St Lucia part 2

St Lucia Rodney Bay marina.
Yet again we have stayed here a little longer than planned, its just so easy being in a marina but that will not be a thing for the future as we anchor when we can as its mostly free.

Agua Therapy looking shiny

Water taxi

This is the next boat for us, yeah dream on!

Marigot Bay was on the list of places to go on the way down St Lucia and we had heard all kinds of stories so we thought why not go and check it out by bus first.
Well if you can remember last time here we vowed never to take a bus again here, we should have stuck to it. Again we caught the bus to the capital Castries not exactly a nice place to be I was very careful and kept the camera hidden from sight. We found our way to the next bus to Marigot and asked how much it was, a very kind young man said if we got off the buss early and walked down the hill to the bay we would save 17$ so thats what we did, the bus driver heard him and was not amused.
The buss didn't leave until it was full, the non existent leg room at the back meant I was sitting pretty much sideways in the corner and trying to find a handhold while we bounced or should I say banged over bumps and in and out of holes, never mind being thrown around when we went around curves in the road.


There is a very steep hill down into the bay then even when you get there you can't get to the marina without getting on the water ferry.

This is at the top of the hill where the buss drops you off so we walked down to the marina

For you cruisers the bay is deep with lots of mangroves, as you all know they come complete with mosquitoes. The water is flat calm but winds funnel through, boats were swinging pretty fast so we decided to forget coming in on the boat.

It looks very peaceful but the boats not in the marina were really swinging about

These trees they call a flamboyant tree we saw them last year in Florida  

The hotel is having some renovations

Marigot Bay from the hill looks great but even when you are there there's not a lot to do. Restaurants are expensive, a small supermarket expensive, and the hotel is being renovated closed until next season there is no buss service in or out so it meant either walking back up a steep hill which is longer that the one on the way down, wouldn't have been so bad had I worn trainers instead of flip flops.

So after negotiating a price for a taxi to Castries we took an air conditioned ride back to the capital.

We saw that there was a tropical wave on its way which meant strong winds which also bring big seas so we had to run before it was too late otherwise it would mean staying at least another week.

On friday evening a brig named Unicorn which was used for "the Black Pearl" in the film Pirates of the Caribbean sank off the top of St Vincent, thankfully all the crew were saved by the local ferry we think. She went down in 4 minutes, not a thing you want to hear when you are just setting off.
Both the end of St Lucia and top of St Vincent is reputed for confused seas with big "square waves" I was getting nervous.

Saturday 24th
Checked out and paid up for the marina, it was ok while it lasted.
Slipped and went outside into the bay so we could leave about 0:2 in the morning so that meant it would be daybreak when we reached the tip of St Lucia and that meant we would pass St Vincent and be in Bequia in plenty of light. We then decided to go about 12:30 so off we set for Bequia with 14 -17 knots and not too big a sea.

Next stop Bequia pronounced Bek wi

BFN
Don and Glenys
Agua Therapy