Gros Islet

Who would have thought it 3rd week at see. Routine and books and good food making the time pass easily. One of my favourite things for a long trip is to see different wild life, dolphins have been in short supply for a while but as we get within a 1000 miles of land we will start to see them again. Even sea birds are much rarer than they have been. Flying fish storm petrels and the odd sight of a giant tuna breaking the surface is all we have had for the last week. Fishing has continued to be good with staple catch now being small tuna rather than Mahi Mahi. We have seen several cycles of the moon on this trip and each night the skies never gets old. With so little light pollution the stars and now Elon musk saterlites form in what seams like clouds. I have a particular memorable night where it was 3 am the boat was driving along in flat water with a cloudless star congested sky. I stood on the cockpit seat in 27 c in just my shorts and head phones (apparently on watch) dancing to my 80 playlist. Not an easy scenario to repeat in a hurry.
We get becalmed with a thousand miles to go. So we nose the boat into a raft of weed and decide to take a swim. Very weird sensation so far off shore. The are rumours of big fish hiding under the weed islands and Rob cant help to see if he can wheedle one out. He fails with a big one but manages a couple of small shoul fish for the pot.
As we get within a few hundred miles of the final destination new bird life begins to arrive. The first and most noticeable are the brown Boobies which hunt close to the boat and dive on flying fish catching with everything 2nd or 3rd dive. Absolutely spectacular. Our last 50 miles run into St Lucia channel was a 7 and 8 knot reach with birds fishing and robs playlist playing. It Was very memorable(Would we make it by dark)
As we begin to see other boats and the big wild world of business is coming to get us. I decide to give Rodney bay Marina a call to find it where to park the boat. After such an epic journey I was expecting a bit of a fanfare and guided to our birth by there marina launch. What happen was. They called back and said we are full and try again if we are passing again.The. Mood was temporarily dampened by this. We were all expecting to go to the bar and celebrate. Being Wiley Cornish people we said thanks for that to the marina and decided to head in anyway. After wiggling our way through all of the anchored boats out in the bay we found the narrow entrance to the marina as dusk fell. We go past all the local traders on the left of the channel and then it opens up and we see all of the super yachts On there very exclusive births. That’s the spot for us . There was a super yacht birth empty, and it had our name on it, so we gluided in and tied up. A few well earned congratulations and hugs on the very solid concrete dock (it felt like it was moving) after what was quite a brief tidy up, the magnetic pull of the bar was un resistable. We all change into cloths that might get us past security on the upper yacht dock. The Piton bar is in sight , and the security lady thinks we must be super yachters. We are very much in business. At the bar there is a deal for a bucket of Pitons.(5 bottles)
Which seems very reasonable. So we order a couple of buckets to keep us going. It was our very good luck that the only seats in the house were next to 5 of the local lads who either worked on the marina or on the tourist boats. They welcomed us to there table like long lost friends and the tall stories began, from both side. Nicks final tall story finished with him fast asleep on the grass near to the bar with spoons trying to coax him to bed.
.Les mer