St. Lucia

This was my last sail going from Bequia to St. Lucia. I just could not believe that I would be going home in a week. It was great fun and we had lots of wind and some big swells. But the boat ploughed on through them. Unfortunately I forgot to take sea sick pills, and ended up chucking up twice. It was annoying to think that I had pretty much been being sick all the way. At one point whilst I was lying on the deck a big wave came up over the boat and landed right on top of me. I was soaked! Then Blyth came up from the galley and was half wet, because the water had come though the hatch.

We came to anchor in the town of Rodney Bay. Blyth and I then got the fun job of pumping up the dingy so that Dale could get customs and immigration cleared. After a few days out in the bay we got the news that Ron would be getting back the day we leave. So that meant that Dale could go back to Lanzarote. So we brought the boat in to the Marina. Dale left at 4 o’clock in the morning the next day, and that was it - he was gone. We got put into the mega dock because we now had no skipper.

There were some massive and really cool boats, one sail boat being double the size of our boat. There was also a huge motor boat behind us belonging to Antonio Banderas. At the time that we were on St. Lucia there was a Trans-Atlantic race coming over from the Canary Islands - a distance of 2700 miles. On one of the boats that came over was a boy called Ben. Blyth and I made good friends with him.

We did lots of beach transects around St Lucia and found the same story of no plastic on the leeward side and quite a lot on the windward side.  There were lots of interviews done with fisheries, tourism offices and government offices.

We were not allowed to dive in St. Lucia without a local instructor. There was a fine of $5000 US if we did. So we decided that we would explore the island on the first day and on the second we would go for a dive in the south of the St. Lucia.

 Bryony and Tim hired a car for 2 days. This was our chance to get a look around the island.  We went on a farm tour which was very cool and they showed us how they made this special type of bread that tasted really nice. Then we got a bit lost in the forest before finding the so-called bird sanctuary. We went on a big very steep walk through the forest on foot but there were very few birds of interest but amazing views of the island.

We got back to Rodney Bay, Ron would be arriving tonight and we all decided to stay up until he got here. So Blyth and I started to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Ron did not get here until midnight. He came with his parents Pat and Ron senior. Steven and I were sent down to the bar to get some beer for all the adults. We did not get to bed until 1 o’clock.

The next day we had to get up at 6 o’clock to go diving. The dive centre was on the southern end of the island and we were at the northern end.  We did our first dive just off the dive centre. It was very cool and all the fish were a lot bigger, because it was a marine reserve. Our second dive was down the Pitons which are 2 huge pointed rocks. That dive was quite disappointing as practically all the coral was dead and all the fish were a lot smaller. But then towards the end Bryony got very excited and pointed down into the depths. There was the biggest hawk’s bill turtle I have ever seen. It looked at least a metre wide and long.

When we got back we started the sad job of packing. We left Ron, Steve, Pat and Ron senior to look after the boat and take it on to the American Virgin Islands.