ST. LUCIA

Laurie and I left Bequia on Tuesday morning at 4:30 and sailed north towards St. Vincent on route to St. Lucia. In a couple of hours, the sun came up and we were in light winds sadly, and at a bad angle. We knew it would be a rather long day before we'd go to sleep in St. Lucia! After sailing along side of St. Vincent with little to no wind, we were finally out in the channel between the islands and picked up about 12 to 15 knots of wind which was on the nose at first, but then finally came to us a bit more out of the east to help us along. We were even able to shut down the engines and just sail! That, however, was short-lived and soon the wind died and the waves and swells went 'wonkie' (my pet term for scrambled up). We could see the pitons on St. Lucia off in the distance for most of the day, but couldn't quite get there! Eventually, the wind picked up considerably, but once again on the nose. We took the sails down completely and motored for the next 4 hours up the coast of St. Lucia and ducked in at a little spot called the Canaries. Ron and Judy will remember the spot well as it was where we saw the squid mating on the reef, quite a sight that was a couple of years ago! (none of us were mature enough to look away!) Anyway, we dropped the anchor just as a couple of young guys from the town came out to visit us on kayaks to see if we needed anything from town. We passed them each a cold beer, wished them a Merry Christmas, and they were happily on their way.

This morning we woke up at 6:00 and were underway by 6:30. On our 3 hour motor up to Rodney Bay, I have never seen so much blinding rain! I was inside looking out and was very much afraid that each time the rain slowed down, we'd be face to face with another boat. Often, we'd come out of it and see a boat on either side of us. The radar was no help at all since it picked up all the rain and squalls and showed it as splatter all over the screen. Needless to say that when we dropped the anchor here in Rodney Bay this morning, there was no need to clean any salt off the boat!!

We dingied into the inner lagoon in the pouring rain, where we met our friend John Fallon for a good long catching up chat and a meal at the "Bread Basket". Besides John, we were met up with many other old friends who stay in this area. John lost his boat "Stopknott" in a fire in June right here in the boatyard in Rodney Bay. He is renting a small apartment near our friend Edgar and either taxis to the marina or gets a lift with Edgar. We hosted Edgar and his team last year in Bequia for the big regatta there when they raced their J-24 "Loose Canon". John is actively involved in taking the marina to task and hopes it will work out in his favour and be tidied up by mid January. The Caribbean often has it's own timelines for doing things, so we'll see how that date works out. We'll spend Christmas with John and his friends at the local Yacht Club and then we'll take John up to Martinique for a little visit and then return him to St. Lucia before we head northerly again.

Laurie is carrying on with boat chores and is on his knees working on the watermaker motor as I type! During our passage, we added 6 more things to his list. We thought we had that side window all sealed, but in this rain, we realized that it's back on the list once more!

I had a nice message from John and Delberta telling me how much they enjoyed the underwater pictures. Thanks for that. I'm not sure we'll see that kind of snorkeling again until we return to the Cays in the spring.

Take care all!

Dawn (and Laurie)