Rodney Bay again!

The trip from Fort de France to Rodney Bay, St Lucia was uneventful if a bit boisterous. We rushed to get here on the Friday afternoon to collect the parcel only to miss the marina office by 10 minutes. We subsequently discovered that the parcel was at Customs not the Marina office! Why couldn’t Customs have mentioned they had a parcel for me when I checked in? Oh well, welcome to the Caribbean!

We spent the weekend fitting the new Autohelm unit. Hopefully it will do the job. We have heard good reports of its performance so we will give it a good test on the way to Bequia.

 

We are sitting here waiting for a ‘Tropical wave’ to go through: this is a somewhat disorganised weather system that produces unsettled weather, strong winds, clouds and rain. It is not the best weather to go sailing so we will wait a few days for better weather. While we are here we will do a few jobs and decide where we will go next. We still haven’t decided if we will go to St Vincent on the way to Bequia. There are mixed reports on the security situation, we will check the latest updated information rather than relying on scuttlebutt.

While we are here we have modified our rain catcher/shade cover for the aft deck. Hopefully this will work better in both modes. Where would we be without our vintage 1908 Singer sewing machine! We have also looked at modifying our boom tent to give us shade and a view of our surroundings. It works well in protecting us from the elements,as it was originally designed, while at anchor or in harbour, but unfortunately we cannot see very much of the outside world with it up. It goes right down to the guardwires so we have no idea what the neighbours are up to! It makes sitting at anchor far too boring.

 While at anchor we have changed the engine oil and replaced our worn and tired genoa sheets.

Normally we would swim off the boat but the strong winds have made the bay rather choppy, so swimming is unpleasant. Squally rain showers and extra strong gusts of wind all day and night have us opening and closing hatches and port lights with annoying regularity.

The social whirl continues, meeting new crews of ‘Nemo’ and ‘Beyzano’. The Nemo’s introduced themselves to us as we have mutual friends on ‘Tulu’. Can my liver stand the pace?

Rodney bay Marina is a little sad really. The marina is quiet compared to the buzz there was in January. The boatyard is quite full with boats hauled out for the summer and some of the bars and café’s have closed. It feels a bit like an out of season holiday resort, which I suppose is what it is.

Fishermans co-op with Frigate birds fighting over the scraps as thr fishermen clean their catch.

The local Farmers market still runs on a Saturday morning although with fewer stalls and the Fishermens co-op still sells fresh caught fish.

Delicious local Grapefruit

 

Local "Apples" the texture is like a very crisp cucumber and they have a delicate sweet flavour. Very refreshing.

 

It is always nice to return to a familiar place but it is time to move on. The weather is improving so we will continue to head south.