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Saint Lucia again (by land)

Saint Lucia again (by land)

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We have already been to Saint Lucia once at this point, but both Daisy and Anna had a travel plan home leaving from Saint Lucia, so we sailed back to drop them both off.

The easiest place for us to do this was the Marina in the north called Rodney Bay Marina. This time however there was no space for us in the Marina apparently, as ARC January boats were just about to start arriving. (Even though when walking past the marina, our old spot was available for the duration of our time back here)

Anyway, we saved some money by anchoring… Much more beautiful than a marina anyway! (and the marina still had the same shower block codes ;P )

Beautiful piccy from Daisy

We hired a car for the 2 days we were planning on staying in Saint Lucia again.

On day 1 we would be dropping Daisy off back in the south of the Island, so wanted to explore the west coast some more on the way down and drive back up on the east coast. So roughly 1 lap of the lower part of the island.

Our first stop was Castries. The port area here was filled with numerous cruise ships. We explored a vibrant local market and indulged in some shopping. We couldn’t resist picking up some locally made soap and materials for making hot chocolate (the local way) for use back on Hannah.

Looking online while writing this post, its actually Cocoa Tea that we bought a kit for with a Cocoa stick. You can see a how to video on YouTube that goes above and beyond what we have tried.

A short drive further down the island we found a little view point that overlooked Castries.

Next we reached Marigot bay once again, this time from land! We stopped at another viewpoint for some nice cold drinks and snapped the below picture which really shows off the mixture of boats in the bay (including some sunk / grounded). You can also see why this bay is a hurricane hole for boats, as its nice and enclosed.

We enjoyed our time in the waterfalls in St Vincent, so went on the hunt for some more in Saint Lucia. A quick online search on our drive brought us inland to Anse La Raye Falls.

We parked at the end of an unpaved road and started hiking toward the falls. The cascading waterfalls tumble down a series of rocky tiers, creating a serene and tranquil oasis perfect for swimming and cooling off from the Caribbean heat, BUT there are signs that say not to go in the water as its used for drinking water, so we just went to look around.

Next stop of the tour was a choclate factory that we just happened to see as we drove past. The tours were pretty expensive, but we did enjoy browsing the shop and buying a few tasty treats. Anna bought a little thank you present for the 2 of us, and we can confirm these choclates were all delicious!

Nearing the south of the island, we stopped off at a few more view points and beaches before reaching the airport and having one final drink before wishing Daisy goodbye. 😘🙋‍♀️👋👋

It’s been quite crazy, but also great having 5 people on board once again, but it’s time to start reducing crew and speeding up our little adventure.

The first task of the second day was to say fairwell again and drop Anna at the more northern airport of Saint Lucia first thing in the morning. Its lucky that the airport was tiny as we got there much later than planned, Anna was the last one through check in. Who would have known there would be such traffic jams in the Caribbean! 🙋‍♀️😘👋👋

Now down to 3 crew total, we spent an awful lot of time driving aroud the north east of the island trying to find our way to a little beach and generally having a look around.

Google maps isn’t the most accurate in these parts so it took us several hours to find the right road to take us there and once there the route back to the marina would only actually take us 15 minuites.

The beach had a small resturant for a quick drink while we watched the kitesurfers go back and forth and generally thought about the plan for the coming weeks.

Also there was a rather cute dogo…

We returned the car in the afternoon, had one final meal out, picked up a few more provisions from the shops and headed back to the boat ready to sail back north to Martinique.

It’s also worth mentioning before moving on, Saint Lucia is one of those places that is quite heavily influenced by a love of signs, many of which seem to be irrelevant or ignored.

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Daisy comes for a Birthday treat (Saint Lucia)

Daisy comes for a Birthday treat (Saint Lucia)

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On the 22nd of January, Daisy was flying into Saint Lucia in the south of the island.

We picked up anchor from our final anchorage in St Vincent and headed slightly upwind to Saint Lucia on the 21st to be ready.

As the evening drew closer, we hadn’t managed to make it as far upwind as we would have liked, so headed to a more downwind anchorage, between the Pitons.

The Pitons are two iconic volcanic peaks located on the southwestern coast of Saint Lucia. The Gros Piton stands at 2,619 feet (798 meters) tall, while the Petit Piton is slightly shorter at 2,438 feet (743 meters). These stunning landmarks offer a breathtaking backdrop.

Photo courtesy of Anna

On the following day, we sailed to the anchorage near Hewanorra airport, paid an extortionate amount of money for checking into the country (as it was a Sunday (oops)), and collected Daisy from the airport! At least the customs officer gave us a ride to the airport…

We sailed from the south, past the Pitons, up to Marigot bay (a well-known hurricane hole on the island).

The anchorage wasn’t amazing, and we had to anchor on a rocky bottom. Adam dived in to make sure that the anchor was adequately secured for our overnight stay, and Daisy also jumped into the Caribbean water for the first time at anchor.

Our boat friends Atlas & Danae were also in Marigot bay, so we had a little catch-up with them. In the evening we headed for some food and drinks on land with Atlas who also had guests on board, so between the two boats we were 8 people.

The ribs here were amazing…

We set sail the following morning to head further north on the island.

On the way the wind was strong and we were tacking into it repeatedly. Kathryn noticed that the headsail winch looked a little wonky and upon closer inspection of the winch base noticed a small crack. So we quickly put the headsail away and motored on to Bois d’orange Bay.

The bay was quiet, and best of all, we were the only boat anchored.

Here Kathryn was left aboard to take the winch and winch base apart while everyone else (Anna, Daisy, Adam), headed to the beach. From the beach, we found a trail that headed up toward some civilization.

We started walking up through woodlands, then down toward a quarry, finally poking our heads out near some houses. Of course, we were initially aiming for a Bar, however, on the route, we found a lovely little Roti shop that was still open at the side of the road and also had drinks.

So we ordered enough Roti for the 4 of us, sat down with a drink while we waited, and then headed back to the boat before dark.

Another thing of note here would be our first sighting of a giant land hermit crab.

Arriving back, Kathryn has successfully deconstructed the winch and base (but we will come onto this more later).

We ate the Rotis on deck, admired the sky, enjoyed the tranquility, and then headed to bed.

The following day we had a very short sail north into the larger Rodney Bay (Bois d’orange Bay was on the south side of Rodney Bay). We anchored in the north of the bay near Pigeon Island and set out on a snorkel.

This was Daisy’s first Caribbean snorkeling experience (where we were expecting to see some fish etc). We snorkeled around for about an hour and saw all sorts of cool things.

There was an underwater desk with a fake computer on it (some kind of art or monument), fire worms and reef squids.

You can see more pictures of the squid on Instagram.

We had booked into the Rodney Bay marina for a couple of nights to celebrate Daisy’s birthday, so after returning for snorkeling we headed straight to the marina which was also within Rodney Bay.

Because we all wanted some relaxation and celebration, Kathryn headed to the local chandelier with the winch base to see if they would be able to fiberglass in some reinforcing around the cracked area. They obliged and at the end of our stay, we managed to put the winch and winch base back together.

To celebrate Daisy’s birthday we headed to Sea Salt restaurant (an excellent choice). The meal really was amazing and we all had lots of fun. Cocktails, and some of the best restaurant-cooked food we have had in a while. Fancy and expensive.

From here we headed on to Martinique, but that’s for the next post!

And don’t worry, we will be coming back to Saint Lucia too, to drop Daisy at the same Airport.