Late this morning we threw off the mooring lines and headed north for Rodney Bay. We had decided that we would motor sail using just the head sail as there were no winds in our anchorage and we saw no white caps out to sea. Boy, were we surprised when we passed the first cape which was just a mile or so to the north of us. We were hit with 25 knots of wind off our starboard bow. In fact, we had great winds from that point on to Rodney Bay. The run was only about 12 miles but I was kicking myself for not opening the sail bag and getting the mainsail ready.

I could have still done it while we were underway but with just such a short run in front of us, I opted to be lazy and enjoy the motor sail. We actually ended up furling the head sail to put one reef in it as the winds even piped up a bit more and I did not want so much forward pressure on the mast and the shrouds. By putting in a reef in the head sail we also were not so out of sail balance, which eased some of the pressure on the rudders. With just the head sail up, the sail wants to pull the boat to the leeward (downwind side of the boat) and the rudders have to be turned more to steer the boat straight. The more the rudders are turned, the more resistance you have and the slower you go.

In a couple of hours we were in Rodney Bay and ended up anchoring toward the back of 6 or 7 other sailboats that were anchored. We are in 18 feet of water with a sandy bottom and are holding very well. It is nice to be at anchor and we prefer it to being on a mooring. We just do not trust the line that anchors the mooring to the bottom.

It has been exactly 10 years since we were last in Rodney Bay. At that time we had chartered a Cantana 47 OC catamaran to evaluate it and see if we preferred that boat over the Lagoon 440. We ended up not liking that boat for many reasons. We sailed with our son, David Paul and went from Martinique to the Grenadines with stops along the way, including Rodney Bay.

What a difference 10 years makes. Then it was a sleepy like bay with few amenities outside of a sleepy little town. Now, we are greeted with a number of resorts hugging the beach and water. This includes the fancy Sandals resort. There is a development with its own private lagoon where the owners can park their boats. The main lagoon has been dredged and the large and modern Rodney Bay Marina now takes up the bulk of the lagoon. The lagoon has two malls and the marina area has shops, spas, there are lots of fancy restaurants and bars. Wow, what a difference from what we remember!

After we anchored, I fired up the smart phone in anticipation of a good, high speed (4G) connection since we could see the cell towers only a mile or less away. To our disappointment, we are still only getting an “E” (edge) connection so our speed is very, very slow. Grrrrrr. Digicell here in St. Lucia just is not very good.

We plan on staying on anchor here in Rodney Bay for a few days. We have a reservation in the Rodney Bay Marina starting the 18th, in anticipation of our friends, Dwight and Kati, arrival on the 21st. However, I may move the start date up a few days. Mary Margaret’s birthday is coming up on the 17th and I would like to take her out for a nice birthday dinner. We don’t want to leave the boat unattended here after the breakin in we recently had. We are just not ready for that yet…