Sunday, 5 October 2014

Week 42 September 29 to October 5 2014


Here we are in Sainte Anne enjoying the beautiful waters and calm anchorage so much so that we decided to stay an extra day before heading to St Lucia.

We had been told about a lovely trail along the coast line so we decided to go for a walk, stopping off at the beautiful white sandy and often secluded beaches along the way.

We saw plenty of reddish/orangey crabs and Manchineel trees. They bear a small apple type fruit from a beautiful yellow flower. The flower bud is pinkie/purple in colour but when it is in full bloom is bright yellow. The fruit is extremely poisonous. Even sitting under the tree when it is raining is quite dangerous as well.

Manchineel trees are found all over the Caribbean but we had never seen so many in such a small
area as we did while on our walk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel

As we were walking back to the boat we noticed that there were about four brightly painted fishing boats pulling in this HUGE fishing net. Along the shore line, on the beach, were men and women waiting with HUGE buckets and tubs, for the fishermen to pull in their catch.

Tuesday morning bright and early – 6.00am to be exact, our anchor was up and we were heading south to St Lucia.

It was a great sail as the wind was aft of beam – i.o.w coming from behind us so we didn’t really feel the strength of the wind which was over 20knots at times. We even had a bite on our fishing rod BUT it was a barracuda and although we were tempted to use it as bait so we could hopefully catch some Mahi Mahi, we released it. Fata Morgana had more luck than us and caught a rather big Mahi Mahi which we enjoyed eating for dinner.

We arrived at Rodney Bay by 12.30 and put down our anchor. Mel dived the anchor as he usually does but he wasn’t happy with it, as it had lodged behind some loose rock and we knew that by the end of the week (Thursday and Friday) a tropical wave was passing over us, so the anchor had to be secure to prevent any mishaps.

After lunch we upped the anchor and moved to a spot we thought would be better and where there was a bit of sand for the anchor to dig into. Unfortunately when Mel dived the anchor the second time, the anchor had lodged under a huge rock. The only comforting thing was that the anchor was very unlikely to drag, but it may take a while to lift the anchor when we eventually leave Rodney Bay.

Later that afternoon we found the HUGE shopping centre close by to check the weather and to enjoy a bit of window shopping.

Information taken from the official guide to St Lucia “Paradise St Lucia”2014 edition – it a free copy from the Tourist Information Centre.

St Lucia is the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands. It was inhabited by the Arawak Indians way back in 200AD which referred to the island as “Iouanalao “or the “Land of the Iguanas”.

The Arawak Indians lived peacefully until the Caribs, who were a fierce race over came the Arawaks in about 800AD. The Caribs called St Lucia “Hewanarau” – the airport in the south of St Lucia is called Hewanorra Airport.

The first record of European explorers was in about 1500 by a Spaniard, Juan de la Cosa. Surprisingly there are no records of Christopher Columbus setting foot on St Lucia.

Later that century, a colourful and interesting character by the name of Francois Le Clerc – a pirate, who was also known as “Jambe de Bois” due to his wooden leg, based himself at Pigeon Island where he and his men of 330 attacked any of the passing Spanish ships for their treasure.

Pigeon Island is now connected to the main land and two huge hotels are located on the landfill. Where the Rodney Bay marina is, was once swamp land. When the marina was being built and dredged, everything from the dredging was deposited between the main land and Pigeon Island – hence the island now being connected to the main land.

Back to the history of St Lucia….. the Dutch arrived in about the 16th century and built a fort in the south which is now called Vieux Fort.

The British tried to land here in 1605 but were forced to flee by the vicious and terrifying Caribs. There second attempt was in 1639 but they failed once again.

The French claimed ownership of St Lucia but didn’t try to colonise it until 1651. In 1659 there was huge animosity between the French and the English over St Lucia and in 1660, the French signed a treaty with the Caribs and named the island “Saint Lucia” after Sainte Lucy of Syracuse. In 1665, Thomas Warner claimed St Lucia for England which started the many battles between the French and the English. The French had a strong base in Martinique while the English had a strong base in Barbados.

In 1746, the French established the first town in the south – Soufriere. In December 1778, the Battle of Morne de la Vierge took place with the British landing at Cul de Sac and taking control of Morne Fortune in Castries. The French were defeated by a relatively small army lead by Admiral George Rodney and fled to Martinique. Admiral Rodney built Fort Rodney on Pigeon Island as from the higher of the two peaks, Signal Hill, one can easily see clearly anything coming from Martinique.

It was only in 1814, when the British finally won St Lucia which had changed hands over fourteen times in less than 150 years – hence its nickname “Helen of the West” after Helen of Troy.

St Lucia gained independence in 1979 (22 February) but remains part of the British Commonwealth.

There are a few anchorages along the west coast of St Lucia that we are able to anchor but unfortunately St Lucia has not been the safest of places to anchor in of late. There has been quite a lot of dinghy theft – they are after the outboard motor and unfortunately a murder of a yachtsman took place in the south, in Vieux Fort, late last year. We have also read about some “boardings” and the stealing of property in some anchorages. Rodney Bay seems to be the safest spot to anchor and there are lots of yachts around which makes it safer as everyone is watching out for each other.

Wednesday we went into the marina – Island Water World is there so Mel bought a new water pump – better one than what we had, plus a few other bits and pieces.


The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception
Thursday, we caught the bus down to Castries which is now the capital of St Lucia and also known as the shopping capital. It is the largest town in St Lucia and is the commercial and governmental centre of the island. In 1948, a huge fire destroyed many of the builds in Castries although several landmarks still exist today like the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. It is also where there is a HUGE cruise ship anchorage and dock, accommodating up to five cruise ships at a time. There was only one cruise ship docked on Thursday.

We walked around like many of the other cruisers, looking at the local market and the high end touristy market where prices are ridiculous.

Thursday night was a sleepless night as the wind howled, the heavens opened and we rocked quite a bit – Friday all day was the same except for the rain. Mel installed the new water pump while I worked on the computer.

Saturday we decided to catch taxis/buses to Soufriere and to the Pitons. We had to catch a bus to Castries, to the main bus terminal and then another bus to Soufriere – 45kms away.

When we were dinghying to the marina so we could leave the dinghy there while we were in Soufriere, we saw a disturbing sight – along the main fishing dock where all the local fishermen are, we saw two up-turned very large turtles. Their heads had been chopped off. On Sunday afternoon when we went to the marina, we stopped at the dock where we had seen the two dead turtles, to ask a fisherman about the turtles – this is what he said….. “October is the only month the fishermen in St Lucia can catch turtles but they have to be over a certain size”.  Since speaking to this fisherman, I have found the following link and info:


Queen Elizabeth II square and the main
cathedral
Soufriere is a small, quaint town with the Pitons towering over the town. In the town centre is Queen Elizabeth II square with the main cathedral overlooking it. While we were there, the Saturday market was on so all the street vendors were plying their trades and goods. We managed to find a taxi driver who didn’t want to charge us an arm and a leg to take us to see the Pitons.

 The Pitons are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and consist of Gros Piton(771m) and Petit Piton (743m) – they are two HUGE mountain peaks that can been seen from many km’s away.
The Pitons

After seeing the Pitons and returning to Soufriere we thought it was best to catch a bus back to Castries and then onto Rodney Bay as the last buses were round 5.00pm and it would be a very long and strenuous walk back to the boat if we missed the bus.

Sunday was spent preparing for our sail to Barbados - yes we are off to Barbados on Monday morning after we have checked out from St Lucia.

Mel has started singing the song – “We’re going to Barbados” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyfaB8SW5Sw&noredirect=1

…. So that is it for Week 42.

Until next time, take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

One of the many secluded beaches on our walk from Sainte Anne
A very chuffed Ivo and his catch

We tried some "raw" cocoa beans.