"14:41.90N 6:14.45W"

 

Sailed out of Rodney Bay Marina after breakfast on Wednesday.  Easier to get out then it was to get in.  We followed the fruit guy, on his way to sell things to the boats moored up in the bay.  One of which was another schooner-rigged Ocean 60 like ours; there were 17 built and most are still sailing)

 

 

 

 

Very pleasant stay on St Lucia.  I think we 3 must have slightly lowered the average age of yachties in the marina.  If all the liver spots could be put together they would carpet the O2 arena.

 

5 minutes after hitting the bay we had the sails up and the engine off, we turned right and headed almost due north, with the wind pretty well plumb on our beam.  A beam reach for several hours with the boat heeled to port, and a speed of 10 knots most of the time.  In warm air, and with clouds scudding across the blue sky, this was real Caribbean sailing – and the best point of sailing for this boat.  It was as good as it gets.

 

We sailed past Martinique, birthplace of the Empress Josephine, Napoleon’s squeeze.  Also the location for the Bogart/Bacall classic – lines like “You know how to whistle don’t you, Steve?  You just put your lips together and blow.”  And downstairs Hoagy Carmichael playing Hong Kong Blues.  Yes, I know it was fiction – but here is a weird fact.  In the picture below  there is a big stack off the south end of Martinique.  It is called Diamond Rock.  During the Napoleonic wars  a detachment of the British Navy occupied it.  Because it was done by the Navy and not the Army, the rock was commissioned as one of His Majesty’s ships and fortified with cannons.  Eventually, Villefranche liberated it for France, carefully avoiding Nelson, who was lurking hereabouts.  It must have been a bit tough for someone who joined the Navy to see the sea, and ended up hauling hardware up an uninhabited, vertiginous rock with seagull poo and, apparently, snakes

 

 

 

Dolphins gave us a display after our lunch.  About a dozen doing real show-off stuff.  Tricky to photograph unless you are one of David Attenborough’s chums.  Today’s modest menu – baked sausages, baguette, salad, two fingers of KitKat, Carib beer, banana (from St Lucia, home of the banana.  Memo to self – we must find out what the banana ketchup tastes like. )

 

Pip pip