St Lucia & Martinique
Talulah's Web Diary
Paul & Anette Morris
Sat 7 Apr 2007 23:38
position "14:27.940N
060:52.153W"
Saturday 7th April
2007
After a great
sail up to Soufriere in St Lucia, we moored up in the shade of one of the
two massive mountains called the Pitons. The views were superb, and the
island looked just perfect. we were not allowed to anchor because of
the coral reefs that abound here, and even if we could have, the shore shelves
so steeply that it would have been almost impossible. We were
in 16 metres of water just 15 metres from the shore, and then it shelved to 90
metres within the same distance again. But we spent a peaceful night
and I slept under the stars on the
trampoline.
The next day we
motored up to Marigot Bay, just 6 miles north. Marigot bay is one of
the Caribbean's most spectacular harbours - at least it was until it was
developed by more hotels and time shares, and it had so many (empty) moorings
for yachts that manoeuvring took a careful eye. We had to pay
for the moorings here, which was a rip-off, as no one indicated that we
could anchor in the same area for free! No wonder most of the
moorings were empty.
Made friends with a Rastafarian called Garry, who apparently
was "asked to leave" the US for being a little too overt about his
religion, and the way that "So called Christians worship
icons......." Anyway, he seemed an OK guy, and he ended
up reciting to us from his Bible - which he carried with him
always.
Next (today)
day we had one of the best sails since December up to Le Marin in
Martinique. It was a short trip, just 35 miles, through some
strange, and at times lumpy seas, but the wind was on the beam, and averaged 22
knots, gusting to 26 at times. We blasted along with a reef in each
sail at almost 10 knots on occasion, and averaged 8.5 knots for the last 20
miles! Perfect. We were so tired when we
got to Martinique that we just went ashore to check our email, then
came back, watched a movie (Oh Brother where art thou!), ate supper and fell
asleep. We went shopping today for the essentials, and are off
to the best 'Ribs joint' in town tonight, where we'll be meeting some
Aussie friends.
Tomorrow we're
off to Dominica, with maybe a short stay on the north of
Martinique. It'll be a change of scenery for us leaving the Windward
Islands, as Dominica is in the Leeward
islands.
The Pitons seen
from the South
Sundowners
under the Pitons in St Lucia
Marigot Bay -
the nice bits!
Cracking along
towards Martinique, with St Lucia behind us