N13:51:04 W061:013:41 Soufriere, St Lucia

Wind Charger
Bob and Elizabeth Frearson
Thu 22 May 2014 21:31
Propping a very weary Susie and Sara between us (or it could have been the generous greeting gin and Pitons) we staggered up to the new Sushi restaurant in the Marina.  It perked us all up no end because the menu was incredible and we whiled away a happy few minutes working through it with assistance from the chirpy waitress, who had strict instructions to ensure that we ordered the requisite amount to have it served in a boat (as a serving dish not us sent out on to the water).  This was achieved and it really was a picture, and it really was a proper boat with a sail and moving rudder and everything.  We were all very excited.  The contents of the boat were absolutely delicious and even Bob (“I don’t like sushi, too much rice”) thoroughly tucked in and enjoyed himself although he was cautious with the wasabi, rightly for a sushi novice.  Fortunately Bob was away paying when I sent the ice bucket flying and nearly drowned the table next door.  With Susie and Sara’s early start and very long day, they were tucked up in their bunks and snoring to compete with the cicadas and the tree frogs very shortly thereafter.
This morning everyone was up and about very early, still on UK time.  Bob went up to clear us all out with attention to the fact that Sara was actually Wendy and born in Rhodesia not the UK.  Very confusing for that time of the morning and filling out the requisite repetitive forms in “fiveplicate”.  We were breakfasted, washed up, stowed and battened down and on our way in good time.  There were gusts of 26 knots whizzing about so we put up a handkerchief of a mainsail as we headed out but were disappointed that once out of the Bay the wind reduced to a more average 14 to 16 knots, probably a good thing on Susie and Sara’s first day out.  Most of the rest of the mainsail was whipped out.  It was a lovely sail down to the Pitons, a nice gentle bowling along with the odd gust that had us heeling and pulling up into the wind but ideal, we even saw a turtle wafting by.
At the Pitons we were met by Claudius who guided us to his chosen buoy whilst having an argument with someone on shore, however we were hooked up happily, “if we were prepared to pay the “owner’s” rental”.  When in Soufriere.  We enjoyed our arrival Pitons, ate lunch, a delicious salad but a horrible pudding, Pone, that turned out to be not very nice combination of coconut and almonds in a soggy cake, it won’t stop me trying out the local delicacies.  Everyone settled to their Kindles and a catch up snooze interrupted by the sultry sounds of Country and Western bizarrely being blasted from the shore from traditional Caribbean homes and the arrival of Doctor Feelgood (we have met him twice before, he seems to be the big cat in Soufriere, to collect his dues for the buoy.  We also have close new neighbours, very very close new neighbours so we have rather pointedly put out a line of fenders as a warning.  We hope that we will be unmolested by the time we get back from dinner.