St Lucia – Sailing Azimuth

Last time we left you we were in the Rodney Bay in St Lucia. In this post we explore St Lucia a little more, make some new friends, and sail south to the beautiful island of Bequia, one the Grenadines in the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

So we met some lovely people in the last two weeks. In Rodney Bay we were anchored next to a striking boat called Endorphin Beta, a Moody 54. We had been there a couple of days, and Colin came over to introduce himself. We invited him over to Azimuth for a sunset beer that evening and I think its safe to say we all got on very well! Dr Colin Porteous, a retired surgeon from Scotland is a character for sure. Colin and his wife Izzi had just completed their 10 year circumnavigation by sail. Congratulations to them on this amazing achievement! Izzi had flown back to Germany to visit their new grandchild who had been born whilst they were sailing from South Africa to the Caribbean.

We had several lovely evenings with Colin during our stay in Rodney Bay and got to hear many of the stories of their travels around the world. Very inspirational stuff for us as we settle in to our own journey. By all accounts, the things ahead of us sound truly amazing and we look forward to what is to come!

Later in our stay in Rodney Bay, some more friends of Colin arrived on their boat Maia, They had met each other in South Africa. We had a lovely evening together. Laura and Dick had also nearly completed their circumnavigation. They were headed North up the East Coast of America. We hope to keep in touch and maybe our paths will cross again! Laura and Dick have complete a mammoth sail over the last nine months, all the way from Queensland in Australia to the Caribbean!

We wish Colin fair winds as he travels back to Scotland across the Atlantic in the next couple of months. Fair winds to Laura and Dick too on their passage up to the USA.

Whilst we were in St Lucia, we celebrated our 23rd Wedding Anniversary with lunch in a nice restaurant next to the marina.

So we had one other adventure of note whilst on St Lucia and that was a visit by local minibus to visit the little town of Soufriere nestled beneath the volcanoes (the Pitons) on the South end of the Island. We set off from the marina dock early, unsure of the logistics of the local buses. As soon as we arrived at the bus stop, a local minibus was already picking up other people and whisked us off the capital of St Lucia, the bustling town of Castries. So far so good, and extremely cheap too. We negotiated our way through the bustling market place, with mountains of tempting fresh fruits and veggies and found the back street where you catch the bus for the next leg to Soufriere. There were two seats left, which we squeezed ourselves in to with the other locals and off we went. The next hour and a half was exhilarating indeed! The road winds its way up and down the steep precipitous mountains with tortuous hairpins. We clung on for dear life as the driver of the bus drove like a rally driver, taking the hairpins at speed with the tyres squealing, performing overtaking manoeuvres on impossible sections of roads that would have impressed any rally driver, whilst the engine screamed for mercy! Looking about the van, the rest of the passengers didn’t seem to think anything of it, just another day on the bus?! But oh the views were something else, the jungle would suddenly give way to spectacular panoramas as we hit the next summit, and we would drop in to pretty bays and seaside towns at the bottom of steep ravines. Still it was nice to arrive at our destination! it was already lunchtime when we arrived and the last bus was leaving again for Castries at 4 that afternoon. So we took a few hours to have lunch at a local restaurant and explore the local area. We made it to the Diamond Falls botanical gardens which boasts volcanic rock pools for bathing only to find it was cash only and we didn’t have enough money, doh! Still it was worth the effort to see the rest of the town before boarding the crazy bus to get back to Rodney Bay!

In total we were in St Lucia for over two weeks. Our friends were moving on, and we felt the same urge too. So we planned our next sail to head to St Vincent and the Grenadines. We had heard some bad things about crime and hassle in St Vincent, so we decided to skip that Island and head straight for the Grenadines instead. We left at 5 in the morning to allow us enough time to sail the 72 miles south and reach the island of Bequia just before it got dark.

It was a lovely sail with a bit of motoring to get through the lulls down the sides of St Lucia and St Vincent. We arrived just before dark and dropped the hook in Admiral Bay in Bequia. The next day it was my birthday!! What a place to spend it…. first impressions of Bequia was that this place is stunning…. We woke early and checked in to the country and then headed for a walk down the St Margaret Trail to see the local beaches

We had passed some great bars and restaurants on our walk so we headed back for a birthday lunch at Mac’s Pizza Kitchen. Oh and a couple of cocktails ….

After that it got a bit silly…. the rum punch was flowing a little too easily at the “Whalebone” Bar. We had a great afternoon and met some cool people.

One cocktail too many I think, but somehow we still managed to stumble back to town, board the dinghy and head back to the boat via the anchorages floating bar! Once there we realised Ailsa had left her phone in the previous place …. doh! Amazingly it was still there when we zipped back to their dock in the dinghy. Back to Azimuth where we pretty much collapsed for the evening! All in all a pretty perfect birthday I would say?

We are looking forward to exploring more of this island, so join us next time!

Last time we updated you on our journey we were enjoying the Carnival experience in Fort de France in Martinique. In this update, we move the boat to the south of Martinique to Le Marin and then head south to St Lucia, the next of the Windward Islands.

We took a couple of days to recover from the Carnival! It was a great experience, and hopefully something we will get to do again in other parts of the Caribbean.

So we pulled up the anchor and sailed south towards the port of Le Marin. This port is well known as being one of the best places to get things fixed on your boat in the Caribbean, and we definitely had some stuff to fix. It was almost as if Azimuth knew this, and as we rounded Diamond Rock for the final leg in to Le Marin, hard on the wind, there was a bang from the top of the mast as the Genoa sail head webbing snapped and the sail started to fall down! Fortunately it didn’t fall too quickly and we were able to the furl it away before disaster struck. On with the engine to get us the last 5 miles in to the bay.

Le Marin is a bewildering place. It’s a very protected anchorage which is rammed to full with yachts! We estimated there must have been a 1000 yachts at anchor or on moorings, as well as a huge marina. We squeezed ourselves in to a spot quite far out from the shore as there was not a lot of room and further in all the boats are on moorings. You also have to avoid the many shallow reefs that litter the bay, as well as the many boat wrecks that also seem to be prevalent!

Someone climbing on one of the many wrecks in Le Marin!

Marin certainly did have lots of places to get work done on your boat as well as numerous chandleries, restaurants, shops and supermarkets. We navigated our way around the various districts and started to make lists of all the stuff we needed. First job was to get the sail repaired. We had been keeping the Genoa going all season, but the UV strip had been getting more and more frayed, and now with the failure of the webbing at the head, it was time to get it properly fixed. There are at least 3 sail lofts in Marin. All of them were complaining of being stupidly busy. Eventually we agreed to get it fixed with North Sails, but we were going to have to wait 4 weeks to get it done!

Oh well, plenty of other things to do right?! One of the biggest issues apart from the sail was our anchor windlass. It had been sounding pretty bad of late, and also after a particularly difficult anchorage where we got the anchor stuck under a rock, and another where our anchored snagged a chain, the whole assembly felt loose and at an alarming angle! I almost dreaded opening the locker and taking a look. A new windlass would be very expensive. The prognosis didn’t look good! Under our windlass their is a heavy duty wormgear gearbox that bridges the connection between the hydraulic motor and the windlass shaft. This gear box is made of cast aluminium, and the flange that held the gearbox in place underneath the windlass had literally corroded completely away! All 4 mounting points had failed, leaving the gear box hanging on the shaft and free to rotate and presumably eventually fall off. Not a great situation. The windlass has to deal with a huge amount of force to lift the anchor up. There was no chance of finding a replacement, and in fact, the actual gearbox itself was still working fine, it was just the mounting points that had failed. Time to make a plan. I decided to build a metal frame around the whole assembly that would hold the gearbox firmly in place using the original mounting bolts. A trip to the town, and in my our best French, we managed to purchase lengths of M12 threaded A4 rod, nuts and washers. A visit to a metal basher followed where we ordered the lengths of aluminium bar for the frame which was duly cut to size and delivered a few days later. Three days of fabrication, sweat and cursing, mostly drilling holes and climbing in and out of the anchor locker later, I had the frame finished and assembled. The whole gearbox is now solidly held in place, and the whole thing worked pleasingly well when it came to pulling up the anchor after it had sunk in to the mud for a month when we finally left Marin.

Fingers and toes crossed this fix will last a good while. Total cost about £150 quid instead of 10 grand for a new windlass!

So we didn’t actually do a lot in the four weeks we were waiting for the sail to be repaired. Money is a bit tight so we only went out a couple of times. Most of the days passed relaxing. Ailsa rediscovered her talent for writing. I spent a lot of time reading. We made more trips to supermarkets than I would care to mention to restock the stores on Azimuth. The leader price supermarket was great with its own dinghy dock, and where you could push your loaded trolley all the way to the waters edge and transfer your shopping straight in to your dinghy! An absolute godsend for all that heavy stuff you really don’t want to lug in the heat. We managed to get lots of stuff sorted. New outdoor lights for the back deck. A monthly phone contract with Digicel that covers the entire Caribbean, all negotiated in French! Oh and the purchase of the numerous weird and obscure parts that you never knew would break on various parts of the boat.

We grew to actually really quite like Le Marin, and it felt sad to leave.

Finally the day came, we collected our sail from North Sails. They delivered exactly on the day they said they would (does that ever happen with marine contractors????). We got the sail back to the boat and hoisted it in a rare lull in the wind. It looks great!!!

But leave we must! It was nearly the end of March. I don’t think either of us thought that we would be in Martinique for over 3 months (with a return to the UK for good measure)

It was a lovely sail south to St Lucia. A short hop of 21 Nautical Miles across the gap between the two. A beam reach too, up to 25 knots, and a good Atlantic swell. We were followed almost the entire way by a flock of birds picking up the flying fish as Azimuth’s bow disturbed them in the waves. It felt great to be back out sailing again after over a month!

We arrived in St Lucia at Rodney Bay. A huge sweeping bay that is very protected in the North by Pigeon Island. Not many boats at anchor here either, so no problem finding somewhere to anchor in the middle.

There is a lagoon at the back of Rodney Bay which can be accessed through a narrow channel, and inside is a little haven of beautifully manicured buildings, a marina and shopping district. So we checked in to the country and went to explore.

So far we have had some very pretty sunsets here too. The bay looks out to the west and the wind always blows from the East, so in the evening we sit on the back deck, drinking a mojito or too and watch the sunset

We took a visit to Pigeon Island the other day and it turned out to be a fantastic day, well worth the effort of the climb to the top of the peaks. Pigeon Island was where Admiral Rodney built a fort to spy on the French in Martinique. Its the perfect vantage point. You would be able to see them coming from miles away and prepare for any attack!

We had a great afternoon walking round the park, see the ruins and the fort and taking in the breath taking views

We ended up at a very cool little bar restaurant for an obligatory cocktail before heading back to the boat. They made their chairs and tables from old ships wheels and drift wood!

Join us again next time as we explore more of St Lucia!

Tag: St Lucia

Bequia Birthday!

Fixing Stuff, Resupply and South to St Lucia