For me the most impressive part was the fact that the east slope next to the volcano site had newly planted pine trees. Our tour guide explained that this slope was originally the volcano site and the soil contains a lot of acid; to prevent mud slides the slope was planted with young imported pine trees. As it was again another rainy day I could not take pictures of the very rugged landscape and the Pitons but the beautiful area will remain forever in our minds. In the afternoon our mooring ball owner passed by and brought us a lot of mangos from his own tree. What a beautiful island, such nice people.

We were hoping we had a weather window in between two tropical waves but based on advice from the Caribbean weather guru Chris Parker we did not use this window. Since we have to stay at least 6 days in St. Lucia we are going to enjoy the time we have. On Friday June 14 we took a long walk on a trail along steep cliffs above the sea to a very nice beach with a beautiful restaurant called “Harmony Beach Restaurant” at the foot of the Little Piton. The food was excellent; the view and total scenery were the best I have ever experienced. On Saturday we took the dollar bus to Marigot Bay. This trip shows the real difference between the populated areas from Castries to the north of the Island. Not only is this part very populated it has a very nice hilly land scape and valleys with agriculture. The south is very rugged and the main road from Soufriere is a relatively narrow very steep road with nothing else than hairpin bends. The cliffs next to the road are very steep and scary but give beautiful views. The bus stop in Soufriere is next to the church that allows you to go in and thank the Lord that you made it back safely. Marigot Bay is a small, completely sheltered mangrove-lined bay, famous as a hurricane harbor. It is a great place to shop and eat. Dorothy took the opportunity do get her hair cut so it is more manageable on the boat.

To make this blog entry not too long we will post the remaining of our time in St. Lucia in our next blog after we make the crossing to St. Vincent.