St Lucia (3)

Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Mon 9 Jul 2007 03:13
Hello Friends                       "14:04.5N 60:56.9W"
 
As we were moored under the Pitons, we were alerted in the morning by a chunk of Piton falling off and hitting the water with a noise like a gunshot. Apparently this happens occasionally and we were just far enough away to be out of range of the falling rocks. No harm done, but we woke up quickly!
 
 
Soufriere is the town in the foreground - the one in "Water" the movie with Michael Caine.
 
The winds are now getting stronger as we get into Summer season and we generally have at least one reef in the main and a reefed genoa. We saw 40 knots today, but only for a short while. We've had some good sails up & down the coast and we took our guide, Marlon - who said he'd never been on a sailing boat before - up to Castries and back to Anse La Raye for the Friday Fish Fest.
 
Our trip up to Castries (the capital of St Lucia) was to purchase footballs for the kids in Anse La Raye. Here is the official presentation by Karla on the end of the pier ...
 
 
One football is for practice and the better one was handed to a Mum for safekeeping en route to The Coach who is also the local cop. We think they went down well: we saw them practicing with the practice ball still in its plastic bag so as not to get it dirty.
 
The Friday Fish Fest / "Jump Up" was great fun: the drinks cheap and the food (all fish) is delicious. We were perfectly happy to eat from the street stalls but it was funny to watch at the American tourists (**) consuming nothing and trying to avoid touching anything !! The town is relatively unspoilt by tourism, though one is offered all sorts of things which we presume are narcotics though we don't generally understand what the specifics are and politely refuse all offers.
 
We're now back in Rodney Bay marina for a spot of laundry and a few minor chores before heading south to St Vincent and the Grenadines.
 
The next Blog will be a guest effort by Karla and Andreas - they don't know that yet, but you do !
 
Best Wishes
 
George & Michael
 
 
(**) not racist - just factual