Rodney Bay Boatyard, Saint Lucia

We decided to have a quiet night on Friday and just had a meal at Scuttlebutts at the marina after a long day’s work on the boat in the sunshine. A couple of the guys who’d been working on our boat had invited us for drinks in Gros Islet later that
Scuttlebutts. However, they passed us in the car as we were walking back to the hotel and persuaded us to join them.
The whole of the centre of Gros Islet is cordoned off for a street party every night. There are lots of stalls offering fresh cooked local food and a stage with music which goes on until 2 am. We are reliably informed by Andrew and Steven that Friday is boys night out in St. Lucia when the ladies stay home and the men go out drinking (it is apparently also wages day which I guess is no coincidence!). It was a really good night and being with Andrew and Steven we met loads of the other boat owners whose boats are currently on the hard. We were the only transatlantic crossers as we are still quite early in the season, most of the guys we met were American and permanent Caribbean cruisers.


Weekly street party in Gros Islet

Andrew drove us and Steven home even though he lives in Gros Islet himself which was really good of him as he wanted to make sure we got back ok as we understand there can be tourist muggings later on when people have had a little too much to drink. He stopped off at a great place in front of where all of the local open fishing boats moor. There was a few trestle tables set up round a couple of large barbeques over which they were grilling loads of fresh fish between layers of chicken wires. The staff were all in very smart Maggi uniforms and it looked absolutely delicious, we wished we hadn’t already eaten.


Andrew, Steven and a couple of the other cruisers we met