Still Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia

As I write, 11^th July – the mate’s birthday, I am pleased to say that we have recovered from the effects of being relatively close to hurricane Beryl a week or so ago. Sadly, the Grenadines were hit hard and it’s not clear what their immediate future holds.

However, we are here to recap on our time in Martinique and also our trip to St Lucia. We love Martinique. We love it for so many reasons and we spent nearly a month there in the end. Our mission was to wire in some new MPPTs for our new solar system (for power generation, not planetary! – Mate), and to make a frame for our bimini. All things are available in Martinique and it was no problem to achieve our goals. Time seemed to drift by and we spent many an evening eating a crêpe, watching games of boules and just simply enjoying being in France. I said to the mate that I found it hard to relax 100% in the Caribbean as one always tends to have ‘one eye open’, but here in Martinique, you can!

For the whole time in Martinique we were in the marina in Le Marin next to a lot of French liveaboards, some of whom we got to know quite well. I think we’ve mentioned in a previous blog about how good it is to provision in Martinique. This time we hired a car (unbelievably cheap) and drove to a Carrefour in Genipa near Fort de France. I don’t find it easy to get excited about supermarkets, but I did here. This was the best (and cheapest) supermarket we’d seen outside the UK. The mate stocked up – heavily!!  We also said farewell to our friends Markus and Marlese (and cats Terry and Rosie) who have sold their boat and are heading home to South Africa.  We will miss their warmth and hospitality, and amazing braais!

North Sails sorted out our genoa, which now has a brand new navy UV strip. The leech line was revised and, on our sail to St Lucia, the sail set perfectly. Despite North Sails not being the cheapest sailmaker, I had to deem this money well spent as genoas aren’t cheap.

Once we’d arrived in Rodney Bay, we met some old friends, Alasdair and Gill, and the mate’s sister was there waiting for us!

Vicky was with us for two whole weeks, during which time I treated her to helping with assembling our new solar panel arrangement (something she enjoyed very much, ha ha). We also went snorkelling, had trips to the beach and various other things which the mate will no doubt tell you all about…

Rum punch time!

What a wonderful two weeks!  Vicky was very noble mucking in with boat jobs on her holiday, but getting the new solar panels mounted meant the saloon looked less like a workshop (I have since sent our old solar panels down to Carriacou with one of the many yachts sailing south to help following Hurricane Beryl). In between having fun with the solar panels we did manage to do loads of exploring, eating, drinking and laughing – so much laughter :) 

Dismantling old solar panels – the solar panel dream team

Reinforcing frames on the new solar panels

I hadn’t realised until just before we arrived in St Lucia that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taking place in the West Indies, with lots of matches at the stadium in Rodney Bay just up the hill from the marina.  Vicky is an avid cricket fan and we loved sitting on the grassy hill in the stadium (the cheap ‘seats’) drinking rum and watching Sri Lanka beat the Netherlands and then England beat the West Indies (a great atmosphere and lots of rum!!).

At the England v West Indies match

Enjoying the cricket and some rum :)

We also found a great beach spot with a floating bar, another great beach bar with the best mushroom burgers ever (actually a massive roast mushroom in a bun), the roti and doubles ladies en route to the beach, a coffee shop with superb air con, and Chef Robby’s – a local restaurant serving really yummy Caribbean food, where the Chef himself had a voice like Barry White.  We also ventured out to the much talked about Friday Night Street Party in Gros Islet, expecting an extravaganza of local music and food but it seemed solely staged for tourists with the music akin to a Jive Bunny Mastermix!  At least we gave it a go.

In addition to lots of toiletries, gifts and boat parts, Vicky brought out a new inflatable floor for Pierre that the manufacturers had provided free of charge as it was still under warranty.  Once we had epoxied Pierre’s transom back on (it didn’t actually fall off but looked like it was about to!) we headed out into the bay to snorkel off Pigeon Island.  I hadn’t snorkelled here before and didn’t have high hopes but there was loads to see, so much so that we went back a second time.  We also had a couple of sunset cruises in Pierre but on both times the clouds rolled in so there wasn’t much to see.  It was lovely drifting about the anchorage enjoying our sundowners, especially in a dinghy with a new floor!  

En route to Pigeon Island in the new, improved Pierre!

Pigeon Island

A cloudy sunset cruise!

The two weeks went so quickly.  Thanks so much for coming to see us – it really was fantastic.  Looking forward to the next time, when and wherever that is… :)