Bonjour, mon amis, I hope you had a merry Christmas! Yesterday we arrived in Martinique, our first French port of call, but I will be telling you about our Christmas spent in St Lucia.

 

On the 20th December we arrived in Malgretoute, a bay right next to the beautiful Petit Piton, the smaller mountain of St Lucia’s two Pitons. We explored the town of Soufriere in the next bay and killed time by snorkelling. We spotted lots of sea life including two of the infamous lionfish who have become a menace of the Caribbean coral reefs. They are an alien specie and are constantly snacking on the other fishes.

 

On our second day in Malgretoute bay we took a taxi up to Rodney Bay marina. We were to meet our relations who were staying with us for Christmas. But because there were ten of us altogether and only four cabins on Silhouette we hired a charter boat. They were all very eager to learn about yachting so we took the opportunity of sailing Windflower III (as the charter boat was named) down to Malgretoute bay to teach them a bit of nautical knowledge!

 

We did a lot of touristy stuff with them like visiting St Lucia’s collapsed volcano. Someone could make a fortune of selling nose pegs up there because it reeks of rotten eggs. It’s in fact the sulphur that is coming out of an active part of the volcano.

 

 

 

All of you in England will know that Christmas wasn’t all sunshine and blue skies. But don’t feel discouraged if you think we had better weather than you because we didn’t! On Christmas Eve torrents of rain began bucketing from the sky and thunder and lighting erupted around us. Luckily nothing was hurt, broken or destroyed on Silhouette or Windflower, so I can’t complain! Sadly, during the rain storm, many towns temporarily lost their electricity and six people died. One of my favourite presents was a hammock from Mum and Dad which I am using every day... I think I’m turning into a hammock addict!

 

A few days after Christmas we sailed north to Rodney Bay where we would stay for a couple of days before saying goodbye to our family. Because there were two boats that needed to be taken there Mum and Dad skippered different boats. Mum had never skippered a boat before on this trip so Robyn and I stayed on Silhouette, the yacht Mum was sailing in, to help. We also got my aunt and uncle who turned out to be very competent crew. It was a close hauled sail with lots of gusts (and a so called steering problem involving an autopilot that wasn’t supposed to be on) so I was a tad nervous at first but I had no need to worry; Mum made an excellent skipper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We anchored in the middle of the bay, rather close to Pigeon Island. We had a day trip there and visited some of its landmarks such as the

British fort and the remains of a hurricane destroyed house, once belonging to ‘Mrs Snowball’, a British actress who owned Pigeon Island before she turned it into a national park. It is a beautiful island filled with vegetation connecting to St Lucia by a causeway. Unfortunately it’s a pretty useless causeway as you can’t walk through it since it is chock-a-block with holiday resorts.

 

Sadly, we soon had to say goodbye to family most of whom have decided a change of weather is needed and are off to Canada with its sub-zero temperatures. It was a shame to see them go because they had been great company and I loved sharing experiences with them. However, I was not sad to see Windflower III go. Despite sailing well its problems were almost endless, from a hole in the genoa to a faulty battery to, worst of all, a leaking holding tank (that’s the tank where all our human waste goes in. Yes, it was pretty disgusting). Well, nothing’s perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our sail to Martinique was a brisk one. It was first sail with the wind on the beam (coming from the side of the boat) in a while but I didn’t much time to get used to it since it only lasted four hours! We arrived at 12:45 in Grande Anse d’Arlet our current location. We will soon be sailing to another anchorage in Martinique but, as they say, that’s another story!

 

Kerry