St Lucia Arrival

Hi everyone,

We anchored in Rodney Bay, St Lucia at 2345 last night.  The bay is well protected so it was nice but strange to find the boat suddenly still.  We anchored at 14 05.12N 060 57.49W in 9m over sand, amongst about 30 or so other boats.  Entry to the bay at night was straight-forward and we only motored the last few hundred meters.

Yesterday afternoon winds stayed in the 20-25 knot range generally, with more in occasional rain squalls which passed by quite quickly.  We spotted St Vincent first at 1500, followed by St Lucia at 1730.  After sunset we came abeam of St Lucia and sailed north along the east side of the island with 1 - 1.5 knots of current behind us.  From 2230 we gradually turned to port to round the north of the island.  The ENE wind held in and after gybing we carried the wind all the way into the mouth of Rodney Bay.

Rodney Bay approach track

We decided against an immediate rum punch on board, instead having a cuppa.  We tidied up the boat a little and then crashed.  We slept like the dead for 6 hours and then were both ready for action.  We set to work at 0600 this morning, me washing down the s/s on deck and Nic cleaning below decks.

At 0900 we weighed anchor and motored in to Rodney Bay marina.  The entrance channel is narrow so I'm not surprised the recommendation is not to enter at night.  Navionics charts correctly show the arrangement of jetties in the marina but CM93 do not.  We were allocated a berth via VHF and came alongside a few minutes later.

With the boat secure I went up to the office and we were cleared in about 30 minutes later.  All very straight-forward and friendly.

Back on board we continued the big clean up.  It will take a couple of days or so.  Nic continued cleaning below and I worked on deck.  I am still hosing South African manganese dust out of the shrouds!

We arrived with two full jerry cans of water plus about 30 litres of water in the main tanks - about 70 litres.  So we used 200 litres in 31 days.  On the rubbish front, our non-biodegradable rubbish filled five 2 litre containers plus a couple of aerosol cans. 

31 days of compressed rubbish

It being Good Friday the sale of alcohol is banned today until 1800.  So we can't get a rum punch before then.  Gives us a chance to hydrate and to get the boat ship-shape.  We'll be at a bar at 1800!

I'll post a passage summary shortly.