Bat Cave Moorings, Soufriere, St Lucia

We decided to bite the bullet and buy a new anchor here as we could not continue much longer with our current one and by 8.15 we were on our way to the chandlery hoping to get everything done that morning. We decided to go for the Delta which was for sale here, we also noted on the way to buy it that 80% of the boats on our pontoon had one which was a good sign. Kevin soon had it refitted and the anchor locker and cockpit locker restowed.

I went off to Johnson’s hardware to try and get a new washing up bowl and a scrubbing brush, which may seem insignificant, but our water consumption across the Atlantic was significantly lower through the bowl we bought in the Cape Verdes, which had unfortunately cracked. I managed to get both and was so excited that I got straight to work on the checker plate in the cockpit with the scrubbing brush wearing a white vest top and short skirt not the best for cleaning, but I was so excited to get it looking like new (I have become like a 1950’s housewife now in my boat cleaning). It took me a while to register all the boat boys filing back and forth and I said to Kevin I should probably change, he said I shouldn’t as he was charging a fee!

By 11.30 am, we’d managed to get everything we wanted done, so I dashed up to the Customs & Immigrations office to check us out of St. Lucia so we could leave that afternoon. I assumed that they’d just look up our record from before, but no we had to fill out the whole triplicate form again with the subtle difference of a tick in the check out box instead of arrival box. I realised I needed Kevin’s signature and as I had just been given a fresh form and Kevin clearly wasn’t with me I couldn’t forge it either. It was 11:40 they closing at 12:00 until 13:30, which would be too late to get to Soufriere before dark. I raced back and fetched Kevin and we made it back by 11:50, the first guy we needed to see was out of the office, he came back but then wondered into the back office apparently to talk to a friend even though we were sat at his desk. He came back through at 11:55 and complained we’d be eating into his lunch break. He did however manage to fill in the 5 lines and three ticks within 5 minutes and allowed us to take our other sheets to the other two people in the office. We were checked out and had to leave St Lucia within 24 hours.

We went over to say our goodbyes to the many good friends we’d made here and slipped the lines. Pikorua waved us off from their boat too as we sailed off, we will see them again at our wedding in February.


Goodbye from Barry & Marie-Jeanne on Pikorua

We were soon out of the bay and sailing past the Barrel o’ Beef rock under full sail and a smile on Kevin’s face ear to ear! It was great to be under sail and off cruising again and the 15 miles to Soufriere were soon over and we were in sight of the spectacular twin mountains of the Pitons. It is a UNESCO World heritage site and you can see why. We took a mooring ball in the bay by the town of Soufriere which is in the shadow of Petit Piton. We arrived about 16:00 and had a fantastic evening watching the sunset and just admiring the view. There were a few of the 2 minute Caribbean rain showers passed through creating fabulous rainbows over Soufriere. We were both so excited to be in a new spot after too long in Rodney Bay waiting for supplies to arrive and the Pitons really has to be one of the most spectacular anywhere.


The Pitons


Rainbow over Soufriere