Since our last post, we have made our way to Rodney Bay on the island of St Lucia. We said our goodbyes (for the time-being)to Bequia at 16:30 last Sunday for the overnight passage to St Lucia. It was to be a trip of 70 nautical miles and if the winds were in our favour, we would hopefully arrive in Rodney Bay just as the sun rose - as it happened, we dropped anchor at 07:30 so we weren't far off! The passage was uneventful and very enjoyable as we sailed amongst a large number of cruise ships that frequent these waters.

Immediately we eyeballed Dannsa Na Mara - a monohull owned by Frank a single-hander with whom we have become firm friends since we met in Trinidad and after a couple of hours 'zzzzzzz', we let it be known we were here to share in the New Year celebrations! We have since been busying ourselves locating a battery charger for the generator, getting laundry done (there's nowhere you can do it yourself here in Rodney Bay so for a handsome fee, you can have it washed, dried and folded), cleaning and polishing stainless and hiking to the top of Pigeon Island. Pigeon Island (which today is not an island) was a major fortification occupied by the British Navy to protect the island of St Lucia from the French Navy based some 20 miles away on the island of Martinique. The cannons, still in place at the top of the hill were winched into place from the ships moored in the bay named after Admiral Rodney who set sail from Pigeon Island in 1782 to engage in the Battle of the Saints.



Today we visited the capital of St Lucia, Castries ... along with thousands of cruise-liner passengers! There were four liners in port - one being the Caribbean Princess, the 'Grand-Daddy of the Princess fleet'. The size of which we were in complete awe. 900 rooms with balconies? Many more without! Capable of accommodating 3,100 passengers with 14 levels. Quite something. Walking around the town, you were never out of sight of the liner as it towered above many of the buildings ...



We ventured into the bustling market where we were surprised not to have the 'heavy-sell'. In fact, none of the vendors approached us ... which is unusual in these parts! We made our way through to the food market which was fascinating; butchers stalls, veg stalls galore (some of which we're still unsure of the stock!), spice stalls, wicker stalls, people selling cow-heel soup, beef stew, figs and saltfish and of course our favourite, rotis - naturally we had to partake, it would've been rude not to!



It's now a couple of hours since returning on a bus from our trip to Castries, the afternoon 'zzzzzzz' are behind us and it's now time to wish our readers a Very Happy and Healthy 2010 before we head out for a few drinks and to watch the fireworks on Reduit Beach ... enjoy the celebrations ... wherever you are!