Wallilabou Bay - where the props and sites of the movies of Pirates of the Caribbean was made.
Well well well....and did we look forward to this visit! Every indication on the net and in all our manuals made it out to be amazing and a must do....
Well, I had my doubts on a few things ....the anchorage and moorings were not as straight forward as they made it to be. The prevailing winds did not make the mooring an easy task and the boat boys were totally inadequate in helping us doing it safely - and we ended up getting a scratch on the hull due to a lack of experience on both side! The hair rising effort to pick up a mooring and then get you stern attached to the jetty soon got canned and ended up anchoring further away and still had trouble securing the stern (preventing it from drifting into other yachts!)
The Bay is smelly - they must have been burning rubbish when we were there and the beach is a mess of rubbish and loud people and noisy kids trying to get your attention for food and handouts! The most disgusting was the flies! With the boat forced to face one direction, we ended up with very bad ventilation. All in all - I was not impressed and neither was Captain J!
The option to move on to the next bay was out of the question because it was getting a little late for that. So we decided to go ashore and check out the location where the props for the movies are.
That was quite something to see...and the small little display in the "museum" was interesting. The restaurant (also one that got quite a write- up) did not have half of what is on the menu and the food was pretty ordinary and very expensive. Just as we were in the dingy to go to the restaurant, the owner of the other very basic local restaurant was offering us a nice meal and live music for EC$40 ...that would have been a much better bet in the end....but you know Murphy's Law....
I still think Wallilabou is totally overrated and probably only worth an hour stay and not an overnight one!
Anyway - needless to say ...we were off and on our way before 5.30am the next morning...and could not wait to open our sails to St Lucia!
Wallilabou Bay - where the props and sites of the movies of Pirates of the Caribbean was made.
Well well well....and did we look forward to this visit! Every indication on the net and in all our manuals made it out to be amazing and a must do....
Well, I had my doubts on a few things ....the anchorage and moorings were not as straight forward as they made it to be. The prevailing winds did not make the mooring an easy task and the boat boys were totally inadequate in helping us doing it safely - and we ended up getting a scratch on the hull due to a lack of experience on both side! The hair rising effort to pick up a mooring and then get you stern attached to the jetty soon got canned and ended up anchoring further away and still had trouble securing the stern (preventing it from drifting into other yachts!)
The Bay is smelly - they must have been burning rubbish when we were there and the beach is a mess of rubbish and loud people and noisy kids trying to get your attention for food and handouts! The most disgusting was the flies! With the boat forced to face one direction, we ended up with very bad ventilation. All in all - I was not impressed and neither was Captain J!
The option to move on to the next bay was out of the question because it was getting a little late for that. So we decided to go ashore and check out the location where the props for the movies are.
That was quite something to see...and the small little display in the "museum" was interesting. The restaurant (also one that got quite a write- up) did not have half of what is on the menu and the food was pretty ordinary and very expensive. Just as we were in the dingy to go to the restaurant, the owner of the other very basic local restaurant was offering us a nice meal and live music for EC$40 ...that would have been a much better bet in the end....but you know Murphy's Law....
I still think Wallilabou is totally overrated and probably only worth an hour stay and not an overnight one!
Anyway - needless to say ...we were off and on our way before 5.30am the next morning...and could not wait to open our sails to St Lucia!
More photo's on the Website at: www.scolamanzi.info