Jan 21
This morning after the radio nets and watching the Today show (a new routine), Barb started doing some cleaning. Her goal was to vacuum to whole boat. As small as the boat is, that is not a small task. Cat hair gets everywhere, and getting it out of every nook and cranny takes some time. As part of this effort, she took the several small rugs we have aboard outside to shake them. She left the one that lays at the bottom of the stairs laying on the dock. This is the heaviest of the four, and has a rubber backing to keep it from sliding around. Half an hour later when she went to retrieve the rug, it was gone. She asked me if I had already brought it in, but I had not been paying attention to what she was doing and didn't even know it was out there. There was barely any wind, so it's hard to imagine it could have blown off the dock, but it's just as hard to imagine that anybody would have swiped it. After double checking the limited options, we declared it gone. A trip across the road to the hardware store produced a replacement, that is even better than the original.
A group of us went to Key Largo Pizza this evening to help Don from Liquid Courage celebrate his birthday. There were thirteen of us altogether. Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical, Cal & Linda from Grand Pirogue, Bill & Cathy from Pelican, Dave & Carol from Lightheart, Don & Devin from Liquid Courage, and Annie from Quay Three. We walked the half mile or so to the place and timed the trip there and back perfectly as it rained while we were there. The pizza and the company was good. When we returned to the marina, we all gathered on Liquid Courage to enjoy a cake made by Cathy.
The whole day we have been dodging rain showers again. This weather pattern is weird. The official forecasts always mention the possibility of a early morning shower, which is typical in the islands. But these showers keep coming and going all day long. You don't dare leave anything open in the boat if you're not right there to close it when the next shower approaches. Especially since many if the showers are stealth showers. That is to say, the sun will be shining brightly and all of a sudden it's raining.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 22
This morning as we walked around the shop area of the complex, we ran into Bruce from Alize. We haven't seen Alize in nine months or so. We chatted for a bit and caught up on plans. Around mid-day, we dinghied to the far end of the inner harbor to where there is s dinghy dock that gives you access to the mall and what's called Rodney Bay Village, where there are lots of restaurants and access to the beach. Our original plan was to get lunch at the mall food court and then do some grocery shopping at the IGA grocery store there. However, as we came onto the street from the dinghy dock, I saw a sign for the Plantation Brewing House. I haven't had any handcrafted ale in quite a while, so a change in plans was in order. We should have stuck with the original plan. The restaurant had four local brews available. Two were ruled out because they were very dark ales, and I don't generally care for those. My choices were an amber or a pilsner. I chose the amber, and foolishly ordered us each a large one. In hindsight, I should have asked for a taste, or at least ordered a small one until I knew we liked it. Well, I have had beers that I didn't care for before, but this one had a taste that was very unpleasant. I almost just sent them back, even though I would have paid for them (it would be rare in the Caribbean to expect to not pay for something just because you didn't like it, even if they screwed up the preparation). We choked them down and had them gone about the time our food came. I ordered one of the pilsners and Barb played it safe and ordered water to have with the meal. The food was ok, but nothing to write home about. So, I can't recommend this place, even with the promise of hand crafted beer.
After lunch, we did our grocery shopping. This IGA is not quite as big as the one in Grenada, but it still has a good selection of American brands. It occurred to us that we should have strolled around the rest of the mall before we did our shopping, so we didn't get to see what has changed in the mall since we were last here.
The day was very much like the last several, with showers off and on all day. The real strange thing is that we can look at the satellite images on the weather websites, and there is no big pattern to explain all this rain. It's like it's just being generated on the other side of the mountain from us.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 23
It felt like old home week here today. Yesterday we saw Bruce from Alize for the first time in months, and today we were reunited with two other boats that we haven't seen in a year. Richard & Harriett on Perseverance came into the anchorage today. They were amongst the group that came south together two years ago with us. Richard stopped by the boat to say hello when he dinghied in to check in with Customs, and then we met them later for happy hour at Scuttlebutts. Chris, from Spyglass is another cruiser we met while in Grenada. He has been here for a month, but he is docked at a dock in the inner harbor, so we hadn't seen him until today when he came by in his dinghy. He stopped and chatted for awhile and we caught up on each other's plans.
This morning, I removed the small alternator from the engine. It is charging fine, but twice now the wire from the alternator to the tachometer has burned it's connector off. I can only get to the wire by feel when the alternator is on the engine, so I pulled it off to see if perhaps there is a loose connection inside the alternator causing high resistance. I didn't find anything unusual except that the alternator cover is discolored in the area surrounding this connection, as if it is getting real hot there. I sent an e-mail off to a mechanic friend for advice before proceeding.
I picked up the foresail from the sail loft this afternoon. It was done as promised. He said the sun cover is still in fine condition and he just needed to re-stitch the whole thing. I couldn't find a dock cart anywhere to take the sail back to the boat, so I slung the bag over my shoulder like Santa Claus and headed down the dock. I was about ready to drop when I got there, but I made it. After a brief rest, we decided to put the sail back up now. The wind is quite light and right on the nose, so it shouldn't be too hard. The forecast is for more wind over the next week, so we might as well do it while we can. Barb fed the bolt rope into the furler groove as I cranked the winch to hoist the sail. As we went, Barb sprayed the bolt rope with McLube, a non-oily lubricant, so the bolt rope slid in the groove freely. This was the easiest time I have ever had in getting this sail back on. Once hoisted all the way, we furled it up and the cover is as good as new.
Barb started doing a little stainless polishing on the outside of the boat today. Although since the polish doesn't work when the surface is wet, she had to dodge the showers. She commented that we had four completely different days today in weather terms. First thing this morning it blew hard and rained. When we got up the sky was totally overcast. Within an hour, the sky was clear and blue. Around mid-day, it was totally overcast and raining again. Then by early afternoon, we again had clear skies. Again, looking at the satellite images, there is nothing to explain this pattern. It looks like the whole Eastern Caribbean is clear as a bell.
I got an e-mail from our friend Brian in Tampa today. Brian & Tammy are the couple whom I crewed with from The Bahamas to Florida back in 2003 on their sailboat called Another Road. Another Road was struck by lightening and caught fire a year or so ago in Florida, so they have been boatless. Brian just stole a boat like ours through a repo auction deal. His new boat is a 1996 model, whereas MoonSail is a 1993, and he paid less than half it's appraised value. Now his fun starts. The boat is in the BVI and has been stored on the hard for a year. It is badly in need of a serious cleaning and a lot of routine maintenance stuff that had been ignored for a while, but it's still a smoking deal. Brian's plans are up in the air at this point, but I encouraged him to leave it in the BVI, fix it up there, and then cruise the Caribbean. That way they skip the ugly eastbound part of the deal.
We were planning to meet our local friend Maggi this evening, but after happy hour with Perseverance and Seabbatical, we just didn't feel like going out late. So we stayed aboard watching TV.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 24
I hosted the Coconut Telegraph this morning, and was surprised to hear a familiar voice that I hadn't heard in seven months. Sol Y Mar is back in the water in Trinidad, after being stored through last hurricane season and the holidays. Pat checked in loud and clear. They will be leaving Trinidad in a week or so, and coming north pretty fast, since they are taking the boat back to the States this year. Hopefully they will catch up to us in a month or so.
We also got some disturbing news on the net this morning. We have come to expect reports of robbery and violent attacks on cruisers from Venezuela, and sometimes Trinidad, but this report was of a murder in Antigua. The reporting vessel said that a cruiser was murdered in front of his wife and baby last night. After the net, I got online and did some research and found that wasn't quite the case, but a murder did take place. The victim was the captain of a mega sailboat that charters for $175k a week. He and his wife and baby were walking on a back street returning from dinner to their rented apartment. The bad guys approached with a gun and demanded the wife's purse. The husband chose to fight rather than just hand over the purse, and in the struggle he was shot and killed. Still tragic, but not a crime specifically targeting cruisers. The locals as well as the mega yacht community are understandably up in arms because they feel the police are not doing enough to stem this type of crime. The locals are outraged because this is the second murder on the island this month. Normally one murder a year is considered bad. Unlike Trinidad where they had more than one murder per day last year. We still plan to make Antigua our destination to store the boat next hurricane season.
Which reminds me that I don't think I have published anything about our "long term" plans. Baring a change, we plan to slowly make our way north to Antigua by mid April this year. There are two popular regattas in Antigua at the end of April that we want to be around for. We will hang around Antigua and Barbuda until late June, when we will haul the boat at Jolly Harbor Antigua for storage. Unfortunately, we are running out of money and need to go back to work for a while. We figure our work will be at least six months, and perhaps as much as fifteen or eighteen months. Jolly Harbor is in the middle of the "hurricane box" for insurance purposes, but we feel it's quite secure. The boat will be in a fenced concrete yard, strapped down on all four corners to tie downs in the concrete. After the stands are in place, they get welded together so nothing can shift. The mast will be removed and stored in a separate rack, so there will be much less windage. We are making a list of significant repair projects to be done when we return, that are things that require the mast off or the boat out of the water, so this will be the ideal opportunity to accomplish those things.
We did accomplish some real work today. Barb finished polishing all the above deck stainless, and I cleaned the eisenglass in the enclosure. (Eisenglass is the clear plastic that makes the windows of our enclosure.) When we were in Grenada, we had covers made for the Eisenglass parts of the enclosure, so they wouldn't be exposed to the sun while we weren't cruising. The canvas shop that made the covers used the existing panels as templates, and when they did that they slid them around on the loft floor, putting lots of little scratches in it. We had a product onboard called 210 that is supposed to remove fine scratches. I got a brand new diaper and started polishing. To my amazement, it really made a difference. It isn't perfect, but it came out better than I thought it would.
For dinner we joined a group of friends and dinghied over to the mall area. We walked from the dinghy dock to a barbeque place near Pizza Pizza. If it has a name, I didn't see it. They had chicken or ribs, potato salad, and bread. We both had the ribs, and they were quite good, with the meat just falling off the bones.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 25
Today was a play day. We joined several other cruisers for a game of dominoes and a game of Rummikub. We used the tables on Bosun's restaurant outside deck, since the restaurant doesn't open until 17:00. Barb played in the dominoes game and I played Rummikub. I had never played before, but Lynn from Seabbatical and Carol from Lightheart taught me. Of course I lost every game, so maybe they didn't teach me so well.
The Royal Clipper is in the harbor today. Their tender has been shuttling passengers back and forth all day and has been using the end of our dock as their loading point. Mike on Seabbatical didn't come up to play games with us. He has been working on revarnishing the teak on their boat. Seabbatical is in the very first slip at the end of the dock so he got lots of questions from the cruise ship passengers about what he was doing.
We finished our games a about 16:00. As we walked back towards the boats, we saw the guys who hadn't been playing games had gathered at Scuttlebutt's for happy hour. We joined them for a few drinks before going home.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 26
I went up to a business in the marina complex called Regis Electronics to see if they rebuilt alternators or could recommend somebody. They were less than helpful and said that if they had time to even look at it, then they would likely have to order parts, so it would take a while. When I asked them for a recommendation, they acted like there was nobody one the island who rebuilds alternators. Rebuilding alternators and starters is the one service you would expect to find anywhere since every car has one. I went to the marina office and asked them for a reference. Again, they didn't have anybody on their list, but after calling two of the dockhands on the radio, the girl did come up with a name and number. I also stopped by Island Water World, and got a name from them. They told me the guy worked over by the marina laundry service, but the man there told me he left and worked over at the boatyard now. Bottom line, I'm not getting a good feeling about rebuilding the alternator. Since it charges fine, I may just put it back on and do without the tach.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 27
We had another slow, unproductive day today. It's amazing what access to the internet and cable TV will do to you. Mid-afternoon, Barb was in the cockpit and I was below. She called down to me and said there was a boat in front of us aground. I came up and sure enough, the boat was stuck in the mud right in front of us. He had been heading for a slip further down from us. I hopped in my dinghy and went over and asked the guy if he wanted a tug. He said yes, to push on the bow and see if I could turn him around. I gently put the nose of the dinghy against his bow and gave it full throttle. The bow turned around pretty easy, and once I had him pointing back where he came from, his power was able to drive him out of the mud. He ended up going to a slip on the other side of the dock. He came by later to say thank you. I asked him how much he drew, and he said nine feet. That's quite a deep draft for a forty-something foot boat, but there is no correlation between a boat's length and it's draft. It just depends on the design. Most dockhands don't get that.
At 16:00, we joined the gang up at Scuttlebutt's to day goodbye to Annie, a girl we met from England. Annie is eighteen, and is working on getting her captains license. She grew up on a sailboat and has 23,000 miles to her resume. She crewed on a boat last year that went around Cape Horn four times. All she needs to complete her requirements for the captains license is to learn how to use a sextant. She got here on a boat with three other guys that was part of the training for her license, and is returning home by airplane tonight. Before we even came into the marina, Don & Devin from Liquid Courage had befriended her on the docks, so she has gotten to know our whole group. Her taxi came at 17:00 for the two hour ride to the airport, and we all said goodbye.
When we got back to the boat, we found a bag in the cockpit with six beers in it. We guessed and then confirmed later that it was a gift of thanks from the guy who we helped get unstuck.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 28
Today we are renting a car for two days to explore the island. The rental place had quoted me $55USD/day when I inquired yesterday for a "little" car. When I went in this morning, the guy said he had some bad news. The people who brought the little car back yesterday brought it back with the a/c broken. Since it rains off and on all day, I thought a/c would be required, so we went for the $75/day little SUV instead of the "little" car. We did the paperwork and were on the road about 09:00. We had no plan other than drive around the island. We started by going north from the marina. The marina is near the northwest corner of the island, so there isn't too much north of us, except homes and a few new big developments. Just north of the marina is the village of Gros Islet. We left the main road and drove through the village. When we rejoined the main road, we continued north to the next opportunity to turn west towards the coast. This road took us to Pigeon Point, where there is a national park and an old fort. We can reach here by dinghy, and it was raining, so we didn't take the time now to go in. Back to the main road, we continued north. We passed a golf course that had a huge club house associated with it. There were a few people playing, even though it was lightly raining. Past the golf course, we followed signs to the new Raffles resort. This is your typical Caribbean resort, where they sell lots to build homes on, as well as eventually a hotel. Well, all we found of Raffles was a big sign at a dead-end. From further up the hill looking back on it, we could see that the lots had been surveyed, and the roads had been graded but not paved. It seemed that this work had been stopped at least a year ago given the growth on everything. We poked around several other small roads in the northern end of the island and saw a lot of real nice homes.
It took less than an hour to explore everything north of us, so we headed back towards Rodney Bay. As we entered the area just before the marina, we saw a sign for the International Pony Club. This intrigued me, and this is an adventure drive, so we turned. Once off the main road, we were in more typical rural island homes and businesses. You can tell quickly when you get away from the tourist areas. We passed the pony club, and it basically was just a riding stable. As we went further east, we drove by the Beausejour cricket stadium. It amazes me that most islands have these huge stadiums that are used once or twice a year. I wonder who paid to build this one. (The one in Grenada was built by the Chinese. Remember the trade donations for UN votes I've spoken of earlier?) Back to the horses, we noticed all over the island many, many horses grazing. On all islands you see goats and sheep, and some cows, tethered to a tree or stake, grazing. But this is the first time we noticed so many horses. I don't think they are used for any work purpose, so I hope it's recreational and not nutritional.
The back road that we were on eventually rejoined the main west coast road. We continued south to Castries. Two years ago when we were in St. Lucia, we rode with our friends Steve & Lili from Liward on several trips around the island, but since I wasn't driving, I didn't pay attention to the roads. So, this was almost all new to me. As we passed some landmarks, the memories came back though. We passed the Vigie Airport, which is the old St Lucia airport, now used primarily by small planes. In the distance we could see Vigie Lighthouse which we hear on the VHF radio all the time. Every boat that comes and goes in Castries harbor has to check in and out with the guys at the lighthouse. In downtown Castries, we circled around the bay which had two huge cruise ships docked in it. The traffic in this area just crawls along, past the market and down the main street of the business area. Once on the other side of Castries, things picked up as we went south on Millennium Highway.
The next point of interest was at Cul de Sac, where the Hess oil terminal is. We saw this terminal from the water side on our way north, and now we were passing just inland of it. South of Cul de Sac, we got to the turn off to Marigot. We didn't go by Marigot today, but instead continued south through a long flat valley filled with banana trees. This is the valley that we could see from atop the mountain in Marigot a couple weeks ago. At the end of the valley, we climbed back into mountains and next came to Anse La Raye where we went to the fish fry a couple weeks ago. Continuing south from Anse La Raye, we got to Soufriere. In Soufriere, the road coming in from the north is offset by one block from the road leaving town to the south. There is no signage to indicate this though. If you just come from the north and pass through town, you will reach a dead end. One intersection before the dead end is an enterprising guy who will flag down the obvious tourists (white people in rental cars). He will politely ask where you are going. When you say you are headed south to Vieux Fort or the airport, he will say follow me, at which point he takes off running down the street to your left. You turn and follow him one short block at which point he stops and tells you the very detailed directions to continue. "Turn here and don't stop until you get to the airport." Then he explains that he makes his living setting lost tourists straight, and ask if you have a little something for him. He was so polite and serious about his job, that I gave him a couple of $1EC coins gladly. After all this happened, I do recall when coming through here with Liward that we did a zigzag, but if I had remembered, we would have missed an interesting character.
We continued south and east around the southern end of the island to Vieux Fort. Vieux Fort is skipped by most cruisers as an anchorage, although it can be ok. We turned off the main road and went through the village. It was lunchtime, and we spotted a nice looking place to eat. The Old Plantation Yard restaurant was off the main street a couple of blocks. This place was reminiscent of something you would find in New Orleans. You could enter off either street, although the building right on the corner was not part of this property. Coming in the front door, you pass through a dining room and bar. You emerge out the back into a large courtyard with picnic tables and umbrellas. The food is prepared over charcoal fires near the rear building which serves as the serving area. The menu is your choice of today's meats, accompanied by your choices of eight or nine side dishes. Barb had curried chicken and I had steamed fish. The sides available were, rice, noodles, green salad, black eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, plantains, mashed breadfruit, and steamed vegetables. I'm probably forgetting one or two. I tried a little of almost everything, and it was all good. We were the only customers there at the time, and we enjoyed sitting out in the courtyard with a nice breeze. The rain, which has been off an on all morning, held off just long enough for us to finish our meal. It started to sprinkle again just as we were leaving. We were kept company by a cat while we ate. The cat was a typical tabby color, but was tiny like Lou back in Grenada. I gave him a few bites of fish, but I had to be careful because whenever you held food out to him, he stood up and grabbed at your hand with both of his little fully equipped feet. I'm so used to playing with a clawless cat that it took me one grab to learn to drop the food to him.
We got back in the car and continued around the island. The road turns north here and goes up the east coast. The topography at the southern end of the island is quite different that the northern end. It is flatter, which is why they built the new airport here. This more gentle topography continues up the east coast for a ways, with more rolling hills than steep mountains. Eventually, we came to another huge development which includes a Westin Hotel, condos, a mega yacht marina, and a Greg Norman golf course. Le Paradise looks real nice on the website, but unfortunately, as of right now construction has ceased. One of our friends sent an inquiry, pretending to be interested in buying there, and got a nice reply explaining that construction was waiting on supplies and would resume in April. I'm betting there's a financial reason construction stopped, and who knows if it will ever be completed. Another example of the strange business of resorts in the Caribbean.
As we were driving through yet another rain shower, I was trying to figure out if the car had a rear window wiper. It is a Daihatsu Terrios, and it is very basic. Nothing is powered, like the windows or locks. I was looking at the dash and the wiper stalk for some indication of a rear wiper. There was none, but I saw another button that I didn't know what it did. I have never been very good at deciphering the little pictures that are supposed to make car controls language independent. I flipped this mystery rocker switch while doing about forty mph, and the car made a god-awful noise and vibrated as it slowed dramatically. I flipped the switch back immediately, but the noise continued. I quickly pulled to the side of the road and stopped. I slowly moved forward and the noise was still there. I turned onto a side street where I was out of the way and parked. Fortunately, the owners manual was in the glove box, so I looked up what this switch does. The book said this switch engages the center differential, effectively making it four wheel drive. The manual clearly states that you should never flip the switch while the vehicle is moving, and only with the transmission in neutral. Oops. How stupid is that to rely on the operator to adhere to that. The switch should be disabled electrically unless the conditions are met. Now that we were stopped, I put the transmission in neutral and flipped the switch on and off a couple of times. Then I slowly started to move and thank goodness, it had disengaged and everything seemed ok. Future car designers take note - the first thing a guy is going to do with a button he doesn't know about it push it to see what it does!
Once past the town of Dennery, the road turns back west and goes over the mountains, through the rain forest, and brings you back into Castries. We poked our way through Castries again, and on the north side, we stopped at a new store. Super J is the grocery chain here. The store we shopped at in the mall is a Super J, and is also an IGA affiliate. This new store on the north side of Castries is a Mega J. Inside, it is very much the style of a Cosco or Sam's. The selection is not quite as extensive as a warehouse store in the States, but it's impressive for the islands, and is similar bulk sized packaging. We found several things we needed that we can use in the bulk sizes.
We got back to the marina around 16:00. We relaxed on the boat for a little bit and then decided to go out to dinner to someplace that would take advantage of having the car. We went to Rodney Bay Village, where there are lots of restaurants. We can get to this area by dinghy, but the car was easier. We went to Pizza Pizza, which we had been to two years ago. Most of our friends have switched their allegiance to Key Largo Pizza, which is within walking distance of the marina and has good crispy thin crust pizza. But I like a thin crust that is not quite so crispy, and that's what Pizza Pizza has. We ordered a large, and took half of it back home for a later lunch.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 29
After the nets this morning, we took off in the car again. Yesterday we mostly just drove and looked around. Today we have a couple of specific destinations in mind. We head south through Castries again, past Marigot and stopped at the St. Lucia Distillery, where they make Bounty rum. This is in the middle of the large flat valley where all the banana trees are now. This valley used to grow sugar cane, thus explaining why the distillery is here. These days they make the rum from imported molasses, instead of the fresh cane. We found that they were not doing any tours, because they had no molasses so nothing was happening. Bummer.
Next destination was a waterfall. The map showed one called River Rock Waterfall east of Anse La Raye. The map we have doesn't necessarily have every little local road on it, so we were checking out every chance to turn east as we approached Anse La Raye. I thought from the looks of the map that the road was before you actually got into town, but just as we were about to turn around, there was another road and signs for the waterfall. The sign said it was two miles to the waterfall. For the first half mile, we were going through a neighborhood of very poor houses with lots of junk cars in the street etc. Then the houses thinned out the road turned to gravel instead of pavement. We saw another sign saying one more mile to the waterfall. We were climbing into the mountains, and the foliage was getting thicker. Finally, we came to the end of the road. A sign pointed down a trail to the waterfall. The sign also said there was an entrance fee of $3USD for tourists and $5EC dollars for locals. I don't carry US money, and the EC price was better anyway, so we deemed ourselves locals. We walked about a quarter mile down a nice trail and came to the waterfall. At the waterfall was a small building that could serve as a bar, but there seemed to be nobody around. We walked around the waterfall taking pictures and enjoying the cool mist. It wasn't a very big waterfall, but was still cool. It had obviously been man enhanced to include a well defined chute to direct the water into a narrow stream to go over the edge, and the pool at the bottom looked like it too had been enhanced and dammed a bit to make a swimming area. Unfortunately, the water was quite muddy because of all the recent rains, so we weren't tempted to go in. We were about to head back towards the car when an old man with his machete came down from an area above us. He had been up there clearing some land to plant some cabbage he said. He was the caretaker and told us a little about the falls and some of the plants around. When we were done chatting, I handed him a $10EC bill. He hesitated for a second like perhaps he was going to say we were tourists, but then he just smiled and told us to have a nice day.
We headed back north from Anse La Raye but this time took the turnoff to Marigot. There were three cruise ships in port when we came through Castries, so the traffic of busses taking tourists to see Marigot was heavy. We finally made our way past where they all stop to get out and look over the bay. We continued up the road to see if we could find our friend Maggi's house. When we visited with her in Marigot a couple weeks ago, she had pointed it out from the water, but I wasn't sure how to find it from land. As it turned out it was easy because we found her in the garage just loading some stuff in her car. She was just leaving, but we only had a few minutes anyway, so we chatted a minute and may get together again over the weekend.
We went back to the marina at this point to pick up Lynn from Seabbatical, and Carol from Lightheart. They wanted to join us for our next stop which was the duty free store in Castries. We have depleted our rum stores from Grenada and have just been buying a bottle at a time at regular retail prices. We found Lynn and Carol in the parking lot right at noon as we had planned. They got in and we headed back south to Castries. Parking in Castries was expected to be an issue, but we really lucked out. We were stopped in traffic waiting on a red light within a hundred feet of the duty free complex when Lynn noticed a parking space on the other side of the street. As our lane started to move, there was nothing coming the other way, so I just hooked a right turn into the parking space. We double checked that we hadn't missed any sign that it was a loading zone or taxi stand, but it looked good. We went into the duty free complex and decided to eat before shopping. Lynn and Carol had not had lunch before we picked them up, so it worked perfectly. We went in a nice looking place on the second floor that had a balcony looking over the plaza where the people walked to one of the ships. The side of the docked ship was just fifty feet from us. We ordered beers and food. The place was full, mostly with tourists from the cruise ships. We joked about how now and then it's fun to hang with the regular tourists. After quite a wait some food came. Only the first three plates which looked like some type of burgers did not look like the kinds of burgers we ordered. The two waitresses conferred and decided that food belonged at another table. A few minutes later, Barb's came out and it was correct. She had a chicken dish with typical sides. Barb went ahead and started while we waited for the rest. The waitress came by and said that the burgers she had brought had been ours so they were now remaking the order. Barb had finished and gone to the restroom before our food came. Mine and Carols looked like it was correct (and it was different from what they brought the first time). Lynn's still wasn't the right thing, so she just told them to take it back and she wouldn't eat. By now we had been there about an hour and a half. We finally finished eating, paid the tab and left. The good news was that they took Lynn's food off the bill, as well as about six beers. We're not sure if they removed some beer to make up for the screw up, or if they just never rang some up, but either way it helped us feel better.
We went to the duty free liquor store next. I was planning on getting a case of Mount Gay rum. There were only four bottles on the shelf and I asked the girl if that was all they had. It was. There were a bunch of cases stacked near the back of the store, and I started looking at them. I thought maybe there was a case of Mount Gay there, or that maybe the boxes were empty and I could use one to carry my purchase. The girl yelled from the front to not touch the cases. I was starting to get irritated at this place now and almost just said screw it. We had brought our roll behind basket, so I calmed down and figured we could just put all the bottles in there with or without a case. I got the four bottles of Mount Gay, four bottles of Captain Morgan Dark which I haven't seen in ages, three bottles of Bounty, the St. Lucian brand, and a bottle of gin for Barb. I think the clerks wondered about us since normally people can only take one or two bottles back from their vacation. When we explained we were not from the cruise ships, they understood. We had come prepared with our boat papers to substantiate that we qualified for the duty free prices. Magically, the girl who yelled at me to leave the cases alone, came up with an empty case to put our purchase in. Lynn also got a case of assorted stuff, and Carol got four bottles. We rolled everything out to the car ignoring the helpful guys in the lobby of the duty free complex who kept telling us that the cruise ship was the other way.
On our way back to Rodney Bay, we stopped at the Mega J again so Lynn and Carol could pick up a few things. They got things like a couple cases of toilet paper and paper towels, so the back of the car was stacked to the ceiling when we got back to the marina.
We are invited to dinner on Alize this evening. Bruce and Lin and been anchored out, but came into the marina a few days ago to get something fixed with their water maker. We were joined by Richard & Harriet from Perseverance, who are still anchored out. We enjoyed a nice couple hours with them and a very nice meal.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 30
Today is a big day for us. We are going up to the rain forest to ride some zip lines. Zip lines are cables strung through the forest that you clip your harness to and slide from platform to platform high above the forest floor. We had made the reservation a couple of days ago and the price includes transportation. We were told to be by the RBC bank in the marina complex at 08:25. Devin from Liquid Courage is going with us, and we were up at the bank about 08:20. We didn't know whether we were looking for something clearly marked or just a regular taxi. We waited and were very obvious in case we were just counting on the driver knowing he was looking for a group of three. A heavy downpour came and we moved to the cover of a little gazebo that is next to the bank. We eyed every vehicle that made the circle around the parking lot and didn't see any likely suspects. Finally about 08:45, I walked to the boat to get the phone number and give them a call. We joked that just walking to the boat would make them show up. Well, as I emerged from the boat with the number, Devin yelled from across the water that they were here. I got back up there and the three of us went to where the van clearly marked Rain Forest Sky Tours had parked. The driver was surprised to see us. He had just stopped there to use the ATM. We verified he was from the place we were going, because there are two zip line outfits in St. Lucia, and he was. He made a call and found out that a different van was supposed to have picked us up, but that he was already on his way out of town. He called that driver and got him to turn around, and he took us towards that driver at the same time. So we met in the middle and switched to the correct van. We're sure that van had never come through the marina, so we don't really know what happened, but no matter, because it worked out.
The trip was about a forty-five minute drive. We went south to the Mega J just north of Castries, and then turned east and went up the mountain on a narrow bumpy road. There was one other couple in the van who were from Canada and in St. Lucia for a week at one of the resorts. When we reached Rain Forest Aerial Trams location, we were greeted by Alvin, one of the guides, who directed us to the ticket office. We paid our money, which was $100USD including the transportation. Sounds like a lot, but it was worth it. The guide then directed us to the bathrooms. We will be up in the rain forest for about three hours, and there is no place to go up there. Next the guides gave us the release forms to sign that tell you that hooking yourself on a cable a hundred feet off the ground and sliding along it could hurt you. We all read every little word (NOT!) and signed out lives away. After all the paperwork was done, it was time to suit up. There were several guides and each of them took a person and put on their harness. There was a harness that you put your arms through like a jacket and clipped together in the front. The second harness went around your legs at your crotch and around your waist. The harness had a strap with a big carabiner on it for a safety line, and a ring that the roller apparatus clipped to. Once we were all harnessed up, we walked up a path to the practice zip line. This is where they tell you how to actually do the zip line, and weed out anybody who is going to freak out before they take them up the mountain. The practice line is only about ten feet off the ground and is over a wide open area, not through the trees. Jesse, the other guide who will be with our group went first. They explained everything as he clipped on the double cable and then off he went. He will be the "catcher" at the other end. The guides actually did all the hooking and unhooking of the equipment, so you were literally just doing the flying. About the only skill required of us was to use one hand to keep ourselves pointing forward, and to slow down at the end if necessary. The most likely screw up would be to slow yourself down and not make it to the other end. They showed us what we would have to do to get ourselves to the other end hand over hand if we did that. Barb was the first of our group to take flight, and she did it with no problem at all. We all took our practice run and nobody freaked out. We seem to have accidentally picked the right day to come, because apparently there aren't any cruise ships in port today, so the place is almost empty. From the size of the waiting area they can obviously handle many more people.
After the practice run, we made our way to the gondola that will take us up into the rain forest. The gondola is a big ski lift with ten person cars on it. There are twelve towers to carry it's cable. The guides explained to us that when they built the lift, they placed each tower by helicopter instead of building a road up the mountain which would have destroyed too much. The gondola took us from about six hundred feet of elevation to fourteen hundred. The gondola moves quite slowly, and stops for a minute each time they load or unload one of the cars. It takes thirty-five minutes for the ride to the top, during which the guides are explaining the forest to you. They explained the different trees, several birds, some butterflies, and some general history of St. Lucia and the rain forest. When we reached the top, we hiked down a trail to where the zip lines are. Walking through the rain forest was cool. It had rained earlier, but stopped before we got here. So everything was wet, and the sky was overcast, but in the forest you can't see the sky anyway. The trees are over a hundred feet tall, and very thick. It was nice and cool, and surprisingly quiet. I expected more bird and critter sounds, but there was very little. There are no monkeys in St. Lucia, so that accounts for some of the quiet. I would have felt it was worth the price of admission just to be out in this beautiful place for a few hours.
We finally reached the first platform and were ready to fly. There was another group somewhere ahead of us. We couldn't see them, but we could hear voices and the two guides with them made whoops and hollers each time they sent a person off. The first platform was on the edge of an embankment. The landing platform at the other end was sixty or eighty feet up in a tree. Once you leave that first platform, you are sixty to a hundred feet off the forest floor until you get to the last platform. Contrary to what I envisioned, the lines don't necessarily go downhill. There is enough slack in the cables that when you drop off the platform you go downhill, but then your momentum takes you back up the other side to about the same level you left. That's why it's important to resist the urge to slow yourself down, otherwise you might not make it up to the next platform. If that happens, you have to turn around and pull yourself hand over hand until the guide can reach you and pull you onto the platform. Jesse and Alvin kept commenting at how all five of us were doing so well. Nobody came short of a platform, nobody lost control of their orientation to the cable and came in backwards, and nobody whacked the platform edge upon landing because they didn't keep their feet up. I thought perhaps they were just being polite to us, but we did catch up to the group ahead of us. There are ten lines to ride. I don't know how long we were actually on the zip lines. It seemed like it was all too soon and we were done, but it was probably more than half an hour.
On one of the platforms, there was a trail from termites running up the trunk of the tree. Jesse took out his pocket knife and started to pick at the brown mud-like stuff that makes a termite trail. He picked until he found a termite, which he then put on his arm. All the while he was doing this, he was talking about how termites are a good source of protein and that forty years from now when all the fish and other meats we eat today have been depleted, we will be relying on bugs for our protein. He then acted as if he put the termite in his mouth and ate it. I don't think he really did, but he looked convincing. He said how good it was and asked if any of us wanted to try one. We all declined, and I asked him if he ever got somebody to take one. He said yes he had. We all got a good laugh out of it.
The hardest part of the trip came next. We had to hike back uphill to the top of the gondola. I suggested they install a final zip line to the bottom, but neither Jesse or Alvin wanted to be the guy catching the incoming people. We were all huffing and puffing when we got to the gondola, where one of the workers was waiting for us with cold bottles of water. Of course Jesse and Alvin weren't even breathing hard as they do it every day. Jesse said his stamina was because of the termites.
We rode the gondola back down and got a welcomed breeze as we went. The return gondola cable is higher than the uphill side, so the view was quite different. The downhill ride is more above the tree tops, while the uphill one was more in the trees. About thirty seconds before we got to the bottom, a light shower came down. We almost made the trip without getting rained on. We got out of our equipment and went into the gift shop/cafe for our complimentary rum punch. While sipping our punch we browsed around the shop. They had a lot of nice stuff there including some nice pillow covers for throw pillows. We have a couple of pillows that are getting a bit ratty, so Barb got two covers for them. They were about a quarter of the price we saw on similar ones in Bequia. I also bought a t-shirt. They had some nice tie died shirts that caught my eye. I have not bought a single souvenir t-shirt in the four years we have been cruising. That tells you how many shirts I left with. While I still have plenty, some are beginning to show their age, so a couple of new ones may be in order.
The driver took us back to the marina, where we relaxed for a while. We were back at the marina about 13:30. We warmed up our left over pizza from the other night for lunch. Most of our group is planning to go to Gros Islet for their Friday night jump up tonight. Barb is worn out from the days activities and decided not to go, but I went with the gang. There were twelve of us total. We got a taxi driver to take us from the marina to Gros Islet for $3EC each. It's probably less than a mile, but too far to walk along the busy road. We got to Gros Islet a little after 18:00, which was too early. Things were just getting set up, so we got drinks and watched as we wandered around. Comparing Gros Islet's Friday night deal to Anse La Raye, or Gouyave in Grenada, I would rate it third. Unlike the other two, it's not exclusively a fish fry. In fact, there was more chicken than fish overall. It's also much smaller. But, we had a good time, and some good food. At 22:00 we met our driver and came home.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.
Jan 31
I spent the better part of the day catching up on writing the log. In the late afternoon, we joined Mike & Lynn, Dave & Carol, and Don & Devin and went to the Boat Yard Pub. The Boat Yard Pub is located, as the name might suggest, in the boat yard across the way from us. You can get there by walking down the street a quarter mile or so, or by dinghy. Most of us walked. We had a couple of drinks and decided against eating dinner there. While there, we saw them launching a boat named Phoenix Rising. This is the boat that almost sank a couple of weeks ago while we were down by the Pitons. The owner was sitting in the bar while they were getting the boat in the lift, and I introduced myself and asked what they had found the problem to be. The boat has what's called a swing keel, and there is a chain that runs through a tube to the keel to raise it. That tube had cracked below the water line. It's repaired now, buy they still have other work to do to fix damage caused by all the water that got in the boat. After our drinks, we walked back to the marina and decided to have dinner at Scuttlebutts if they would serve us stuff off the lunch menu. They said that would be no problem so we stayed. Maybe they got the message about service. After dinner we went back to the boat and watched TV. There was a show on about previous year's Super Bowl commercials that I enjoyed. I saw at least two from the previous couple of years that I had never seen before. We should get the Super Bowl here tomorrow on a South Florida station, so hopefully we'll get the full compliment of US commercials with it. You never know with a foreign cable company what they will have in the breaks.
GPS N 14-04.520 W 060-56.960 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9719.