Anchored in Rodney Bay, St Lucia

Friday we left Rodney Bay marina to head into the bay just outside to anchor up for a few days. We had a leisurely start to the day though and collected our gas cylinder, stocked up on tonic water and other such essentials before eventually dropping the lines about lunchtime. We were both keen to be anchored up before the heat of the day started so we could go for a swim. We found a spot in front the beach and dropped the hook in amongst about 20 other boats on this side of the bay in front of a large light sand beach. Probably the best view of the anchorage is from the photos we took from Fort Rodney on Pigeon Island we are on the far side of the bay. The boats are well spaced though and does not have a feeling of overcrowding as some people complain about in the Caribbean, it is very friendly and everyone waves at each other with boats coming and going frequently. There are almost as many catamarans here as monohulls which is a nice change from our perspective. There are small sailing dingies from the hotels circling and unfortunately jetskis, but you can’t have everything.

We spent the afternoon relaxing on the boat, the Atlantic crossing now behind us and just gentle day sailing for the new few months we are really starting to relax and we are both really enjoying Caribbean, from the little we have seen so far. I spent the day reading and Kevin pottering on his boat jobs as he enjoys doing , oiling, polishing checking rigging etc. We both swam and dried off in the heat. The water is unfortunately quite murky, I think just because of recent rain running off the hillsides bringing sediment. However the water is still warm and very inviting in the humidity which we are both still growing accustomed too.


View from onboard at anchor

Half and hour or less after we had moored up, we were joined by David on his Tobago catamaran, who swam across to say hi. He’d literally just got back on the water from the boatyard. He asked if we were going to the ARC opening party that night, which had also been mentioned to us at the marina office when we went to pay for our electric, so we said we’d see him there. The party started at 6pm, so we got the dingy into commission again and headed ashore. I imagine that the organisers had planned that the winning boats would be in for this party, as in previous years they would have been, but unfortunately this year the first was not expected until Sunday morning. However we were more than happy to join in on their behalf! Kevin also enjoyed sending some slightly taunting emails to some of the competitors the next day that we had been drinking their free beer, which was a slight exaggeration! Although quite a number of beers were drunk that night!


ARC opening party

We met up with David and his crew Burt over from Canada to try out a catamaran for the first time. Later all of the cruisers we had met the previous week at Gros Islet turned up and we exchanged news. Mike from Jeannius our marina neighbour arrived with Ian (from the cruising forum) who had just got in and with them Kevin and I formed the catamaran appreciation society for the rest of the evening! It was a really good night and we eventually made our way home by dingy with the plan to meet Mike & Ian the next day who were going out for a short sail for Ian to see a Privilege catamaran at sea, which Kevin was also keen to see.


Kevin, Ian & Mike (aka Kev&Jo, Irenie, Jeannius Cruising forum aliases)