Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Distance run:  1 mile

Eventually we decided that it was time to leave the marina and head out into the bay.  It had served its purpose as we were both feeling rested and the jobs on the boat had either been done or were in hand.  So we paid up, slipped the lines, and motored out into the bay where we found a good spot not far from Pigeon Island, and by chance not so far from Serafina, who had slipped their lines just a few hours earlier.  We dropped the anchor, which bit first time, and were soon swimming off the back of the boat, something that can’t be done in a marina.

Rodney Bay is a mile wide, and there are many boats at anchor and holiday resorts like Sandals on the shore, but it is still a nice spot to anchor.  We took the rib ashore to a little restaurant on Pigeon Island on our anniversary, and enjoyed kingfish curry followed by banana crumble, both of which were very good.  We stopped by a boat called Wandering Star on the way over, as they had kindly called in response to our request over the daily morning net for info/advice/charts for the U.S. Intra Coastal Waterway which we plan to go up in the summer.   Penny and Glyn invited us for coffee the next day so that we could pick their brains.  So much information had they gathered in their two trips up the eastern seaboard of the U.S. as well as cruising in the Caribbean that we didn’t realise that our chat over coffee had lasted until 3.30 in the afternoon!  We invited them for sundowners the next evening.

Feeling a little more energetic after our R&R, we ventured ashore early (ish) on Monday and walked (and sometimes scrambled) up to the top of the two hills that make Pigeon Island, and were rewarded by wonderful views across to the Pitons in one direction and Martinique (about 25 miles away to the north) the other. 

Rodney Bay from the fort on Pigeon Island                                                    Scott-Free (centre) at anchor in Rodney Bay

Looking South towards the Pitons and St Lucia                                                Looking North towards Martinique

The fort on the southern peak of Pigeon Island                                               and the higher peak to its North, taken from the boat

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was serenaded at 8 a.m. with Happy Birthday by Glyn and Penny from Wandering Star, shortly followed by birthday wishes by Rob at top volume over Serafina’s loud hailer.  Thanks chaps!  When we switched on the laptop and the mobiles, there were birthday messages and emails from family, which are always lovely to receive, but they remind me of how much I miss them all.

We invited Rob & Sarah to a birthday walk and lunch, and after a rather wet rib ride into the marina, we set off for the beach and golf club.  However, as we only had our memories of the directions given by two different sets of people to these places, we got it wrong on two counts.  First, the golf club was in a different direction from the beach, and second, the beach was not up the long and winding road we set off along!  Credit goes to Rob who said we were taking the wrong road at the time and was proved to be right, but never once said “I told you so”, even though we walked a long way to nowhere.  Fortunately, we stopped to ask a young man, who happened to be waiting for a bus, for directions and as he finished telling us we had to go back to where we started, the bus came along and we all jumped on it and were taken there!

The bus driver gave us directions to the golf club and we decided, as we passed the correct turning for the beach, that we would go straight for lunch at the golf club.  After a VERY long and hot walk we finally arrived and were rewarded with a very nice lunch in very pleasant surroundings.  As a bonus we were able to get a lift back to the marina on the golf club courtesy bus.  Then it was a short rib ride to the shopping mall where we made a quick visit to the supermarket for fresh bread, milk etc and then a much longer visit to the Haagen Das shop for dessert!

Relaxing after lunch on the golf club verandah - that's a glass of water, not a G&T!

It was a lovely day, spent with a lovely couple who have become good friends in the last year.  We will shortly be parting company as our plans for the rest of the year are very different – they will be parking Serafina in Grenada in April to go home until November, whereas we plan to sail North to the U.S.  They are therefore heading North from here before turning South while we will be going South before turning North.  It will seem strange after all this time and so many miles not to have them around, and we will really miss them, but we will stay in touch and will no doubt meet up again next winter as we sail among the islands.  And in any case, we still have a website under construction...